Subscriber Exclusive
Recipe: Dovetail Czech Dark Lager
With thanks to brewer Jenny Pfäfflin and the team at Chicago’s Dovetail, here’s a homebrew-scale recipe for the tmavé pivo that they like to call their “Pilsner in a sweater.”
All Access Subscribers can download the Beersmith and BeerXML version of this recipe.
Subscribe today.
“We like to call our Czech Dark Lager ‘our Pilsner in a sweater,’” says Jenny Pfäfflin, brewer at Chicago’s Dovetail. “Czech dark lagers should be an expression of the complex and rich malt bill but still showcase the spicy flavor and aroma of Saaz. Subtle roast should be there, but make sure it’s not too roasty. Otherwise, you’re just making a nice bottom-fermented porter. As with all Czech lagers, drinkability is key—it should go down easy and in multiple rounds. A normal ABV of 4.5–5.5 percent should be the target.”
Why the third decoction? “I was feeling ‘extra’ that day,” she says. “That’s literally the only reason.”
The results speak for themselves.
For much more on brewing a great Czech-style dark lager, see Tmavé Pivo: The Czech Republic’s Uncommon Dark Lager.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.013
IBUs: 27
ABV: 4.6%
“We like to call our Czech Dark Lager ‘our Pilsner in a sweater,’” says Jenny Pfäfflin, brewer at Chicago’s Dovetail. “Czech dark lagers should be an expression of the complex and rich malt bill but still showcase the spicy flavor and aroma of Saaz. Subtle roast should be there, but make sure it’s not too roasty. Otherwise, you’re just making a nice bottom-fermented porter. As with all Czech lagers, drinkability is key—it should go down easy and in multiple rounds. A normal ABV of 4.5–5.5 percent should be the target.”
Why the third decoction? “I was feeling ‘extra’ that day,” she says. “That’s literally the only reason.”
The results speak for themselves.
For much more on brewing a great Czech-style dark lager, see Tmavé Pivo: The Czech Republic’s Uncommon Dark Lager.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.013
IBUs: 27
ABV: 4.6%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
5.4 lb (2.4 kg) Czech floor-malted pilsner
2.25 lb (1 kg) Munich I
1.1 lb (500 g) CaraBohemian
4.5 oz (128 g) chocolate malt
HOPS SCHEDULE
1 oz (28 g) Saaz at 60 minutes [14 IBUs]
1 oz (28 g) Saaz at 30 minutes [11 IBUs]
0.5 oz (14 g) Saaz at 10 minutes [2 IBUs]
0.7 oz (20 g) Saaz at flameout/whirlpool
YEAST
Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager, White Labs WLP920 Old Bavarian Lager, or Fermentis SafLager S-23
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains, mash in at 95°F (35°C) and rest 5 minutes. Pull about one-third of the mash (from the thickest part) and, in a separate pot, bring to a boil and boil 20 minutes. Slowly and gently return the decoction to the main mash, which should bring the temperature to 122–131°F (50–55°C); rest 5 minutes. Again, pull about one-third of your mash, boil for 20 minutes, and gently return to the main mash to bring it to 140–149°F (60–65°C); rest 15 minutes. Pull your final decoction—again, one-third—boil 20 minutes, and gently return it to the main mash to bring it to 158–167°F (70–75°C); rest 45 minutes. Raise to 172°F (78°C) and mash out. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge and top up as necessary to get about 6 gallons (23 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate.
Boil 60 minutes, adding hops according to the schedule. Chill to 45°F (7°C), aerate well, and pitch plenty of healthy yeast. Ferment at 48°F (9°C) for 3 or 4 days, until the beer is about 50 percent attenuated (~1.024), then raise to 54°F (12°C) for diacetyl rest. When fermentation is complete and the gravity has stabilized, crash to 30°F (-1°C) and lager 6 to 8 weeks. Rack and package to about 2.6 volumes of CO2.
BREWER’S NOTES
Water: We use reverse osmosis (RO) and add calcium chloride and magnesium sulfate to achieve a soft profile. At home, for strike and sparge water, you can use a mixture of 90 percent distilled and 10 percent moderately hard, dechlorinated water.
Decoction: Slowly re-adding the decoctions to the main mash will help you to avoid exceeding the target temperature range.
Coolship: All our lagers go through our coolship. Instead of flameout/whirlpool hops, we add them to our coolship when the wort is about 176°F (80°C). Within 10–15 minutes, it’s dropped to 167°F (75°C) and is on its way to the chiller. A short whirlpool may get you similar results.
Yeast: We use Weihenstephan Hefebank strain 206, available to homebrewers as Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager. Shoot for a pitch rate of 2 million cells/ml/°P—about 5 packs of dry or liquid yeast, or a half-liter of fresh starter slurry.
