SA Noble Pils

Has anyone enjoyed this pilsner yet? Its a seasonal by Sam Adams. It has an amazing hop flavor that the aroma didn't prepare me for at all. Nothing about it is overdone though, it just presents the noble hops so clearly and cleanly that its really surprising and lemony-spicey. Also it has a great malty background. This beer is one of those landmarks to me that I won't ever forget.

On the bottle it states that "all 5" noble hops are used in it. So I suppose they mean Tettnang, Hallertau, Spalt, and Saaz. So what is the 5th?

I think if I will clone this beer I will use pils with a tad of vienna and carapils, and then do some FWH and heavy heavy flavor additions. Maybe a WLP 833 bock yeast for some nice maltiness.

Any ideas on this one? Anyone else fall in love with this sexy beer?

Cheers!

I have not tried it yet, but all the early reviews seem like it's a homerun. Good job, BBC - love it when people can step back from the RIS and IIPA regime and really appreciate a good Pils. I'll be on the lookout for a 6er.

Fuggles is the 5th.

Hmm I'm not sure it would be the fuggles, but possibly. If they're saying only 5, I'm thinking its continental hops and not any english. Maybe Hersbrucker is considered seperate from Hallertau hops?

I stand corrected. Per Brew 365: Tettnanger, Hallertauer Mittelfrueh, Spalter, and Saaz

I don't know if I've ever come across Mittelfrueh. "Imported from Germany, this is a mellow, spicy hop with a wonderful flavor and aroma. Its importance in German lagers is drastically underrated, as it’s herbal character cannot be matched by domestic varieties. It is a true noble hop variety." -- Sounds pretty tasty to me.

Fiance just brought me home a 12 of this tonight. I'm definitely waiting to see what can be don about a clone. I've never had a pils before and now I realize that was a mistake.

Had this for the first time this weekend and thought it was excellent as well. In terms of a clone, the Sam Adams website has some good information for a starting point. It says they use a floor malted Bohemian pilsner malt with a starting plato of 12.1. For type and variety of malt is says Two Row Harrington, Metcalfe, and Czech pilsner malt. They use all 5 noble hops (Hallertauer Mittelfrueh, Tettang Tettnanger, Spalt Spalter, Saaz & Hersbrucker) and of course lager yeast. Report back if you guys get something close to the original.

Just tried it too.....very tasty! First time I've had a Pils with that much aroma. I'd like to make something similiar when I get my lager fermentation temp situation in order. This beer tasted like like they sneaked in some cascades for aroma. maybe its just me.

SA rocks and makes very good beers and is home brew friendly. The nobles Pils is a winner in my book.

I bought a sixer of this and am really enjoying it. It is downright delicious, and the hop character is great.

Btw, the 4 noble hops are Hallertauer [Mittelfrüh], Spalt, Tettnanger, and Saaz. I'm fairly certain the 5th SA uses is Hersbrucker, which some consider a noble hop, while others stick to the original 4. Hersbrucker largely replaced Hallertauer in the 1970's/80's when Hallertauer acreage was decreasing due to disease.

OP, making a wild stab at this, maybe I'll think more about separating the hop varieties throughout the boil, but now I'm thinking the best approach is to mix them all 5 for every addition.

40% 2-row
60% Czech Pils
151F Single infusion 60 maybe 75 minute mash

1.049

HOPS:
FWH - 20 IBU, 90 minute boil
20 minute boil - 10 IBU
10 minute boil - 5 IBU
flameout - another big handful of hops.. or two

That comes out to 2-3 oz FWH, 3-4 oz for each remaining step. total 11-15 oz for my 12 gallon batch.

Thoughts?

electric_beer said:

I stand corrected. Per Brew 365: Tettnanger, Hallertauer Mittelfrueh, Spalter, and Saaz

I don't know if I've ever come across Mittelfrueh. "Imported from Germany, this is a mellow, spicy hop with a wonderful flavor and aroma. Its importance in German lagers is drastically underrated, as it’s herbal character cannot be matched by domestic varieties. It is a true noble hop variety." -- Sounds pretty tasty to me.

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SA uses Mittelfrueh extensively - it's the prominent hop in their Boston Lager

I had the Noble Pils this past weekend. I thought it was quite good - clean, crisp, flavorful. Should do well on the mass market scene.

Nobles Pils is a great tasting beer. I just watched the commercial and they show all the 5 hops they use.

It was good. I like being able to get a proper pils that wasn't shipped halfway across the world and sat in a green bottle under florescent lights for far too long. I'm not so sure I like the aroma, but the aftertaste was fantastic.

