Hop-Forward Pilsners

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2015 issue of Zymurgy Magazine

By Amahl Turczyn

I was fortunate enough to have three exceptionally talented craft brewers join me for a seminar on Cloning at the January 2015 Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival in Vail, Colo.: Christian Koch of Elevation Beer Company, John Frazee of Gravity Brewing, and Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker. Together, we discussed, tasted, and created homebrew recipes for 8 Second Kölsch, Newtonian ESB, and Firestone Walker Pivo Hoppy Pils, respectively (see the July/August 2015 Zymurgy for recipes and more).

All are excellent, even world-class craft beers, but the philosophy behind Pivo Pils, driven by Brynildson’s passion for using a clean, delicate style like Pilsner to showcase all aspects of a hop variety, got me thinking about what I wanted out of my next series of homebrews. I still had a few gallons kegged up in the serving fridge, among them a Scottish 90/-, a gruit lager, a bacon-smoked cider, and an export stout.

But I found myself craving something lighter, drier, and hoppier. I wanted to get some crisp, summery lagers tucked away before the weather became too warm. So for inspiration I picked up another Pivo Pils, along with Stone Delicious IPA that showcases the new Lemondrop hop variety, and got an idea. I would crank out five batches of a Pivostyle Pilsner, using the same base recipe but changing up the late and dry hops…