With the winter of Upstate New York beginning it’s long decline, it’s time to start thinking about summer beers. I had originally wanted to squeeze a doppelbock into the lager season, but that’s not going to happen this year. It’s probably a good thing though as I have been on a bit of a “big beer kick” and I need some more session beers.
This weekend I decided to tackle an old favorite, the pilsner. Only this time, I wanted to really do one that I wanted, not just one that I thought would fit a style. This is meant to be a hoppy pilsner, inspired by Mammoth Brewing Company’s Golden Trout Pilsner. A friend brought me a bomber of this from Cali and I really enjoyed it. It was a hoppy interpretation of the pilsner style that is listed as a German Pilsner, but I would call it a modern-American Pilsner. While it didn’t receive a lot of “BA love”, I thought it was a great brew. They listed it as being made up pilsner and vienna malt with all Noble hops. Not a lot of really useful information. So I used the ingredients and went forward.
My brew came out something like this:
- 18.5lbs UK 2-row pilsner
- 3lbs Vienna
- 60 min – 3oz Saaz
- 30min – 1oz Hallertauer, 1oz Tettnag, 1oz Pearle
- Cool down – 2oz Saaz
- Dry hopped – 2oz Saaz whole-leaf
For the actual brew, I decided on a protein rest and a double decoction. The second decoction was for getting the mash-tun up to mash out temps. The protein rest was 122f for 35 min followed by a 20min decoction consisting of 4.5 gallons. When the decoction mash was added back to the mashtun the temp was 155f where it rested for 45mim. The second decoction was only for 13min and consisted of 2.5 gallons, but still brought the temp up to the desired 168f mash out.
I sparged for about a half hour and at the end, I was a little light in my volume so I topped off with two gallons of water before the boil. After the boil, I was a little low in my volume, but I was high on the gravity so I topped off with some water to get to my desired 1.044 OG.
The idea here is a simple pilsner with a great hop profile, some tradition with a more modern smack. Hopefully it comes out. It might not be in any styles, but it’s going to be cooling me down this summer.
Cheers
