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Styles · Czech Premium Pale Lager

Beer style · BJCP 2021 3B

Czech Premium Pale Lager

Czech Lager

Published ranges These are the ranges the BJCP 2021 guidelines publish for this style.

Original gravity
1.044–1.060
Final gravity
1.013–1.017
Bitterness
30–45 IBU
Color
3.5–6 SRM (7–12 EBC)
Alcohol
4.2–5.8 % ABV

What it is

The original golden pilsner: rich bready Bohemian malt set against a rounded, firm Saaz bitterness and a genuinely floral-spicy hop aroma. Soft water and traditional mashing leave more body and less attenuation than a German pils. Even at forty IBU the balance should still read as malty.

Flavor

What a Czech Premium Pale Lager should taste like, on the three wheels the studio scores every recipe against. The shaded ring is the style’s range on each axis, from 0 at the center to 5 at the edge.

Hops

Floral, spice and herbal, with room for grassy or earthy/woody.

Malt

Grainy, with room for bready/biscuit, sweet/honey or caramel.

Fermentation

Clean, with room for sulfur.

Hops that suit it

The traditional choice

What Czech Premium Pale Lager has classically been brewed with.

Also right on character

Varieties whose loudest notes all sit on this style’s hop wheel, best fit first. How much to use is the recipe’s question; these are the ones that taste right.

And 16 more hops whose character fits. These are the 24 that fit best.

Yeasts that suit it

Strains the lab made for beers like this one, whose fermentation character sits inside the style’s wheel. A strain sold by several labs is listed once; its page names the others.

Style numbers, names and vital statistics are from the BJCP 2021 Beer Style Guidelines, where you will find the official descriptions. The descriptions and flavor wheels here are Beerwright’s own. Beerwright is not affiliated with or endorsed by the BJCP.