Tag Archives: pilsner

Schell’s Pils Clone

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It’s always lager season, and especially so during the warm opening days of fall here in SoCal. I’m continuing to explore the morphospace of pilsners, with my latest foray following a recipe in Craft Beer for the Homebrewer: Recipes from America’s Top Brewmasters. I was particularly interested by a clone recipe for a pilsner from Schell’s Brewing, based out of Minnesota. One notable thing about the provided recipe is that it used American 2-row instead of European pilsner malt. They’re not too far off each other in terms of color, so I thought it would be a neat test of malt character.

The recipe itself closely matches that in the book; my main adjustment was to modify the hop schedule slightly for amounts and time to account for the hops I had on hand.

Close-up of pilsner beer foam in conical glass

Schell’s Pils Clone

  • 10.5 lb. 2-row pale malt (Rahr)
  • 0.25 lb. Carapils malt (Briess)
  • 1.9 oz. Mt. Hood hop pellets (4.6% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient, 10 minute boil
  • 1.1 oz. Mt. Hood hop pellets (4.6% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Sterling hop pellets (7.9% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. Harvest liquid yeast (Imperial Yeast #L17), prepared in 1.5L starter
  • 1 oz. Sterling hop pellets (7.4% alpha), 7 day dry hop

Target Parameters

  • 1.050 o.g., 1.013 f.g., 4.8% abv, 38 IBU, 3 SRM
  • 60 minute infusion mash, 152°, batch sparge
  • Water built up from RO, to hit target water profile of 59 ppm Ca, 8 ppm Mg, 89 ppm SO4, 63 ppm Cl; RA=-47ppm

Procedure

  • I made a 1.5L starter a few days in advance, let it run for 48 hours, and then cold crashed it (and decanted the spent wort).
  • To create my brewing water, I added 3.3 g gypsum, 2.7 g epsom salt, and 4.2 g calcium chloride to 8.5 gallons of RO water.
  • I mashed in with 3.5 gallons of water at 162°, to hit a mash temperature of 152.2°. I added 7.5 mL of 88% lactic acid to the mash, to help hit a target pH of ~5.3.
  • After 50 minutes, I added 1.25 gallons of water at 185°, in order to raise the mash temperature o 156°. I let the mash sit for 10 more minutes, vorlaufed, and collected first runnings. Then, I added 3.75 gallons of water at 185°, let sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected second runnings.
  • In total, I collected 6.9 gallons of wort with a gravity of 1.042, for 74% efficiency.
  • I brought the runnings to a boil, adding hops and other kettle additions per the schedule. After 60 minutes, I turned off the flame and chilled down as far as I could (~80°) before transferring.
  • I chilled the wort down to 57°, before pitching the yeast and continuing to chill down to 52°. I completed the fermentation at 52°.
  • A good krausen was built within 24 hours.
  • I brewed the beer on 11 August 2019.
  • On 18 August 2019, I raised the temperature of the beer to 56°.
  • On 21 August 2019, I raised the temperature of the beer to 66°.
  • I added the dry hops on 24 August 2019.
  • I cold crashed the beer to 33° on 29 August 2019.
  • I kegged the beer on 1 September 2019. Final gravity was 1.008 (via refractometer), for 5.5% abv.

IMG_20191009_171317

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Pours with a thick, fine, frothy head, that is quite persistent. The beer itself is light yellow and fairly clear (but just a touch away from brilliant clarity).
  • Aroma
    • Light grainy aroma, with a nice spicy hop note alongside it. Very clean!
  • Flavor
    • Grainy and ever-so-slightly sweet malt profile, with a firm, clean, and slightly spicy bitterness. Balance is tilted modestly in the hoppy direction.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Crisp, with a slightly dry finish. Moderately high carbonation.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • YES! This is a really nice German-American pilsner, all the more interesting because I got such a nice malt flavor profile using American 2-row rather than European pilsner malt. The Rahr 2-row is pretty light (1.8 SRM), not too far from typical pilsner malt (Weyermann Barke pilsner is actually 1.9 SRM), so I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising, at least on the basis of color. I’m particularly pleased with the head retention on this beer; it pours with a beautiful foam that sticks around for quite awhile. If I had a little more patience, I would let it condition a bit longer to clarify to brilliant, but that’s pretty much the only (minor) flaw in this beer.
  • Overall
    • 9.5/10

Czech Pilsner

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My homebrew club recently had a competition centered around Bohemian-style pilsners. I’ve done a few iterations, but haven’t quite hit where I want to yet. The primary issue concerns hop aroma–it’s really, really hard to get good Saaz as a homebrewer. Gotta keep trying.

