Pivate Review: Short Story Brewing’s Dry-Hopped Pilsner Tasted

Pivate is Short Story Brewing’s dry-hopped pilsner, the kind of beer built to be crisp first and clever second. I rate it 3.79 out of 5, with 507 community ratings behind that score. The listed strength is 6.3% ABV, and the IBU is not published in the available beer listing, so I will not pretend to know it. If you have not run into Short Story before, it is a small West Virginia brewery with a growing footprint, and Pivate is one of the beers that keeps regulars coming back to the tap wall.

At a Glance

What is Pivate, and who brewed it?

Pivate comes from Short Story Brewing, a brewery and taproom group founded in 2017 in Rivesville, West Virginia. What started as a single brewery and taproom in that small town along the Monongahela River has grown into four locations: the original Rivesville taproom, plus spots in Morgantown and Charleston, West Virginia, and Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. The brewery leans into a community-forward identity, and it earned Times West Virginian’s “best family-owned business” recognition in 2024, which is a meaningful nod for a brewery that is still relatively young.

Head Brewer Cody Higinbotham and Assistant Brewer Broderick Harvey run the brewing side of the operation, and the beer list rotates often enough that Pivate shares tap space with hazy IPAs, fruited sours, a nitro stout, and a rotating fest lager depending on the week and the location. That rotation is part of the appeal if you live nearby: there is almost always something new to try, and a dry-hopped pilsner like Pivate gives regulars something crisp to fall back on between the bigger, splashier releases.

Pivate ABV, IBU, and ingredients

Pivate is 6.3% ABV, which is on the stronger side for the pilsner family. Classic German and Czech pilsners typically sit closer to 4.5% to 5%, so Short Story has built Pivate with a bit more body and warmth than a traditional example, while still keeping the style’s core promise of a clean, dry finish. IBU is marked as unavailable rather than assigned a guessed number. Bitterness in a beer like this comes from more than a single lab figure anyway, including hop timing, water chemistry, and how aggressively the beer was dry-hopped after fermentation.

The can itself confirms the one detail that matters most for how Pivate drinks: it is dry-hopped. That single word does a lot of work. Dry hopping means hops are added after the boil, usually during or after fermentation, which pulls aroma and flavor out of the hops without adding much bitterness. It is the same technique that gives hazy IPAs their punchy nose, applied here to a lager base instead of an ale. The specific hop varieties are not published in the beer listing I could verify, and neither is the malt bill, so I am not going to invent a hop schedule just to sound more precise than the available information supports.

The style itself, sometimes labeled an Italian-style pilsner, grew out of Italian craft brewers taking the German pilsner tradition and pushing the hop aroma and ABV up a notch while keeping the pale color and dry finish. If the word “pilsner” is doing more work in your head than “lager,” my explainer on the difference between ales and lagers covers where a cold-fermented pilsner sits relative to the ale side of the family tree. And if you want the full mechanics of how a beer’s strength gets calculated in the first place, our guide to beer gravity and ABV walks through it without the jargon.

How Pivate tastes

Pivate pours a bright, pale gold with excellent clarity, the kind of color that photographs well against natural light and holds a thick white head with decent retention. That head matters more than people give it credit for in a pilsner: it traps the dry-hop aroma right at the surface, so the first thing you get is a lift of grassy, slightly citrusy hop character before the beer even reaches your mouth.

On the palate, Pivate stays true to the pilsner backbone: crisp carbonation, a dry finish, and a malt profile that supports the hops rather than competing with them. The 6.3% ABV shows up as a slightly fuller body than a standard pilsner, but it does not push the beer into lager-adjacent-strong-ale territory. It still drinks like a pilsner, just one with a bit more structure behind the dry-hop aroma. The bitterness is restrained, which tracks with the dry-hopping technique: you get flavor and aroma lift without a harsh bite on the back end.

I would serve Pivate properly cold, closer to fridge temperature than cellar temperature, in a pilsner glass or a tulip that narrows toward the top to hold the aroma. That small choice makes a real difference with a dry-hopped lager: too warm and the delicate hop lift gets muddled by the alcohol; served right, the aroma stays sharp through the whole glass. If you want more general tips on getting the most out of a beer’s serving temperature and glassware, our guide on making beer taste better covers the basics that apply here too.

How Pivate compares with other pilsners and lagers

Pivate sits closer to the hoppier, higher-ABV end of the pilsner spectrum than a straightforward German pils. If you want something closer to the traditional style, a Czech or German pilsner with a cleaner, more restrained hop profile is the better reference point; Pivate is built for drinkers who like a pilsner’s dryness but want a bit more aroma on top. On this site, I have also reviewed Moniker Brewery’s El Rhodeo, a Mexican-style lager that takes the same “keep it crisp and drinkable” approach from a different regional direction. Comparing the two side by side is a good way to see how much a brewer’s hop and adjunct choices can change a beer while staying inside the broader lager family.

