A West Coast Pils brewed the lazy way: 30-minute mash, warm basement
West Coast Pils is a hybrid style that began around 2015 at Highland Park Brewery in Los Angeles, mixing the crisp base of a German Pilsner with the loud hopping of a West Coast IPA. Jordan Folks at Brülosophy tried it in their Short & Shoddy format, where you deliberately cut corners and see whether the beer still turns out well.
The recipe was a 6.5 gallon batch of 92 percent Pilsner malt and 8 percent flaked rice, aiming for about 1.047 OG and 5.25 percent ABV. The shortcuts were a 30-minute single infusion mash at 150°F (66°C), a 30-minute boil, a little amylase enzyme, and fermentation at 64°F (18°C) in the basement instead of a temperature-controlled chamber. Hops were Nelson Sauvin in the boil, then a big Citra and Nelson Sauvin hop stand, and a dry hop with Citra products and Nectaron. Yeast was Imperial L13 Global. The beer finished at 1.007, was cold crashed, fined with Biofine Clear and conditioned for about two weeks in a keg.
Twenty-six tasters tried it after reading the style description. Only three of them reported any off-flavor: one diacetyl, one light-struck and two astringency. The author noticed a slight buttery note when the beer was young, but it faded with conditioning, and he called the result super clean and delicious.
I enjoyed the reader comment too, where someone asks whether West Coast Pils deserves to be its own style or is just a Bohemian Pils for hopheads. Either way, the main takeaway for me is encouraging for anyone short on time or equipment: a quick, imperfect process can still give a very good beer.
Source: Brülosophy
The recipe was a 6.5 gallon batch of 92 percent Pilsner malt and 8 percent flaked rice, aiming for about 1.047 OG and 5.25 percent ABV. The shortcuts were a 30-minute single infusion mash at 150°F (66°C), a 30-minute boil, a little amylase enzyme, and fermentation at 64°F (18°C) in the basement instead of a temperature-controlled chamber. Hops were Nelson Sauvin in the boil, then a big Citra and Nelson Sauvin hop stand, and a dry hop with Citra products and Nectaron. Yeast was Imperial L13 Global. The beer finished at 1.007, was cold crashed, fined with Biofine Clear and conditioned for about two weeks in a keg.
Twenty-six tasters tried it after reading the style description. Only three of them reported any off-flavor: one diacetyl, one light-struck and two astringency. The author noticed a slight buttery note when the beer was young, but it faded with conditioning, and he called the result super clean and delicious.
I enjoyed the reader comment too, where someone asks whether West Coast Pils deserves to be its own style or is just a Bohemian Pils for hopheads. Either way, the main takeaway for me is encouraging for anyone short on time or equipment: a quick, imperfect process can still give a very good beer.
Source: Brülosophy
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