Brewing a Double-Decoction Mashed, Open-Fermented CZECH AMBER LAGER

[@jimmacdonald1526]

Congratulations and wish your daughter a happy birthday 🎂

[@horsthorstensen9706]

Looks delicious. Thx for your great videos. One of the best homebrew channels on youtube.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thank you so much!

[@Mitchb1988]

Mate, your knowledge and explanations are unparalleled on KZbin. That beer looks incredible in the glass. Keep these videos coming.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thank you so much!

[@filmscorefreak]

You pinned it down at the end when you said it's just hard to describe for anyone who hasn't tried the beer - regardless of slight flaws or changes you'd make, I think most of us would be elated upon tasting your brew. Great stuff! looking forward the Urquell episode!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Yeah, there was just something to it that was so hard to communicate - but it was delicious!

[@jerseyhovidea]

And there we go again Steve! Im so impressed how PRO attitude you have and Im proud that you have chosen czech beer for your vid mini series. Well done sir!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thank you!

[@B_YT-f1x]

You always get really great color in your amber/reds. Well done.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks! I always try to aim for 13-15 SRM and a perfectly clear beer to get it to shine. If you want the color to be lighter, serve it in a narrower glass. Darker, go with a wider one.

[@tristensanz7058]

Hey man, I found your channel 2 years ago, when I was first getting into fermenting things, which really got me into making beer and now I'm majoring in craft brewing and starting my first brewing class in uni next week. Thanks at ton 🙏

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

That is so awesome to hear! Best of luck with the degree!

[@HopsANDgnarly]

Looks amazing! Czech lagers are some of my favorites. Sometimes these half darks are blended - half pale half dark. A bartender at Wild Provisions told me that's where the name comes from while pouring me a beer from their side pull

[@finspin4984]

We miss u dan

[@VelkyAl]

Hate to be a pedant (I know, right, a beer geek with a streak of pedantry) but blended beers in Czechia are never called "polotmavé", rather they are called "řezané pivo", from the Czech word for "cut". Fun irony that the "šnyt" pour name is just a transliteration of the German "schnitt" which also means "cut". Anyway, polotmavé is always, always, always brewed as a distinct beer in Czechia. I have heard of some breweries over here trying to fob off a blend of their pale and dark lagers as a "polotmavé" but that is just plain wrong from a Czech perspective.

[@HopsANDgnarly]

@@VelkyAlnot pedantic at all! The more knowledge the better - I appreciate it! Sounds like the bartender I was talking with was speaking from their own approach rather than tradition. Cheers 🍻

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Cheers! Can't wait to see your new content!

[@rockhandssteve]

Wild provisions 14° is amazing!

[@Jasper3478]

Looks fantastic! I had Czech style lager for the first time when I went to Tampa at Barriehaus and was absolutely floored with how good it was. I also tried my first decoction mash recently when I made a new iteration of my 100% wheat brown ale recipe. Definitely enjoyed the process and my gravity sample tasted more maltier like I wanted so it will definitely be something I do more in the future. Thanks for the great video!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

They are my all-time favorite lagers! The decoction makes a bit of a difference in my opinion, I love it!

[@MrMarki134]

Gorgeous looking beer Steve!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thank you!

[@christopheroshlo1968]

Dude! Incredible looking beer. Love how you describe your beers. Job well done. I’ll take two please.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thank you!

[@iancrofton4857]

Love the content Steve, so happy that your choosing to go with the decoration method. 💪

[@adrianjensen2504]

Love the tap It’s in the list!!

[@marklpaulick]

As the weather changes, I sure do wish o had this on tap already. I’m always a few months late on my brew schedule!

[@iancrofton4857]

Thanks for everything Steve, keep up the content

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thank you so much for the superchat!!

[@jdauria61]

Looks fantastic Steve! Just had a Czech Amber in NHC finals but alas, it did not medal. What would you think of CaraBohemian malt in place of the CaraMunich II? I know the CaraBohemian is darker in color than even CMIII, so unless you cut back on amount, it may come out a darker red, but it's such a great malt for malt complexity in my opinion. It's my "secret" ingredient in Czech Darks. I know Chris Loring was a big CaraBohemian fan back in the early days of Notch based on a video on Czech beers he did some time back.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Congrats on reaching the final round, but sorry to hear it didn't medal! I haven't tried using carabohemian but it sounds like it would be a really impactful ingredient. I'll have to try it sometime!

[@peccus7743]

That color dude. Love it.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Its mesmerizing!

[@DoorstepBrewing]

Great video! Literally brewed a Politmavý the day you published this, double decocted but my recipe differs a fair bit with mainly Munich II. Yours looks absolutely superb!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Nice! They are great beers!

[@DoorstepBrewing]

@@TheApartmentBrewercertainly are! Off back on Sunday for a couple of days, fortunately it’s only a short hop from here in the UK but always a joy to head back!

