There is a fairly new liquor store in my area that I recently discovered. They have a very solid craft beer selection, but it’s not huge. There’s no mix-a-six section collecting dust, everything is in the fridge. There may not be the hugest selection, but what they have is cold and fresh. I mention this because Paulaner Helles is a beer I’d never touch at the other bottle shops in my area, as it is typically stored warm and not likely to be turned over very quickly. So when I saw it in the fridge at Big Gary’s, I snapped it right up.
This beer just hits all the marks for me. It has a wonderful rich, bready malt character to it. It is well attenuated, but not as bone dry as a pils. The carbonation level is also backed off a bit compared to other lagers. It isn’t crisp and bone-dry, but that plays to the maltiness well, and it is still dangerously easy to put down in quantity.
What I really enjoy about it is the malt character. With most pilsners I get a malt character that reminds me of uncooked pasta. The Paulaner is different. It reminds me more of a french baguette. I would love to brew a beer with this same malt flavor, but I can’t quite think of a grain that would get me there. If I had to guess, I’d wager that Paulaner has this malt made to spec and it’s probably in between Pils and Vienna malt somewhere. I also wonder if yeast strain comes into play here. I can’t think of a Paulaner beer that I haven’t loved when I’ve had a good/fresh bottle of it.
I didn’t think of Kölsch malt. I haven’t used it, but from the descriptions I’ve heard that may be the closest. I had thought of something like Biscuit or Victory to try to replicate that breadiness, but that always bugged me because I’m pretty sure that’s not how Paulaner does it.
Anyone have any idea what yeast strain they use for their lagers?
I like wlp860 ( March-April seasonal) wlp833 or wyeast 2308. Paulaners is old house strain…not sure exactly what its roots are. Any of the above are solid choices though IMO.
Im homing in on it. Not there yet. This winter when I continue my journey, it will be 3 parts Best pils to one part Best Vienna. Borderline low calcium from CaCl. Aiming to the low end of hopiness, 10gm magnum at 60. Fermented with Wyeast Munich. About 4.5% abv. Adjusted in the bottling bucket to 4.3 pH.
My personal theory on why these German light lagers have that bready/malty flavor that is so hard for a homebrewer to replicate, is that they are using fresh malt, just days or weeks out of the malting house, as opposed to months or years.
Just a theory, I have no way of knowing whether it is true.
You could be right about that Chumely. However, it also could be the type of yeast. My lhbs was out of WLP833 and most other lager strains at the time. I ended up buying WLP940, Mexican lager and the beer was clean, but it didn’t have that malty, bread like flavor I usually get with 833.
