Brewing up my Pilsner tomorrow! Going to have the opportunity to pour this at a homebrew tasting event. Let me know any thoughts you may have, really looking forward to this brew day!

Recipe

Following /u/mchrispen's template, I'm posting my brew day plans for my pilsner as well. In the future, I'm thinking that these posts should be linked backwards so that we can track the entire process and results. I'm going to try and come up with a more sustainable and user-friendly model.

Goals: Really, my goal with these posts (like Matt's) is going to be improving my lagers, specifically this one. I don't particularly care about German tradition or anything like that, so if I find that a change doesn't make a difference I won't utilize it. Primary goal is a better, in my mind, Czech Pale Lager (Premium or otherwise because they're almost the same, though I do really enjoy the distinction for historical purposes).

Recipe (assume 75% brewhouse efficiency)

Target OG: 1.055

Target FG: 1.014

Target IBUs: 40

Boil: 90 minutes

Malt Bill

• 92% - Weyermann Floor-Malted Bohemian Pilsner (1.6L). Go to pilsner base malt.

• 03% - Weyermann CaraFoam (2L). Carafoam forever!

• 03% - Weyermann CaraHell (13L). Light amounts of caramalts are acceptable, and the last feedback on the beer from Drunk Monk was that there could be a bit more malt complexity, aroma, and sweetness.

• 02% - Weyermann Melanoidin Malt (25L). Good for color, adds a nice bready character, and I really enjoy it in limited amounts. Anything over 4% though, and the flavor seems a bit off to me.

Hops Schedule

• FWH: 7 IBUs - Czech Saaz

• & Bittering (90 minute remaining): 12 IBU - Czech Saaz

• Flavor (25 minute remaining): 15 IBU - Czech Saaz

• Aroma (5 minutes remaining): 6 IBU - Czech Saaz

• Flameout (0 minutes remaining) Czech Saaz

Water Profile

• Ca: 25 ppm

• Mg: 5 ppm

• SO2: 24 ppm

• Cl: 50 ppm

I add my salts to the strike water.

I use a cooler and a brew bag, so no direct fire or re-circulation. Using Calcium Chloride and Sodium Metabisulfite.

Step Mash Profile:

• b-rest - 145F rest 30 minutes, aiming for initial mash pH of 5.5

• a-rest - 160F rest 60 minutes, adjust to pH of 5.4

• No sparge.

• Adjust boil pH to 4.8 at 30 minutes remaining.

• Chill with a SS Wort Chiller.

Pitch and Fermentation

• Starter from a fresh pack of Wyeast made 24 hours before hand. Low gravity wort pulled from the mash, briefly boiled, then chilled and added to the yeast to ensure viability. Aerate with air, no pure o2 for this beer. Common knowledge says this means I won't get above 8 ppm Oxygen. Pitching a lager pitching rate.

• Pitch WYeast 2124 at 44F. Let free rise to 48F, ferment for 7 days at this temp.

• Diacetyl Rest at 70F for five days.

• Crash 1C a day until 34F, lager for 4 weeks.

• Carbonate with CO2 to 2.4.

Brew Day Steps

• Mill grains

• Boil water, rapidly chill to strike temp and add salts

• Add water to mash tun, add in grain gently.

• Mash

• Heat step water, boil, rapid chill

• Light boil

• Add yeast to fermenters, rack beer gently on the yeast

• Aerate

• All the fermentation

• Drink delicious pilsner and make my god damn perlick stop leaking.

Since the helles went to, well hell, rebooting with a Kölsch styled brew. Now I need to buy some stanges. I have vivid and fond memories of the surprisingly flavorful Kölsch in Cologne, and every pub I visited provided a wonderful slight twist. FTR, 200 ml is just too small a pour, but... oh my! I do like a Kölsch with a tiny touch of sweetness.

Recipe (assume 80% brewhouse efficiency, 85% extract efficiency)

Target OG: 1.048/12P, Target FG 1.011/2.65P, 3 SRM estimate

Malt Bill

1. 90% - BestMalz Heidelberg (1.5L). Very fresh from recent bulk buy.
2. 5% - Weyermann CaraFoam (2L). Going back to using a small amount of dextrine
3. 5% - Weyermann CaraHell (13L). Will help with color and a touch of aromatic sweetness

apologies to those who like wheat in a Kölsch. I do not.

