New Year's Pilsener, October 9 2010

SAAZ!!!

A field of dreams.

A pilsener with Magnum bittering and a flavor profile of Saaz IS where its at.  With the new Lager Cave, I can be in lager production year round.  I just pulled out 5 batches from the cave sitting at around 40°F and can now return to Saccharomyces pastorianus fermentation temperatures around 52°F.  This is simply great!  My kegerator is now full but I can still make lagers for our annual New Year's bash up at Big Bear.   Usually I brew a variety of ales to satisfy the masses but I have to admit, this one's for me!  I might just hide this in the corner for me, Kara, and other hoppy lager fiends.  SAAZ!!!

Bohemian Pilsner

BJCP Category 2B. Bohemian Pilsener
5 Gallons, All Grain, Step Infusion Mash, 90 Minute Boil

9.5 lbs. Beligan Pilsner
0.5 lbs. Vienna

Protein Rest at 124°F for 20 minutes
(0.9 qts/lb. raised to 135°F)
Saccharification Rest at 148°F for 60 minutes
(0.5 qts/lb. raised to 212°F)
Fly-sparged at 170°F

1 oz. Homegrown Magnum 60 min.
0.5 oz. Saaz 20 min.
1 Whirlfloc tab 15 min.
0.5 oz. Saaz 10 min.
0.5 oz. Saaz 5 min.
0.5 oz. Saaz 1 min.

White Labs WLP830 German Lager Yeast   (Fresh slurry thanks to Kara!)
Currently in ferment at 52°F

OG: 1.052 @ 79°F
FG: 1.008 @ 38°F
ABV: 6.3%

Image Source: 
Marti. Hopfengarten. Digital image. Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, 14 Jan. 2007. Web. 9 Oct. 2010.

Classic American Pilsner

Here's a style I've never brewed before and have only had one example of from Lighting Brewery, their Ionizer Lager.  Lightning's brewer, Jim Crute, brought this lager to one of our QUAFF meetings quite some time ago and brewing a similar beer was since slated on my to-do list.  Ionizer Lager is a bit out of style for a Classic American Pilsner and so is this recipe.  Instead of sticking with either corn or rice, I decided to use both (simply out of excitement).  Like Ionizer, I also decided to exceed the defined limit of a 6% ABV to shoot for something a bit more on the stronger side.

Classic American Pilsner, August 12 2010

BJCP Category 2C. Classic American Pilsner
5 Gallons, Grain/Extract, Single Infusion Mash, 90 Minute Boil

4 lbs. Domestic 2-Row
3 lbs. German Pilsner
3 lbs. Flaked Maize

30 Minute Corn Steep at 160°F
90 Minute Single Infusion Mash 148°F

1 lb. Dried Rice Extract

1 oz. Northern Brewer 8.8% 60 min.
1 Whirlfloc tab 20 min.

White Labs WLP830 German Lager Yeast (thanks, Kara!), Vial to 900ml Starter
Fermented at 52°F primary for over 2 weeks then racked to secondary (with a diacetyl rest) for another 3 weeks before stepping down to 40°F for lagering.

OG: 1.060 @ 76°F
FG: 1.009 @ 44°F
ABV: 7.1%

Tapped and bottled out a few on 10/21.  Very clean tasting with subtle hints of corn, mostly dry.  Hops are nicely balanced and the increased ABV is hidden fairly well.

Evaluation: I brought this beer to QUAFF's evaluation panel on November 17th. Clarity was brilliant and many thought the flavor was great.  Harold suggested to try a cereal mash with corn meal to truly achieve the aroma and flavor profile that is often a signature of the style.

Pilsner, July 2 2009

Brewing up a series of lagers over the next few weeks. Our new house seems to warm up to the upper 70's during the past few weeks leaving fermentation to the cool temperature-controlled environment of the kegerator. The plan is to do four lagers (2 primary and 2 secondary carboys in the kegerator is the max) using the two primaries and active yeast beds twice. The first two will be new personal recipe formulations of pilsner and vienna lager (I rarely use the same recipe twice) followed by an agave lager and an oktoberfest. These all should be ready in September for Oktoberfest celebrations.
For this brew, I could have used 100% pilsner malt but I wanted to stretch out the current pilsner malt stock for all upcoming lagers. I also put in a pound of Dried Rice Extract (DRE) to boost up the gravity without adding much color (or anything else). I've used DRE before but that turned out to be an alcoholic monster.

PILSNER

5 Gallons, Multi-Step Infusion Mash, 90 Minute Boil

6lbs. Pilsner Malt
2lbs. Domestic 2-Row

Mashed:
126°F for 30 minutes
148°F for 30 minutes
Mashout at 170°F and 5 Gallon Sparge for 60min.

1lb. Dried Rice Extract at boil

0.75oz. Homegrown Magnum 60min.
0.25oz. Saaz 30min.
0.25oz. Saaz 15min.
1 Whirlfloc Tab 15min.
0.25oz. Saaz 5min.
0.25oz. Saaz 1min.

White Labs German Lager Yeast, WLP380
800ml Starter Pitched at 60°F

OG: 1.050 @ 60°F
FG: 1.011 @ 38°F - Corrected 1.010
ABV: 5.25%

Update 7/13: Racked to secondary, yeast globules still churning but fallen krausen. Current gravity is 1.015

Kegged 9/27

Aha! I finally figured out the shortcut for the degree symbol on a Mac so that I can use °F and °C or even stuff like 15° Plato. On a Mac, use Shift-Option-8.

German Pilsner, March 19 2008

German Pilsner - Brewed March 19th, 2008

I'm a huge fan of euro pilsners. There's surprisingly lots of variety in pilsners. Ideally, I would have liked to do a double decoction on this one but I wanted to squeeze in two separate 5 gallon batches today. In the interest of time, I opted for a step infusion mash that I use.
5 Gallons, All Grain, Step Infusion Mash, 70 Min. Boil

11lbs. Franco-Belges Pilsner

1/2oz. Homegrown Magnum 60min.
1oz. Saaz 3.2% 20min.
Whirlfloc Tab 20min.
1/4oz. Saaz 3.2% 10min.
1/4oz. Saaz 3.2% 5min.

White Labs, German Lager Yeast
Primary Ferment 10 Days
Secondary Ferment 10 Days
Step Cool (2 degrees F per day) to 38 degrees F then lager 1 month