Bayou Beer

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Tag Archives: german pilsner

German Pilsner 1.5 Gallon Attempt B

May 20th, 2016

Given the first attempt was more shaking out the bugs in the new brewing system this will be drastically different than the first. Switched to Saaz in this recipe because I initially intended to use Saaz but couldn’t find any in my freezer. In this second attempt everything is larger. The boil volume is 3 gallons with the hope of getting 2 in the fermenter.

On a side note I got my torpedo keg in from Morebeer. Man it’s a nice little thing. Interesting enough the keg says 1.6 gallons even though the Morebeer website lists it as 1.5 gallons.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
2.3 gal 70 min 37.2 IBUs 4.6 SRM 1.048 1.009 5.1 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
German Pils 5 D 1.044 - 1.05 1.008 - 1.013 22 - 40 2 - 5 2.5 - 3.2 4.4 - 5.2 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 4 lbs 96.97
Melanoidin (Weyermann) 2 oz 3.03

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Saaz 1 oz 70 min Boil Pellet 3.8
Hallertauer 0.13 oz 0 min Aroma Pellet 2.4

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Lactic Acid 4.00 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent
Calcium Chloride 2.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 2.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
German Lager (WLP830) White Labs 77% 50°F - 55°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Mash In 150°F 75 min

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German Pilsner

January 17th, 2016

I always love brewing lagers when it’s cold. Living in South Louisiana it just seems easier to manage lager fermentation when it’s cold and the beer will be ready in time to start the Summer. So…given that some of the 2016 Bayou State Circuit homebrew competitions are sporting German Pilsner I went with that one. I decided to do 10 gallons and vary the yeast. One will be the bock strain of WLP833 while the other will be WLP830 or simply “German Lager Yeast”. I chose to go with straight Magnum because in the past when brewing this sort of beer I got comments concerning the beer being too hoppy. I suspect this is due to judges being used to trying pilsners which were not fresh from shipping across the ocean. We’ll see! The grain bill was simply Weyermann Pilsner malt which is supposed to be great for this.

The brew day went fine although the gravity was coming in a little high so I adjusted with tap water. Pitched the yeast in the very yellow wort. Fermenting at about 50F. Hopefully it comes out great because the wort tasted very nice.

Following this I’ll be using the yeast for schwarzbier and finally doppelbock.

Update 2/6/2016
The WLP830 version ended up being the best pilsner I’ve ever brewed. Professional quality clear, crisp, refreshing and drinkable by the liter. Very delicate with a fine head. The WLP833 is also better than any other pilsner I’ve ever brewed before but just a tad less clear and not quite as spot on for pilsner as the WLP830. So next time I brew this beer it’ll be the WLP830 along with some other like WLP838 Southern German Lager for example.

Update 4/7/2016
So much to my disappointment this beer didn’t place with comments being it needed more bitterness. Scoring was 37 on the points scale which is a win and still the only 30+ pilsner score I ever received so I’m happy about that. Point of this update is next time add more hopping. Possibly a small late hop addition.(although topping up 10% with water probably dropped bitterness some also) It was also commented that the carbonation should’ve been higher for a pilsner. Perhaps that contributed to the lower perceived bitterness. Carbonation will be the next issue I tackle since my beer comes out the kegs perfectly carbonated by transferring via the beer gun appears to lose some of that. So this beer only needs a very minor recipe tweak and I need to tune my carbonation to bottling process.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
12 gal 90 min 35.6 IBUs 3.9 SRM 1.049 1.010 5.1 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
German Pils 5 D 1.044 - 1.05 1.008 - 1.013 22 - 40 2 - 5 2.5 - 3.2 4.4 - 5.2 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 25 lbs 100

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Magnum 2 oz 45 min Boil Pellet 12

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Lactic Acid 8.00 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
German Bock Lager (WLP833) White Labs 73% 48°F - 55°F
German Lager (WLP830) White Labs 77% 50°F - 55°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Mash In 148°F 75 min