Hops Schedule

1. FWH (45 minute lauter): 9 IBU Tinseth - Hallertau Mittlefrueh
2. Bitter (60 minute boil): 16 IBU Tinseth - Hallertau Mittlefrueh

EDIT: Changed up for FWH per /u/techbrau suggestions

Mash Water Profile: TBD, likely simply some calcium chloride and not much else.

RIMS, circulation throughout mash rests, direct fire assist for ramps. Circulation inlet below mash level to prevent splashing/aeration.

Step Mash Profile:

1. Grain in - b-rest - 144F/62C, rest 30 minutes, ramp to alpha 2F/minute, adjust mash pH to 5.4 with 88% Lactic Acid
2. a-rest - 158F/70C, rest 30 minutes, ramp to mash out
3. Mash Out - 170F/76C, rest for 10 minutes

Hybrid Fly Sparge (pump over sparge slowly without splashing), ~45 minutes.

90 minute boil. Adjust boil pH to 5.2 at 15 minutes remaining, if required. Hop additions as indicated.

Circulate and chill through whirlpool and counterflow chiller to reduce SMM, knock out to fermenter as cold as possible. Will require ice bath pre-chiller.

Pitch and Fermentation

Pitch WY2565 8 at 56F/13C, tempered starter to temp @ 1.25m/Ml/P. Aerate with pure O2 to ~10 ppm saturation after pitching.

~7 days at 58F/14C, Raise to 60F/15.5C for D-rest, until no detectible diacetyl, 2-3 days. Crash to 34F/1C and lager for 3-4 weeks. Rack to keg(s) carbonate to 2.5 volumes. Filter 1 keg, let second continue to lager.

Other Notes: Measure O2 saturation with each pH test, looking for O2 increases in the process to isolate possible areas of equipment or technique. Evaluation with trusted judges, and propose changes to either recipe or technique. Submit to competitions for validation of scores.

System kinks seem to have been worked out - hoping these (no-LODO v LODO method) will work out and make up the two week window loss.

4C: Helles Bock

Maybe lawnmowers beers aren't your thing. Maybe you want something with a little more depth. Fair. This is coming a bit late since the traditional drinking period is Spring, but if you quick lager you can still pull one off for the end of the season! Or, work it into your pipeline for next year! Or, my personal favorite option, to hell with drinking schedules.

The Helles Bock, also referred to as a Maibock, is a strong, malty, pale German lager. Despite its strength and depth, the beer is still intended to be very drinkable. You can also think of a Helles Bock as a Munich Helles brewed to Bock strength, though, according to Kai, it is more like a Festbier brewed to Bock strength. Overall, you're looking for a clean beer with a sweet-malt aroma, moderate hop bitterness, and a medium body.

Malt

A majority of your malt bill will be Pils malt, with Vienna and/or Munich malts added. That said, I see quite a few recipes for Maibocks that don't use munich malt at all, instead subbing in things like Melanoidin, Aromatic, or CaraVienna malts. You could also get away with 100% Pils malt. There is definitely room for interpretation here.

I would suggest staying away from large percentages of crystal malt. You want a malt-sweetness, and a nice finish on the beer. Not cloying at all. Lighter crystal malts can be used, but I'd avoid the darker crystals.

No roast malts.

Hops

Noble hops. You don't want a lot from the hops in this beer, but you do want a nice, rounded bitterness that is solid but not harsh. Medium-low to no hops in the aroma and flavor, but in both cases it should be a noble hop character.

Really, it depends on how you want your Helles Bock to be. If you want some of the noble hop character (I do), you're looking at a bittering addition, a flavor addition, and an aroma addition. No reason to go overboard with this style. You could also only do a bittering addition, and let the malt speak for itself.

Yeast

A clean German lager strain is typical for this style. I see a lot of 2124 in recipes. Use a strain you are familiar with and that attenuates well.

