SA Noble Pils

[Airborneguy]

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.

 

[mithion]

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.

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.

 

[beesy]

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.

 

[z987k]

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).

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.

 

[BlackNotch]

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

 

[cowperc]

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

 

[pjj2ba]

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.

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.

 

[arturo7]

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

 

[lrizzo]

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

 

[mbischoff]

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.

 

[mbischoff]

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.

I would go with Carapils Dextrine instead of Crystal... The Carapils will give you the head retention you look for in a pilsner. I am no Jamil, but I don't think the small amount of pale malt give you much here. Someone else might disagree, but maybe best going about 60-40 pilsner to pale malt if you are going to the split the base malt. I prefer to go 100% pils as a base, but that is just me.

 

[z987k]

I would go with Carapils Dextrine instead of Crystal... The Carapils will give you the head retention you look for in a pilsner. I am no Jamil, but I don't think the small amount of pale malt give you much here. Someone else might disagree, but maybe best going about 60-40 pilsner to pale malt if you are going to the split the base malt. I prefer to go 100% pils as a base, but that is just me.

Yeah the pale won't do anything, but if he wants to use crystal 20 that is fine, carapils is a crystal malt as well. The 20L is used in a low enough % I doubt it'd matter too much either way.

 

[Budzu]

I'm going to link another post with some AWESOME info about brewing this, to keep it in one place for myself Thanks for info Jgourd.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/sam-adams-noble-pils-clone-163003/#post1892526

1. The Noble Pils is 35 IBUs.

2. They krausen theirs as opposed to using carapils, and that's how they get the mouthfeel and head. He figured making an extra bit of wort and taking off about 1/6th of it and storing in fridge or freezer. Same for the yeast starter (1/6 in the fridge). This mixture (wort+yeast) will be added in the secondary once it's actively fermenting and will help clean up diacetyl. Now they don't use this technique to carbonate their beer, but it could be used to do so. In other words, I could lager and then add this actively fermenting yeast in before bottling (need to calculate how much). It would then carbonate without needing priming sugar or DME.

3. He suggested to put 1 oz. of each hop (5 nobles) in a cup, mix, and drop in the boil equally at 60, 15, and 0. Then dry hop with 1.5 to 2 oz. in the same way (all 5 nobles evenly split) in the secondary for about 7 days.

4. Use a docoction mash. Start with 80% of the grain and mash (ratio of 1.25 qts/lb) at 122F until conversion. Boil remaining 20% (also with ratio of 1.25 qts/lb) and add to mash tun once mash is finished to raise temp to 153F *quickly* (a point he emphasized). Mash at 153F until conversion.

5. They lager theirs for 3 weeks at 31F.

 

[z987k]

That's a very non traditional decoction mash.. enough so that I don't know if I'd call it a decoction.

And 122 until conversion? That'll be hours.

 

[Budzu]

That 122 rest doesn't mean complete conversion I am sure. It says "until conversion" also after the amylase rest. I would just go for a normal 30 minute protein rest or so. Surely that's what is meant.

 

[jgourd]

That 122 rest doesn't mean complete conversion I am sure. It says "until conversion" also after the amylase rest. I would just go for a normal 30 minute protein rest or so. Surely that's what is meant.

It is. The rest at 122 is just the protein rest. My mistake.

 

[jkarp]

Noble Pils is back on the shelf! Yaay!

 

[jgourd]

And I'm taking another stab at it for my next brew in a few weeks.

 

[Hannable1975]

Drinking my first ever. I'm no huge SA fan, but this almost makes up for Cherry Wheat ....

 

[grasshopperfirestarter]

good stuff! Just drank one!