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Schwarzbier Too Chocolate

August 10th, 2014

So I’m drinking this beer tonight and am looking for my notes on bayoubeer.com but couldn’t find it. So I must’ve forgotten to post it. Here it is. I can’t remember the final gravity but I know it was very close to target so I was excited about it. It has a very clean but very chocolate/cocoa profile. It’s appropriately bittered for balance and for the most part a very good beer. Very good isn’t what we shoot for as brewers so I’ll be adjusting it. I had Monchshof yesterday and noticed the beer was more complex and had bigger mouthfeel. I’m not exactly shooting for Monchshof but it’s a goto for people when they think about a great schwarzbier. I think I’ll add 1/4 lb of crystal 45, 1/4 of crystal 60, 1/8 lb of special B, dial down the pale chocoalate to 1/2 lb and perhaps add 3 pounds of munich.

Update 9/7/2014

This beer did mellow with time and is pretty smooth and drinkable. Reviewing the BJCP guidelines I feel like this beer is probably spot on for style but perhaps I(and others who judge) will be a little skewed because of our experience with Monchshof. I think I’ll go ahead and send it to Dixie Cup 2014 to see how it does. Mellowing on it’s big cocoa flavor makes the overall impression more balanced and it perhaps has a chance to sneak in to a medal.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
6 gal 90 min 24.9 IBUs 24.0 SRM 1.051 1.013 5.0 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
Schwarzbier (Black Beer) 4 C 1.046 - 1.052 1.01 - 1.016 22 - 32 17 - 30 2.2 - 2.7 4.4 - 5.4 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 11.25 lbs 88.24
Carafa II 12 oz 5.88
Caramunich Malt 12 oz 5.88

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Saaz 3.5 oz 30 min Boil Pellet 3
Saaz 0.5 oz 0 min Boil Pellet 4

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Lactic Acid 20.00 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent
Calcium Chloride 10.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 2.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 2.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Whirlfloc Tablet 1.20 Items 15 min Boil Fining

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
German Bock Lager (WLP833) White Labs 73% 48°F - 55°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Mash In 152°F 60 min

Notes

Pitching this on top of my bock yeast cake. Should be awesome.

Download

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What I Learned Screwing Up Two Pilsners I brewed in February

May 11th, 2012

I learned a lot on my last two beers.   I brewed two different pilsner recipes.   One was a slight modification of a beer that was a big hit and the other was an attempt at one of Jamil Zainasheff’s well known recipes in the “Northern German Pilsner”.    The two recipes can be found at the following links on Pocket Brewer where I post all my recipes for those who use my software:

Northern German Pilsner

A Modified (Saaz) Pilsdaddy Recipe

Here’s the things I did wrong:

  • I boiled with the top on to reduce boil off.  DMS
  • I forgot my clarifying agent for these beers which need to be very clear.
  • I had a seriously rolling boil which I learned was overkill later on.
  • I used hop balls to reduce trub without adjusting the level of hops.   Hop balls in my mind really reduce your IBUs.   Both beers were so low on bitterness it’s not even like drinking a pilsner.
  • I pitched warm then two weeks later I learned about not pitching warm.
  • Louisiana weather shifted on my room holding my lagering freezer which totally screwed the temperature.     The first two days the temperature was closer to 60 rather than the target of 50.   Later I learned about how these non-digital Johnson temperature controllers are way off.   I also learned that you should tape the sensor to the carboy.    The bottom line is the higher fermentation  probably contributed to ending up with not as clean a beer as I would’ve liked.

The end result was two somewhat cloudy beers which were more malty than bitter.    The beers were actually very drinkable but they just weren’t pilsner.    They display a light sweetness and not much bitter taste.   It really reminds me of drinking some sort of mild tasting ale with high alcohol.

I have learned quite a bit on these two beers.  Most was learned after the fact listening to The Brewing Network but learned none the less.   I will re-brew the exact same recipes in a few months to see what the results are.

What’s funniest is that for about two years now I’ve been having great results brewing lagers but lately the results have gotten less desirable.   It’s always been good beer but I didn’t get better results from the tweaks I made.   Things like the lid on the brew pot and hop balls were attempts to improve but they made things worse.   I am thinking keeping it simple and learning more about the science has helped me.

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All about beer brewing and drinking in South Louisiana.

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