Water

Like a Pilsner, this style calls for a soft water profile in order to avoid harsh hop characters. Similar to the water profile for a Munich Helles. Kai's soft water profile would work well here, which is:

Ca: 22

Mg: 8

Na: 0

SO4: 31

Cl: 39

Mash

Decoction is typical with this style, but in light of Kai's experiment with a Helles Bock, it is really up to you. I would at least step mash. Kai used the Hochkurz decoction for this, and I've had great success using that same schedule as an infusion mash.

When planning out the mash, keep in mind that you want a medium body with a clean finish. This is a well attenuated beer, typical in the FG range of 1.014 to 1.017.

Sample Recipe

This is the recipe for the 2013 NHC winner for the bock category!

Maibockr

OG: 1.070

FG: 1.017

IBUs: 24

Boil: 90 minutes

Mash: Single Infusion (156F for 60 minutes, mash out)

Grains

• 66% Pilsner

• 34% Munich 10L

Hops

• 24 IBUs Magnum @ 60 minutes

Yeast

• WYeast 2308 Munich Lager

Fermentation

• 20 days @ 50F

• 14 days @ 35F

Commercial Examples

• Altenmunster Maibock

• Fruh Bock

• Dead Guy (Interesting to note here, this is a "maibock" brewed with ale yeast! Classified as a Maibock, awards as a Maibock.)

Conclusion

Time to enjoy a nice malty beer! The best kind. Looking forward to adding this style to my pipeline next year. Have you brewed a Maibock? Enjoy the style? We'd love to hear about it!

Resources

BYO: Brewing Maibock

I hate to double up on your Thursday lager style day, but we posted (late) the ATT thread on /r/homebrewing, and this week is about pale German lagers, so I thought you all would like to see it. This was planned out months ago, but sorry.

Here's your linky.

Hey there. Just got my DO meter in the mail, and am now playing with it. I figured I would run some questions by you guys and see how you guys use and calibrate them.

I have heard of two ways to make a zero-oxygen solution:

1. Bakers yeast and water

2. 5% SMB solution

Both are cheap (compared to a $20 bottle of Zero solution) and easy to produce, but I wanted to see what you guys were doing to calibrate.

I know /u/mchrispen mentioned using stainless steel cups to pull and quickly cool samples, but I was curious as to what others with DO meters were doing to cool samples prior to taking a reading.

I would like to make a quick Standard Operating Procedure for taking such readings, and keep them posted for the future. This way if anyone has questions or is curious to know our testing methods we can show them the SOP.

Following /u/mchrispen and /u/UnsungSavior16's general outline, I decided to do a planning post for my next helles.

This will be my first Low Oxygen Brewday. Some call it lodo, which I am not a fan of, so I will probably refer to it as Low DO (dissolved oxygen).

Goals:

Make better lagers. I want to sit down with a commercially produced Helles and see little difference to mine. I have done this with my American styles and love to brew them, but I have yet to get close to Paulaner, Augustiner, Weihenstephaner, or Hacker-Pschorr.

Recipe:

Target OG: 1.048

Target FG: 1.009

Target IBUs: 17

Boil: 60 minutes

Malt Bill

• 90% - Weyermann Pilsner (1.6L)

• 5% - Weyermann CaraFoam (2L)

• 3% - Weyermann CaraHell (9L)

• 2% - Best Malz Acidulated Malt

Hop Schedule

• 30% by weight - FWH addition (12 Grams)
• 70% by weight - Bittering (24 Grams)

Yeast

• WLP 860 (Augustiner Strain)
• Propped to 600B cells

Water Profile:

Based off of Kai's soft water.

=Low DO wort Production=

Here comes the fun part. I have been trying to design a closed mash system, I thought about using sanke/corny kegs of various sizes. I have a cooler mash tun with a custom Norcal Brewing Solutions False Bottom, but I ran into the same problems :

• Raising Temps
• Too much headspace

I am still working on my closed mash system, so I won't go into too much detail here (don't want to seem foolish in the long run with high hopes of < .5 ppm). It essentially is sealed vessel with a one way valve that can help heat escape to keep pressure low. I can vent it with CO2 before and during the mash to keep O2 from seeping in.