Czech Pilsner

  • 10.5 lbs. Barke Pilsner malt (Weyermann)
  • 2.4 oz. melanoidin malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.3 oz. Carafa Special III malt (Weyermann)
  • 2 oz. Saaz hop pellets (3.0% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Saaz hop pellets (3.5% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient, 10 minute boil
  • 2 oz. Saaz whole hops (2.8% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. WLP800 Pilsner Lager yeast, prepared in starter

Target Parameters

  • 1.050 o.g., 1.010 f.g., 5.2% abv, 35 IBU, 5 SRM
  • 60 minute infusion mash, 150°, batch sparge
  • Water built from RO, to hit target of 20 ppm CA, 8 ppm Na, 15 ppm SO4, 35 ppm Cl, -61 ppm RA

Procedure

  • I made a 2L yeast starter a few days in advance, and cold crashed it, followed by decantation of the spent wort.
  • I built up the mash water using 0.6 g baking soda, 0.4 g CaCl, 0.4 g gypsum, added to 8.5 gallons of RO water.
  • I mashed in with 3.5 gallons of water at 161°, to hit a mash temperature of 150.2°. I added 7 mL of 88% lactic acid, to adjust the pH of the mash.
  • After a 60 minute mash, I batch sparged in two steps (first of 1.25 gallons, second of 3.6 gallons). At each step, I let the mash sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the runnings.
  • In total, I collected 6.9 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.043, for 75% mash efficiency. Right on target!
  • I boiled for 60 minutes, adding stuff per the recipe, and then chilled after flame-out.
  • I transferred the wort to my fermenter, and put it in the fermentation chamber to drop down to 48°. This took a few hours. Then, I oxygenated for 30 seconds and pitched the yeast.
  • I fermented the brew at 50°. The brew date was 25 May 2019.
  • After three weeks, I raised the temp to 65° for a few days, then cold crashed. After a few more days, I kegged the beer using a semi-closed transfer (CO2-flushed keg, but just air-pushed the beer into the keg). Alas, I neglected to take a final gravity!

Tasting

  • I didn’t get to do a formal tasting before the keg kicked, but did get a few quick observations.
  • The beer flavor was a bit too forward on the melanoidin; I will just ditch that in the future! I am still in search of good hop aroma…overall, the beer is just OK with good clarity, decent head; not quite there yet. Bitterness level is about right. Malt body is about right.
  • Overall, 6/10.

Alta California Lager

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It’s late spring in California…theoretically, this should be a warm time of the year. A few months back, I wanted to have a clear, clean, tasty Mexican-style lager on hand for the anticipated afternoons out on the patio. It’s ended up being a cooler and rainier stretch than I expected, but that hasn’t hampered my enjoyment of this beer.

I’ve never brewed a Mexican-style lager in the vein of Corona or Modelo before, so this challenge started with some research. Corn is a key ingredient–but when I stopped by my local shop, they had just sold out of their last flaked corn (everyone else had the same recipe plans, I guess)! So, I took the suggestion to try a cereal mash with corn grits. This contingency plan apparently made all of the difference.

My recipe is based primarily on the Light Mexican Lager recipe in the May/June 2017 issue of Zymurgy (by Amahl Turczyn). The name for this recipe is an homage to the old provincial name for my part of California. It has little link with anything historical, because Alta California ceased to exist before German brewing techniques were widely adopted in Mexico…

This beer is going down as a legendary batch–I had fun brewing it with my dad (we rarely get to brew together because of the distance), and the beer tastes amazing. The cereal mash was a ton of work and substantially lengthened my brew day, but the results were worth it.

