Long Break Table Pils

After somewhat of a break in brewing I’m getting back to it with this being the first of several beers planned over the next few months. The break was more of a slowdown than a full hiatus with only one beer brewed in 2021 and one that I helped my dad brew in late 2020. The slowdown was due to a number of factors: a backlog of homebrew on hand due to brewing heavily early in the COVID pandemic period and finally packaging several long aging beers, lots of travel (mostly road trips to national parks), getting a dog, and just a general burnout with brewing and drinking that was likely related to general anxiety and stress caused by the pandemic. Getting back to feeling more normal and having free time made me desire to get back in the saddle and planned out a few upcoming brew sessions (and session brews). 

To start I chose to make what I’m calling a Table Pilsner, intended to act as both a way to step up plenty of lager yeast to later re-make my award winning Doppelbock and to give me something light and refreshing on hand for the upcoming hottest time of the year in San Francisco. I’ve been favoring pilsners and other pale lagers over most other styles recently, in part due to the moderate alcohol but more so due to the balance of simple ingredients that give a complex but refreshing flavor. 

While I usually prefer and more often brew the Czech/Bohemian style of Pilsner for this batch I came up with something that is more akin to a German Pilsner but has elements of various types of continental pale lagers, including Viking Pilsner Malt and Weyermann Carahell, Hallertau Blanc and Saaz hops, and Munich Lager yeast which will be used later for the doppelbock. The end result is hopefully fairly dry with a light refreshing graininess and enough bitterness and spicy/grassy/fruity flavors from the hops to keep it refreshing.

7/24/21

Brewday. Nothing too crazy to report, 1.040 OG came in just under the planned 1.042. Used one fairly fresh pack of Munich lager yeast plus a pack that was nearly a year old that likely had close to zero viability, was on the fence about adding it but hopefully the dead yeast act as nutrient if nothing else. Transferred to chest freezer set to 50F.

7/26/21

36 hours post pitching and the yeast doesn’t seem to have any fermentation . Might pull out to room temp to see if it gets a little more active if not showing signs soon.

7/27/21

More yeast activity, not a lot but it seems to be active so I’ll let it go.

7/30/21

Still very little activity so I decided to pull a sample. Gravity only down to 1.030, tastes fine but something is off. Identified that the thermostat wasn’t placed well and was reading significantly higher than the actual freezer temperature (especially at the bottoms of the carboy) likely causing the yeast to be too cold to ferment. Moved the thermostat and increased the temperature from 50F to 53F to hopefully get more action.

7/31/21

Not super active still but more bubbles coming from the airlock appears to be a good sign.

8/5/21

Pulled another sample, gravity down to 1.011 so it seems the yeast were able to ferment after the temp fix and reached the expected final gravity. Taste is fine but a little muddled. Increased temp to 60F to give it a chance for a diacetyl rest. I don’t taste any butteriness and with it this low in gravity it might not be able to do much but worth giving it a chance. Plan to drop temp in a couple days for lagering, will probably do a quick lager quick lager but that will depend on how it tastes and my availability to keg this batch and brew the doppelbock that will re-use the yeast.

8/20/21

Kegged in a 5 gallon corny. Taste is just about what I was going for with some light honey like malt sweetness, spicy hops and moderate bitterness. There is a touch of diacetyl that is slightly more than ideal but not entirely off-putting. The yeast cake was saved to be re-used for a doppelbock tomorrow.

8/21/21

Set the keg out in the unusually warm apartment to make room for the now fermenting doppelbock and possibly allow the remaining yeast to clean up some diacetyl.

10/8/21

This one kicked at some point, had some friends visit then some others house sit so likely one of them finished it off? It was popular with people who like pale lagers but I also found it interesting enough to keep bringing me back. The two weeks at (unusually hot for San Francisco) room temperature seemed to severely cut down on the diacetyl to the point that it was hard to pick out.