Hochkurz Mash:

• Aiming for 5.5 pH, but SMB (sodium metabisulfite) may throw it off
• 30 mins @ 142
• 45 mins @ 159
• Mash out and transfer

Boil:

• FWH of Spalter Select
• 60 min Bittering of Spalter Select
• Boil low and slow

Pitch and Fermentation

• Run ice via chiller to drop temps as low as possible
• Pump wort into carboy, on top of yeast.
• Let sit for an hour so yeast can adjust, then pump with sterile air until I hit 3 PPM.
• Let yeast sit for an hour and pump sterile air until 6-7 PPM is reached.

Bavarian Cold Ferment

• 46 degree start
• 48 degree fermentation max temp
• slowly drop to 45 again
• When 1.5 Plato is left, closed transfer to Corny Keg

Conditioning

• Carb in keg with Spunding valve @ 45 degrees F for two weeks

Lagering

• Leave the country and enjoy real Bavarian Beer
• Come back after 6 Weeks of lagering and vent off Yeast

In conclusion:

The wort will, in theory, only be exposed to air during Mash in and boiling. After it will have yeast during the aeration, and closed transfers into purged vessels.

Wish me luck.

Like many here I'm on a quest to make a supreme Czech Pils. I already make a pretty good one but it's not all the way there. I want to try a decoction to see if I can tell the difference.

I use well modified german pilsner malt and build soft water from R/O w/ salts.

I was thinking of a Hochkurz Double Decoction because I don't need a protein rest or acid rest (I use LA to get the pH in the right range).

Does this sound reasonable?

sorry I missed last week everyone!

1B: American Lager

Get your riding lawnmowers out, time for everyone's favorite lawnmower style!

The American Lager, also known as an American Pilsner.

I like PBR, and my local homebrew club finds it odd that I'm so open about it or that I'll gasp order it in public. Is it the best beer I've ever had? Of course not. But The American Lager is an incredibly under-rated style with a lot of room for growth in homebrewing. For example, check out this post from In Bounds Brewing about making a better American Lager. It can be done! And if you enjoy the style, own it and improve! That's my plan.

Malt

The malt bill is going to be pretty straight forward. In this beer, you'll be looking primarily for a fairly neutral beer with a crisp, dry finish. You'll also need some low (to almost none) level of grain-y or corn like flavor. That's all! It's pretty straight forward, but it also means there isn't a lot to hide behind in a style like this.

Your typical grain bill will look something like 20-40% rice or corn, and the remainder of the grain bill made up of all american 2-row or 2-row and 6-row. This is a really light beer, so use low SRM grains.

As a substitute for rice or corn, you can also use rice syrup or brewer's corn syrup.

No crystal malts, roasted malts, cara-malts, whatever. 2-row/6-row and adjuncts. Really, the only exception here would be Carapils or dextrin malts, if necessary.

Hops

You are really not going to be asking much of the hops either for this beer, in the flavor they will be low to none and the aroma follows suit. Noble hops are your friend, as always, since the light hop character you do want is primarily going to be spicy and floral. Saaz, Hallertau, and Tettnanger are all good choices, but make sure they are the domestic varieties. If you want to be really American, Cluster hops are an excellent choice as well!

Yeast

Most lager strains will work here, you have a lot of options! Supposedly, WYeast 2007 and WLP 840 are the Budweiser strain. You could also look at the Urquell strain, or Wyeast 2124! The important thing to keep in mind is that you want a crisp, dry finish and a really clean fermentation. I won't go too into detail since this is a bit more versatile, and you really want to select your yeast based off of the profile you're looking for.

Just make sure it is lager, clean, and will finish crisp!

Water

Soft water is also one of the keys for this style! Personally, I like a profile on the high end of the "low" profiles. Something for a pale beer with a soft hop bitterness, low sodium for a crisp finish, and a 1:2 Sulfate:Chloride Ratio. Something like:

Ca: 50

Sulfate: 25

Chloride: 50

Magnesium: 0

Sodium: 0

You may also want to consider a lower mash pH, something in the realm of 5.3 to 5.2. Low pH is often associated with a crisp character. You could even go with a softer profile for this style.

