I wanted to make a hoppy Pilsner. Wondering if I went too far. I guess I’ll find out in a couple of months but here is what I did:
Hallertau Mittelfruher:3.2%
5 gallons
2 oz at 90
3 oz at 15
3 oz at 5
5 oz at 1
Too crazy?
YUP.
I bet it’ll taste pretty good. The bitterness will be pretty high but shouldn’t be wildly higher than what you’d find in a German Pils. Let us know how it turns out!
It came in at only 40.5 IBUs on BeerTools. I’ll definitely report back on it.
Dave
What was your OG? I got around 51 IBUs figuring you were around 1.056.
It came in at 1.059 but I needed to add a gallon of water due to the hop absorbtion and 90 minute boil. That brought it down to 1.048. If I take out the gallon it goes to 48.7 IBUs.
Dave
Quite curious about this; please keep us posted. I’ve never done a massively late-hopped beer using a noble hop variety like this, and I’m curious how it will turn out. I’m planning a “Noble Heritage” IPA using Sterling, Crystal and Ultra, but I’m wondering if the noble hop character is enough to carry an IPA if you really hit it hard with late hops.
Same here. Never done a mass late pitch either so I had to try out the experiment.
Looks like the yeast I pitched (2633) was a little old and tired. It was harvested on 9/7 so I pitched all the slurry. A day later it looks like it’s just starting to get going though.
Dave
I should also note that I was cleaning out some grain so I also have 1.25# of dark munich in there along with 8.5# of Pilsner and .75# of CaraFoam. I thought the dark munich should help with a little malt backbone.
Dave
Holy crap, Dave! Let us know how it turns out. I’ll bet it’s pretty darn hoppy! :o
Hey Red! I just remembered that I let it sit overnight as well to get it down to pitching temp. I racked it and pitched the next morning at 48F. You should have seen the glob of hop mass in the bottom!
I’m starting to get a hoppy bad feeling about this! :
I was just wondering today if there were any commercial pilsners with a lot more hop character…curious how this turns out.
I think Victory Pils is pretty dang hoppy.
It certainly is one of the better examples IMO. Firm crisp bitterness with a nice hoppy finish.
I had a bottle of Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp #43 Imperial Pilsner. It was great and the inspiration for this recipe and experiment.
Dave
That’s a lot of hops, especially late addition. I think the bitterness won’t be overwhelming, but the flavor and aroma might be enough that you can’t tell it’s a lager. Next time an ale yeast might produce the same result with less effort.
Not sure I agree, but I guess we’ll see in a few weeks! I just brought it down to 38 where I’ll leave it for 3-4 weeks before kegging.
Dave
Well, the holiday crowds depleted my inventory to the point where I had to tap this bad boy a couple of weeks earlier than I had expected.
HOLY CRAP, as Red said earlier. I’ve never had such a slap in the face of Noble hops…and I like it!
8)
Just draining the last of my first pint now. The 2633 and Dark Munich Malt create just enough malt backbone to not get overwhelmed by the noble hop attack. It’s like a Pilsner Urquell on steroids!
Great experiment and I’ll definitely do it again. Man I love this hobby! Gotta refill…
Dave