That is the first real Pils I have ever had. It's an excellent brew and I'll be getting some more before it's gone!

I wish the aroma was better but god damn it's a good beer!

Budzu,

That sounds like a pretty good start for me, and I expect that there will certainly be clone recipes rolling out.

SA says that they use Harrington, Metcalfe and Czech Pilsner malt.

Bries might be a good source for the Harrington: [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]
Two-row brewers malt: Fully modified two-row organic Harrington barley; the organic counterpart to Briess's two-row malt. [/FONT]

Metcalfe is a Canadian malt if memory serves, and Cargill grows it. Without looking I think it would be easily findable.

Wish I could get some of this still
Wyeast 2247-PC European Lager Yeast
Beer Styles: German Pilsner, Bohemian Pilsner, Classic American Pilsner, Munich Helles, Dortmunder Export
Profile: This strain exhibits a very clean and dry flavor profile often found in aggressively hopped lagers. Produces mild aromatics and slight sulfur notes typical of classic pilsners. This yeast is a good attenuator resulting in beers with a
distinctively crisp finish.

Alc. Tolerance 10% ABV
Flocculation low
Attenuation 73-77%
Temp. Range 46-56°F (8-13°C)

Otherwise, Wyeast 2007 would likely work just great.

With a starting of 49 or 50 I think you would be quite well on your way...with the finishing and aroma hops being the magic.

I liked this beer. I got a sixer the other day and drank 3 with an hour, and was thinking I don't have enough!!! Got another sixer the day after...

Definitely a good beer, hopefully this won't stay as a seasonal.

I had this on tap last night. I was very surprised by how good it is. It doesn't have a strong hop aroma, but when you drink it, the flavor is like when you first open a bag of hops and breathe it in. Well done!

So I'm fairly new to trying out my own recipes, but what do you think about this for hacking together a Noble Pils clone?

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated FG: 1.011 SG
Estimated ABV: 5.04 %
Estimated Color: 4.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 41.4 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
9.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)
0.75 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] (60 min)
1.00 oz Spalter [4.50 %] (60 min)
0.75 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00 %] (15 min)
1.00 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [4.00 %] (15 min)
1.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (5 min)
1 Pkgs Czech Budejovice Lager (White Labs #WLP802)

I've also thought about replacing the pale malt with more pilsner malt and the crystal with carapils.

Schlenkerla said:

I liked this beer. I got a sixer the other day and drank 3 with an hour, and was thinking I don't have enough!!! Got another sixer the day after...

Definitely a good beer, hopefully this won't stay as a seasonal.

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I'm right there with you regarding the seasonal thing, this should be their standard lager. I don't drink a lot of SA beers but that is not to say that I don't like them. To date the Oktoberfest has been my favourite but now it is the Pils.

Having spent three years living and working in Germany, I got hooked on pils. The aroma of the Noble Pils is not quite up to standard but the spiciness and the malt backbone make this the best pils I've had from the states. I will be adding some SA bottles to bottle supply.

I had this on draft this weekend. What stood out to me was the flavor hops. It thought it was much more than typical in a pilsner, probably a nod to all of the hop fans out there. My judge for this is what my burps taste like. This beer burped more like a pale ale or IPA than a pilsner. To me, burps from a typical pilsner remind me of the bitterness in the beer. With the SA, it reminded me of the hop flavor.

If I were to brew something like this, I'd take my favorite Pilsner recipe and double the amount of hops added at the 20-15 min. mark. I'd leave everything else the same, except maybe doing a FWH addition, instead of a 60 min. addition if you aren't already doing this (I almost always FWH).

I tried it...

Super hoppy for samuel addams. At first I thought it was tasty. 2nd one down started to get a weird taste on my tongue. And the 3rd one really came across to me as not being well balanced hop wise.

Its not a terrible beer, but personally my first impression drastically changed rather quickly with it, which i was surprised with. I do believe i will avoid this beer. After finishing the rest of the 6 pack over the past few days I just don't really enjoy it much.

I think this would be a good challenge for Jamil and the boys on Can You Brew It? Help me stuff the ballot box by dropping a request for SA Noble Pils to [email protected].

My extract pseudo pilsner is better.

I had a 22oz of this on draft the other week at a Glory Days. The flavor hops were certainly present, but I was surprised at how much maltiness was lurking in there. It was... actually a little much.

It's beers like SA noble pils that make me want to get off my butt and start brewing lagers. On a note about cloning this one, I've heard that Sam adams uses the carlsberg yeast a lot for their lagers. I think it's a fair assumption to say they probably used it to brew this one as well. I would go with Wyeast 2124 for this as a first try. Just a thought.

