The real Bierstadt Slow Pour Pils v. Clone

I had Slow Pour Pils for the first time at the brewery in Denver in July 2021 and was amazed. I bought a four pack, along with their helles as well, and their Dunkel glass. Back home, I set about trying to figure out how to brew it. Interestingly, BYO magazine has what is described as the actual recipe. It's quite involved, though, calling for a decoction, step mashing, etc. It's also confusing, since it talks about a whirlpool but has no late addition hops in the recipe.

Having brewed the recipe and now tried it side by side with my last can of the real thing, I can say I am waaaay off the mark. True, I didn't step mash, didn't do a decoction, and used 2308 instead of 2124 yeast. I also missed the 5 minute hop and put it in at flameout instead. But somehow I'm not sure those things would make the difference. There seems to be something in there that may not be achievable on the homebrew scale, at least with my setup. This was beer #3 in a series of beers, with the first, a helles, also sort of based on Bierstadt's recipe, on Labor Day. 

My beer is actually a tasty beer, it's just no where near the real thing. The real thing has a penetrating, drying (but pleasant) bitterness, whereas the bitterness in mine, at least comparatively, is barely perceptible. Mine has 100% Hallertau mittlelfruh hops, per the recipe, but the real thing tastes way different. The aroma of mine is a sort of muted floral hops; theirs an almost skunky aroma that I associate with a lot of German lagers. Not a lot of malt flavor in either. Mine is a hair darker and more cloudy; theirs extremely pale and crystal clear. I also didn't treat my water, aside from using 3 gallons distilled water. Gelatin added to aid clarity, though this is not the clearest beer I've ever made.

In the end, no, I didn't follow the recipe exactly. In fact, I deviated substantially. But I guess I thought I'd be closer to the real thing, since the basics of the recipe remained intact: Weyermann pils, Hallertau hops, German lager yeast. Oh well, a fun experiment, and perhaps these German lagers -- helles, pilsner -- can be something to continue to strive for, my sort of "white whale." 

Unfortunately, I don't make it out to Colorado often, so it will probably be quite some time before I get to try the Slow Pour Pils again. So, for fun, I opened a can of a more local beer, Stammtisch from Urban Chestnut in St. Louis. They're close, but I think Slow Pour edges out Stammtisch just slightly. Slow Pour has a cleaner, crisper flavor. Stammtisch has a heavier flavor, with a hint of toasty malt in the background. So Stammtisch could be a close approximation of Slow Pour and more easily attainable, though even it has been somewhat hard to obtain in recent years, as it is no longer distributed in my corner of Missouri. 

All in all, a fun experiment, but I realize I need to keep trying when it comes to brewing a German pils. Cheers!

Brewed: 9/19/21

Kegged: 9/26/21

OG: 1.050

FG: 1.011-12

5 gallons

2021 festbier

I've grown to really like festbier, probably more than marzen. The latter tends to be sweet, which limits drinkability. Once again inspired by German imports, I made this one with the aim of approximating something like Paulaner festbier (aka wiesn). I read somewhere that it was 70% pilsner and 30% Munich, so that's what I went with. Unfortunately, the shop did not have light Munich, only dark, which at 10LV did not seem terribly dark.

 
In looking at it, I suppose it's not. It's sort of a burnt orange color, not red or brown like some marzens, notwithstanding the above photo. However, the real failing with this beer is the drinkability. It ended at 1.014, which is in line with what my software, brewer's friend, said Wyeast 2308 would produce. But it just has a very strong, almost overwhelming caramelly sweetness. There's also an occasional hint of booziness in the finish.

In the end, not the worst beer I've made, but certainly not the best, and not better than the beer in the festbier 1.0 post below. I find myself wishing I had re-brewed that beer instead. It would be interesting to taste this beer with light Munich with the same proportion, to see how much difference that would make. The dark Munich version is so caramelly sweet and rich. Something a little more bready sounds better. 

Recipe:

7.5 Weyermann pils
3.5 Weyermann Munich

1.25 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh (4.2 AA) at 60 minutes, for 21 IBU

OG: 1.062
FG: 1.017 (estimated); 1.014 actual.

Wyeast 2308.

