Has anyone done a brown ale with saaz hops

I'm wanting to do a brown ale using saaz hops, to give it kind of a Pilsner Urquell aroma and similar hop flavor. has anyone done a brown with saaz? I need some input. 5 gallon batch, here it is:

Batch Size (G): 5.0
Total Grain (lb): 11.000
Total Hops (oz): 4.50
Original Gravity (OG): 1.060 (°P): 14.7
Final Gravity (FG): 1.010 (°P): 2.6
Colour (SRM): 24.3 (EBC): 47.9
Bitterness (IBU): 36.6 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
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8.000 lb American 2-Row (72.73%)
1.000 lb Amber Malt (9.09%)
1.000 lb Brown Sugar, Dark (9.09%)
0.500 lb Chocolate (4.55%)
0.500 lb Crystal 60 (4.55%)

Hop Bill
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2.00 oz Saaz Pellet (3.6% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.4 oz/Gal)
1.50 oz Saaz Pellet (3.6% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (0.3 oz/Gal)
1.00 oz Saaz Pellet (3.6% Alpha) @ 2 Minutes (Aroma) (0.2 oz/Gal)

Misc Bill
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Single step Infusion at 151°F for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 68°F with WLP001 - California Ale

Cannot contribute to your idea other than that I think it is cool, lol.

I wouldn't mind trying it myself, next batch...

I think beers like brown ales, porters, and stouts work well with English and noble hops. I see no reason that saaz wouldn't work we'll in this beer

What dirty martini said. I think it sounds good. Adding it to my growing list of things to try.

awesome, thanks for your thoughts. i am a big fan of browns and stouts, and i love that pilsner urquell. just ordered the grains and hops tonight. hopefully i can brew it this weekend.

I am sure that would be excellent, you can definately get a hint of saaz in Krusovice Cerne (black) and that's a fantastic beer.

With a delicate hop like saaz, I might try to get that fermentation temperature down to the lower 60s. I personally think the flavor clashes with esters.

i may change the hop rate around a bit, maybe 1 oz. at beginning, 2.5 oz at 30, then 1.5oz at break, not sure, this rate drops ibu a bit, but i think i would get more flavor and aroma this way

Keep us posted. I love brown ales and I love Saaz hops.

robtotten said:

Keep us posted. I love brown ales and I love Saaz hops.

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i will keep you posted. i ordered last night. hope goodies are here by friday, cause that makes saturday "brew day":rockin:

Should make a great beer. I recently brewed a Brown Ale with a couple late additions of Sterling; half an ounce @ 15 and another half ounce at flameout (along with half an ounce of Goldings at each addition). The beer turned out very good and has a nice spicy hop flavor, similar to what you should get from Saaz.

Cheers!
Kevin

my ingredients didn't come yesterday, i was hoping to brew today. oh well, have to be patient. i'm gonna up the 2 row to 10 pounds, this will just put it out of the style range, by a hair, raising the Og to almost 1.070, that's ok, i don't need it to be in any style range, it will be my style. can't wait to get it started. the abv will be closer to 7% which is fine also. still wondering if i ought to do 1 or 2 ounces at beginning of boil, or 2 at half way. might go 2 at 60 min, 2 at 30 min, then 1 at break. we'll see.

If this is an AG I would FWH (first wort hop) those 60 minute boil hops.

FWH: Adding hops to the first runnings form the mash. You'll get flavour from them even though they get boiled, due to voodoo science (meaning I don't know why but it works).

i thought about doing that also, what i may do is 2 ounces first wort, then 1 oz at 60, 1 at 30, then 1 at break.

You will still get the biterness when doing a fwh, but you gain flavor and some aroma.

i will definately try the first wort method then. now i just got to figure out if i want to wait til next saturday or brew it one evening this week.

I did what i call a Session Mild with Saaz as the bittering. Comes in at 10.9 SRM

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 84.21 %
0.50 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 5.26 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 5.26 %
0.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 5.26 %
1.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (60 min) Hops 14.1 IBU
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] (15 min) Hops 3.9 IBU
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] (5 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1 Pkgs London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) [Starter 2000 ml]

that looks like a good brew, how did it turn out? gonna add that to my recipe data base. thanks for posting it.

donjr721 said:

that looks like a good brew, how did it turn out? gonna add that to my recipe data base. thanks for posting it.

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So far so good. Still has about two weeks in primary. The Wy1968 really gives it a nice finish.

i brewed last night, i took denny's advice and added 2 oz to first wort. i hit all of my numbers and volumes, awesome. this is my first all grain batch. i mashed in with 3.5 gallons of water, then fly sparged with 4 gallons. i collected enough for a 6.5 gallon boil. my runnings were still reading around 1.030, so i sparged another 2.5 gallons to do a small batch. my OG was dead on at 1.068 after the boil and cooled. i did up the 2 row to 10 pounds. i also caramalized the brown sugar and added it with 15 minutes left. i added another .5 oz of hops at 45 min, then 1 oz at 30 minutes, then .5 oz at flame out. the smaller batch, i only used 1 oz of hops, .5 at boil, .25 at 30, then .25 oz at flame out, the OG was much less than my main batch, so today i added a pound of honey to up the abv, should finish around 4-5%. my main batch will finish at around 7% or just a hair over. i pitched wlp001 california ale yeast in the main batch, the smaller batch got nottingham dry yeast, they both started great, small batch was fermenting hard this morning, this evening the main batch sounds like an aquarium bubbler in the blow off jug. now it's the waiting game.

oh, it did take me 6 hours from start to finish, including cleanup. should of waited til saturday, that's alot of work to do in the evening after work.

got some really good smells coming out of the fermenters on this batch.