If you’ve had beer, you’ve almost certainly had a Bohemian (Czech) Pilsner or one of its many, many offspring and cousins. This was the first real pale lager, and it was not only immediately successful, it was endlessly copied and modified based on local brewing conditions. It also remains one of the great beer styles of the world in its own right, and when well-brewed, it’s a real showcase for the essential flavors of its ingredients. Brewing it is easier and harder than people think, and this is one of the rare times that I’ll give you the advice to go more extreme than you might be comfortable with!
Style
This is one of those beer styles we can tie to a specific place, time, and even name. German brewer Josef Groll brewed the first Pilsner in (unsurprisingly) Plzen in 1842, taking advantage of the region’s soft water, abundant herbal hops, a new malt kilning technique that allowed for exceptionally pale beers, and this new-fangled thing called “lager” yeast, a cleaner-fermenting alternative to traditional yeasts. The net result was a beer that has restrained fermentation character and a clean but complex biscuity maltiness and an absolute avalanche of hops without harsh bitterness. We can take advantage of all of the same ingredients Groll used with nothing more than a trip to the homebrew supply shop (lucky us), with one exception: water. The water profile of your beer is essential to making a true Bo Pils, and while you can get away with not adjusting your water, you’ll be aiming at a much, much smaller target.
Ingredients
This is a simple beer, and its recipe is simple. Start with 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of floor-malted Pilsner and add 8 ounces (227 g) of acidulated malt. That’s it. The floor-malted Pilsner malt is a little more expensive, but you’ll get much more flavor out of it! Be sure, though, that it’s floor-malted Pilsner malt, and not just standard Pils malt—maltsters often sell both. As for the acidulated malt, you’re not actually adding “sourness” to your beer (or even tartness)—that’s simply to help keep you in the proper pH range during the brewing process, since we’ll be working with soft or diluted water.