SMaSH Pilsner....hop?

[Will_the-new-brewer]

Still fairly new to brewing so I don't have my hops figured out yet. I am trying to get rid of some hops and Pilsner malt so I figured I'd do a SMaSH beer. Which hop do you think would be best (not looking for a bitter beer...perhaps a cream ale)? I was thinking of using Cascade...28g @ 60m and 8g @ 10m.

I also have the following hops:
Amarillo
Centennial
Magnum
Horizon
Mt. Hood
Nelson Sauvin
Simcoe
Willamette

Thanks!

 

[schematix]

My personal favorite to date is German Perle.

I've done a Pilsner with Mt Hood before and it was good. Cascade is good but its going to come off more as a pale ale than a pils.

 

[AzOr]

My personal favorite to date is German Perle.

I've done a Pilsner with Mt Hood before and it was good. Cascade is good but its going to come off more as a pale ale than a pils.

Agreed. Mt Hood would make an excellent lager/pils(ish) type of beer. None of your choices are traditional hops but you'll still end up with a great beer.

 

[Miraculix]

Pilsener needs noble hops or at least an American hop without much aroma.

From your list, Magnum as bittering only would work, or as far as I read about it mount hood should also do it.

My personal favourite is saaz (that's the original pilsener hop), or Hallertau Mittelfrüh.

 

[Will_the-new-brewer]

I am out of Saaz, unfortunately. I think I am going to go with Mt. Hood. Should I move away from the SMaSH beer and add something different for aroma at the end?

This is what I have now:
11lb Pilsner
20g Mt. Hood (60min)
8g Mt. Hood (10 min)

Thoughts on aroma hop from list above?

 

[Miraculix]

I am out of Saaz, unfortunately. I think I am going to go with Mt. Hood. Should I move away from the SMaSH beer and add something different for aroma at the end?

This is what I have now:
11lb Pilsner
20g Mt. Hood (60min)
8g Mt. Hood (10 min)

Thoughts on aroma hop from list above?

Use only mt good for aroma, you can use Magnum for bittering, if you want to.

That'll get you into classical pilsner territory. Of course you could use one of the American varieties you've listed, but this wouldn't be a classic Pilsener at the end. Willamette would certainly match half way and and interesting combination for both late and dry would be Chinook and Amarillo.

Depends on what you want. I would go with either mt hood only or maybe in combination with Willamette. Wouldn't be classic, but Willamette is not so upfront, I think it would fit.

 

[Carolina_Matt]

Do you have any 15L by any chance? If so, maybe try Jamil's Blonde Ale recipe but with Pilsner instead of 2-row. He uses 10 lbs 2-row, 0.5 lb of 15L, and 23g Willamette at 60 minutes. I've made it twice and it's fantastic.

https://byo.com/article/american-blonde-ale-style-profile/

 

[Pappers_]

I think the Willamette would work nicely also, in addition to the thoughts above.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Mt Hood was explicitly bred to try and reproduce the character of the classic German noble hops in US terroir - her mother is a tetraploid Hallertau Mittelfruh, but she probably comes closer to Hersbrucker in flavour. So of the hops you have in stock, she's the obvious choice.

The less obvious choice would be Horizon - a half-sister of Nugget normally used as a very clean bittering hop like Magnum, but she's got a German father so might be interesting to use as a late hop. Never used her myself though.

 

[schematix]

I am personally not a fan of magnum in Pilsner. It doesn't have a lot of character and generally pils has a fair amount of hop character. I'd strong suggest giving Perle a try in the future. I've used a lot of different hops in pilsner and i've more or less settled on it as my standard pilsner hop. About 20 IBU from a single addition, more if you like. Clean bittering and just enough flavor without being distracting.

Don't take me word for it though... pils is a great grain bill to experiment with different hops. I found the best ones were from single additions and didn't use any late hops. Just be aware what you make won't always be traditional even if it is delicious.

My pils grain bill is something like 95% pilsner and 5% carahell. You wouldn't go wrong with something like 90% pilsner, 5% munich, 5% carahell either. I'd just stay away from anything darker than about 10L and only use that in limited quantities. Standard 2-row isn't a good choice either. You really want german sourced malts for this style.

 

[mashpaddled]

I will give another vote for mt. hood to get you as close as you can from that last to a noble hop. Alternatively you could do a late addition with nelson sauvin for more of a new style lager.

 

[kevin58]

Either mt. hood or magnum. I've got a Vienna lager made with magnum that turned out very nice.

 

[MaxStout]

If I'm reading this right, OP is just using up some pilsner malt, not necessarily making a pilsner-style.

If that's the case, any of those hops would be fine for making a nice SMaSH.

 

[kh54s10]

If I'm reading this right, OP is just using up some pilsner malt, not necessarily making a pilsner-style.

If that's the case, any of those hops would be fine for making a nice SMaSH.

This ^^^ accept that if using the Magnum, I would use it as a bittering hop and use another for flavor and aroma late addition.

 

[Will_the-new-brewer]

If I'm reading this right, OP is just using up some pilsner malt, not necessarily making a pilsner-style.

Correct. With that said, I was okay making a Pilsner as well. I ended up going with a 60 min and 10 min addition of Mt Hood.

 

[Tbagger]

Out of your options I would use just a small bittering only addition of Magnum or light bittering and aroma Mt. Hood additions. I have a been enjoying a pilsner malt and tettnang SMaSH I keep on constant rotation.

 

[AzOr]

I’ve been tempted to make a pilz w mt hoods but haven’t gotten around d to it.
I’m currently fermenting a Pilsner malt with Saaz at 60 and Pacifica at 5 minutes.