The October meeting presented me with a chance to talk about some of my favourite beer styles, Czech Lagers. BrewDog Reading kindly let us use their projector and the Beer Hall above the main bar. We had a good turnout and it was good to see several new faces. We were also joined by Jeff Rosenmeier from Lovibonds Brewery in Henley-on-Thames who kindly brought some of his Czech-inspired lager to try! Lager Boy certainly went down well with me…
I gave a brief introduction to why I love Czech lagers and then of the birth of lager in Bavaria. This was followed by a discussion of beer history in the Czech, Bohemian, Moravian region and then how Pilsen came to be the origin of pale lagers. I kept the history as short as possible, this region has been through many changes over the years and that would be a series in itself!
We then moved on to a discussion of the current-day beer styles and then how the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) have divided them up into the four styles in the 2015 Style guide: 3A. Czech Pale Lager, 3B. Czech Premium Pale Lager, 3C. Czech Amber Lager and 3D. Czech Dark Lager.
Not wanting it to be too dry of a talk, we broke out some samples I brought along to share. I brought what I hoped to be a good commercial example of each of the four styles, along with my own attempt at a Czech Premium Pale Lager and Czech Dark Lager.
We then covered brewing techniques, and that in the majority Czech breweries they still practice triple decoction mashing. I gave some examples of my recipes and the water profile I use, with the warning that these are latest versions, and not finished!
Slides for the talk, which include my recipes, can be found HERE. Feel free to contact me with feedback or questions by email.