Hey Joshua,
So this is the same thing as my LHBS recommended... For whatever reason I am a little concerned about adding this concentrate to finished beer.
It's done and in the keg. Had a couple glasses of this last night (along with a few glasses of others). It's like I'm "willing" myself to like this brew.
Not quite there yet, and likely never will be. There is Hop bitterness there, but it's not perfect balance. Body is a tad light as well (for a Czech Pils); likely user error on my part with too low mashing temperature.?. Or maybe it's just the Hop balance causing issues...needs more flavor. Sterling imparted too much citrus flavor; in future will go back to only using Saaz, at least in the finish. And is fairly cloudy...not super clear. Gelatin fining agent didn't do its job, or perhaps it's something else...?
It's fairly good, but for the effort required, I prefer to brew only "very good" to "awesome" brews.
(Well we don't know unless we experiment...
)
I've never bought from Yakima Valley Hops before. Believe MS bought hops from them recently too. I just bought a bunch of hops from MoreBeer, and am frustrated because their packaging does not list the year of production. (Remember my past posts about estimating AA loss over time; if you don't have the hop year, no way you can estimate current AA). No response to my email so I will be calling them this week... Think in the future I will be looking for a different source for hops... Maybe Yakima Valley Hops would be a good source.