If you are the type who likes lining beers up next to each other rather than drinking one and moving on, our guide to running a home beer tasting has a simple format for comparing aroma, body, and finish across a flight, which is exactly how Pivate showed up on Short Story’s own taster flights during my research.

Food pairings for Pivate

A dry, moderately hoppy pilsner like Pivate is one of the more food-flexible styles on the shelf, since the carbonation and dry finish reset your palate without a heavy malt sweetness getting in the way. A few pairings that hold up in practice, not just on paper:

• Fried chicken or fried pickles, where the carbonation and dry finish cut straight through the fat and batter.
• Grilled bratwurst or kielbasa, a classic pilsner match that leans into the beer’s clean, crisp side.
• Fresh sushi or a seafood boil, where you want a beer that will not overpower delicate flavors.
• A simple charcuterie board with mild cheeses and cured meats, letting the hop aroma play off the salt.
• Spicy Sichuan or Thai dishes, where the dry finish and moderate bitterness tame the heat without adding sweetness on top of it.

For a deeper pairing dive across styles, our beer and food pairing guide covers the general logic of matching carbonation and bitterness to a meal, and if you are planning something smokier, our beer and BBQ pairing guide has ideas for where a crisp lager like Pivate fits next to richer, saucier food. If dessert is on the table instead, our beer and dessert pairing advice explains why a dry pilsner usually is not the right match for anything too sweet.

Where to find Pivate

Pivate is a rotating tap offering rather than a year-round flagship can at Short Story Brewing, and the beer list at each of the brewery’s four West Virginia and Maryland locations changes regularly. The Rivesville taproom posts a current drink list, and the beer has also shown up on the Morgantown and Charleston boards. If you are traveling for it specifically, I would check the brewery’s current lineup before making the trip, since availability depends on what is pouring that week.

Pivate has also turned up in cans at select bars and bottle shops around North Central West Virginia, based on where people have reported drinking it, but it is not a beer with wide national distribution. If you are packing a cooler for a trip and want something that travels well and holds up outside the taproom, our list of the best beers for tailgating is a good place to start for beers with a similar dry, crisp profile that are easier to find on the road.

Similar dry-hopped and craft pilsners to try

Pivate is not listed among the current Saucey products, so I have picked five genuine pilsners with live product pages and their own product images. None of them are clones of Pivate, but each one makes sense if you like the style’s dry, crisp core and want to explore how different breweries handle the hop side of it.

Pivo Pils is my closest style-first substitute in this group: it keeps the dry-hop aromatics and the slightly higher ABV that make Pivate distinctive. Trumer and Czechvar go in a more traditional direction if you want to taste where the style started. Fat Cat Broceanography brings similar modern craft energy, and Stiegl Pils is the simplest, most classic pour of the five. I would start with Pivo Pils if you want the nearest match to Pivate’s profile.

My verdict on Pivate

Pivate earns its 3.79 rating by doing exactly what a dry-hopped pilsner should: staying crisp, staying dry, and giving you enough hop aroma to make the style feel current instead of dated. The 6.3% ABV gives it a bit more backbone than a traditional pilsner, without turning it into something heavier. My main reservation is practical, not a knock on the beer itself: it is a rotating tap offering rather than a year-round flagship, and I cannot give you a responsible IBU number or calorie count from the information available. Those gaps do not change how the beer tastes; they just matter if you like comparing labels closely.

If you are near one of Short Story Brewing’s four taprooms and you see Pivate on the board, it is a smart order between the bigger, hazier options, and a genuinely good example of what a modern American pilsner can do when a small brewery takes the style seriously.

FAQs

What style of beer is Pivate?

Pivate is a dry-hopped pilsner brewed by Short Story Brewing, sometimes categorized as an Italian-style pilsner because of its higher ABV and more pronounced hop aroma than a traditional German or Czech pilsner.

What is the ABV of Pivate?

Pivate is 6.3% ABV, which is higher than a traditional pilsner’s typical 4.5% to 5% range.

What is Pivate’s IBU?

An IBU figure is not listed in the beer information I could verify, so a precise number should not be assumed.

What hops are used in Pivate?

The can confirms the beer is dry-hopped, but the specific hop varieties and the malt bill are not published in the available product details.

Where can I buy Pivate?

Pivate is a rotating tap offering at Short Story Brewing’s taprooms in Rivesville, Morgantown, and Charleston, West Virginia, and Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. It is not listed as a year-round core beer, and it is not currently available through national beer delivery services, so check the brewery’s current tap list before planning a trip around it.

Is Pivate a lager or an ale?

Pivate is a lager. Pilsners are a cold-fermented lager style, distinct from ales like IPAs and stouts, which ferment warmer with different yeast.

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