German Pilsener

[mysterio]

Planning a German pils for brewing tomorrow, i've come up with this based on what i've got on hand. Any comments or tips would be appreciated!

I've saved the yeast slurry from my last batch (Vienna lager), i've got about 700ml in a jar in the fridge. Based on the pitching rate calculator, i'm going to pitch about 3/4 of that into a well oxygenated wort at 7C and raise it up to 10C over the course of 24h.

Only problem is i've got this keg of Vienna that I only just started lagering, and i'm going to need the fridge for fermenting (and lagering) this.

German Pilsener

Type: All Grain
Date: 01/05/2008
Batch Size: 12.00 gal
Brewer: Geoff
Boil Size: 13.74 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
10.00 kg Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (3.0 EBC) Grain 100.00 %
90.00 gm Hallertauer, New Zealand [7.20 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 34.9 IBU
100.00 gm Hallertauer Hersbrucker [2.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
2.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs German Lager (White Labs #WLP830) Yeast-Lager

Beer Profile

Measured Original Gravity: 1.048 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 5.08 %
Bitterness: 34.9 IBU Calories: 211 cal/pint
Est Color: 6.0 EBC

Dry pilsener mash Step Time Name Description Step Temp
90 min Step Add 26.00 L of water at 70.1 C 64.0 C

[Aleman]

There's not much wrong with that, it looks like a fine recipe, Yest qty looks good, I'd pitch at 10C and keep it there TBH

[mysterio]

Cheers, i'll go with it then.

The first tastings on my Vienna are good with the pitching cold and rising the temp so i'll stick with that, zero sulphur/diacetyl or anything like that.

[Barley Water]

I am in the process of doing pretty much the same thing as Mysterio except I am traveling the less hopped route. My Vienna lager is now in the secondary and initial tasting is good. Attenuation is fine, the malt character of the beer is good plus I didn't pick up any fermentation by-products so I am hopeful all will come out well. I also noted kind of a spicy thing going with the hops which should go really well in the finished beer (assuming it is still there after lagering which should get everything really smoothed out).

I captured the yeast off the bottom of the Vienna fermentation and am going for a Munich Helles this weekend, I hope. I plan to kick those little dudes into gear around Wednesday by adding some wort starter to the yeast and then again on Friday. Come the sabath, the yeast should be in a state of frenzy so that when I pitch them into the cooled wort they should blow through the sugars quickly with no nasty off flavors. This weekend will by my last lager for awhile as I am going to be entering my British ale phase.

[mysterio]

Going for the Helles then, BW? My Vienna is currently in limbo, i've been trying to keep it at lagering temps in an ice bath but the weather has been blazing hot here lately (by Scottish standards anyway). My temp controlled fridge has only room for one FV or two cornies

Re-pitching the yeast seems to have worked great on the pilsener, we'll see how it tastes though. I'm looking for a really well attenuated, dry finish on this one. In retrospect I may have overdone the finishing hops, OTW German beers don't have a huge amount of hop flavour or aroma, even the pilseners.

[Barley Water]

I run into space issues all the time. I have two friges, one I use for serving and the other fermenting/lagering. My serving frig has three taps and I can get four 5 gallon cornies and a 3 gallon cornie in there. It's not as cold as a lagering cave but it just has to do since my wife would absolutely birth a heffer if I got a chest freezer (which is what I really want). Once I get a lager kegged, if I have room, I put it into the serving frig and just let it sit. In Texas, you can not let beer just sit out in the garage as it gets way too hot. We have already had several 80F days here and of course in August it easily gets to 105F, sometimes for the whole month. Right now I have one keg empty which will end up holding the Vienna Lager in three or four weeks. As soon as one keg gets close to 1/2 full, I jump the rest to one of my 3 gallon kegs to create some space and just keep brewing.