Return of the Bo-Pils

Liquid gold

There she is, the reincarnation of my Bohemian pilsner. As devoted readers will recall, in her first incarnation a few months ago she met an unfortunate demise. When the yeast never took off she went sour, and ended up getting a proverbial burial at sea. It was a very dark time at M&A Brewing.


But I regrouped the troop and rebrewed the recipe a little over a month ago. Sort of. I had to make a couple of adjustments. A Bo-pils is typically really simple, just Czech pilsner malt, and Czech Saaz hops. Yeast should originate from a Czech source, preferably Urquell, I believe. I can only get British pilsner (Crisp Maltings), and I had used up all my Saaz on the earlier brew, so I used a combination of US hops, as you can see in the recipe. And I had to use dry yeast, which limited me to a German variety. So my Bohemian pilsner ended up not really being very Bohemian. I put a little beret on the fermenter and gave it a hand rolled smoke and a paint brush. That helped a little, but still...Not that Bohemian.


19L batch
OG = 1.053
FG = 1.013
SRM = 3
ABV = 5
IBU = 35


Malt:
4.4 kg - Pilsner
0.4 kg - Cara-Pils
Hops:
28 g Northern Brewer - 60 min
28 g US Goldings - 30 min
18 g US Goldings - 0 min
12 g Cluster - 0 min
Yeast:
Fermentis S-23 (Berlin Lager)

Gone daddy gone, your lager's gone...away

Here's the breakdown, BJCP style. Official guidelines are in quotes, followed by my comments.


Aroma: "Rich with complex malt and a spicy, floral Saaz hop bouquet. Some pleasant, restrained diacetyl is acceptable, but need not be present. Otherwise clean, with no fruity esters." Mine's not that complex, but definitely has a nice pilsner malt base to the aroma. I think has too much diacetyl though, or something kind of sour smelling, or somehow off--not too well versed with the correct terminology for what I'm smelling. It's not quite right. Maybe it'll improve with age.


Appearance: "Very pale gold to deep burnished gold, brilliant to very clear, with a dense, long-lasting, creamy white head." Mine is a light golden straw color, and hazy. Tight, fairly persistent snow white head with good lacing that lasts to the bottom of the glass. The head lasts two to three minutes before diminishing to a spidery skein on the top of the beer that remains till the last. Nice. Tight bubbles.


Flavor: "Rich, complex maltiness combined with a pronounced yet soft and rounded bitterness and spicy flavor from Saaz hops. Some diacetyl is acceptable, but need not be present. Bitterness is prominent but never harsh, and does not linger. The aftertaste is balanced between malt and hops. Clean, no fruity esters." Again, I wouldn't say it's all that complex, probably due in part to the overly light malt bill. The bitterness too is more harsh than round, and the flavor hops are pretty subdued. It had some off flavors (sourness, funkiness, acridity) that are now diminishing. It's pretty good for what it is, just not altogether to style.


Mouthfeel: "Medium-bodied, medium carbonation." The mouthfeel is great. Silky smooth and medium-bodied. I'm pretty sure the Cara-pils is to thank for this, in addition to the nice carbonation. During lagering the beer carbonated naturally about halfway to the optimum level, even without being in a sealed vessel (I had the lid on the fermenter, but it wasn't screwed down tight). I kegged and gassed it two nights ago, and now it has a perfect, tight, feathery carbonation that rocks. This also helps the mouthfeel out a lot.


Overall impression: "Crisp, complex and well-rounded yet refreshing." It is indeed crisp and refreshing. Don't know about complex and well rounded. Those are areas for improvement, starting with using the right ingredients. 
I guess by the hopping you could say that it's closer to a classic American lager or something. I'm not really sure, though, being totally new at brewing lagers of any kind. I'm pretty satisfied considering what a mutt the recipe is, but it is a ways off of what I wanted to brew, which was a true rich, malty, floral Czech pilsner.


I have now procured the right yeast and hops, so I will brew this again. I don't know how soon though. The big drawback to brewing lagers is that the turnover is like six weeks minimum (and two months or more max), as opposed to a week (absolute minimum) with ales. That's six weeks that a fermenter is tied up and fridge space is tied up. Time and space that could be spent turning out batches of ass kicking ales. Something to consider. I will brew it again though.


Keep you posted.