Re: Learning to Like Pilsener

After discovering craft beer 20 years ago, I have often said that I am not much of a lager person.  After discovering American Craft Beers (mostly ales), and then exploring the English style ales, I have been describing myself as a "Malt Guy".  It has taken a full decade to learn about first Belgian styles and then turn my attention back to lagers.  I am still not much of a lager guy, but I do love my malty Oktoberfests, Bocks, and Helles.

German Pilsner has been ruined by my formative years drinking American Style Pilseners (or light lagers as described by the Beer Judge Certification Program).  When I look at a Pilsener, my mind thinks of the watered down American type....so I have a rude shock to taste a more aggressive hop profile and that sulfury lager yeast taste/aroma.

I have had to teach myself to like them again....I used to like the mass produced German varieties (think Becks, or Heinekin) as a precursor to craft beer.  Now that local breweries are making them, I am finding that they are a nice alternative on a beautiful spring day.  They certainly are easy drinking, and very beautiful in a nice Pilsner Glass.

The Grass is Getting Green!

With the outside temperature pushing 20 or more degrees above that of my quickly emptying keggerator, my thought turns to summer beers.  I am needing to brew, and now is the time to put some hot weather beers in the can.

I actually got a request (rare) to brew my wheat beer.  It is a beer that while I never fell in love with was light and non-wheaty and served a nice twist on the lawnmower beer.  In recent years I have been experimenting with watermelon in it (which has been well recieved by all but me), but maybe it is time again to brew a naked version.  I don't know.

My summer brewing schedule is needing to start taking shape, however.  So far, if we hold to tradition, we have only the watermelon wheat, which is a late summer brew (watermelons ripen in June, so the beer is ready in July/August.  I need a plan.

So, what should we brew this summer?

We have loose plans to brew a Gratzer (in German) or Grodziskie in my family's native tounge, which is a smoked wheat beer indiginous to Poland.  For me, it is about getting back to my roots, and interesting, but not sure how I will like it.  But it is different, and I know a guy with a smoker, so I may be able to smoke my own wheat malt, just to make it a little more interesting.

I have been enjoying the Helles style, but there isn't much to it and my window of opportunity for lagers is kind of closing.

I am interested in a Steam Beer again, but I have been disappointed with my attempts at this style compared to a fresh beer on tap from that certain brewery in San Francisco that owns the trademark.  Perhaps I need to find my own version of this beer away from the clone.

Sour Mash something.  After tasting the Sour Mashed Red Saison from Black Shirt Brewing, I am aroused by the thought of trying a sour mash to impart a tartness in a beer.  But which beer should I choose?  I am not sure I am up for a full-on Berliner-weiss.

Saison.  I have fallen in love with some local examples of this style, but each of them is so different.  I thought I would wait until mid summer and ferment this beer relatively warm, but haven't given a thought as to the type or variety that I could employ.  Saison translates to season, so it is a beer made from the fresh ingredients on-hand.

Mild Ale.  Being a malt forward kind of guy, this style has not gone well for us, and there are not many commercial examples to point to.  Locally, Pike's Peak Brewing keeps theirs as a regular offering, and Dry Dock and Copper Kettle have them as one-offs or occasional seasonals.  Our last example was a 2nd runnings from our Barley Wine, and I had a love-hate relationship.  I though it was okay when I just poured one, but I thought it was awful when I poured one after having something else.  It doesn't inspire confidence in me, but I feel like it (along with Brown Ale) is a style that could be a nice choice in the session beer catagory.

Simple pleasure

Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

A friend of mine pointed out that I didn't give any information about this picture that I posted on Saturday night.  I truly phoned it in, so to speak.

Anyway, my brother delivered to me our kegs of our once still-born Oktoberfest and we took the opportunity to visit a couple of local breweries.  The picture above is from Black Shirt Brewing in the River North neighborhood of Denver.

Black Shirt is a one of those hard to find, easy to miss type places.  Hard to find at first (the building is a windowless early 20th Century brick shop next to a little liquor store with the letters BSB stamped on the side of the building.  It is easy to begin to miss, because the beers are so good.

Once inside, the place was packed with locals and regulars.  I was told by some folks from the neighborhood that it is always this way.

Black Shirt is also notable as they only serve red beers.  It seems sort of limiting, but at the same time inviting.  If you are a long time craft drinker (like me), your gateway beers started somewhere between Leinenkugel's, Killian's, Fat Tire, 90 Shilling, or Avalanche.  It was a time that dark meant Guinness Stout, and every national brewery was making Ice Beer.  The choices weren't many, but you'd always be safe with a nice malty, red (amber ale) beer.  Even still, whenever there is a very limited selection, you can usually find one of these "safe" type beers.

Black Shirt takes safe and turns it around.  All of their beers are delicious, and red, but few follow the "safe" route.  Sure their basic BSB Red and Pale Red are almost sessionable, my personal favorite was their sour mashed Red Saison...slightly tart and effervescent.  Nothing is so overpowering or unusual that anyone can find their home beer here.

For the red (read safe) beer lover, you can find yourself in some interesting territory pretty quick, but not so unfamiliar that makes you uncomfortable.  And if you feel like you have lost your way, the friendly servers are always quick to get you back on track.

Another test

Having cider at cedar creek pub!

Test

I am playing with the ability to post stuff from my phone. This will
allow me to share deep thoughts from illicit places where I don't have
access to a computer. I am hoping that photos will work, too. It
should make my site a little more interesting/timely.

Also, did you know that my blog is optimized for mobile as well? Check
me out anytime!

Sent from my iPhone

So Who Reads this and Why?

I never really believed that this blog would be widely read (and it isn't).  It is merely a personal journal of sorts about my experiences brewing and in the world of craft beer.  I am sure it is interesting to no one that doesn't already know me (and even then...).

I do get a small amount of traffic from around the world, however, and some of it is repeat customers from interesting corners of the earth.  Being the curious type, I always want to know why.

So, if you would help me understand, post a comment and tell me how you stumbled into my little virtual microbrewery world, why, and if there is anything else you'd like to see, or what you are enjoying, or hating.  Tell me what you are brewing or drinking, or doing.  Keep it clean, as my mom sometimes wanders in.

I will post the responses, provided I can read them (I only can barely understand English....I am an American after all) and we can have a discussion from time to time?

In the meantime, Cheers!

g
Denver, CO