Down the New Zealand Pilsner Rabbit Hole
There are many different beer styles but the majority are well-established and well-known to brewers. Their characteristics and the ingredients that comprise them are generally understood and accepted.
That said, the craft beer explosion over the past decade or two has led to an evolution and expansion of traditional beer canon. New styles have emerged. Some have trended then waned—take white IPAs or India Pale Lagers for instance—while others seem to have completely redefined the brewing industry. (Yes, I'm talking about hazy or New England-style IPAs and pale ales.)
New Zealand (NZ) Pilsner is a relatively new and seemingly only loosely defined style. Most articles on the style have been written in the past three years. Popular primarily in its country of origin and among homebrewers, its defining features seem to be that it is brewed mostly with Pilsner malt and NZ-grown hops.
Much has been written about hops from NZ, especially Nelson Sauvin, a particularly standout varietal that has received a lot of attention over the past five years. I recently purchased a significant amount of NZ hops—8 ounces each of Kohatu, Motueka, Rakau and Waimea. My original goal was to brew an NZ IPA and a series of single hop pale ales, but my recent success brewing German Pilsners led me to an exploration of the makeup of NZ Pilsners and a decision to brew my own interpretation of the style. But first I needed to understand it.
Much of the discussion about the style in online forums is centred on an article that Gordon Strong, President of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), wrote for Brew Your Own (BYO) magazine in 2017 after a visit he made to speak at a conference in NZ. The BYO article is locked behind a paywall but I actually found a scan of it online, which I won't post here for reasons of intellectual property.
The article describes a beer that is a hybrid of Czech or German Pilsner and Kolsch, another German style, made primarily from a combination of American 2-row and German Pilsner malts with a small percentage of wheat. But I also came across an element of dissent with some Internet commenters bemoaning Gordon Strong's inclusion of wheat in his proposed recipe for the style, which is not entirely unusual in a Kolsch but generally out of the ordinary when it comes to Pilsners of Czech, German or other provenance. I decided to undertake further research of my own, starting with the provisional guidelines for the style published by the BJCP itself.
Provisional styles are beers that have been added to the BJCP categories in-between official updates to the guidelines, which generally only happen every three to five years. These may be new or emerging styles—New England IPA is one such provisional addition to the guidelines—but are also sometimes historical styles that have been recently popularized or rediscovered. (The last edition of the BJCP style guide was updated in 2015). I wasn't specifically interested in the guidelines themselves, knowing that they were based closely on Gordon Strong's potentially controversial take on the style, but in the commercial examples cited within. That is in my opinion one of the nicer features of the BJCP guidelines. Reading about a particular beer style is one thing—drinking a few of them (ideally in succession...) is another altogether.
Sampling proper commercial examples of NZ Pilsner would unfortunately prove to be out of the question as none of the cited beers are available in Alberta. I set my mind instead to finding out what I could about the recipes for each of these examples online. I encountered another barrier because only a small number of these breweries published any significant details about their recipes, so I expanded my search to include any commercial examples of the style. I avoided homebrew recipes because few of them seemed to be crafted by New Zealanders who would have first-hand sensory experience with these beers.
I was starting to see some trends emerge. The beers were all based heavily on Pilsner or some other lager base malt; most included acidulated malt; some featured Vienna malt; and some also featured Carapils or other equivalent dextrine malt. (Interestingly, those online commenters mentioned above may have been right—I couldn't find any references to American 2-row or wheat.) Every example featured Motueka hops; most also included Riwaka; some were made with Nelson Sauvin; and there were a few instances of Pacific Jade and NZ Cascade.
I concluded this research by isolating the top five search results that included detailed grain bills, whether by weight or percentage. I proceeded to average the results:
Mill Creek (Motueka)
That said, the craft beer explosion over the past decade or two has led to an evolution and expansion of traditional beer canon. New styles have emerged. Some have trended then waned—take white IPAs or India Pale Lagers for instance—while others seem to have completely redefined the brewing industry. (Yes, I'm talking about hazy or New England-style IPAs and pale ales.)
New Zealand (NZ) Pilsner is a relatively new and seemingly only loosely defined style. Most articles on the style have been written in the past three years. Popular primarily in its country of origin and among homebrewers, its defining features seem to be that it is brewed mostly with Pilsner malt and NZ-grown hops.
Much has been written about hops from NZ, especially Nelson Sauvin, a particularly standout varietal that has received a lot of attention over the past five years. I recently purchased a significant amount of NZ hops—8 ounces each of Kohatu, Motueka, Rakau and Waimea. My original goal was to brew an NZ IPA and a series of single hop pale ales, but my recent success brewing German Pilsners led me to an exploration of the makeup of NZ Pilsners and a decision to brew my own interpretation of the style. But first I needed to understand it.