[@vruychev]

Absolutely fabulous color. BTW if you ever have a chance and visit Prague, go to the Three Roses brewery (Pivovar U Tří růží) in the old town. They brew and serve THE BEST amber Czech lager I've ever had and I am going back in Dec. What a great tutorial, I am definitely going to try and brew this one. Cheers, Steve!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

There are so many bucket list items for me in the Czech Republic - I will now be adding one more haha

[@ElementaryBrewingCo]

Looks like an awesome fall beer🍻

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

It is!

[@mountainmadman94]

Well, you did it again Steve. This was informative and well thought-out. We are definitely like-minded brewers. This is similar to my Marzen recipe/process except I don't use any carafa and I loves my Hally Mittelfruh. I kind of cheat on the decoction though. I do one at then end once conversion is done. If my PH is good, I pull a little over a third and stir while it boils and take whatever temp I get for mash-out. I like the results, but it has been so many years since I did a real dcoction I couldn't say how it compares. I don't do open fermentation but I have been thinking about it. I was been thinking about having a tiny amount of weak sanitizer in the airlock, barely enough to make a bubble, then dump it once I have a positive flow of CO2 moving. I hope I can remember which yeast I was thinking of doing this with before I brew with it!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video so much! Its a lot of fun to dip into traditional methods every so often. The open fermentation went pretty well relative to what I expected, I think your method would work great as well, its a good way to know things are actually happening.

[@scammacs]

Beautiful beer! I've been doing a variety of Czech beers myself lately, so I bought a pound of 2.2% Saaz and I'm so glad I'm not going crazy, totally agree with the earthy/lack of lemony character in them.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Its definitely a different Saaz character than I'm used to! I might trend harder toward sterling for the next one.

[@1TheLord1]

You need to make your way to Toronto and Godspeed. Guys even got pitch lined check barrels to age their cz Pils

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Excellent! Notch also does a pitch-lined Pils

[@BroswithBeerandPants]

Looks fantastic

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks!

[@Frozenwinter84]

I haven't done a decoction mash since switching to my spike solo. Going to have to try doing it again now as my bock seems like it's lacking something without the decoction step.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Its a fun process sometimes! I still maintain it adds a little something to the beer.

[@richieglass-eye1924]

Gotta check out Human Robot in Philly for this style, they’re amazing

[@mountainmadman94]

Thanks

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks for the superchat!

[@Ben54871]

Awesome video! Do you always add your yeast nutrient in the capsule like that? My capsule never dissolves and I have to break open a soggy casing and dump in the contents...

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Sometimes, I normally use wyeast beer nutrient which is a powder. Had to switch to servomyces for the first time in a long time

[@VelkyAl]

Polotmavé is such an undervalued style, especially higher gravity ones - think 16° and up. One of the finest beers I have ever had was a 17° polotmavé from Pivovar Hukvaldy at Zlý Časy, it was like sticky toffee pudding in a glass.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

That sounds absolutely incredible!

[@rafaelpestano7436]

Let me guess, you left the triple decoction for the premium pale lager, right 😅 This beer is gorgeous! Never had a Czech amber but your recipe really makes me want to brew one. Regarding diacetyl, I've been using the budvar strain and fermenting at the lower end (starting at 7 for the first days and ending at 10C, no D-rest) with a big stater (2.5L) and I had zero diacetyl on my last 3 Czech lagers. Cheers Steve!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Seriously underrated beer style! I'll be using the budvar strain for the Pilsner so we will see how it goes, but I expect it will be less diacetyl heavy than the Urquell strains

[@jackhandy7237]

Another great vid! How much melatonin malt should I use if I went with a step or infusion mash?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I'd go with no more than 2-4% melanoidin malt

[@jeffkastner6480]

Steve do you think a little More Munich for Pilsner might give it a bit more breadyness or would that be too much....

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

It probably has a little room for a touch more munich, but the issue is it can start making it too full bodied

[@patrickglaser1560]

On a Czech lager series myself, might have to pitch this onto my cone of yeast;)

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Do it!

[@theferalpaladin4350]

What Pressure would be too much? Looking into 2bbl fermenter with a 15 psi valve for off gasing in the back "MoreBeer" brand. Also with pressure fermentation is temperature almost entirely irrelevant or are there limits, i.e an 80-100 F garage during summer. I love 2278

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I tend to avoid going above 10 PSI for pressure fermentation. Some yeasts are more tolerant of the pressure than others (think S-189 as a great pressure fermenting yeast), but temperature is not entirely irrelevant. Try to keep it around normal ale temps, probably best not to exceed 75 degrees for lagers under pressure.

[@theferalpaladin4350]

@@TheApartmentBrewer Fantastic thank you so much. Modifying setup accordingly.