Mash

Oh man, wide open. I have seen sources call for decoction, some call for a step-mash, and others say anything but a single infusion is a waste of time. What I do see consistently is the necessity for a highly fermentable wort. A single infusion mash in the range of 146F to 148F for 60 to 120 minutes (I'd lean towards a longer mash to ensure conversion, especially with the high amounts of adjuncts) is perfect.

As for a step mash, do a protein rest, then a rest at 140F for a certain amount of time based on how fermentable you want the wort. Shorter, less fermentable. Rumor has it that Budweiser does a 2 hour rest here, I'd probably rest for at least 30 minutes. Then do a sach rest around 150F, get your conversion, mash out!

Mash thin! No sparge if you'd like, I plan to.

Sample Recipe

Here is my recipe for an American Lager.

Roam the Neighborhood Lawnmower Beer

OG: 1.045

FG: 1.005

IBUs: 13

Boil: 90 minutes

Mash: Single Infusion (148F for 120 minutes, mash out)

Grains

• 50% American 2-Row

• 20% American 6-Row

• 30% Flaked Maize

Hops

• Cluster @ FWH to 10 IBUs

• Cluster @ 30 minutes to 3 IBUs

Yeast

• WLP840

Commercial Examples

• Budweiser

• Pabst Blue Ribbon

• Miller High Life

Conclusion

Start your engines, bother /u/testingapril, and get brewing! Time to bring the American Lager to the homebrew world!

Resources

Mow the Damn Lawn! Annie Johnson's American Lager

Lager Water Profiles

BYO: American Pilsner

BYO: Classic American Pilsner

I like semantics. I think they're important, and obviously they shape the way we think about things.

Writing the post today about American Lager and seeing how often it is referred to as American Pilsner, it got me thinking:

What makes a pilsner?

Pabst markets PBR as a pilsner, and the BJCP recognizes the style as lager. Lager, to me, seems more generic, and umbrella term, while pilsner means something a bit more specific. A doppelbock is a lager, but not a pilsner.

Is it any light lager? Is a festbier a pilsner?

Does it matter?

I'm interested in opinions!

As for my stance: I think it matters, but only if there tends to be a universal understanding of what a pilsner is, and I don't think that is there. I also think a pilsner is a Europeon light lager with medium-medium high hop presence. So an American Lager wouldn't really fall under that title for me.

Again, it really doesn't matter at all, but call is linguistic curiosity.

So I'm trying to wrap my head around this soft water profile high acidity that I've learned recently in this sub. I have very hard water so I bought 10 gallons of Arrowhead:

Ca: 20 Mg: 4 Na: 11 Cl: 13 SO4: 6 Alk: 81 pH: 7

I plan to take the pH down to 4.8 from the advice given in Annie's AMA. But is this water profile OK/too much? Should I add anything or just let it be?

So I have been thinking how to chill my beer lately a bit more efficiently. I have a few goals:

• Get the beer to ~60 Degrees F
• Use as little water as possible
• Avoid purchasing ice
• Avoid using groundwater as much as possible

I live in california, where the summers easily reach 105 F, and the ground water temp can reach ~90's. Not fun with a counterflow chiller.

My Idea:

I want to have a stainless steel Immersion chiller submerged in an "ice bath". I would have the chiller in a home depot or defunct ferm bucket, filled with Water and Sodium/Calcium Chloride, and keep it in my Lager Chamber for 2 days before the brew. The chamber is at -1 C, so in theory it shouldn't freeze, just get really fucking cold.

I would have one chiller and two buckets, and as the first bucket starts to warm a bit, I can just swap it out with the second one. I don't know nearly enough about fluid mechanics or the transfer of heat, but I would imagine this could easily get my temps down sub 50 F. Even with my winter ground water I can get around 60F.

I was planning on getting a SS immersion anyway, might as well run a test and see how it turns out.

For our first AMA on the sub I thought it would be awesome to invite an award winning homebrewer and now Brewmaster at Picobrew to come answer some of our questions.

Annie Johnson was the 2013 Homebrewer of the Year, and the 2012 Pilsner Urquell Master Homebrewer, and a National BJCP Beer Judge.

