Pedal Your Way To Victory

For the second time in five years, Altitude Chophouse & Brewery in Laramie walked away with the coveted Steinley Cup for their Pedal House Pilsner. In doing so, they ended the winning streak of Freedom’s Edge Brewing in Cheyenne.

“We know how to make a pilsner,” said Sean Minichello.

What Is A Pilsner?

The brew selected for the 28th Annual Steinley Cup Microbrew Competition was the pilsner which has its origins from the Czech Republic. On August 3, 10 microbreweries from across Wyoming converged on Veterans’ Island in Saratoga to determine who made the best pilsner. Like with other types of beer, there is more than just one type of pilsner with regional variations, the most common of which are Czech/Bohemian or German.

For a number of brewers who were competing this year, their pilsners were from the two main European regions.

“It’s the use of those great German ingredients, that malt selection [and] the use of those noble hops to make sure you got this light lager that isn’t overwhelmed by the hop selection that you’re using but definitely more prevalent than the other light lagers like Hellis,” said Eric Kilmer of Freedom’s Edge Brewing.

Their entry into the contest was their German-style Big Poppa’s Pilz.

“It’s all about balance, it’s all about cleanliness, clean fermentation, crispiness and a little bit of that hop just shining through,” said E. Kilmer. “I think that’s what makes a good pilsner.”

Drinkability

Along with hops, malt and barley also play their part in making a good pilsner. Depending on the type of pilsner, however, other ingredients also come into play. According to Monkey Perkins, of Blue Raven Brewery, a good pilsner also has rice hulls which help filter improve the filter bed.

“You want it really nice, light, fluffy and crisp so that you want to chug it all day long,” said Perkins. “It’s about drinkability. You want to know that you’re actually drinking beer, but also you don’t want to feel like you’re drinking beer.”

The overwhelming consensus was that a pilsner is a good summer drink, which made it the ideal beer for the event with temperatures in the 80s and hardly a cloud in the sky.

Variants

In addition to pilsners, a number of breweries also had lagers on tap. According to Minichello, lagers in North America can be traced directly back to the original pilsner.

“American Light Lagers are kind of birthed from Pilsner. Same with Mexican Lagers,” said Minichello. “Mexican Lagers are just German Pilsners from German immigrants that came to Mexico and started brewing their beer. They didn’t have too much in the way of barley, so they had to cut it with corn.”

Commercial examples of this, said Minichello, are found in Coors and Anheuser-Busch.

“It’s very interesting how a lot of these drinks that we know and love here came from Pilsners,” said Minichello.

Water Matters

Like with any beer, water is an important factor in brewing. According to Mitch Kunce, of The Library Sports Grille & Brewery, that can have quite an impact in an area like Wyoming.

“My brewery is in Laramie, so our water is high in calcium carbonate,” said Kunce. “That’s not good for a pilsner style, but what are you going to do? We have to use the water that we have.”

The water, said Kunce, is a disadvantage.

“The water there [Czech Republic] was so soft, very low in total dissolved solids,” said Kunce.

Despite this, he believed that The Library’s brew was fairly representative of a pilsner.

“You can get a good Pilsen malt from Europe, if you want, but it’s very expensive so I get it from Canada. Canadian malting makes a good pilsner,” said Kunce. “I get the Czech hops, they’re a little more expensive but the hops really aren’t the huge feature of the pilsner.”

Feeling Light

Ultimately, the judges selected the Pedal House Pilsner as the best representation of a pilsner. For Minichello, it was a type of validation as he prepares to move on in his career.

“It’s nice finally winning this because, in the three years I’ve been head brewer, I’ve come to this competition three times. I’ve entered lots of beers I thought were sufficient, especially last year, but nothing,” said Minichello. “There was no Laramie medal this year but there is this, which I’ve been chasing for a while. You feel light, you feel like you’re floating.”

Minichello will be stepping down as head brewer at Altitude Chophouse & Brewery, with Jobi Ann stepping up into the position.

“I think it feels really good to win because I think we put a lot of work into our pilsner and redid the recipe several times,” said Ann.

As far as drinkability goes, it seems the pilsner was popular with attendees of the event as well. While it didn’t win people’s choice—that went to Freedom’s Edge Brewing—it did run out nearly an hour before the end of Steinley Cup.

“I love the pilsner, but sad we’re out of it for BrewFest. We ran out around 4, 4:30,” said Minichello. “All we’ve got left is a Hellis, which is close to a pilsner but also nothing close to a pilsner.”

Over The Hill

With Altitude Chophouse & Brewery winning the Steinley Cup for 2024, it meant it wouldn’t be returning to Cheyenne with Freedom’s Edge Brewing who had been able to take it home for two years in a row.

“Obviously it’s a little disappointing for us because we were really hoping to keep it for three years, but we’re really good friends with the brewers over at Altitude and the brewing community is all very supportive of each other,” said Muriah Kilmer. “We’re actually really happy to see them take it over the hill.”

While Freedom’s Edge Brewing may have lost out on the Steinley Cup, they did win people’s choice. M. Kilmer wasn’t sure, but thought it might have been for their High Noon Chile Ale which was brewed with jalapeno, serrano and habanero peppers.

“We get a lot of repeats with that one. Once you get those flavors on your pallet, people keep coming back for more,” said M. Kilmer. “It probably does wake your taste buds up a little bit and is not as taxing on the pallet as sours can be.”