IMG_20190402_072248

White corn grits, ready to go into the cereal mash

Alta California Lager

  • 5.5 lbs. Barke pilsner malt (Weyermann)
  • 2 lbs. white corn grits
  • 1.5 lb. Vienna malt (Great Western)
  • 4 oz. rice hulls
  • 0.35 oz. Magnum hop pellets (13.2% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. Fermax, 10 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Saaz hop pellets (3.5% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. WLP940 Mexican Lager yeast (White Labs), prepared in 1.75 L starter

Target Parameters

  • 60 minute infusion mash with cereal mash, 152°, batch sparge
  • 1.055 o.g., 1.012 f.g., 5.7% abv, 44 IBU, 8 SRM
  • “Mexican lager water”, built from ~8.5 gallons of RO water with 1.5 g of calcium chloride, to hit ~13 ppm Ca and 23 ppm Cl, -9 RA

Procedure

  • This was a complicated brew session! Lots of moving parts, all happening at roughly the same time.
  • A few days in advance, I made a 1.75L starter, letting it ferment out and then cold-crashing. The supernate was decanted off before pitching.
  • My cereal mash procedure followed recommendations from Milk The Funk. I combined 0.5 lb. of the pilsner malt with the 2 lb. of white corn grits, adding water until things were at the right consistency. This was around a gallon of RO water. I added water until the grains approximated a “thin gruel” consistency, and held it at 158° for 5 minutes. Then, I heated the cereal mash to a boil, stirring constantly for 30 minutes. We added water as needed to keep it from getting too thick.
  • As the cereal mash was nearing its end, we started the main mash, using 3 gallons of RO water with ~0.5 g of CaCl, heated to 138°. We hit a mash temperature (for just the barley, exclusive of the barley and corn in the cereal mash) of 133°. I added 6 mL of 88% lactic acid, and then added in the near-boiling cereal mash. This brought the temperature up to 145°. I added another 0.5 gallon of water at near boiling to hit around 148.5°.
  • After 75 minutes, the mash was down to 143°. I added 1 gallon of water at 200° to bring the mash up to 149°. I let this sit for 15 more minutes, and then used an iodine test to check for conversion. Success! The mash was converted completely.
  • I collected the first runnings, and then added 4.5 gallons of RO water with 1 g of CaCl, to raise the mash up to 160°. After 10 minutes, I vorlaufed and collected the second runnings.
  • In total, we collected 7.1 gallons of runnings, with a gravity of 1.037. This equates to 79% mash efficiency!
  • Because my gravity was a little low and my volume a little high, I boiled the runnings for 20 minutes before adding the hops. This was followed by a 60 minute boil, adding the various ingredients per the recipe. Towards the end of the boil, the gravity was up to 1.048, a little higher than I wanted. So, I added 0.25 gallon of RO water for adjustment.
  • After the full 80 minutes of boiling, I chilled the wort down to ~80° and transferred to the fermenter. I chilled it down further to 50° before oxygenating (30 seconds) and pitching the yeast.
  • I brewed this beer on 2 April 2019, starting with a 50° fermentation temperature as mentioned above. On 3 April, I raised the temperature to 53°. On 9 April, I raised the temperature to 60°, because I wanted to kick this through quickly.
  • I raised the temperature to 62° on 12 April, and 67° on 14 April.
  • Final gravity was 1.010, which equates to 4.6% abv. I cold crashed to 33° on 16 April 2019.
  • I kegged the beer using a closed transfer on 24 April 2019. This was done to reduce oxygen pick-up and keep the beer fresher for longer.
  • I force-carbonated the beer,noted that it had dropped pretty clear within about 2 weeks, and crystal clear within about 3 weeks. By the time of my tasting (~4 weeks after kegging), this beer was brilliant!

