Czech lager comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and pours. I've recently been brewing and drinking Czech lagers because of my initial writeup for my experience making pale lager inspired by the Czech brewing tradition. Now, to utilize the most out of my expensive packet of Wyeast 2278, I've harvested and made a version of Czech dark lager with it. So I thought I'd make a little "mini-series" (is it a series if you only do two? I realize I can do amber lager and make the trifecta, but I have yet to have an amber Czech lager that has inspired me...) on making ležák in the Czech tradition. The recipe that I brewed is just one of many takes on this style. Just like you can have many different flavors, bitterness qualities, colors, and all that when it comes to Czech pale lager, there might be an even greater variation in what I've seen for these dark lager beers. I'll get into that after I tell you what I personally did based on how I like my dark beers - semi-dark, low ABV (for this style at least), sweet, and more chocolate than roast.
Recipe - this came almost directly from the book "Dark Lagers" by Horst Dornbusch and Thomas Kraus-Weyermann. I highly recommend it if you really love dark beers and lagers. It has great info and recipes. But I made personal tweaks based on my ingredients at hand (I only had a small amount of Saaz left and couldn't find Carabohemian malt) and personal preference. For a 5-gallon batch...
Vitals: O.G. 12°P / F.G. 4°P / ABV 4.3% / 28 IBU / 18 SRM
Grist:
5lbs [2.25kg] Floor-Malted Bohemian Pilsner (Weyermann)
3lbs [1.35kg] Floor-Malted Bohemian Dark (Weyermann)
0.5lb [227g] Crystal-80 (Briess)
0.5lb [227g] Caramunich 60 (Briess)
0.35lb [160g] Carafa Special I (Weyermann)
I got just over 80% Brewhouse efficiency with a single decoction mash. I'm not sure if this style really needs or benefits from it, but part of traditional Czech brewing is decoction. You can feel free to skip it if you want to just do a single infusion at 150°F or 65-66°C. Target the Bohemian Pilsner up or down to adjust for your efficiency numbers.
Hops:
14g German Magnum (12.7%AA) at 45-minutes for 20ish IBUs
50g Czech Saaz (4%AA) at 10 minutes for flavor/aroma and 8ish IBUs
Yeast:
Harvested Wyeast 2278 Czech Pils from my previous lager, about a half-liter of slurry
These two beers are examples of Tmavé Pivo, which is directly translated to "Dark Beer" in English. Call to Arms, a small brewery in the Denver area that makes great beer of many styles, is the farther left; and Staropramen is a large brewery in Prague that makes delicious beers as well - all in the Czech lager fashion. And looking at these two different beers, they don't look like the dark stout beers many might associate with a dark lager. And that's a talking point because this style has many different interpretations and a very wide range of color, flavors, and ingredients. The tmavé pivo that I wanted to brew was inpsired by Staropramen's dark lager because, when I visited years ago and toured their facility, I was blown away by the depth of chocolate, caramel, and nutty malt it possessed.
You can also go the darker route like Cohesion, another brewery in Denver but who specialize only in Czech lagers, that (in my limited experience) tend to be drier, roastier, little to no crystal malt, and can go the route of "ashy" if I may be so bold. It certainly is not an unpleasant experience as pretty much every Czech beer I've had at Cohesion is fantastic, but it can be polarizing...and I've been filtered out. I'm obviously not trying to generalize here because I know there are dark Czech lagers I have yet to try that do find themselves on the "quite dark" end of the beer color spectrum that are balanced sweeter. Below and to the right is a photo of beer from probably one of the more
famous brewpubs in Prague that specializes in dark lager, U Fleků. It's the only beer they make; and, although I've yet to try it, sounds like they strike a wonderful balance of sweet and bitter. They use a mixture of pilsner, munich, caramel, and roast malts - much like my recipe adapted from Dornbusch and Weyermann but in obviously different quantities just by the color alone.
All of this is to say that there are many different ways to go about making Czech dark lager, and you can make it for your own palate. They tend to fork into two different philosophies from my experience - dry, toasty, roasty, bitter, dark, and lean versus sweeter, caramel, amber-ish, nutty, toasty, and full. I prefer the latter; and if you follow the recipe I give you above, you can expect something in that realm. But feel free to go the other route by getting rid of the caramel, possibly upping the Dark Bohemian malt (or Munich malt if that's what you have access to), and using more and darker roasted grains. Keep in mind this style shouldn't necessarily be acrid, so utilizing more dehusked roasted grains and less of a typical roasted barley.
They all have one thing in common, though, and that is the thick, dense, plush head that marks a well-brewed-and-poured Czech lager. I think these examples of beer, much like the other Czech lager styles, are some of the most beautifuly presented beers in the world. And hopefully mine hits the mark as well when the yeast settles.
