Imperial Pils/Kolsch – 3/21/10
Some casks at Clipper City's "Real Ale" festival
I’ve been on a huge “big beer” kick lately but with it getting to be warmer out I think it’s time to try for something a little more adapted for summer. I saw a recipe for a pilsener beer in one of my books that made me realize I have a lot of the ingredients for this type of beer laying around already so I decided to give a whirl. I’ve been trying lots of pilseners lately to get an idea of what I want to aim for and so far my favorite has been Clipper City’s Small Craft Warning Uber Pils (Imperial Pilsener). It seems like the main difference from their beer and the blandness I’ve come to expect from most commercial pils beers is that they just added more of everything in the typical imperial-fashioned way of doing things. So keeping that in mind and working off a recipe Golden Pils from “The Homebrewer’s Recipe Guide” I have come up with the following:
- Imperial Pils Hopville Recipe Calculator PDF
- OG projected: 1.058-1.068
- OG actual: 1.062
- SRM: 6
- IBU: 45.3
- Expected ABV: 6.5%
- Calories: 215 per 12ozs.
One process related note. This is the first time I will be using both grain/hop bags to reduce trub transfer to the primary and also the first time I’ve made a yeast starter. I’m very curious to see how this affects fermentation startup times. Though to skew things a bit I’m also using Wyeast’s Yeast Nutrient for the first time as well. I’ve tried the Brewvint product from AHS several times and it’s great but far more expensive than this Wyeast stuff. In any case, hopefully it’s a quick and active fermentation with the combination of these things.
Bottling day (4/11/10):
Smells pretty good. Drinking the hydrometer sample I realized I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It doesn’t really seem crisp and clear enough to be a pils. It’s on target for color and FG (1.014) putting this right on the 6.5% ABV mark I was aiming for. After reading a little more about Kolsch beers I think that might’ve been a better name for this concoction…though I guess an Imperial Kolsch if such a thing exists since I’m way above the gravity normally used in this style? Tastes good though so whatever it is I think most of my pals will enjoy it. We’ll see in a few weeks.
Sample tasting (4/23/10):
I grabbed 2 of these and tossed them in the fridge a few days ago and drank them today. Initial reaction is that this is pretty close to what I was going for. The German/Kolsch yeast adds a little more flavor that I really wanted but it’s very subtle and most everything else I like. Need to grab a six pack of Uber Pils to do a side by side and see if this is similar or not. Obviously it will be somewhat different as I didn’t lager mine. Anyways, stay tuned.
Why the brown sugar in the recipie? Used in the boil, it won’t do much that table sugar or corn sugar/syrup wont. There’s not enough remaining molassas solids in it to be noticable, and what is there is mostly destroyed by the boil. It’s just really an ABV increase without bringing anything but potential off flavors to the party. Sugar can bring a kind of cidery note, and it can also burn in the kettle if not fully dissolved creating a kind of burnt carmel flavor that can be offputting in a lighter flavored beer like a pils/kolsch. I’d also look into using more german malts in the recipie, like vienna with a little 2 row in a partial to get the right mouthfeel. My guess is this is going to wind up too thin in body and possibly have a little green apple flavor/taste.
/2centsapplied
Hmm, thanks for the feedback. I’ll let you know how it turns out and am curious to see if I can pick out any green apple in there. I based the recipe loosely off one I found in a book called “The Homebrewer’s Recipe Guide” by Higgins, Kilgore, and Hertlein. It specifically suggested using light brown sugar in it because it “produces a beer that is less dry than the classic pilsner. Light brown sugar is recommended to maintain the correct color for the pilsner style.” In most of the pils style beers I’ve tried I feel like they’re usually lacking on malt flavor so this sounded like a good idea to me. Maybe like you said, I should consider using some Vienna next time to help achieve this? But as an example, I recently tried and really liked the Heavy Seas Uber Pils because it had a much heavier body and flavorful malt taste to it. I also bought a six pack of Sam Adam’s Noble Pils but didn’t care for that too much because it seemed to focus a lot more on accenting all the noble hops and the malt taste was really mellow/bland. In fairness, the Uber Pils is an Imperial Pils rather than a regular one like the Sam Adams…but that is what I was going for here with my recipe.