Author: Marshall Schott

Developed in the mid-19th century by Bohemian brewers who were fed up with contaminated ale, Pilsner was made using the novel lagering methods pioneered by Bavarian breweries, namely the use of pale malts and cool fermentation using bottom fermenting yeasts. As the popularity of this new style began to rise, German brewers began riffing on it themselves, ultimately leading to the creation of the regionally specific and characteristically unique German Pils.

These days, there exist a number of fizzy yellow lager variants, all with their own distinct flavors stemming from both brewing processes and ingredient choices. What I find so incredibly appealing about German Pils is the melding of assertive bitterness, noble hop character, and bready malt flavor, which are all on full display thanks to the clean fermentation profile. The BJCP provides the following description of this influential style:

A light-bodied, highly-attenuated, gold-colored, bottom-fermented bitter German beer showing excellent head retention and an elegant, floral hop aroma. Crisp, clean, and refreshing, a German Pils showcases the finest quality German malt and hops.

I love German Pils. Without question, it’s my desert island beer. In the last few years, I’ve brewed more of this delicious style than any other using various methods, though never going full-on detestable. Until recently, that is…

| BREWING THE BEER |

I went with the simplest of grists for this batch in order to keep is as bare-bones as possible, then layered in a decent charge of Saphir hops, which I’d never used before.

Short & Shoddy German Pils

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.2 gal 25 min 28.7 IBUs 3.6 SRM 1.049 1.013 4.7 % Actuals 1.049 1.011 5.0 % Fermentables Name Amount % Pelton Pilsner-style Malt (Mecca Grade) 11.25 lbs 100 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Magnum 16 g 25 min Boil Pellet 12.9 Saphir 15 g 15 min Boil Pellet 3.2 Tettnang (2017) 15 g 15 min Boil Pellet 4.4 Saphir 15 g 5 min Boil Pellet 3.2 Tettnang (2017) 15 g 5 min Boil Pellet 4.4 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature Harvest (L17) Imperial Yeast 72% 50°F - 60°F Notes Water Profile: filtered Fresno tap water with some gypsum Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

I started this brew day at 7:53 AM by collecting the full volume of water.

After flipping the switch to get the water heating up, I added an unmeasured dose of gypsum with the goal of accentuating the bitterness of the beer.

I proceeded to weigh out and mill the grain. When the water was properly heated, I incorporated the grist then checked to ensure it hit my intended mash temperature.

The mash sat for a brief 30 minutes, during which it was stirred every time I walked by.

During the mash rest, I measured out the kettle hop additions.

With the mash rest complete, I removed the grains before bringing the wort to a boil.

When the quick 25 minute boil was complete, I chilled the wort with my IC.

A refractometer reading showed the wort hit my target 1.049 OG for a brewhouse efficiency of 63%.

Without waiting for the kettle trub to settle, I transferred the chilled wort to my fermentation vessel.

Given the cool December weather, I was able to chill the wort lower than usual, though still warmer than most view as acceptable for a lager. Despite being at 63°F/17°C, I pitched a single pouch of Imperial Yeast L17 Harvest.

The filled fermentation vessel was placed in my chamber controlled to 66°F/19°C and hooked up my CO2 capture device. The time was 9:50 AM for a total brew day time of 1 hour 57 minutes.

Later that evening, fermentation was kicking along nicely and continued for 6 days before activity appeared absent, at which point I took a hydrometer measurement showing FG had been reached.

At this point, I hit the fermenter with 2 psi of CO2 and set the temperature controller to 33°F/1°C for cold crashing. I added gelatin fining the following evening then waited a week before racking the beer to a naturally purged keg.

The filled keg was placed in my keezer and burst carbonated overnight before I reduced the gas to serving pressure. I let the beer lager for a mere 8 days before serving it to tasters for evaluation.

| RESULTS |

A total of 13 people of various levels of experience participated in this Short & Shoddy evaluation. Participants were informed of the specific beer style and provided the BJCP description prior to completing the survey. Tasters were then instructed to rate how hoppy, malty, and dry they perceived the beer to be on a 0-5 scale where a rating of 0 indicated “not at all” and 5 indicated “extremely.”

Tasters were provided a list of common hop, malt, and yeast characteristics then instructed to select from each the one they perceived as being most prominent in the beer.

Hop Characteristics

Malt Characteristics

Yeast Characteristics

Next, participants were asked to indicate whether or not they detected any off-flavors in the beer; those who did were provided a list of common off-flavors and instructed to select the one they perceived as being strongest. One person noted diacetyl and another felt they perceived an astringent note.

Tasters were then asked to rate how well the beer represented the intended style, based on the provided BJCP description, on a 0-5 scale where 0 meant “not at all” and 5 meant “exactly.”

Finally, tasters were asked to rate how much they enjoyed the beer on a 0-5 scale where 0 indicated they hated it and 5 indicated they loved it.

My Impressions: I’ve brewed a lot of German Pils in my day, nearly all of which included a grist of Pilsner malt with a splash of something else for character, usually Vienna malt. While I really enjoyed this Short & Shoddy version, I did feel like it would have benefited from just a bit more character. However, if there was one thing I could go back and change, I’d swap the Saphir for more Tettnanger hops, which is one of my favorite varieties.

| CONCLUSION |

To the dismay of many a haughty craft beer “aficionado,” Pilsner is the most popularly consumed beer in the world, and for good reason– it’s freaking delicious! Of the various regional versions available, German Pils is one of my personal favorites for a number of reasons, though I avoided brewing it for years due to talk of how difficult it is to do so. Throwing caution to the wind, my latest batch was made using Short & Shoddy methods, which lo and behold, seemed to work out well.

With a grist of just Pils malt and a boil length of a mere 25 minutes, one might expect the beer to have ended up with noticeable levels of dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which can be perceived as corn- or ketchup-like. That wasn’t the case with this Pils, not a single person identified a DMS off-flavor. While one taster noted diacetyl, she later explained the beer “sort of tasted like popcorn but wasn’t buttery,” indicating she may have been influenced the association of butter with popcorn. Other than that, the blind evaluation data corresponds rather nicely with what you might expect from a German Pils, which is perhaps most surprising seeing as it was fermented at a temperature more appropriate for ale.

This Short & Shoddy German Pils may not have been perfect, at least to my palate, which I don’t believe had to do with the process, but rather ingredient choices. For future batches, I’ll stick with my standard grist including a dose of Vienna malt to add more oomph, and swap the Saphir for more Tettnanger hops, because that’s my jam.

If you have thoughts about this Short & Shoddy brew, please feel free to share it in the comments section below!

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