Czech-American Farmhouse Lager
The pilsner looks perfect – pale and clear and golden with rapid rising bubbles. It has a light raspberry aroma that is unexpected for the style but not off putting. The first taste immediately reveals it’s not really a pilsner at all. Something wild got into the fermentation and changed it thoroughly. Unlike some of our other problematic lagers, it doesn’t have the big sharp sour infection. The beer is sour but only ever so slightly. As an example of style it’s a complete failure. But as a continental farmhouse ale I think it’s quite decent. Precision and repeatability are obviously the goals, but happy accidents are still better than down-the-drain accidents.
While it almost surely isn’t reproducible on purpose, the simple recipe could be best summarized as “Saaz, plus some grain”. 7.75 pounds of two-row malt combined with 3 pounds of flaked corn spent ninety minutes in the mash tun and another ninety in the kettle. At sixty minutes we added 0.75 ounces of Saaz. At twenty minutes we added 0.40 ounces of Saaz. At ten minutes, we added another 0.40 ounces of Saaz. At five minutes, added another 0.40 ounces of Saaz. And finally at flameout we added a whole ounce of – you guessed it – Cascade. Just kidding it was more Saaz. Fermentation was was SafLager plus whatever else snuck in and contributed all the flavor.
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