Czech Dark Lager, Part 1

[@jaskats1]

Why is this video not getting thousands of likes?! What a treat! Absolutely loved it!

[@MeanBrews]

Lol thanks!

[@DenkerNZ]

Loved this. Found it quite sweet how a love for beer and brewing could overcome language barriers.

[@michaelluciano1980]

This video deserves thousands and thousands of views. Thank you for making this!!

[@samluera212]

Visited Prague, really liked the place. The beer I missed the most

[@gattlinggait]

This video is like a christmas gift! One of my favorite beers, and the city where I got to know it 🙂

[@wedomusic9451]

Such a cool video. I recently was in Czechia and Austria for work, and got to see some cool things there as well! Naz dravi!

[@MeanBrews]

Cheers

[@adamarndt7617]

The name of the U Fleku brewer you interviewed, I assume this was Martin Plesny who took over in 2016? Him talking about the hops being something that you taste, not smell seems like a potential hint at his hop additions. Martin Plseny was also interviewed about U Fleku in "Secrets of Master Brewers" and I think he provided some good insights into the the style. He clarified the Czech view that it's called Tmave because it's actually just really dark brown and not truly black in that interview. He made statements that a beer is only called "Cerne" ("black"), if it can't be made any darker and hinted that Schwarzbier is fully black and not a type of beer that is made in the Czech Republic. "Secrets" highlighted U Fleku's FG as 3.5 deg Balling (1.015). The mash profile that U Fleku actually uses and how they get it to finish so high and worty is to me the biggest mystery of that beer. U Fleku said that they had used mash profile of mashing in at around 100F then ramping up via steam to 122F for a short protein rest and then going up to 167F with only 30 minutes of conversion time. It's a really confusing description and it's not clear if it was a historical profile or if it's still used today, but that profile also isn't a double-decoction, so it can't be right. Evan Rail's interview on Vinepair involved the FORMER U Fleku brewer Ivan Chramosil and he mentioned a "Classic 4 malt combo" of: Pilsner Malt, Munich style malt (I'm guessing the "Czech Dark" malts that are essentially malted like Munich malts but that use Czech grown and approved barley varieties so that the beer qualifies for the Appellation designation of "Czech beer"), "Caramel" (Cara Munich or again, Cara Belgique so the beer can qualify for "Czech Beer"), and dehusked Carafa Special malts. Evil Rail's article called out: 50% Pilsner, 30-40% Munich (or Czech Dark), 5-15% Caramel Malts (not super precise), and up to 5% Max Carafa or Carafa Special type malts. He opened the door to using some Cara Aroma addition, too. -It's worth highlighting that Czech grists can be more complicated and American recipe-like vs. German grists that tend to always be 1-3 malts maximum; to me that's a Czech difference vs the German styles. Else where other Czech brewers call out 3% Carafa-type malts as the Czech "Ceiling" for the style, but the problem is when you brew these beers, it's hard to end up with a beer as dark as U Fleku if you limit yourself to 3% Cara Special (I've got one with 3.5% Carafa Special II in the fermenter irght now and it's fully brown; even with 4 oz of Sinamar added to 10 gallons of wort, it's dark brown and not U Fleku black. I'll go up to 5% Carafa Special II or III next time and still keep the Sinamar in reserve.) Gary Gilman's Beeretseq.com had an article on the history of U Fleku and highlighted a 1982 New York Times article on the brewery and beer style in 1982 and the author quoted the beer's grist as being made from "fixed percentages of Pilsen, Bavarian, Caramel, and "porter malts". --I think it highlights well what seems to be the basis for these beers' grists at least from the 1980s to today. A blend of Pilsner, "Munich", CaraMunich, and roasted malts. Reserving the roast malts for the sparge seems almost universal amongst the Czech brewer interviews that I've managed to find and if you look at mash diastatic powers of these mashes and the mash pH that you'd end up with with Pilsen-type water profiles and the grists plus decoctions that include acid rests as the mash-in step, it does make sense leaving the roast malts for the sparge. Evan Rail's article and his separate book "The Brewery in the Bohemian Forest" cover Kout na Sumave's now gone Tmave and the brewer seems to make comparisons between his version and U Fleku's that I think is interesting, too. They were up to 77% Pilsner malt, 10% Munich, then intentionally choose the darkest Cara malts, and darkest Carafa (III) to get the most color possible with the least caramel flavor. He also seems to knock U Fleku for using pellet hops. Kout Na Sumave seems more hop-forward, too with 1/3 of the total hop quantity split between the start-of-boil (90 min), 60 min, and 30 min additions. The Kout Na Sumave recipe is published in the Brewers Publications "Hops" book and Evan has posted a picture of the brewer's log book on Instagram or Twitter, too. Evan's articile finishes up with the newest and most global export-focused Tmave, which is Budvar's and his coverage says that it's a fully black / Cerne example and that the Czech's consider it the Guinness of czech dark lagers. I'm expecting that is also has those higher percentage of Pilsner malts and a lower percentage of Caramalts vs. U Fleku. -I think Budvar's example is probably the closest to the Americanized very Roast-heavy examples, but Czechs seems to agree that the Budvar dark has broken out of Tmave and fully into Cerne. Authentic tasting Czech beers are SOOO DIFFICULT to figure out... (I can't even find a US home brew shop that will sell the Cara Belge malts right now.)

