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Recipe: Halfway Crooks Pintje Pils
“Pintje is an homage to the type of pilsners brewed in Belgium,” says Joran Van Ginderachter, the Belgian-born cofounder of Halfway Crooks Beer in Atlanta.
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“Pintje is the diminutive for ‘pint,’” Van Ginderachter says. “It is also close to the same word for ‘pinky,’ so we use our pinkies as a symbol to order the beer. Beer is ordered by showing how many beers we want using our fingers, followed by shaking our pinky. It is not rude to flag down a server in this manner—it is in fact, encouraged.”
The Halfway Crooks take is more hop-forward than typical Belgian pils, reveling in German hops and embracing ample yet smooth bitterness. For much more about Belgium’s own lager tradition, see The Everyday Pintje: Searching for Belgian Pils.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.008
IBUs: 44
ABV: 5.2%
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“Pintje is the diminutive for ‘pint,’” Van Ginderachter says. “It is also close to the same word for ‘pinky,’ so we use our pinkies as a symbol to order the beer. Beer is ordered by showing how many beers we want using our fingers, followed by shaking our pinky. It is not rude to flag down a server in this manner—it is in fact, encouraged.”
The Halfway Crooks take is more hop-forward than typical Belgian pils, reveling in German hops and embracing ample yet smooth bitterness. For much more about Belgium’s own lager tradition, see The Everyday Pintje: Searching for Belgian Pils.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.008
IBUs: 44
ABV: 5.2%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
9 lb (4.1 kg) Dingemans Pilsen
HOPS SCHEDULE
0.2 oz (6 g) Perle at 60 minutes [5 IBUs]
0.5 oz (14 g) Spalter Select at 15 minutes [6 IBUs]
0.4 oz (11 g) Tradition at 15 minutes [6 IBUs]
0.6 oz (17 g) Spalter Select at 3 minutes [5 IBUs]
0.5 oz (14 g) Tradition at 3 minutes [5 IBUs]
1.2 oz (34 g) Spalter Select at whirlpool [7 IBUs]
1.4 oz (40 g) Tradition at whirlpool [10 IBUs]
YEAST
Fermentis SafLager W-34/70 or other cold-tolerant lager yeast
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 147°F (64°C) for 60 minutes. Recirculate until your 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 for 75 minutes, adding hops according to the schedule. After the boil, switch off the heat and stir for about 5 minutes to create a vortex, then add the whirlpool hops and allow 25 minutes to steep. Chill the wort to about 45°F (7°C), aerate, and pitch the yeast at a rate of 1.5 million cells/ml/˚P (roughly two packets of dry yeast).
Ferment at 48°F (9°C). At about 60 percent attenuation (1.020), allow the temperature to rise to 60°F (15°C) for a diacetyl rest. Once the beer clears a forced diacetyl test (see “Hunting for Diacetyl,” beerandbrewing.com), drop about 2°F (1˚C) per day for 12 days to reach 37°F (3°C), then transfer to secondary. Lager for 6 weeks. In the middle of Week 5, drop about 2°F (1˚C) per day for 3 days, then lager at 32˚F (0˚C) for the final week. Package and carbonate to 2.7 volumes.
BREWER’S NOTES
Kräusen: Optionally, try kräusening at transfer. We typically add kräusen to uptake any O2 picked up at transfer and naturally carbonate the beer. We also spund to achieve at least 2.7 volumes of CO2 for the final product. Kräusening also helps to clean up other off-flavors that may have been produced during fermentation. (See “Breaking the Sugar Habit with Kräusening,” beerandbrewing.com.)
