Fresh Hop Lórien Pilsner

While most people think of pilsner as a German style, it actually has its origins in Bohemia, which is now part of the Czech Republic. In 1842, a Bavarian monk smuggled a bottom-fermenting lager yeast from Munich to the Bohemian town of Pilsen. He gave it to the Bavarian-born brewer, Josef Grolle, at the Plzensky Prazdroj brewery.

Josef Grolle used the smuggled Bavarian yeast with a pale colored malt that he had developed from the maltsters of Great Britain. This created a truly golden beer that was revolutionary to the brewing world. Before then the majority German beers made had been dark in color due to the different malting process. Soon after Josef Grolle’s Pilsner sent shock waves across the brewing world the German brewers scrambled to imitate the style. Out of this imitation, the German Pilsner was born.

Historically, genuine pilsner is a thing of beauty-delicate, sharp, flavorful, aromatic, and appetizing. The bottom-fermenting yeast, true to its promise, will drop to the bottom of the vessel after the cold fermentation is finished, leaving the beer clear and bright after its long cold aging. The sharp, clean bitterness and flowery aromatics of the region’s native Saaz hops and the full breadiness of the Moravian barley malt are accentuated by the remarkably soft water of the brewery’s wells. The high carbonation, developed by months of aging, forms a white pillowy head on top of the golden liquid. People were enraptured, and word of the new golden pilsner beer raced past the borders of Bohemia and swept throughout Europe.

Josef Grolle and his brewery, today known as Pilsner Urquell, can take credit for the first pilsner beer, but the industrial revolution can take some credit for the rapid spread of its popularity. 

What Are Fresh-Hop Beers? Words from Jeff Alworth

Nearly every beer made in the world uses dried hops. The strobile (cone) of the climbing bine Humulus lupulus (less scientifically known as common hops) gives beer bitterness along with the flavors and aromas of fruit, flowers or forests. Typically, they are taken to a drying kiln, baled and sent to chilled warehouses.

Fresh hops, by contrast, are never dried. Family hop growers have developed close relationships with Oregon-based breweries over the past decade or so, and during fresh-hop season, they stay in close communication. When the moment of perfect ripeness arrives, farmers call the brewery and tell them when their hops will be picked. Brewers fire up their mash tuns and dispatch a truck to race back to the brewery with these little green jewels within an hour or two of harvest. Each minute the hop is separated from the bine is precious, so the beers can’t be made very far from the fields in which they grew.

Similar to how the flavor of dried and fresh basil differs, the delicate nature of fresh hops means they simply taste different when compared to conventional hops. As in basil, the chemical constituents of hops — the essential oils and acids — are most vivid when fresh. A floral, lightly grapefruity dried Cascade hop, for example, smells more like a blossoming orange orchard, with jammy, mandarin flavors when fresh. The beers that result from these hops are unlike any made with conventional hops. They have the qualities only those undried hops possess.

For pFriem Fresh Hop Pilsner we take a base beer that is similar to pFriem Pilsner and turn our Lauter Tun into a large hopback. We run wort on top of Fresh Lórien Hops that we get directly from the Willamette Valley. We leave this beer unfiltered in order to get a complex, fresh, and vibrate showcase of the Fresh Hops and the Lager beer.

Lórien has advanced through the hop development process with crisp, refreshing lager beer in mind. This hop has a unique ability to let the tasty malt platform shine yet contributes an addictive finish of lemon/lime zest, fresh melon, sweet hay and wildflowers, all capped by a cinnamon spice that cleanses your palate and lures you back for more. 

Tangy fresh fruit and the feeling of a summer meadow near a cold mountain stream, Lórien is conducive to celebration and appetite. Low alpha and squeaky clean, leave the taps open and let ‘er flow!