You pinned it down at the end when you said it's just hard to describe for anyone who hasn't tried the beer - regardless of slight flaws or changes you'd make, I think most of us would be elated upon tasting your brew. Great stuff! looking forward the Urquell episode!
Looks amazing! Czech lagers are some of my favorites. Sometimes these half darks are blended - half pale half dark. A bartender at Wild Provisions told me that's where the name comes from while pouring me a beer from their side pull
Hate to be a pedant (I know, right, a beer geek with a streak of pedantry) but blended beers in Czechia are never called "polotmavé", rather they are called "řezané pivo", from the Czech word for "cut". Fun irony that the "šnyt" pour name is just a transliteration of the German "schnitt" which also means "cut". Anyway, polotmavé is always, always, always brewed as a distinct beer in Czechia. I have heard of some breweries over here trying to fob off a blend of their pale and dark lagers as a "polotmavé" but that is just plain wrong from a Czech perspective.
@@VelkyAlnot pedantic at all! The more knowledge the better - I appreciate it! Sounds like the bartender I was talking with was speaking from their own approach rather than tradition. Cheers 🍻
Hey man, I found your channel 2 years ago, when I was first getting into fermenting things, which really got me into making beer and now I'm majoring in craft brewing and starting my first brewing class in uni next week. Thanks at ton 🙏
Great video! Literally brewed a Politmavý the day you published this, double decocted but my recipe differs a fair bit with mainly Munich II. Yours looks absolutely superb!
Looks fantastic! I had Czech style lager for the first time when I went to Tampa at Barriehaus and was absolutely floored with how good it was. I also tried my first decoction mash recently when I made a new iteration of my 100% wheat brown ale recipe. Definitely enjoyed the process and my gravity sample tasted more maltier like I wanted so it will definitely be something I do more in the future. Thanks for the great video!
Beautiful beer! I've been doing a variety of Czech beers myself lately, so I bought a pound of 2.2% Saaz and I'm so glad I'm not going crazy, totally agree with the earthy/lack of lemony character in them.
Well, you did it again Steve. This was informative and well thought-out. We are definitely like-minded brewers. This is similar to my Marzen recipe/process except I don't use any carafa and I loves my Hally Mittelfruh. I kind of cheat on the decoction though. I do one at then end once conversion is done. If my PH is good, I pull a little over a third and stir while it boils and take whatever temp I get for mash-out. I like the results, but it has been so many years since I did a real dcoction I couldn't say how it compares. I don't do open fermentation but I have been thinking about it. I was been thinking about having a tiny amount of weak sanitizer in the airlock, barely enough to make a bubble, then dump it once I have a positive flow of CO2 moving. I hope I can remember which yeast I was thinking of doing this with before I brew with it!
I'm glad you enjoyed the video so much! Its a lot of fun to dip into traditional methods every so often. The open fermentation went pretty well relative to what I expected, I think your method would work great as well, its a good way to know things are actually happening.
Polotmavé is such an undervalued style, especially higher gravity ones - think 16° and up. One of the finest beers I have ever had was a 17° polotmavé from Pivovar Hukvaldy at Zlý Časy, it was like sticky toffee pudding in a glass.
I haven't done a decoction mash since switching to my spike solo. Going to have to try doing it again now as my bock seems like it's lacking something without the decoction step.
Absolutely fabulous color. BTW if you ever have a chance and visit Prague, go to the Three Roses brewery (Pivovar U Tří růží) in the old town. They brew and serve THE BEST amber Czech lager I've ever had and I am going back in Dec. What a great tutorial, I am definitely going to try and brew this one. Cheers, Steve!
Nice work. I would do maximum 2 to 3 hop additions. I don't know a traditional lager recipe with more than 3 additions. Greetings from southern Germany.
Let me guess, you left the triple decoction for the premium pale lager, right 😅 This beer is gorgeous! Never had a Czech amber but your recipe really makes me want to brew one. Regarding diacetyl, I've been using the budvar strain and fermenting at the lower end (starting at 7 for the first days and ending at 10C, no D-rest) with a big stater (2.5L) and I had zero diacetyl on my last 3 Czech lagers. Cheers Steve!
Seriously underrated beer style! I'll be using the budvar strain for the Pilsner so we will see how it goes, but I expect it will be less diacetyl heavy than the Urquell strains
Fell down a rabbit hole recently, looking up Charles Bronson's ethnicity 😏 ended up in Lithuanian farm house "stone" brewing😂 thinking this might be an alternative to decoction. Yup, white hot rocks dipped and swirled in the mash. Millard reaction for sure. Nothing ventured nothing gained..🇺🇸🍻🇺🇸
Steinbier is a German thing too! I think there's a Lithuanian tradition that involves baking the mash as well - again, getting the Maillard reaction turned up to 11. Lots you can do here!
Nice video! I actually just made a 7.2 % Helles bock with WLP833 fermented at 66 F without pressure. Came out wonderful. Still very clean with great lager character. I’ve noticed that the commercial lagers I enjoy most have some lager yeast character to them, so just finding the cleanest lager yeast possible and fermenting at 48 F doesn’t do it for me.
Curious how you combat the suck back when you continue chilling in the fermenter? I experience the same issue when chilling with groundwater and can only get down to ~65F. I don’t use glycol but I imagine that there is still some negative pressure inside the tank when continuing to chill to fermentation temp. Great video!
Before pitching yeast, I really don't care about suckback. O2 isn't going to hurt the beer before fermentation, and there's enough there to prevent bugs from getting in.
I did that because I wanted an open fermentation for the first few days. It changes the pressure on top of the yeast and creates a slightly more expressive character.
I wonder if the earthy flavour is because of the poor harvest last year with the poor weather conditions. The alpha came out very low hence yours being 2% odd.
Hey man, I have a question about your SmartRef. Is it good to use it at all stages? I mean pre-fermentation during and post? It’s refractometer, so I’m just wondering how accurate it is with alcohol presence in a beer?
Yup, its accurate throughout the whole process. I'm not sure how their software handles it, but unlike standard refractometers, it can take accurate measurements with alcohol in it as long as you have the OG handy.
This must be the third or fourth brew where you have had non-trivial amounts of bicarbonate in the water profile without adding any baking soda. How and why is this? Is this perhaps also the reason that your water profile has 8 ppm sodium without having added any sodium chloride or baking soda? The bicarbonate and sodium levels quoted are too high to be residuals that are not removed through your RO system
I completely agree with your statement about lagers non necessarily being clean. Lagers, no matter the style has a distinct taste. You proved it when you brewed side by side a märzen with lager yeast and lutra.
