Introducing our first true slow pour.

Medicine Hat - Sest Pivo Czech-style Pilsner

Medicine Hat Brewing Company came into SP a while back and gave us a sample of their “Sest Pivo”, a Czech-style Pilsner, to celebrate their 6th anniversary. We are no strangers to spiels, but when Kaiden, the General Manager of Med Hat Brew Co, told us about how they traveled to Pilsen (the origin site of pilsners, located in Czechia) in 2022, toured the hop farms, the maltsters and even the Pilsner Urquell brewery and gained insights into the traditional methods of Pilsner brewing from the brewers themselves - we definitely perked up. They imported traditional floor malt* from Raven Malting and Czech Saaz hops from Bohemian Hops in Czechia as well. Using reverse osmosis water they carefully reconstructed the water profile* as you would find it in Pilsen. Med Hat Brewing also utilized the traditional decoction process* and lagered the beer for 8 weeks. What results is likely one of the best examples of a pilsner to ever come out of Alberta, and definitely one of the most expertly crafted beers to be made here. The low minerality of the water used clears the way for an exceptionally delicate malt flavor and feel. The Czech Saaz, used generously, is amplified by a thick foam cap, lending to vibrant herbal and spiced aromatics. We are so pleased with this beer we are offering it as our first true slow pour!

If you’ve had the chance to stop by the bar, you may have noticed that we pour our beers a little differently. Foam is flavour at SP, and it is of equal importance to the beer itself. While beer served here takes a little longer to serve than most establishments, we think it’s worth the wait. That being said, we don't actually serve true slow pours (surprise!). We serve a Coles Notes version of one, this is because during a busy service it will more than likely back up our draft system, taking away from the customer's experience here at SP. So we still aim to create a stable foam layer, just in a shorter amount of time. The key here is balance.

So what is a real slow pour then? Well it’s the longer-than-the-movie director's cut with Peter Jackson, pausing and dissecting every scene. The goal then is to create a very turbulent pour so as to pull out a significant portion of CO2 and with it all the other goodies we are looking for. That is: proteins and the rich aromatic and bittering compounds that bind to the CO2 bubble walls when they break out of solution; this is what creates that silky, cloudy sheen you see when you receive your beer. In practice, we fill the glass with foam on the first pour by pouring it turbulently, letting it settle for a minute or two, pouring again in the same way and repeat until the glass is full of clear beer and adorned with an ample volume of silky foam. How is it different? What you will notice is an amplified aroma, and the beer will warm up slightly, making it more drinkable. By pulling the CO2 out of solution in this way the beer will be much smoother, crispier, and will be in better balance with the bitterness. So by taking our time here we gain a much better experience, one we are proud to serve you when you come to SP. When you come in and ask for the Sest Pivo by Medicine Hat Brewing, expect it to take 5-6 minutes but we hope you’ll see that every second counts.

Please read our blog post on the slow pour method. This is where we take a deeper dive in the technique and the history.

Cheers,

-sp

*floor malt: mostly used to describe a more traditional process for producing malt for brewing. Largely manual process. In modern malting germination occurs in a chamber, but in this traditional process it occurs on an open floor. This produces a very rich, aromatic flavour.

*Water profile: Generally, describes the chemical makeup of water. Not just H2O but mineral content, pH, Salinity, etc. This contributes significantly to a beer’s final presentation.

*Decoction: A traditional method where a portion of the mash* is separated from the mash liquor and boiled to increase its caramelized sweetness, body, foam stability, etc.

*mash: the hot water and malt mixture used to extract fermentable sugars