I had this for the first time this past weekend at (of all places) an Applebee's. I've gone back since.

some 20 years ago I was in Bavaria for an extended period. This is the same (and as good as) the pils I would get there. I'm not all that high on SA in general, but they have outdone themselves on this.

mithion said:

On a note about cloning this one, I've heard that Sam adams uses the carlsberg yeast a lot for their lagers. I think it's a fair assumption to say they probably used it to brew this one as well. I would go with Wyeast 2124 for this as a first try. Just a thought.

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Sweet, thanks Mithion, never knew that. I was planning to use WLP830, the WL equivalent of 2124, but maybe the Wyeast 2042 Danish Lager? Supposedly its from Carlsberg. I have no experience with it though.

Just finished my first glass of this before seeing this thread. My buddy had kept asking if I'd tried it yet and I saw it at Kroger today while picking up some stuff for the wife for dinner. Definitely happy about the purchase. Maybe I'll try lagers this year. Definitely want to do an Octoberfest, but a nice hoppy Pilsener would be nice too.

Drinking it right now. This just became my second favorite lager (Optimator is my favorite). I had it at Applebee's also a few weeks ago during a playoff game, then had a WAY TOO cold on yesterday at a diner, so today I bought a six-pack to make up for that.

This is a great beer. Period.

Budzu said:

Sweet, thanks Mithion, never knew that. I was planning to use WLP830, the WL equivalent of 2124, but maybe the Wyeast 2042 Danish Lager? Supposedly its from Carlsberg. I have no experience with it though.

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The idea behind lagers was to develop yeast capable of fermenting at cool temperatures and produce few esters as to let the malt and hops do all the talking. So in way, most lager yeast are very similar. From the description given on the wyeast website for 2042: "Rich, Dortmund-style with a crisp, dry finish. Soft profile accentuates hop characteristics."

Sounds to me like it should be perfect for a pilsner. Noble pils is brewed all 5 varieties of noble hops (apparently they consider hersbrucker as a noble hop). With such a fine hop profile, you should show it off in all its glory.

seems to be a well but together beer and i had it on tap and bottled. i found it to be to grassy for me to consider it an outstanding elixir.

pjj2ba said:

I had this on draft this weekend. What stood out to me was the flavor hops. It thought it was much more than typical in a pilsner, probably a nod to all of the hop fans out there. My judge for this is what my burps taste like. This beer burped more like a pale ale or IPA than a pilsner. To me, burps from a typical pilsner remind me of the bitterness in the beer. With the SA, it reminded me of the hop flavor.

If I were to brew something like this, I'd take my favorite Pilsner recipe and double the amount of hops added at the 20-15 min. mark. I'd leave everything else the same, except maybe doing a FWH addition, instead of a 60 min. addition if you aren't already doing this (I almost always FWH).

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To be honest I bet this is because you've never had a proper pilsner that was fresh. All the good pils that gets shipped here from Europe is fairly old and past it's prime.

I also really liked the SA Noble pils. Very good.

This is very good! Ruby Tuesdays has it on tap as well, which is the reason I had a 4 hour lunch on Monday

big fan as well, here. and i usually don't like Sam Adams too much...

z987k said:

To be honest I bet this is because you've never had a proper pilsner that was fresh. All the good pils that gets shipped here from Europe is fairly old and past it's prime.

I also really liked the SA Noble pils. Very good.

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I did thoroughly enjoy the beer, and will certainly have it again. I voted for it when they had the tastings.

I have had a few lagers in situ. Granted though, they were largely of the mass produced variety. Most of my continental visits have been to Alt and Kolsch territory so my access to lagers has been limited. Our next trip is going to be a scouring Belgium. We did have a subtly fruity pilsner during our scouting trip there. The trip after that will be to German/Czech lager territory.

I inadvertently quaffed several of these at my local watering hole over the weekend.

I really think I'm one of the only people who isnt a huge fan of this beer...maybe I need to give it another shot...Im just so used to Victory prima pils that I compare everything to that

Well I went ahead and tried doing this beer with the following... Not sure how close I am going to get. Had to sub Vanguard in a few areas...

9.6# Pilsner
.65# Carapils Dextrine
.25# Aromatic

OG: 1.054

60 Min Hop Additions: .5 Saaz, .5 Tettnang, .25 Spalt, .25 Vanguard
15 Min Hop Additions: .5 Saaz, .5 Tettnang, .75 Vanguard
1 Min Hop Additions: 1 Vanguard,

Homebrew shop did not have a fresh pilsner yeast, so I went with 2 packs of 2206 Bavarian Lager yeast with a 3 day starter.