Munich Helles

I enjoyed the process of brewing the Dark Lager I made last year and I've really liked drinking the beer.  I have decided to try another one - a Munich Helles this time.  It is a pale German lager with a balance a bit towards Malt.  Victory Brewing and Stoudts here in PA both make very good versions.

The recipe is roughly based on one on the Mad Fermentationist blog.  I'll be following basically the same fermentation schedule as the previous lager with two minor exceptions.  I'll be reducing the primary to 1.5 weeks from two to try to keep the yeast going a bit better.  I'll also be reducing the lagering period to 4 weeks from 6 weeks - I'm skeptical that the extra 2 weeks had any positive impacts.

This is the second beer of the weekend which will hopefully not be too much brewing for me.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 10 lbs Pilsner
• 1 lb Munich
• 8 oz Melanoidin
• 2 oz acid
• Hops:
• 1.5 oz Tettnang (Pellet, 3.8% AA) at 50 min
• Yeast:
• WLP 833 German Bock Lager Yeast
• Water:
• 10 gal Spring Water
• 5 gal Tap Water
• 1 oz Calcium Chloride
• 1 oz Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.75 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 148 F for 60 min (Target 152 F for 60 min)
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temp:
• Primary at 48 F
• Diacetyl Cleanup - ramp up to 65 F
• Lager at 36 F
• Primary Duration:
• 1.5 Weeks
• Diacetyl Cleanup Duration:
• 5 days
• Secondary/Lager Duration:
• 4 weeks

Results:

• OG:
• 1.053 (Target 1.050)
• Efficiency:
• 68% (Target 71%)
• FG:
• 1.008 (Target 1.010)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 84% (Target 79%)
• ABV:
• 5.91% (Target 5.25%)

Brewing Notes:

• 8/4/15 - Made a 1.5 liter starter with 7 oz of DME and 1/8 tsp of yeast nutrient and cultured up the yeast on a stirplate at basement temps (70s)
• 8/6/15 - The starter had settled down so I put it into the fridge to crash
• 8/7/15 - Decanted off the spent wort and made another 1.5 liter of starter with 5 oz of DME which I added to the cake.  Put the starter back on the stir plate to build up a bit more.
• 8/8/15 - Fermentation had settled down so I moved the starter to fridge to crash
• 8/9/15 - Brewday 7:30 AM to 12:30 PM Including setup and cleanup
• Brought 10 gal of spring water and 1 gal of tap water up to 155 F - cycled through the mash tun and RIMS until the whole system was at 155 F - took 45 min
• Added the grain in with 4 gal above the false bottom (7 gal total in the system).  Temp settled at 150 F.  This raised the volume to 5 gal above the false bottom.
• Set the RIMS on a slow cycle at 150 F

• Stirred the mash after 30 min - the mash is sitting at about 148 F which is close enough.  Gravity was 8.6 brix at the grant which is 1.034
• Added 4 gal of tap water to the 4 gal of water in the HLT and brought it up to 185 F for the sparge
• Stirred one final time 45 min into the mash
• At the end of the 60 min mash the gravity was 10.2 brix which is 1.041
• Drained all the wort from the grant to the tun at the start of the sparge.  Set the drain level to ~6 gal above the false bottom to create an inch of water above the grain bed during the sparge
• Sparged at about 3 min per qt
• A couple gal into the sparge the gravity was 10.6 brix which is 1.043
• After collecting 5 gal, which took about an hour, gravity was 11.5 brix which is 1.046
• Stopped collecting once I got 8 gal of wort - took 1.75 hrs.  Gravity was down to 4 brix at this point which is 1.016
• Brought to a boil - took 25 min
• Very little hot break on this batch - I wonder if this was due to the re circulation filtering off proteins
• Added the hops at 50 min
• Added the Irish moss at 20 min
• Added the wort chiller at flameout to sanitize
• Chilled down to 70 F which is ground water temp right now
• Measured the gravity as 13 brix which is 1.053.  Collected 5.75 gal

• Moved the fermentor to the fermentation chamber to chill down to 48 F
• Decanted off 1 liter of spent beer from the chilled starter
• Once the beer got down to temps I added the starter
• 8/11/15 - This beer was bubbling vigorously this morning after started last night.
• 8/18/15 - The beer is bubbling slowly now - allowed the temperature to raise to 65 F to finish out.
• 8/20/15 - The beer is up to 65 F.  It has petty much stopped bubbling at this point.  I will give it a few days at this temp.
• 8/25/15 - I left this at D-rest temps a bit longer than I was planning in order to get another beer (Pale Mild) started fermenting at a controlled temp.  The lager's airlock stopped bubbling a couple days ago and the other beer is out of the chamber now so I will start ramping down to lager temps.  Lowered the chamber temperature to 60 F.
• 8/26/15 - Lowered the chamber temperature to 55 F
• 8/27/15 - Lowered the chamber temperature to 50 F
• 8/28/15 - Lowered the chamber temperature to 45 F
• 8/29/15 - Lowered the chamber temperature to 40 F
• 8/30/15 - Lowered the chamber temperature to 35 F.  It is now down to lagering temps.
• 9/4/15 - Measured the gravity as 1.008.  The beer has a nice malt profile along with a slight hop finish.  Also has the muted yeast character you'd expect from a lager.  It is straw gold and perfectly clear.  It may still be a bit rough around the edges so I'm going to give it the full 4 week lagering period as planned.
• 9/8/15 - Paused the lager for a week or so to ferment an ale.  Allowing the chamber to get back up to 65 F.
• 9/12/25 - Chilled back down to 35 F
• 10/1/15 - Bottled ~6 gal of beer with 4 oz of priming sugar.  I didn't fine with gelatin and it was plenty clear at lager temps.  I ended up collecting 54 12 oz bottles of the beer.  It is still at 1.008.  It's a nice, clean tasting, mild beer.  The sample even tasted good after it had warmed up - couldn't drink a macro lager at this temperature.  It absolutely doesn't taste like it's almost 6% ABV.
• 10/8/15 - Tried a bottle a bit earlier than I normally would.  A low level of carbonation has developed so far.  The beer has developed a buttery smell and flavor that I didn't detect before.  I think this must be diacetyl.  Hoping it will clear with a bit more time in the bottle.
• 10/25/15 - I have had a few more bottles this week.  I no longer get the butter flavor I detected in the first bottle.  It was a product of bottle conditioning and bottle conditioning has resolved the issue.
• 12/20/15 - Tasting Notes - A smooth and easy drinking beer with really nice flavor.  I think this compares very favorably to the commercial examples of the style.

Lessons Learned:

1. I've had some messy brew days with my new RIMS setup but I'm starting to understand how to run it in a way that gives me the control I wanted.  Control of liquid levels is critical.  I'm thinking a sight glass on the grant would be helpful for getting even better control.  I also haven't been using my auto-sparge to it's full capacity.  Using this could allow me to comfortably walk away from the setup without worrying about the Grant and then RIMS tube running dry
2. The 3 min per qt sparge rate was too slow.  I would like to sparge 8 gal through the system in 45 min which would be a rate of ~1.5 qt per min.
3. Efficiency wasn't too good.  I'm thinking my pH must be a little off.  I'm thinking a pH meter would be a good purchase.