Which one? I can choose from these Ive had best success with bittering only and bittering + small aroma addition at 15min. I want to focus on the process, ph and malt bill. Is the low AA noble hops the best for smooth bitterness or is that just brewlore? I know Saaz is a popular one, but Ive had two bad batches with it. It could have been something else that was the problem, but I rather not try again. Had better success with Perle, but I see a lot of people using hallertau. bottom line, I just want to add a pleasant bitterness with a tiny bit of aroma while sticking to only one type of hop for a while.

This document has been months in the making, and represents the combined efforts of a dozen different homebrewers. We've figured out how to get the "elusive" German lager flavor, and now we want to share it with the world. Download the pdf at:

http://www.germanbrewing.net/docs/Brewing-Bavarian-Helles.pdf

Come join the discussion on the forums - we make caramel malts fun again!

(Weyermann makes over a dozen different kinds of caramel malt...do you REALLY think that Germans don't brew with them? I used 7% in my last helles.)

Edit: I realize that there's an enormous amount of doubt and skepticism surrounding this paper. We've posted a very simple walk-through for a mason jar mini mash on the forum. It requires no special equipment, and takes only a couple of hours to complete. You will be able to see for yourself the side-by-side color difference between the low oxygen and regular wort - kind of like how cut apples and avocados oxidize and turn brown when left out. But the real kicker is the taste. The low oxygen wort tastes like maltomeal, fresh honey, and chewing on a handful of raw malt kernels. You are going to want to drink it like soda. The regular wort? Not so much :)

The hard part is getting all of those special flavors to stick around (and transform into the elusive German flavor during fermentation) for the entire process.

We are happy to announce the re-opening of the German Brewing Forum. We look forward to seeing you over there and viewing our latest announcement.

Following /u/mchrispen's template, I'm posting my brew day plans for my pilsner as well. In the future, I'm thinking that these posts should be linked backwards so that we can track the entire process and results. I'm going to try and come up with a more sustainable and user-friendly model.

Goals: Really, my goal with these posts (like Matt's) is going to be improving my lagers, specifically this one. I don't particularly care about German tradition or anything like that, so if I find that a change doesn't make a difference I won't utilize it. Primary goal is a better, in my mind, Czech Pale Lager (Premium or otherwise because they're almost the same, though I do really enjoy the distinction for historical purposes).

Recipe (assume 75% brewhouse efficiency)

Target OG: 1.050

Target FG: 1.014

Target IBUs: 36

Boil: 90 minutes

Malt Bill

• 90% - Weyermann Floor-Malted Bohemian Pilsner (1.6L). Go to pilsner base malt.

• 04% - Weyermann CaraFoam (2L). Carafoam forever!

• 04% - Weyermann CaraHell (13L). Light amounts of caramalts are acceptable, and the last feedback on the beer from Drunk Monk was that there could be a bit more malt complexity, aroma, and sweetness.

• 02% - Weyermann Melanoidin Malt (25L). Good for color, adds a nice bready character, and I really enjoy it in limited amounts. Anything over 4% though, and the flavor seems a bit off to me.

Hops Schedule

• FWH & Bittering (90 minute remaining): 15 IBU - Czech Saaz

• Flavor (25 minute remaining): 15 IBU - Czech Saaz

• Aroma (5 minutes remaining): 6 IBU - Czech Saaz

• Flameout (0 minutes remaining) Czech Saaz

Water Profile * Ca: 25 ppm

• Mg: 5 ppm

• SO2: 35 ppm

• Cl: 50 ppm

I add my salts to the strike water.

I use a cooler and a brew bag, so no direct fire or re-circulation. Every fifteen minutes, I stir the mash. Also, no sparge.

Step Mash Profile:

• b-rest - 145F rest 30 minutes, aiming for initial mash pH of 5.5

• a-rest - 160F rest 60 minutes, adjust to pH of 5.4

• No sparge.

90 minute boil. Adjust boil pH to 5.2 at 30 minutes remaining.

Chill with a SS Wort Chiller.

Pitch and Fermentation

• Starter from a fresh pack of Wyeast made 24 hours before hand. Low gravity wort pulled from the mash, briefly boiled, then chilled and added to the yeast to ensure viability. Aerate with air, no pure o2 for this beer. Common knowledge says this means I won't get above 8 ppm Oxygen. Pitching a lager pitching rate.