My Process - my brewday (1/22/2024) was relatively simple. I collected my tap water and treated it with 0.25g/gal calcium chloride and then let sit overnight to volatize any chlorine as I know my city does not use chloramines for treatment. You can just use a campden tablet if you are unsure. I initially mashed in at a ratio of 1.8qts water per pound of grain (3.7 L/kg) while I left the dark roasted grains out so I don't pull too much acridity from the ensuing decoction. Here I am boiling my decoction while the rest of the mash is quietly doing its thing. I'm drinking my traditional Czech pilsner out of my traditional Kölsch stange...because tradition. Right? We won't go there, but I still enjoyed it.
I aimed for an initial mash rest of 145°F (63°C) and hit my target pretty much spot-on. After an initial rest of 30 minutes at that temp, I pulled a thick portion (2 gallons) out of the main mash and brought the decoction to a boil for 20 minutes. After that I reconsituted and hit about 150°F. I obviously lost a lot of heat as my target 2nd rest temp was 162°F, but it will all work out in the end. I then added my dark roasted grains and let it sit there for another 30 minutes before I vorlaufed and moved the liquid to my boil kettle. I did a standard 60-minute boil because of the dark grains in this recipe. I'd go 90 or even 120 minutes if it were all pils, but it ain't...
I started out with about 8 gallons of wort and boiled for an hour to about 7 gallons. My efficiency was higher than I thought it would be, so I had to over-volume my boil more than I normally do. I then adjusted my hops to hit the same AAUs for the new volume and went from there. I really could only adjust my bittering as I've used all my Saaz on pale lagers. But I think a 50g addition is more than enough to get some traditional herbal Saaz quality in this. I feel like it's less important here than in the pale lager; but I'm sure others are already at the keyboard ready to tell me how oh so wrong I am. Intensity opinions aside, Saaz plays an important flavor role in pretty much all Czech style beers, possibly just as much as the yeast used.
After the hour-long boil with my hops added fastidiously at the times dictated in the recipe above, I chilled as quickly as I could, aerated, and pitched my harvested yeast slurry. I saw activity in less than 12 hours, and all was right with the world. I fermented at 50°F (10°C) for the entirety of fermentation. I will not bring it up for a diacetyl rest as the slurry yeast was healthy and vital. That's it on process, really. So I'll show you what my fermentation looked like. But first, I want to mention a little bit about serving these types of beers. I'm by no means an expert, but I can attest to differences in methods and equipment.
I mentioned, somewhat in passing, the dense thick head that makes these Czech lagers so beautiful and captivating-looking. Obviously you need to pay attention to quality brewing practices and cleanliness, but the other part of the equation is how it's dispensed and served.
Left here shown is a Lukr faucet that is, as far as I know, the only "side-pull" faucet on the market. It has a ball valve for dispensing that, while not great for flow control, is great for shearing your beer to create a foam. Similar (at least in my mind) to a sparkler on a traditional beer engine system, these faucets intentionally will break out the carbonation as it passes through an "aeration" screen and the ball valve in conjunction makes what can be described as a wet foam. Through this shearing and breaking out the carbonation, a softer beer is born while giving it that dense wet foam that every Czech lager fan loves. They can get very expensive (I was finding them brand new for about $300), so I do not own one. But if you find yourself with the means and the gumption, these will make your Czech lagers that much better. The head retention is better, the bubbles are smaller, and the beer overall presents in a softer, more flavorful fashion. We can get into the science of that, but that's for another day.
Fermentation: Wyeast 2278 - Czech Pils harvested slurry at 50°F
OG (day 0) - 11.8°P
Day 1 (1/23/2024) - 11.5°P
Day 2 - 9.5°P
Day 3 - 8.0°P
Day 4 - 7.2°P
Day 5 - No reading, away from home
Day 6 - 5.1°P. I removed blowoff in favor of a spunding valve here hoping to capture some carbonation and reduce CO2 costs.
Day 7 - No reading, away from home
Day 8 - 4.1°P
Day 9 - 4.0°P and all apparent fermentation activity has stopped. The beer tastes full, caramel and chocolate-y, VERY malty/toasty/nutty and has a pleasant depth to it. I'm excited to see how this one lagers and conditions! I will probably drop yeast soon, crash, harvest for another pale lager, and bring to lagering temps to condition for several weeks.
Update - I conditioned this beer for several weeks before canning and submitting to competition. This beer got multiple low-40 scores in local-ish and national comps by Nationally ranked BJCP judges, won a Gold medal and a bronze BOS. What a recipe! Huge thanks to Horst Dornbusch and Thomas Kraus-Weyermann
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