applescrap
Be the ball!
While second nature to some, how well do you really know your bjcp style categories? Do you really know the difference between marzen, feistbier, bock, pilsner, and helles? I think I have waited to long to pronounce that I don't know jack s..t about them.
With more then some passing knowledge of different types of beer, I seek out recipes and trust they are somewhat what they purport to be. I have no interest in following beer rules and if I make beer out of style it wouldn't bother me. In my hometown fort collins breweries buy out chocolate vampire cereal around haloween, and if I error, that is how I want to error. But I have learned the hard way that I should know them or at least consult them often.
See I have been craving a bitter lager and now have brewed 30 gallons of lager in not that long of a time. As I taste crisp bitter German Pilsners, I keep thinking the beers I made are terrible. The last 25 gallons have been 15 gallons of Jamil and Johns Munich helles, and 10 gallons of their marzen/oktoberfest recipe. Don't know what I was expecting, but these beers are not what I wanted. Today I had a German pilsner from a local Denver german Brewery and was like, this is what I want, where did I go wrong. Maybe warm fermenting lagers wont create this bitter beer i seek
. So I looked up the BJCP Style Guidelines and sure enough the helles and marzen fit them to a tee. And infact they are listed in the "malty" category and the pilsner is in the "bitter" category. I have attached the descriptions. So the moral of the story is be careful what you brew, because it just may turn out right and that's not always a good thing. To a bjcp judge or many here, I know this is like.....duh! But my hope is this post can help someone from drinking 25 gallons of "malty" beer when all they want is a "bitter" one
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With more then some passing knowledge of different types of beer, I seek out recipes and trust they are somewhat what they purport to be. I have no interest in following beer rules and if I make beer out of style it wouldn't bother me. In my hometown fort collins breweries buy out chocolate vampire cereal around haloween, and if I error, that is how I want to error. But I have learned the hard way that I should know them or at least consult them often.
See I have been craving a bitter lager and now have brewed 30 gallons of lager in not that long of a time. As I taste crisp bitter German Pilsners, I keep thinking the beers I made are terrible. The last 25 gallons have been 15 gallons of Jamil and Johns Munich helles, and 10 gallons of their marzen/oktoberfest recipe. Don't know what I was expecting, but these beers are not what I wanted. Today I had a German pilsner from a local Denver german Brewery and was like, this is what I want, where did I go wrong. Maybe warm fermenting lagers wont create this bitter beer i seek
. So I looked up the BJCP Style Guidelines and sure enough the helles and marzen fit them to a tee. And infact they are listed in the "malty" category and the pilsner is in the "bitter" category. I have attached the descriptions. So the moral of the story is be careful what you brew, because it just may turn out right and that's not always a good thing. To a bjcp judge or many here, I know this is like.....duh! But my hope is this post can help someone from drinking 25 gallons of "malty" beer when all they want is a "bitter" one View attachment 1481505142205.jpg
View attachment 1481505150190.jpg
View attachment 1481505158502.jpg
