Style Details

Name
Czech Amber Lager
Cate­go­ry
Czech Lager
BJCP Style Code
3 C
Appearance
Deep amber to cop­per color. Clear to bright cla­ri­ty. Lar­ge, off-white, per­sis­tent head. 
Aro­ma
Mode­ra­te inten­si­ty, rich malt aro­ma that can be eit­her brea­dy and Mail­lard pro­duct-domi­nant or slight­ly cara­mel­ly and can­dy-like. Spi­cy, flo­ral or her­bal hop cha­rac­ter may be mode­ra­te to none. Clean lager cha­rac­ter, though low frui­ty esters (stone fruit or ber­ries) may be pre­sent. Diace­tyl is optio­nal and can ran­ge from low to none.
Fla­vour
Com­plex malt fla­vor is domi­nant (medi­um to medi­um-high), though its natu­re may vary from dry and Mail­lard pro­duct-domi­nant to cara­mel­ly and almost sweet. Some examp­les have a can­dy-like to gra­ham-cra­cker malt cha­rac­ter. Low to mode­ra­te spi­cy hop fla­vor. Pro­mi­nent but clean hop bit­ter­ness pro­vi­des a balan­ced finish. Subt­le plum or ber­ry esters optio­nal. Low diace­tyl optio­nal. No roas­ted malt fla­vor. Finish may vary from dry and hop­py to rela­tively sweet.
Mouth­feel
Medi­um-full to medi­um body. Soft and round, often with a gent­le cre­a­mi­ness. Mode­ra­te to low carbonation.
Over­all Impression
Malt-dri­ven amber Czech lager with hop cha­rac­ter that can vary from low to quite signi­fi­cant. The malt fla­vors can vary quite a bit, lea­ding to dif­fe­rent inter­pre­ta­ti­ons ran­ging from drier, brea­dy, and slight­ly bis­cui­ty to swee­ter and some­what caramelly.
Typi­cal Ingredients
Pils­ner and cara­mel malts, but Vien­na and Munich malts may also be used. Low mine­ral con­tent water, Saa­zer-type hops, Czech lager yeast. 
Histo­ry
A Vien­na-style lager which has con­tin­ued to be bre­wed in the Czech Repu­blic. A resur­gence of small bre­we­ries ope­ning in the Czech Repu­blic has increased the num­ber of examp­les of this style. 
Comm­ents
The Czech name of the style is polot­ma­vé pivo, which trans­la­tes as half dark. This style is a com­bi­na­ti­on of the Czech styl­es polot­ma­vý ležák (11–12.9 °P) and polot­ma­vé spe­ciální pivo (13–14.9 °P).
Com­mer­cial Examples
Ber­nard Jant­a­ro­vý ležák, Pivo­var Vyso­ký Chlu­mec Démon, Primá­tor polot­ma­vý 13°, Stra­ko­nický Dudák Klos­ter­mann polot­ma­vý ležák 13°
Ori­gi­nal Gravity
1.044 - 1.060 SG
Final Gra­vi­ty
1.013 - 1.017 SG
Color
10 - 16 SRM
Alco­hol
4.0 - 5.0 %vol
Bit­ter­ness
20 - 35 IBU