Pilsner Hate

I enjoy drinking Pivo as well. I had a draft pint last evening at a local craft beer bar.

Cheers!

 

Lol, show off.

 

I like Pilsners!!

Cheers!

 

I’ll go out on a limb here and say imported Pils taste nothing like their local counterparts because of the age. I’d bet most imported Pils from anywhere are tough to find under 4-5 months old, and they have a very distinct taste that accompanies that. The local fresh Pils are just that, so of course it tastes different. Just a guess.

 

I used to do a simplified decoction with my picnic cooler mash tun setup back when I was brewing, and I believe it did have an impact. If nothing else, allowing the grains to have longer contact time with the mash water will have benefits beyond converting the starches. It only makes sense to me- kinda like if you're making tea and yank the tea bag out after 30 seconds it won't taste as good as if you left it in there for the full 5 to 8 minutes.

One of my old books even says as much. From Terry Foster, recommending a 90 minute mash: "...will give full conversion at one hour at this temperature, although the mash is best left for 1-1/2 hours to ensure full flavor development."

I actually put this to the test one time with my buddy Dave. He was brewing professionally in Portland at the time, and we once decided to brew the same exact recipe and send our beers to one another for comparison. While hashing out the recipe we were going to use, he stopped me when I suggested the 90 minute mash, saying what everyone says- it'll be converted way before then. So we went with 45 minutes for a brown ale, and the end result had what I thought was a much shallower malt character than I was accustomed to getting.

To this day I'm convinced that a big part of why many American brewers don't get that nice depth of malt is due to relying on such short mash times.

 

I’m not normal, but I’ll take a 6 month old German Pils that I like (or Helles, Kolsch, Festbier, etc) over 98% of fresh American versions that I’ve tried.

 

Michael, I conduct 90 minute mashes for some of the beers I brew. For example I recently did this for my batch of Kolsch. I do this in order to achieve a highly fermentable wort - I like my Kolsch beers to have a lower final gravity which provides an 'extra' crisp mouthfeel quality to this particular beer. I have never noticed a difference in the malt flavor profile between a 60 minute mash (my normal routine) and a 90 minute mash all other things being equal.

Needless to say but there are a 'shit ton' of variables to brewing beer.

Cheers!

 

212° is the boiling point of water, wouldn't something as dense as a grain mash have to reach a higher temp to actually boil?

This is probably why I stopped attempting decoction in home brewing.

 

Palates are a funny thing and they go all over the place. I really detest most beers that have that much age on them , especially in styles where I think they’re time sensitive. Perhaps it’s me that’s abbynormal. Misspelling intended.

I’ve never had a super fresh Pivo and it was terrific, those SEPA Pils really show their roots as well. Some I like better than others obviously, but you can seriously pick out that 6 month old Pils Urquell blind, just has that certain taste. What it is I don’t know, it’s impossible to find here under 5 months old so I stopped looking. My passion for fresh can really be a hassle most of the time.

 

I agree that freshness has a BIG impact here. Over the past 2-3 years the majority of the German brewed Pilsners that I have consumed have been on draft. I too find the bottled German brewed Pilsners at my local retailers to be too old for my preferences (e.g., 4-5 months like you stated). A week ago I had an Ayinger Pilsner on draft at a local craft beer bar. I enjoyed drinking that pint of beer.

We (including you since you regularly visit) SEPA beer consumers are fortunate that we have so many fresh, high quality locally brewed German Pilsners to choose from. There are the 'old' standbys like Stoudts, Sly Fox, Iron Hill, Victory,... and now there are plenty of newer breweries that kick ass here as well: Neshaminy Creek, Root Down, Saint Benjamins, East Branch, Double Nickel,...

Cheers!

P.S. I went to a Phillies game last Sunday and afterwards my wife and I visited the Victory Beer Garden across the street. My wife ordered a pint of Prima Pils while I went for a Maß of Braumeister Pilsner – go BIG or go home!!

I like Pilsners.

Cheers!


Cheers!

 

But well worth it when it comes to delicate pale colored beers like Helles, Pilsner, Kolsch, AAL, etc. IMO. I am repeating myself but when it comes to German brewed Pale beers my preference is to drink them on draft.

Cheers!

 

Not that I could tell, at my elevation water boils at 210F. Decoctions might omlyobe a fraction over that. It is hot and sticky, so you don't want any to splatter on to you.

 

I can’t find anything but Red Oak on tap here and that’s at their brewery. The local bar has 6 ipas on tap, 6 macros, no Pils. 38 plus taps zero Pils, so it does reflect on what people buy I suppose, perhaps we’re the odd ducks?

 

Definitely way back, I don’t find SA Lager Pilsish in the least, way too much Malt for that.

 

Now, sure, but it used to be a lot hoppier.

 

I remember it as being bitter, but so was Heineken back in the day, compared to the Rolling Rock that was my norm. I’m just thinking palate shift, no way back in the 80s I could tolerate an ipa.

 

Picked up a new to me Pils last night, Frankenmuth little Bavaria, dam what a fine German Pils that was well brewed and I enjoyed greatly.

 

It was more pale ale-ish to me in that regard where the bitterness offset the residual sugars nicely, but more than that those aroma hops really asserted themselves a lot more than they do lately.

 

I remember it as a different beer now vs then too, but that was almost 35 years ago I guess, and boy has the beer world shifted. Along with my palate too I guess.

 

I have a lot of experience with oatmeal.