Millside Pils by New City Brewing in Easthampton. Submitted

With any luck, the wintery spring weather is behind us. We’ve had a handful of lovely days after the snow earlier this month, and while the rain has been insistent, consistent warm weather is certainly nigh.

For beer fans, of course, this means shifting the balance between beer styles from heavier and darker brews to lighter and crisper beers. Of course we can still enjoy stouts and double IPAs, but spring always makes me gravitate to refreshing lagers.

I recently had two such animals in neighboring Easthampton breweries: New City Brewing’s Millside Pils and Abandoned Building Brewing’s Curbside Pilsner. Both are excellent and offer slightly different takes on the style.

Millside Pils is a Czech pilsner that sits at 5% ABV. The brew was initially a small batch version of the brewery’s house lager, but it looks like it has maintained its place, which is commendable.

The beer exhibits a lovely golden hue with an orange tinge around the edges when poured. It leaves a delicate and short-lived lacing on the glass as you drink it.

The flavor profile begins with a rounded dollop of malt deliciousness, which strikes a balance somewhere between a doughy biscuit cracker and a soda cracker. There’s a hint of fresh bread that appears as the flavor unfolds. As the beer warms in your mouth, a subdued whiff of honey delicately arises, but it’s subdued enough to keep it from being overly sweet.

The finish is quite classic: sharp and mostly dry, with a lingering tartness on the tongue. This characteristic is likely due to the combination of Amarillo and Citra hops used.

While New City’s flagship is its Ginger Beer, Millside Pils could easily be considered a worthy rival. It’s a perfect afternoon brew for sunny summer days.

About 200 yards down the parking lot, Abandoned Building serves up an equally delicious take on the Czech pilsner style with Curbside. The beer pours a clean golden color that also leaves a light lacing on the glass that doesn’t linger.

The malt structure here is more bready and understated than Millside, but also offers a nice complexity with tasty cereal notes coming to the fore as the beer warms. The hops offer a balanced bitterness and a bit of spice, and they bring the beer to a satisfying dry finish with a hint of citrus.

Both these brews are worth trying, with Millside offering a slightly sweeter flavor profile and Curbside having a more standard Czech pilsner construction. And another great thing is that you can try them back-to-back with just a three-minute stroll between the venues.

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