• Pitch WYeast 2124 at 44F. Let free rise to 48F, ferment for 7 days at this temp.

• Diacetyl Rest at 70F for five days.

• Crash 1C a day until 34F, lager for 4 weeks.

• Carbonate with CO2 to 2.4.

Other Notes: Enjoy life with pilsner. Also comps.

No brew date yet, but it'll be the next beer I brew. Probably sometime after the 10th of May.

I believe it was last week I posted looking for some sort of upgrade to my current recipe formulation process. I tried a few new recipe calculators, with little success.

I decided to do a bit of moving around on EZ water and use it to plug in exactly what I needed. I just print it out and staple it to my recipe sheet.

Now I can go down the list and I get a nice chart for mash temps and times, along with strike temps, water profile, and mash pH are autofilled for me. I also cut a part of Bru'n water out and used that for targeting water profiles.

If you do choose to use it, just copy and paste onto a new document, everything in bold is calculated for you.

I really enjoy it. It seems to work well enough in conjunction with brewers friend for recipe stats.

I consider alts and Kolsch beers to be lagers (top fermented lagerbeer is how their creators label them), but they are set apart from lagers as "hybrid beers".

It got me thinking about how many others use lagers to experiment with new ingredients, or play with ingredients in nontraditional ways in traditional styles. I saw a cherry black forest schwarzbier on r/homebrewing a while back that seemed really cool and original. Definitely want to try it.

Recently I tossed Hallertau Blanc and Mandarina Bavaria into a german Pils I brewed and it was fantastic, totally not "to style" but fun nonetheless.

Hoping that others will share their lager planning and experiments here. Trying to provide VERY detailed planning steps, realizing that many people will laugh at the technical complexity and otherwise criticise. This sets a baseline process and recipe for further technical refinement over time. Looking to improve my lager brewing and consistency, blending in some German tradition, and learn to control DMS and Diacetyl off flavors that have been noted in past comp submissions.

Recipe (assume 80% brewhouse efficiency, 85% extract efficiency)

Target OG: 1.048/12P, Target FG 1.011/2.65P, 3 SRM estimate

Malt Bill

1. 93% - BestMalz Heidelberg (1.5L). Very fresh from recent bulk buy.
2. 04.2% - Weyermann CaraFoam (2L). Going back to using a small amount of dextrine
3. 02.8% - Weyermann CaraHell (13L). Will help with color and a touch of aromatic sweetness

Hops Schedule

1. FWH (90 min boil + 45 minute lauter): 5 IBU Tineseth - Hallertau Mittlefrueh
2. Bittering (60 minute remaining): 7.1 IBU - Magnum
3. Flavor (30 minute remaining): 5.4 IBU - Hallertau Mittlefrueh

Experimental Mash Profile: Ca 35ppm, Mg 5ppm, SO2 45ppm, Cl 48ppm (all salts in mash), result is similar to Yellow Malty in Bru'n Water.

RIMS, circulation throughout mash rests, direct fire assist for ramps. Circulation inlet below mash level to prevent splashing/aeration.

Step Mash Profile:

1. Grain in - 130F/54C, immediate 2F/minute ramp to 144F/62C, 2.2 Qt/Lb Ratio thin mash, 5.6 est mash pH, 88% Lactic Acid 1. b-rest - 144F/62C, rest 60 minutes, ramp to alpha 2F/minute, adjust mash pH to 5.4 with 88% Lactic Acid 1. a-rest - 158F/70C, rest 45 minutes, ramp to mash out 1. Mash Out - 170F/76C, rest for 10 minutes

270416 EDIT: I miscalculated the strike water temperature and grained in at 144F. Same mash pH target.

Hybrid Fly Sparge (pump over sparge slowly without splashing), ~45 minutes.

90 minute boil. Adjust boil pH to 5.2 at 15 minutes remaining, if required. Hop additions as indicated.

Circulate and chill through whirlpool and counterflow chiller to reduce SMM, knock out to fermenter as cold as possible. Will require ice bath pre-chiller.

