Today I'll be brewing a Pilsner destined for one of my four Kegs - this will be my second attempt at the style (read about my first attempt). I very much enjoy the light, crisp, and hoppy flavor of Pilsner (my last two cases of hoppy beer were Victory Prima Pils) - this beer is somewhat inspired by this clone recipe. I couldn't get the right hops for that one so I've used Saaz and Tettnang for this batch.
This is a very simple recipe with just Pilsner malt. I've done Decoction mashes for my German inspired lager previously but this time I'm going to see how it does with a single stage mash which will make for a quicker brewday. I'm shooting for an ABV for around 4.7% for a bit easier drinking on this one.
I'm going to give a few weeks to ferment out and then will do a short (2 week) lager period before kegging. Looking forward to having this one on tap.
Recipe Details:
- Grain:
- 10.5 lbs Pilsner
- 2 oz Acid Malt
- Hops:
- 1 oz Hallertau Blanc (Pellet, 9.4% AA) at 60 min
- 1 oz Saaz (Pellet, 2.8% AA) at 30 min
- 1 oz Tettnang (Pellet, 3.0% AA) at 30 min
- 1 oz Saaz (Pellet, 2.8% AA) at 5 min
- 1 oz Tettnang (Pellet, 3.0% AA) at 5 min
- Yeast:
- Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager (2nd Pitch)
- Water:
- 10 gal spring water
- 1 tsp CaCl
- 1 tsp Gypsum
- 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min
- Batch Size:
- 6 gal
- Mash:
- 152 F for 60 min
- Boil:
- 60 min
- Fermentation Temperature:
- Primary at 50 F
- Diacetyl Rest at Basement Temps
- Lager at 40 F
- Primary Duration:
- 1.5 weeks
- Diacetyl Cleanup Duration:
- 1 week
- Lager Duration:
- 2 weeks
- OG:
- 1.048 (Target 1.047)
- Efficiency:
- 72% (Target 71%)
- FG:
- 1.008 (Target 1.011)
- Apparent Attenuation:
- 81% (Target 76%)
- ABV:
- 5.1% (Target 4.7%)
- 7/31/21 - Built a yeast starter using 100g of DME and 1 L of boiling spring water. Let this cool and then pitched my jar of yeast and set it up on a stir plate to propagate over night
- 8/1/21 - Brewday - 1:20 PM to 5:20 PM- Including Setup and Cleanup
- Heated 9 gal of spring water to 175 F
- Milled my grain. Added brewing salts to the grain
- Moved 6 gal of spring water to the mash tun and cycled until it had settled to 164 F
- Stirred in the grain and let this sit for 20 min. It settled to 154 F
- Cycled the RIMS at 153 F for 40 min more
- Heated 9 gal of spring water to 185 F
- Did a fly sparge until 8 gal had been collected. Started heating the beer after collecting 4 gal and had to a boil just after finishing the sparge
- Added the bittering hops at the start of the boil once the hot break had settled a bit
- Added the 30 min hops
- Added Irish Moss with 15 min left
- With 5 min left I added the wort chiller and some flavoring hops. Let the beer come back to a boil
- Chilled the beer to 80 F
- Collected 5.5 gal and measured the gravity as 1.052. Topped it up with 0.5 gal of spring water to get to about 1.048
- Moved the beer to the fermentation chamber to chill down to fermentation temperature (50 F)
- 8/3/21 - Airlock finally started bubbling today
- 8/15/21 - Moved it out of the chest freezer for diacetyl rest
- 8/28/21 - Moved the beer back to the chest freezer set at 37 F for a couple weeks of lagering
- 9/5/21 - Added gelatin to fine the beer
- 9/6/21 - Transferred to a C02 purged keg to carbonate. I'll give the beer a week or so before trying it.
- 10/16/21 - Tasting Notes - This is a really nice flavorful and easy drinking beer. Tastes like a pilsner - no doubt about it. I really enjoy the smoothness of it and the balance between the malt (which is more present than an IPA) and the very satisfying bitterness.
- 11/3/21 - The keg kicked today. I'm going to miss this beer.
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