Jack Snyder, head brewer of Ocelot Brewing Company has crafted a second batch of Pilsner informed by what the band, Polvo, wanted to drink. Something crisp with a bit more substance. “If you want to call it complexity,” Snyder offers. Indeed, I would call it complexity. Polvo Pilsner is very easy to drink; with a healthy balance of malt and hops it’s just bitter enough to be pleasing and just malty enough not to be too bitter.
The words “Bohemian” don’t appear on the can. However, there is an undeniable aroma wafting from the glass that is immediately identifiable to lovers of Czech lager. Snyder says Ocelot’s interpretation for the beer was to represent something between the lines of a Czech pale lager and a Czech premium pale. To which I’d say, mission accomplished.
With classic Czech or German lager styles, the goal is to honor these beers and historic breweries accordingly. “[Y]ou can’t go around and call every $9 bottle of Cava Champagne. That’s offensive to the region and the hundreds of years that went into that,” Snyder says. He thinks of the Czech traditions in the same way.
Ocelot’s lager production in the brewery’s 10ish years borrows from German methods and traditions. But, “we’ve been trying over the last two to three years to wade into the Czech influenced waters.” Snyder says Polvo Pils has been well received by both customers and staff. The Pilsner compliments their well-known lager, Sunnyside Dweller, and is different by many factors. For starters Polvo is darker than Sunnyside. It’s also not dry hopped whereas Sunnyside is. For Polvo, Snyder used a small first wort addition of hops as well as Czech Saaz in the boil. He was targeting a high 20s low 30s International Bitterness Units for Polvo.
In addition to hopping, Polvo and Sunnyside use different yeast strains. Snyder says the strain used for Polvo is a bit faster, which is ironic as Polvo takes longer to make than Sunnyside. Both lagers use the Czech derived yeast strains from Jasper Yeast. Czech Lager 1 ferments Sunnyside. Czech Lager 2 ferments Polvo.
Polvo utilizes solely Weyermann malt. Floor malted Bohemian Pilsner malt provides the base and a kiss of Isaria 1924, an heirloom barley Weyermann produces, as well as a one bag of Carahell. Isaria 1924 previously provided base malt for Ocelot’s Marzen.
Snyder has been pleased and impressed by the beer and how its aging aids in maturation. On tap on day one, Snyder says the Saaz hop character is a little bolder and a bit more pushed to the foreground. One of the virtues of the beer is that even with a couple months of age, there’s still something to enjoy there. The Saaz character is still there, but Snyder says, it’s like a slow-motion Homer Simpson receding into the shrubs; Saaz moves from the foreground to the middle ground and eventually background.
Polvo is in fermentation for three weeks and lagered for eight. So the time in tank is technically 11 weeks. Polvo Pils retails for $14.99 at the Brew Shop. If you support DC Beer on Patreon you will get a discount. Cheers and na zdravi!