IMG_20190514_161406

Tasting

  • Aroma
    • Clean, slight hint of corn, a little bit of hop spiciness
  • Appearance
    • Brilliantly clear, light gold in color. The tall white head settles down to a rim around the glass as the beer is consumed
  • Flavor
    • Crisp and clean; the grainy malt has a hint of corn behind it, and that is backed up by an assertive but not overwhelming hop bitterness. The finish is tilted towards the bitter end versus the malty end, but not overly so.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Off-dry, moderately high carbonation, smooth finish
  • Would I brew this again?
    • This is (modestly speaking) an amazing beer! I’m incredibly impressed by how this one rounded out. It’s eminently drinkable, and ridiculously beautiful in appearance. When I brought it to my brew club meeting, several people thought that I had thrown a commercial ringer into the mix! I’ve never had a lager clear so completely and so quickly. I suspect it’s a combination of the yeast strain and cereal mash–next time I brew this recipe, I won’t be making any changes or taking any shortcuts!
  • Overall
    • 10/10

GBP70 – Bohemian Pilsner Recipe & Tasting

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In honor of my dad’s 70th birthday (he introduced me to homebrewing, after all!), I brewed a Bohemian-style pilsner. It was pretty tasty, and sadly didn’t last long enough even for me to do a formal tasting. I made the mistake of serving it at a party, and the keg was finished before I could blink!

GBP70 (Greg’s Birthday Pilsner 70)

  • 10.5 lbs. Barke pilsner malt (Weyermann)
  • 2.3 oz. melanoidin malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.3 oz. Carafa Special III malt (Weyermann)
  • 2 oz. Saaz hop pellets (3.0% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 0.75 oz. Saaz hop pellets (3.5% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient, 10 minute boil
  • 2.25 oz. Saaz hop pellets (3.5% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 2 pkg. W34/70 Saflager Lager Yeast (Fermentis)

Target Parameters

  • 60 minute infusion mash, 150°, no sparge
  • 1.049 o.g., 1.010 f.g., 5.2% abv, 38 IBU, 5 SRM
  • Water built from RO to hit targets of 7 ppm Ca, 2 ppm Mg, 2 ppm Na, 5 ppm SO4, 5 ppm Cl, 15 ppm HCO3

Procedure

  • To 7.75 gallons of RO water, I added 0.6 g baking soda, 0.4 g CaCl, and 0.3 g gypsum.
  • I heated the mash water to ~160°, added to the mash tun, allowed to cool to 155.4°, and then added the grains along with 10 mL of 88% lactic acid.
  • I hit 150.7° on the mash temperature–not too bad! It was down to 148.7° after 45 minutes.
  • After 60 minutes, I collected 6.5 gallons of wort with a gravity of 1.041. This works out to 67% efficiency. That’s a fair bit lower than my typical efficiency (73 to 75%), but not unexpected given the no-sparge methods. I added 0.25 gallons of RO water to bring up the volume in the kettle.
  • I boiled for 60 minutes, adding hops and other ingredients per the schedule.
  • I chilled the wort to 75° in the kettle, and chilled the rest of the way down to 49° after transferring to the fermenter. I oxygenated for 60 minutes at this point, and then pitched the dry yeast directly into the wort.
  • Starting gravity was 1.046 on 12 January 2019.
  • I raised the brew temperature to 64° on 26 February 2019, and cold crashed on 28 February 2019. I kegged the beer (using a closed-transfer technique, directly into the CO2-purged keg) on 9 March 2019.
  • Final gravity was 1.010, down from 1.046. This equates to 4.9% abv.

IMG_20190327_202833General Tasting Impressions

I didn’t get to do a formal tasting for this one, and it was finished before it really hit its ultimate peak, but overall I’m pretty happy with it. The malt flavor was spot-on, and I think I’ve finally iterated into a good balance of melanoidin malt within my no-decoction Bohemian pilsner recipes. The beer was pretty clear, but would have cleared to brilliant with another week or two in the keg. The head and head retention were fairly good also, but not the best I’ve ever had. Not sure why that was. I’m still chasing a perfect Saaz hop aroma in my Bohemian pilsners; it’s just a matter of finding the right hops with the right freshness. The ones I used in this batch weren’t awful, but they weren’t awfully exceptional, either. Overall, I would give this recipe 8/10, with targeted improvements to mainly chase the best possible hop flavor.

Bierstadt Pils Clone

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It’s pils time again, as I continue my exploration of European lagers. The July/August 2018 issue of BYO magazine had a tasty looking clone recipe, for Bierstadt Lagerhaus’ Slow Pour Pils. Its simplicity was beautiful–pilsner malt, acidulated malt, Hallertau Mittelfrueh hops, and lager yeast. Additionally, it gave me a chance to play around with more step mashes and decoctions.