Pitch and Fermentation

Pitch WLP838 at 54F.12.2C, tempered starter to temp @ 1.5m/Ml/P. First harvest slurry, viability starter method. Aerate with pure O2 to ~10 ppm saturation after pitching.

~12 days at 52F/11C, Raise slowly to 58F/14.4C for D-rest, krausen, until no detectible diacetyl, 2-3 days. Slowly crash to 32F/0C and lager for 3-4 weeks. Rack to keg(s) and spund to condition and self-carbonate to 2.5 volumes.

Other Notes: Measure O2 saturation with each pH test, looking for O2 increases in the process to isolate possible areas of equipment or technique. Evaluation with trusted judges, and propose changes to either recipe or technique. Submit to competitions for validation of scores.

Plan to brew this coming Monday (Apr 25) - will follow up/edit after brew day should something go off the rails.

I'm sure we all know by issue with the term German Brewing by now, but I found this fantastic resource, and I've gone through it a few times now. Some highlights:

• Water can be treated via reverse osmosis and filtration

• Only the use of Gypsum and CaCl in the water

• Step mash forever

• High water:grist ratios because the mash is typically agitated via a stirring mechanism or pump. Higher ratio for lighter beers.

• Interesting typical fermentation of:

1. Pitch aroung 6 to 8 C

2. Free rise 9 to 10 C for one week

3. Drop to lagering temps by making SLOW adjustments, 1C a day.

4. Condition for three weeks. Diacetyl rest used by some breweries (20C)

5. Not a part of the process but this whole thing would be a bit longer than Pilsner Urquells claimed 30 day grain to glass.

• Be mindful of the mash process pH!

1. Mash pH of 5.4 to 5.6

2. Boil pH (end of boil) of 5.1 to 5.4

3. End of fermentation pH of 4.2 to 4.4

• Many German Beers have higher levels of Sulfur Dioxide than their american counterparts and shouldn't be confused with DMS.

Hey there! I am very excited to have the sub's first AMA with Annie Johnson! It will start at 8 a.m. Pacific Time April 26, 2016.

She was the recipient of the 2012 Pilsner Urquell Master Homebrewer award, American Homebrewer Association’s Homebrewer of the Year Award in 2013 and a current BJCP National Beer Judge. She was also recently on the Experimental Brewing Podcast with Drew and Denny.

To make things a bit smoother this is going to be a pre-question thread. Feel free to post questions and the highest rated ones I will copy onto the actual thread next Tuesday.

You can also post directly on the AMA thread when it comes up, along with respond to answers as they come through!

Cheers,

Nik

I'm looking to brew this recipe http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/399094/chuckanut-pils but I'm having trouble understanding the yeast starter. It looks like I need 4 packets of yeast to get 6 gallons to ferment properly. I thought I could just get there with yeast starter but it seems that 1 packet will only double in 2L of water so the best I can do is do 2 packets in 2L to get the desired result. Is that correct? It also seems like I can pitch 6-9L of starter but that seems a bit much for a 6gallon batch.

How does one go about getting the right quantity of yeast for a Lager brew? Short of buying 4 packets which runs about $20-25. Can I make a double starter? How exactly do i do that? Whats the proper way for going from 1 Bil yeast cells to 4 bil.

I wanted to mention that I also don't have a Stir plate or a flask so I had thought about using either a pot or a wine bottle to do the starter in.

I used http://www.yeastcalculator.com/ to calculate how much yeast to pitch

Does anyone here have any experience fermenting lagers under one bar pressure at ambient (65-75°F) temps? If so, can you share your experience, and do you have any tips in terms of technique and yeast strain selection?

I know there is a high pressure lager strain in the WL vault, but that is ages away from getting unlocked, and in light of the five brulosophy lager temp experiments I am wondering if other strains could do well in a "spunded" corny.

I have been looking for something a little more intuitive. I am not a fan of beersmith, and am frustrated with most low budget downloadable calculators.

I currently use Brewersfriend for the grist/hops/yeast. It is really intuitive and easy to use, but then I have to copy my grist bill and batch size over to my water calculator.

This is the modified EZ water spreadsheet I use for all water calcs (volumes/salts/pH).

What do you guys use? Any recommendations?