Pilsner

It has been too long since my last brew day and I'm so short on hoppy beer that I ended up buying a case of commercially produced beer.  This must not continue.  I've decided to brew up a Pilsner to satisfy my need for hoppy beer for the next couple months (after a long lagering period of course)

This will be my first Pilsner and fourth attempt at a lager.  Pilsner is the style that the American Macro Lager (reference Bud, Miller, and Coors) is modeled after.  Those beers are considered bland garbage by those who have learned to appreciate more flavorful beer.  While those beers are watery and mild, a real Pilsner is actually very hop forward and fairly bitter - on a similar level to a Pale Ale.  It is a fairly simple style with a single malt (Pilsner) and some variety of noble hop.  It is a style that, regardless of it's simplicity, has made enough of an impression to drive the creation of a couple sub-styles (German and Czech) which seem pretty darn similar.  I have chosen to make a bastardized version which I care not to attempt to classify as trying to meet either style

I will be using all Pilsner Malt for this beer and will be executing a double decoction step mash.  This step mash procedure involves taking a portion of the grain from the mash and boiling it.  This is then added back to the mash to raise mash temperature and promote sugar conversion.  In days gone by it was used by necessity to improve the ability to extract sugar from lower quality grain.  Today, with higher quality grain, it is mainly used due to the belief that the boiling of the grain creates interesting flavor compounds which survive fermentation.  This approach lengthens the brew day by an hr or two but (having done it once before) is actually a pretty engaging way to make a beer.

Pulling a qt of mash for the decoction process

I'll then be using a variety of noble hops with the beer and the Wyeast Bohemian Lager yeast

Much discussion is had about the water profile of Pilsner beer.  I understand the Czech version has very soft water with little sulfate while the German variety is a bit harder.  I don't typically obsess over the water profile which may be a mistake in my brewing.  I was a little more careful with this batch where I decided to weigh my salts - went with 4 g of CaCl (about 1 tsp) and 1 g of gypsum (about 1/4 tsp) into RO/Spring Water.

Anyway, I'm going to let this ferment at 52 F for a couple weeks, raise it up to the 60's to eliminate any diacetyl, and then lager for a month or so on the yeast cake.

Look forward to drinking it!

Recipe Detail:

• Grain:
• 12 lb Pilsner
• Hops:
• 0.5 oz Magnum (Pellet, 11.8% AA) at 60 min
• 0.5 oz Magnum (Pellet, 11.8% AA) at 20 min
• 1 oz Hallertau (Pellet, 3.1% AA) at 10 min
• 1 oz Saaz (Pellet, 2.8% AA) at 0 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager
• Water:
• 15 gal spring water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 0.5 tsp Gypsum
• 1 cup of Acid Beer
• 1 tsp Irish Moss

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal
• Mash:
• Step 1:  
• Protein Rest:  129 F for 10 min
• Decoction 1:  158 F for 15 min and then boil for 10 min (10 qts)
• Step 2:  
• Sacch Rest 1:  148 F for 30 min
• Decoction 2:  Boil for 10 min (5 qts)
• Step 3: Target Duration: 45 min)
• Sacch Rest 2:  158 F for 15 min
• Mash Out at 175 F
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation:
• Primary at 52 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:
• 6 weeks

Results:

• OG:
• 1.054 (Target 1.051)
• Efficiency:
• 71% (Target 67%)
• FG:
• 1.007 (Target 1.013)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 87% (Target 74%)
• ABV:
• 6.17 (Target 4.99%) 

Brewing Notes:

• 9/28/19 - Built a starter using 120 grams of DME and 1.2 L of tap water.  Also added 1/8 tsp of yeast nutrient.  Boiled this with the stir bar and then setup on the stir plate.  Pitched the yeast and let it ferment over night - was a bit of foam on the surface the next morning
• 9/29/19 - Brewday - From 10:15 AM to 4:00 PM including setup and cleanup
• Heated 5 gal of strike water to 155 F
• Milled my grain
  I didn't realize I was out of Acid Malt which I'd planned to use.  I'm going to add 1 cup of lacto soured beer instead to try to acidify the mash
• Added all 5 gal to the mash tun - it settled out to 145 F after 10 min
• Stirred in the grain and broke up dough balls thoroughly.  Added the acid malt and brewing salts.  Temperature settled to about 140 F.  Added half gal of cool water to bring the temp down to the low 130s
• Let the mash rest for 10 min at about 130 F (Protein Rest)
• Scooped out 10 quarts of grain from the mash for Decoction #1 and moved to a separate pot.  Heated this up to high 150s/low 160s and let sit for 15 min.
• Brought Decoction #1 to a boil for 10 min
• Slowly added the decoction back into the main mash (which had settled down to 129 F).  Mash went up to high 140s once all the decoction was mixed in.
• Let the mash rest for 30 min (I went to get more propane in this period).  Temperature had settled down to 145 F at the end of this rest
• Pulled 5 quarts of mash for decoction #2 and brought it to a boil.  Boiled for 10 min.
• Heated 10 gal of sparge water up to 195 F
• Added the decoction #2 grain back into the main mash - this raised it up to 154 F.
• Performed the Second Rest for 15 min (Temperature settled at 153 F)
• Added a couple gal of 200 F sparge water to bring the mash up to the 170s.  Let this sit for another 10 min
• Decided to do a slow, gravity fed, fly sparge to I could avoid cleaning pumps, RIMS, and Grant.  Collected 8 gal of wort

• Brought to a boil which took 20 min or so
• Added the 60 min hops after the hot break cleared
• Added the 20 min hops
• Added Irish Moss at 15 min to separate out the cold break
• At 10 min added my flavoring hops
• Added the wort chiller to sanitize at 5 min
• Added my flameout hops at 0 min
• Chilled the beer down to 80 F
• Measured the gravity of the beer as 1.054
• Transferred into my Stainless Steel Brew Bucket.  Added the yeast during the transfer.

• Decided to pour in the hops and cold break as well
• Ended up with 6 gal of beer
• Moved to the fermentation chamber to chill down to 52 F
• 9/30/19 - Bubbling in the airlock by this evening
• 10/13/19 - Removed from the chest freezer to do a Diacetyl rest at basement temps (60s)
• 10/19/19 - Moved the beer back to the chest freezer set to 36 F to lager
• 12/15/19 - Bottled today with 4 oz of priming sugar.  Got 5.5 gal which netted me 56 12 oz bottles.  I forgot to fine the beer (doh).  Measured the gravity as 1.007.  It smells like herbal and grassy hops and the flavor is lightly malty with a nice hop flavor and fairly firm bitterness.  I'll give this a couple weeks at basement temperature to carb up.
• 12/31/19 - Tasting Notes -  really nice hoppy beer.  Very drinkable and refreshing with a pleasing balance between the malt and hops.  I think this holds up well to many of the local Craft Lager brewed by the local SE PA brewers (Victory and Sly Fox being the main ones that come to mind)