What Ale’s Thee?
Education, information and inspiration about… what else… beer!

WAT? #11 - Bohemian Rhapsody

 WAT? #11 - Bohemian Rhapsody [57:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Pilsners. This is arguably the most popular style of beer in the world. Originally brewed in Czechoslovakia they are famous for their clear golden hues and refreshing taste.

On this show we sample some great examples of a Pilsner and some very bad ones. We also got our hands on an Imperial Pilsner, if you’ve never tried one of these before you’ll be impressed!

WAT #11 Beers

Beers Tasted

Also Mentioned

8 Responses to “WAT? #11 - Bohemian Rhapsody”

  1. Hey Guys–Just wanted to let you know we don’t use Cascade in the Schell’s Pils anymore. It’s hopped with Tettnang and Sterling, then dry-hopped with Sterling.

    Cheers!

    db

    David Berg - May 13th, 2007 at 10:22 am

  2. Good to know! Whatever you are doing it’s bloody good!

    Thanks for listening to the show.

    Alvey - May 13th, 2007 at 10:36 pm

  3. I work with this guy who is from New Ulm, in fact. He used to call Heineken “Green Death”. There’s a small brewery called Brau Brothers in Lucan, MN you might like to look into. They make a decent Pils as well, though it’s a bit sweet.

    andy - May 13th, 2007 at 11:36 pm

  4. Corn in Bud? It’s Rice, sushi grade rice.

    American Brewers started using corn as a portion of the grist during colonial times as it was a domestic product and most of the barley was imported.

    It also created a lighter bodied beer that many of the beer drinkers preferred at the time. While I’d say that the Macro Brewers have taken that to the extreme from the 50’s on.

    I have never heard about UV coatings on bottles but I will look into it. Your Test if trying to skunk a pilsener in the sun for a week may be a bit flawed, with that much sun, brown bottled beers will skunk as well. Granted if the glass is 100% uv resistant then I suppose it won’t get skunked, but you are also exposing the beer to higher temperatures and probably temperature fluctuation, which may result in some oxidation.

    If you are going to abuse the spaten like that you sould probably abuse the Schell the same way becasue after a week in the sun that beer will likely skunk too.

    I’d say 1-2 days of direct sun from a window will be plenty to skunk both beers. Sitting in a clear glass in the sun, you can get skunking in only a minute or two.

    Also about skunking, Miller in MGD is able to use clear bottles uses a specially isomerized extract which flips the offending molecule in a direction that prevents the formation of the mercaptan compound, thus no skunk. But Spaten would not be allowed to do such a thing according to the Reinheitsgebot.

    But I’m sure you listened to Episode 43 of CBR and know this already right? :)

    Also I downloaded the mp3 using the link on the website and only received the first 41:08 of it. I’m going to try again, I am in India and the bandwidth is not so good, so it may be me.

    Jeff Bearer - May 16th, 2007 at 1:42 am

  5. Jeff, that’s good information on Bud. I was pretty sure that corn is one of the ingredients, but we stand corrected. Thanks!

    We’ll have to see how the skunked beer test turns out. I myself have never knowingly experienced a skunked beer, so it will be interesting to compare the different tastes and educate my palate.

    I’ll have to go back and listen to CBR #43 about Pilseners as I had no idea they had such extracts!

    Finally, I hope that you had a chance to try re-downloading the episode; as it was a complete episode when I re-tested it.

    We’re looking forward to hearing your beer experiences from the trip to India on CBR!

    Philip - May 17th, 2007 at 1:14 pm

  6. A couple of facts about Budweiser that may lead to an interesting experiment.

    Budweis is the German name of the Czech town Ceske Budejovice. (chess ky boo deh yoh vitz ah). It is a charming town with a lovely Rennaisance square and loads of history.

    Just like pilsener is the beer from Pilsen, budweiser is the beer from Budweis. Two beers are brewed in the town — both superb. The “famous” one is marketed as “Czechvar” in the United States and has been available off an on in the Twin Cities. The other occasionally is seen as “Crystal”. Ironiucally, Czechvar is now marketed in some areas by Anheuser Busch. It is very good nonetheless.

    Not available in the US (apparently) is the highest grade beer “Bud Super Strong” (which may have been renamed “Budweiser Bud 10) according to a web page I found — the label claimed its grade is 16 degrees and it is reported to be 7.3% alcohol. It is very smooth and has lots of pilsener flavor.

    Someday you may enjoy a taste off between American Bud and Czechvar. Someday Super Strong may find its way here too.

    Steve Chesney - May 26th, 2007 at 11:35 am

  7. That’s very good to know. It sounds like you were over there? If so you’re a lucky man. I would love to go check out those places and breweries.

    I’ll keep my eye’s open for Czechvar.

    Thanks for listening!

    Alvey - May 28th, 2007 at 11:22 am

  8. I enjoyed this show off iTunes. Oddly enough, I’ve been listening to the podcast “Beer School” at the same time as WAT, and not doing a good job at keeping up with either (obviously…)

    I ran into Alvey at Arborfest, which was entertaining to say the least. Love listening, and I eventually plan on getting friends organized to drink-a-long to the podcasts periodically. Would be entertaining to set up a live-recording at some local pubs as well. And why haven’t you sought official sponsorship by the Gnome or Surdyk’s yet??

    Keep the show up!

    John - June 26th, 2007 at 3:02 pm

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