[@Hibbleton]

This is awesome! Czech Dark Lager has been one of my favorite styles since visiting Prague almost a decade ago but I've never quite nailed the style in my homebrews. Really interesting tours and information spread throughout.

[@MeanBrews]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@andrewsouza4925]

Have you checked your water? Depending on your water profile you may need to add minerals to balance the dark acids in the malt.

[@user-ce1qy6uf2d]

The biggest chiller I have erer seen! Good vileo!

[@barrycranston5122]

Two insightful video tours of two different approaches to brewing Czech Dark Lagers. Helped to understand the “soul” of this style. Thank you.

[@MeanBrews]

Thanks Barry. It was a joy to visit them both

[@gazhugs]

Really interesting video, will certainly have to brew this recipe now 🙂 onto part 2 we go...

[@oldcrispiboi]

excellent content!! the kind of video you enjoy with a cup of hot chocolate or a good pint :) thanks matt🤝

[@adamarndt7617]

Strahov only using a little bit of CaraPils was super interesting and unexpected to me. I think the discussion on Zatec Saaz Hops ("Early Red Saaz") was to differentiate vs. using the new Czech-grown "Saaz late" hops, which is a new, higher alpha acid cultivar. My understanding is that the "Czech beer" appellation requires using only Zatec Saaz / "early medium red Saaz" variety for late additions, and other hops are allowed for bittering additions (Kazbek, Bohemie, or "Saaz late"). I've heard other Czech brewers talk about using regular Carafa vs. Carafa Special roast malts, too. I haven't heard ANY that put it in the mash, though. Great, great video! I wish I could've done tours last time I was in Prague.

[@adamarndt7617]

What we just call "Saaz hops" are actually in Czech called "Žatecký poloraný červeňák" -> Zatec (from Zatec-region), semi-early (harvest time), red beard. Either the "red beard" part describes what the hop comes themselves look like, or the red describes what the bine looks like which would be a pretty old-school hop naming standard that the English also used ("white bine", "red bine", etc..) before brand-named varieties. So it makes sense if a Czech brewer is just used to the name and drops a pretty literal translation of the name.

[@awendt13]

Just had my first Czech dark lager this weekend. I really liked it but I wanna know more about its nuances. Timely video!

[@jamesleehunter]

Around the 14min mark he mentions only adding the black malt to the lauter tun, that it never gets boiled. How does that work?

[@MeanBrews]

I didn't catch that but if he did say that then it would be mash capping

[@gnomebrewing]

He was referring to when pulling some of the mashed malt to boil (decoct) before adding it back. He leaves the dark malts out of the mash tun until the decoction process is finished so there are no off flavors created from boiling them. The wort (darkened by the dark malts) is boiled once separated from the grains, as usual.

[@JohnL9013]

BJCP 3D 2021: "A rich, dark, malty Czech lager with a roast character that can vary from almost absent to quite prominent" Actual Czech brewers: "the beer should be dry, not sweet, and just enough dark malts for color"

[@adamarndt7617]

The terms are all relative, though. I think U Fleku has received some criticism for being on the sweeter, more restrained roast side of the style and they're largely trying to push back on that perception. For me, it's the "wortiest" beer I've maybe ever had. Officially the FG is 1.015, but I would NOT be surprised if some batches finish higher. The U Flecku grist ha been reported to have only 50% Czech Pilsner malt by two different brewers and those malts don't have huge diastatic power compared to others. They also temporarily reported to Jeff Alworth a very strange mash profile that may involve as little as 30 minutes spent in amylase conversion range before deciding that they didn't want to give away all their secrets and pulled their fully open participation with his book "Secrets of Master Brewers". U Flecku is sweet / DOES have high FGs by modern standards, especially given their starting gravity. In other places U Fleku brewers talk about the hop bitterness balancing out the big FGs.

[@adamarndt7617]

I believe BJCP 3D is also trying to encompass both Tmave and Cerne beers under one heading, so the broad description makes sense given that they're trying to do a "2 for 1".

[@kenmcculloch6249]

Great video….

[@MeanBrews]

Thank you!

[@hmmy92]

Which do you like better? The first or the second one?

[@MeanBrews]

I tasted a total of 5. Keep in mind i do not like schwarzbier which U Fleku was most like 1) Bernard Family 2) Strahov Monastery Brewery 3) Tri Ruzi 4) Kozel 5) U Fleku

[@hmmy92]

@@MeanBrews in the video you preferred the second one due to the fact that was less sweet and more dry? Which of the two is more near to your recipe?

[@Wookieherder]

I brought back a few bottle of Staropramen black beer. Was hoping to find Czechvar in the states, but Budweiser decided to not import it.