[@Eagle1846ytown]

Nice video! I actually just made a 7.2 % Helles bock with WLP833 fermented at 66 F without pressure. Came out wonderful. Still very clean with great lager character. I’ve noticed that the commercial lagers I enjoy most have some lager yeast character to them, so just finding the cleanest lager yeast possible and fermenting at 48 F doesn’t do it for me.

[@grahamhawes7089]

Love the character from that yeast - very distinctive - I’ve fermented cooler though

[@Eagle1846ytown]

@@grahamhawes7089 definitely try it!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Ayinger! I need to get ahold of that yeast

[@kylepietro396]

Curious how you combat the suck back when you continue chilling in the fermenter? I experience the same issue when chilling with groundwater and can only get down to ~65F. I don’t use glycol but I imagine that there is still some negative pressure inside the tank when continuing to chill to fermentation temp. Great video!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Before pitching yeast, I really don't care about suckback. O2 isn't going to hurt the beer before fermentation, and there's enough there to prevent bugs from getting in.

[@kylepietro396]

@@TheApartmentBrewerthat makes a lot of sense! Thanks for sharing this information!

[@davisdavis6989]

Looks and sounds delicious, do you think you can detect a difference between this water profile compared to straight ro?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Realistically, no. But in theory it could make a minor difference.

[@ad.ke.7224]

Nice work. I would do maximum 2 to 3 hop additions. I don't know a traditional lager recipe with more than 3 additions. Greetings from southern Germany.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Cheers!

[@stanislavgorbikov3166]

Wow 🤩😋👍🍺

[@paulschroeter4987]

hey steve i was looking online for different pilsner malts and i came across a pilsner malt called prairie malt select. as for the flavor profile it says it has a clean flavor when i googled it. that really doesnt tell me much besides the whole "clean" i was hoping gentle notes of honey and or cracker ect. have you ever used it before? i hate when some places sell malt but dont always give good info on it.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Unfortunately sometimes online retailers absolutely suck at selling products. I haven't tried it before, but looks like its a floor-malted Canadian pilsner malt. I think it could be good.

[@paulschroeter4987]

@@TheApartmentBrewer well i sure hope so. im doing a fest bier. thanks steve.

[@januszkszczotek8587]

What's the idea behind using a dry airock at the beginning of fermentation? Is there really a difference to airlocks filled with liquid?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I did that because I wanted an open fermentation for the first few days. It changes the pressure on top of the yeast and creates a slightly more expressive character.

[@felipesparks5267]

If I don’t have the time or an extra boiling pot for this decoction (which I’ll do some day), would a simple step mash and melanoidin malt get close?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Absolutely!

[@erniq3]

Hey man, I have a question about your SmartRef. Is it good to use it at all stages? I mean pre-fermentation during and post? It’s refractometer, so I’m just wondering how accurate it is with alcohol presence in a beer?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Yup, its accurate throughout the whole process. I'm not sure how their software handles it, but unlike standard refractometers, it can take accurate measurements with alcohol in it as long as you have the OG handy.

[@erniq3]

@@TheApartmentBrewer That's interesting, thanks mate

[@rsrichardsonBSU]

Is the apartment brewer located in Texas?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Nope, I'm out of Massachusetts

[@AndrewLynch9]

I wonder if the earthy flavour is because of the poor harvest last year with the poor weather conditions. The alpha came out very low hence yours being 2% odd.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

You might be on to something there. Euro hops have been really low AA for the last few years.

[@josephkirby1621]

Fell down a rabbit hole recently, looking up Charles Bronson's ethnicity 😏 ended up in Lithuanian farm house "stone" brewing😂 thinking this might be an alternative to decoction. Yup, white hot rocks dipped and swirled in the mash. Millard reaction for sure. Nothing ventured nothing gained..🇺🇸🍻🇺🇸

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Steinbier is a German thing too! I think there's a Lithuanian tradition that involves baking the mash as well - again, getting the Maillard reaction turned up to 11. Lots you can do here!

[@tim-tim-timmy6571]

I completely agree with your statement about lagers non necessarily being clean. Lagers, no matter the style has a distinct taste. You proved it when you brewed side by side a märzen with lager yeast and lutra.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

That's true - and different lager strains all do different things in the beer.

[@xander1052]

Despite being someone who open ferments beers, I honestly still don't know what it's adding

[@dyyddson]

less time cleaning lids haha

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

The theory is there - but I think different yeasts respond to it differently.

[@andybryson3887]

This must be the third or fourth brew where you have had non-trivial amounts of bicarbonate in the water profile without adding any baking soda. How and why is this? Is this perhaps also the reason that your water profile has 8 ppm sodium without having added any sodium chloride or baking soda? The bicarbonate and sodium levels quoted are too high to be residuals that are not removed through your RO system