I followed the published recipe pretty closely, adjusting just slightly on my additions to ensure that the bittering hops would still hit my target of ~33 IBU. But, I then saw a correction in a later issue that the whirlpool addition should instead be a late hop addition. I figure this probably won’t mess things up too much, giving a bit more hop aroma, although also leaving slightly more potential for haze. In any case, the official recipe is posted at the BYO website.

Because I don’t have direct-fire capabilities for my mash tun, all of the steps had to be accomplished via infusions. This took a bit of creativity, but I managed reasonably well. As another wrinkle in the process, I tried for the first time a closed-transfer technique. In the past, I found that my pilsners tended to get that honey-like taste of oxidation after 6-8 weeks, which detracted from my overall enjoyments towards the end of the keg. As noted below, my attention to technique paid off pretty well!

Bierstadt Pils Clone

  • 8 lbs. Barke pilsner malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.5 lb. acidulated malt (BEST)
  • 1 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hop pellets (4.0% alpha), first wort hop and 60 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hop pellets (2.7% alpha), 40 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hop pellets (2.7% alpha), 10 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hop pellets (4.0% alpha), 10 minute whirlpool
  • 2 pkg. W34/70 Saflager lager yeast
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil

Target Parameters

  • 1.048 s.g, 1.011 f.g., 4.9% abv, 33 IBU, 3.4 SRM
  • Infusion step mash with decoction
  • Water built from 8.12 gallons of RO water, with 1.6 g CaCl, 1.25 gypsum, 1 g epsom salts in 3.25 gallons of mash water, and 2.4 g CaCl, 1.9 g gypsum, 1.5 g epsom salts in 5 gallons of sparge water, to achieve -47 RA, 59 ppm Ca, 8 ppm Mg, 89 ppm SO4, 63 ppm Cl

Procedure

  • I mashed in with 2.5 gallons of water at 150° (1.054 quarts/pound of grain), aiming for a protein rest temperature of 131°. Instead, I hit 141°, and stirred frequently to get it down to 136° by the end of the 10 minute protein rest.
  • I next added 1.5 quarts of boiling water to achieve a mash rest of 144°. After 30 minutes, the temperature was down to 140°. I then added 1.5 quarts of boiling water, to hit 152°. This was below my target of 160°, so I added another 2 quarts of boiling water, to finally hit 160°. I let it sit here for 40 minutes before proceeding to the next step. In total, I added 4.5 gallons of water for the mash.
  • Next, I pulled a thin mash of 2.75 gallons, and boiled it for 10 minutes. Next, I added it back to the mash tun, to hit 168°. I let this sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the first runnings.
  • Next, I added 3.25 gallons of water at 180°, let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the second runnings.
  • In total, I collected 6.75 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.053, for 87% mash efficiency.
  • I brought the runnings to a boil, adding hops and kettle finings per the schedule. To keep bitterness closer to my calculated numbers, I removed the boil hops before adding the whirlpool charge.
  • I chilled the wort to 85°, and then transferred it to the fermenter, where it was further chilled to 49° in my fermentation chamber. I oxygenated with 60 seconds of pure O2, and then pitched the two packets of dry yeast directly.
  • Starting gravity was 1.053, with brewing on 31 August 2018. I fermented at 50°, until 25 September 2018, when I cold crashed to 36°.
  • I did a closed transfer to the keg (under CO2 pressure) on 27 October 2018.
  • Final gravity was 1.012; down from 1.053, this works out to 5.4% abv.
Boiling the decoction

Tasting Results

  • The Basics
    • 1.053 o.g., 1.012 f.g., 5.4% abv
  • Appearance
    • Brilliantly clear, light yellow beer, with a fine, white, and persistent head
  • Aroma
    • Slight spicy hop aroma, with a pleasant and gentle maltiness behind that
  • Flavor
    • Robust hop character nicely balanced against a grainy/sweet malt profile. Really nice!
  • Mouthfeel
    • Moderately dry, with a smooth finish that tilts toward the hoppy end in a gentle yet firm way.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • Absolutely! This has matured into a wonderfully drinkable, really delightful beer. I’m pleased with how such a simple recipe can produce excellent results.
  • Overall
    • 9/10