Festbier 1.0

I had tasted few festbiers before going to Munich in September 2019. I think Weihenstephaner was the only one. Instead, I drank a lot of marzen, probably the most common version of the Oktoberfest style beer here in the USA. I remember really liking the Augustiner and Hofbrau versions (pretty sure I also had Paulaner from a can purchased at Aldi in Munich), so I wanted to emulate them in my own beer. I recall them tasting like a heftier helles, which is how the beer is described. This was the second beer I brewed following the tiny helles. 

Aroma: all pilsner malt. maybe a little corn. Tettnanger hops are pretty fruity in flavor but don't really pick those up in the aroma; maybe just a hint. Tettnanger hops are from 2014. I was going to make a "Dragonmead" Tripel recipe I found on homebrewtalk but never got around to it. I held on to the hops and finally used them. They still smelled very fresh. 

Appearance: gold. pretty clear with gelatin. 

Flavor: In terms of malts, pretty much all pilsner. It has a fair amount of Munich malt and just a touch of melanoidin, but this is all pilsner. The Tettnanger hops are pretty fruity. Good body, evenly balanced between bitterness and sweetness. I've had a stray thought here and there that it's almost too sweet, but mostly it's very quaffable. 

9/6/21: This was overall a good beer and one thta I would drink again. 

5 gallon recipe:

8.5 lb Pilsner (Weyermann)

1 lb Munich light

.25 lb Melanoidin

Wyeast 2633 Octoberfest blend

Festbier 2.0 / helles brew day and tasting

10/4/2020:

When I first sampled the first festbier, I noticed it was pretty fruity. I wondered if it was due to a fermentation issue or the hops. In doing research, I think the fruitiness came from the Tettnanger hops. I did not desire or anticipate such a fruity flavor, so I decided I would brew another version.

This one has slightly more grain and no melanoidin. And it has Hersbrucker hops. And just a touch of Galena to up the bitterness. 

The actual brewing went very smoothly, but I missed my numbers. First, I had just a bit over 5 gallons of wort post-boil. I attribute this to my propane running low midway through the boil. So at least for a few minutes it was not actually boiling. Second, I believe I saw a fair amount of uncrushed grain. This is the second of two sacks of grain I bought at the same time at the same shop. The first beer had that issue as well.

So, instead of 1.058, I ended up at 1.052. This festbier will likely be a helles instead. That's not a big problem, since I love helles, but I don't like not achieving what I set out to do. Beautiful beer though. Nice golden, clear wort. Should make for a tasty helles or festbier or whatever I want to call it!

I also kegged the club Oktoberfest today and added gelatin. It is now in the fridge conditioning. 

3/23/2021:

This second festbier has been in the keg for several months now. Not sure what went wrong, but it just doesn't have the delicious grainy, bready flavor I associate with pilsner malt. I used Avangard pils this time instead of Weyermann. There are a few different possibilities. Either Avangard pils is not as I remember it, there was a fermentation issue, or I was given the wrong malt. I tend to think I was given pale malt instead, since this beer doesn't really have any off flavors and based on other blog posts, Avangard pilsner malt has a similar flavor to Weyermann's.

In the end, it's just not that good of a beer. It really reminds me of Budweiser. It has that similar sweet blandness. I used the same malt in my club Oktoberfest, which had a similar blandness.

8/4/2021:

This beer is still hanging around nearly a year later, which says something about what I think of it. It looks good and smells pretty good, a kind of sweet, bready, malty aroma. But it just doesn't taste that good. It's bland and maybe overly bitter too. On the plus side, it looks great in my new Bierstadt glass that I just got over the weekend in Denver!

---

8.5 lb pilsner

1.75 lb light Munich

Wyeast Oktoberfest blend

Mandarina Bavaria Pilsner

I think I was inspired by a commercial beer, the name of which escapes me. Plus I wanted to play around with Mandarina Bavaria hops, which I had never used. 100% Weyermann pils. Wyeast oktoberfest blend. 5 gallons. I think I used some filtered water from a special tap I have in my house.

Didn't love this beer at first, and I still don't, technically. It has a certain rough bitterness. But the bitterness that is there balances nicely with the malt sweetness. It's also pretty refreshing on a hot day.

Brewed 11/1/20. Kegged 11/17/20.

9 lbs Weyermann Pils

14.2 g Galena hops (15.6 AA) at 60 minutes

2 oz Mandarina Bavaria hops at 5 minutes

43.49 IBU