Much of the discussion about the style in online forums is centred on an article that Gordon Strong, President of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), wrote for Brew Your Own (BYO) magazine in 2017 after a visit he made to speak at a conference in NZ. The BYO article is locked behind a paywall but I actually found a scan of it online, which I won't post here for reasons of intellectual property.
The article describes a beer that is a hybrid of Czech or German Pilsner and Kolsch, another German style, made primarily from a combination of American 2-row and German Pilsner malts with a small percentage of wheat. But I also came across an element of dissent with some Internet commenters bemoaning Gordon Strong's inclusion of wheat in his proposed recipe for the style, which is not entirely unusual in a Kolsch but generally out of the ordinary when it comes to Pilsners of Czech, German or other provenance. I decided to undertake further research of my own, starting with the provisional guidelines for the style published by the BJCP itself.
Provisional styles are beers that have been added to the BJCP categories in-between official updates to the guidelines, which generally only happen every three to five years. These may be new or emerging styles—New England IPA is one such provisional addition to the guidelines—but are also sometimes historical styles that have been recently popularized or rediscovered. (The last edition of the BJCP style guide was updated in 2015). I wasn't specifically interested in the guidelines themselves, knowing that they were based closely on Gordon Strong's potentially controversial take on the style, but in the commercial examples cited within. That is in my opinion one of the nicer features of the BJCP guidelines. Reading about a particular beer style is one thing—drinking a few of them (ideally in succession...) is another altogether.
Sampling proper commercial examples of NZ Pilsner would unfortunately prove to be out of the question as none of the cited beers are available in Alberta. I set my mind instead to finding out what I could about the recipes for each of these examples online. I encountered another barrier because only a small number of these breweries published any significant details about their recipes, so I expanded my search to include any commercial examples of the style. I avoided homebrew recipes because few of them seemed to be crafted by New Zealanders who would have first-hand sensory experience with these beers.
I was starting to see some trends emerge. The beers were all based heavily on Pilsner or some other lager base malt; most included acidulated malt; some featured Vienna malt; and some also featured Carapils or other equivalent dextrine malt. (Interestingly, those online commenters mentioned above may have been right—I couldn't find any references to American 2-row or wheat.) Every example featured Motueka hops; most also included Riwaka; some were made with Nelson Sauvin; and there were a few instances of Pacific Jade and NZ Cascade.
I concluded this research by isolating the top five search results that included detailed grain bills, whether by weight or percentage. I proceeded to average the results:
- Pilsner (or other lager) malt: 87.50%
- Vienna malt: 6.25%
- Acid malt: 3.75%
- Dextrine malt: 2.50%
- Motueka
- Riwaka
- Nelson Sauvin
- Pacific Jade
- NZ Cascade
Armed with this aggregate understanding of the style, I formulated a personal recipe.
The only real challenge I faced during the process is that I don't normally keep any dextrine malt on hand. Dextrine is typically used to enhance mouthfeel and improve head retention. Some brewers consider the use of dextrine malts to be "cheating" and eschew it altogether, professing that the same results can be achieved simply by increasing the temperature of the mash. I have often seen wheat malt cited as a reasonable substitute for dextrine malt and I keep a bulk supply of wheat malt on hand, so I decided to use it instead. So despite the protestations of some members of the online homebrewing community, I did end up emulating at least one feature of Gordon Strong's perspective on the style.
The only real challenge I faced during the process is that I don't normally keep any dextrine malt on hand. Dextrine is typically used to enhance mouthfeel and improve head retention. Some brewers consider the use of dextrine malts to be "cheating" and eschew it altogether, professing that the same results can be achieved simply by increasing the temperature of the mash. I have often seen wheat malt cited as a reasonable substitute for dextrine malt and I keep a bulk supply of wheat malt on hand, so I decided to use it instead. So despite the protestations of some members of the online homebrewing community, I did end up emulating at least one feature of Gordon Strong's perspective on the style.
My final recipe looked like this and is currently fermenting—I'll update this article when the beer is ready for tasting.
Mill Creek (Motueka)
5% New Zealand Pilsner
- IBU: 35 (Tinseth)
- SRM: 4
- OG: 1.046
- FG: 1.008
- Batch Size : 23L
- Mash Efficiency : 75%
- Mash Temperature: 67°C
- Fermentables
- 4.3kg - Pilsner 2-Row 2 °L (90.5%)
- 250g - Vienna Malt 3.1 °L (5.3%)
- 150g - White Wheat Malt 2.3 °L (3.2%)
- 50g - Acid Malt 2.8 °L
- Kettle Hops
- 30 min - 28g - Motueka
- 15 min - 28g - Motueka
- Hop Stand
- 30 min - 56g - Motueka @ 80°C
- Yeast
- Fermentis Saflager Lager W-34/70
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