Summer Beer Styles - Northern German Pilsner

Ahhh, the joys of a summer beer. Dry, refreshing beer with perhaps a little extra bitterness and minerality to keep it clean and crisp.

Enter the Northern German Pilsner. From HomeBrewing DYI:

If you spend some time reading about German pilsner, you’ll notice that they are often divided into Northern and Southern substyles. While many of the pilsners will have distinct, regional characteristics, realize that this division is a generalization, not a rule....

Jever, Bitburger and Warsteiner are examples of Northern style German pilsners, They tend to be more clean, use more bittering hops, incorporate slightly harder water, and have comparatively less hop aroma.

To achieve this, there a few things to keep in mind:

• Step Mash is often useful to replicate traditional decoction

• Grist is often 100% pilsner malt - I used Bohemian Floor Malted

• Bitterness should approach the upper end of 25-40 IBU

• Watch the pH in the mash, may need lactic acid

• Use mineral salts to match a German Pilsner style

Here's my recipe

I ended up with a 5% ABV beer with 39 IBU (estimated). The beer is quite bitter and very sharp. It almost pushes the bitterness too far but very punchy and fun. The Bohemian pilsner malt is excellent and will use it again. Cracker dry and clean.

I tested a new "dry hop" method with this beer. My understanding is the isomerization point for alpha acids in hops is around 175F so I cooled my wort after the boil down to 90F then added it to my fermenter (keg) to continue cooling down. I then added a hop sock with 1 oz Mandarina Bavaria for 24 hours before pitching the yeast. I figured the wort was too hot (Phoenix water in summer) so why not let some hops infuse as it cools. I was expecting I wouldn't pickup much bitterness at this temp but hopefully some nice citrus aroma from the hops. The next day the wort was at my pitching temperature of 55F so I removed the hops and added the yeast. Fermentation proceeded normally from there.

The nice feature of this dry hop method is there is no chance of oxidation since the yeast hasn't even been pitched yet. However, I suppose there could be a risk of contamination if the hops contained any unwanted microbes. In my beer, everything went well and the end result is very good. However, I do think there was additional bitterness imparted by this method. Not that it's a bad thing but it seems more bitter than I expected. Unfortunately I did not get any citrus aromas from the addition...

About the Mandarina Bavaria Hops (from Yakima Valley Hops):

German Mandarina Bavaria Hop Profile:

Mandarina Bavaria is a new German hop with a pleasant fruitiness and very distinctive tangerine and citrus notes. The variety was bred at Hüll and was released 2012 in response to demand from the craft beer industry and its desire for bold tastes and differentiating flavors.