Czech Pale Lager

While the recipe is big for a Czech pale lager—it’s really 14°P rather than the typical 12°—it drinks well below its strength and makes a bright showcase for that floor malt and ample Saaz hops.

First brewed for Notch’s 10th anniversary in 2020, this is a 10°P pale lager in the Czech tradition—low in strength yet full of flavor. The beer is triple-decocted, open-fermented, naturally carbonated, and “lagered forever.”

This might seem like just another hoppy session beer, but the regionally authentic ingredients do tend to come through even in the face of atypical hops.

In the dog days of summer it's a great time to brew up a large batch of what can conventionally be referred to not by its proper BJCP Style Guidelines name (Czech Pale Lager) but instead by a more descriptively-accurate name: Session Pilsner.