Every year, Boston Beer Company founder Jim Koch makes a pilgrimage to Bavaria, Germany to buy hops for his Samuel Adams line of beers. Koch claims he has been doing this for 20 years now, and while I’m sure Jim enjoys these trips immensely, beer lovers all over America surely have benefited from his journeys as well.

In 2005, Boston Beer released a special beer, Samuel Adams Imperial Pilsner 2005 Harvest , to celebrate one of the mightiest members of the noble hop family, the Hallertau Mittelfrueh. The beer was on hiatus in 2006, but I’m happy to say the tradition has been revived for fall 2007 with Samuel Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner, a truly awe-inspiring brew avialble for a limited time.

Sold in four packs of 12-ounce bottles, Hallertau Imperial Pilsner is pricey at $9.99, but once you crack your first bottle you’ll know your investment is worth every penny, at least if you’re a hop head like me. And while I’m not always convinced by the growing trend to make “imperial” versions of just about every style out there, I think this one really works.

I am a little late to the game with this one, since for some reason a logistical gaffe meant a late delivery to Georgia. Boston beer recommends that their Imperial Pilsner is best consumed by January of 2008, though I would beg to differ. If kept refrigerated, the high hopping rate should preserve this one for some time.

Pouring my Samuel Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner into a glass, I get a hazy yellowish orange liquid with a thick, rocky head formation and a pungent herbal hop nose. A thick layer of Brussels lace clings to the sides of my tulip-shaped Samuel Adams glass as the liquid descends.A sip reveals thick, chewy caramel malt notes, and as I mentioned about the 2005, this lends an air more of IPA than pilsner to the brew. I’m not getting the biscuit note that I did in the 2005.

But that doesn’t really matter because it’s the hops that take center stage here, and they manage to do what the malt does not: impart a decidedly Germanic character to the brew, with their incredibly herbal, flowery, grassy, minty, citric aroma. Boston Beer uses 12 pounds of hops per barrel to make this beer, and it shows. The finish absolutely screams hop bitterness, and the thick oily hop juice coats and linger on the tongue, depositing a true humulus lupulus blast that you won’t soon forget.

Boston beer says Hallertau Pilsner is This beer is one of the hoppiest in the world (which I can believe) without being overly bitter. While I wouldn’t call this beer overly bitter myself, it is really, really bitter. But I like bitter. It even produces great hop burps, which, unappealing as they may sound, are the hallmark of a really hoppy brew.

A rare and phenomenal treat, and one not to be missed. A potent brew, too, at 8.8% alcohol by volume.