Classic American Pilsner

[Aleman]

I have banged on about this style a good bit and a couple of brewers on here have had the opportunity to taste my take on it. Unfortunately due to the variety of homes the UK Homebrew has had in the past we have lost some (most) of the archives, so I have had a couple of requests for recipes and a guide for Cereal Mashing, and as its a beer that I will be doing in the near future (I was hoping for today but an URTI and She have put paid to that ), I thought why not.

Firstly most of what I have to say is take from Jeff Renners work on recreating the style (Particularly WRT Pre Pro CAPS) and there are a couple of articles on the HBD Archive that may be of Interest HBD 1687 and HBD 3361 are probably the best. Jeff clearly quote Fix and Jankowski as being the originators of this 'extinct' beer.

First off is the cereal mash, this technique was used to dilute the high nitrogen content of the US 6 Row malt, and you can use up to 20-30% Corn or Rice grits in a mash with few problems. However if you try and mix a 30%Corn grit/70% Malt grist with water you end up with a thick gloopy mess. Another thing that has to be borne in mind is that corn starch gelatinises at higher temperatures (72-75C IIRC) than barley starch (62C IIRC) and so if the starch in the corn is to be available to the mashing enzymes then the mash must take place at greater than 72C . . . Not going to work is it? The answer to the problem came in the form of the cereal mash.

The Cereal Mash
Take the cereal grits (Cornmeal/polenta - I use Natco Fine Cornmeal purchased from Tesco Asian Foods aisle), and add to it 20% by weight barley malt, then dough it in with water at 65C I use 3L/Kg. It will go gloopy and sticky and be almost impossible to stir. Put the lid on and rest it for 15 minutes at 65C, at the end of this rest a miracle will have occurred, the mash is now runny Apply heat to the kettle, and stir until it all comes up to boiling, then boil for 20-30 minutes, you may or may not need to stir, and certainly should keep it topped up with boiling water additions so that it does not stick and burn. While you are resting the cereal mash, get the main mash doughed in, to hit a mash temp of 64C (You ideally want a well attenuated beer).

Once the boil has been completed then carefully pour the cereal mash into the main mash and stir to mix in, hopefully the mash should hit 68C and that is where the mash should sit for the remainder of the 90 minute main mash.

So for 25 Litres of CAP at 1.058 and 35IBU

4600g Pilsner Malt
1450g Polenta

Cereal mash for 90 minutes as described above

then lauter and sparge to collect sufficient runnings to yield 25L in the FV and boil for a total of 90 minutes with

20g Saaz (3.5% aa FWH)
45g Cluster (6% aa 60 Minutes)
15g Saaz (3.5% aa 15 Minutes)

Cool and rack off the hops, Aerate well and pitch with a Large Yeast Starter (Jeff likes Whitelabs 838 South German Bock which is the Ayinger strain). Generally treat it like a lager, so 14 days in primary at 10C, then chill to just above freezing for as long as you can bear it, Jeff reckons 6-7 weeks, which isn't bad. Serve chilled with moderate carbonation, it is a really good crisp beer.

Variations.

I like a bit of Munich in the grist, up to 20% of the Pilsner, and if I wasn't doing a cereal mash then you are looking at adding around 5% Melanoidin malt AS WELL as the Munich. Replace the Corn Grits with flaked maize.

I tend to bitter with Pacific Gem and Use NZ Saaz B as my flavour/noble hop, and add an aroma addition when cooling the wort.

Hope this answers peoples queries, I'll respond to questions as well though.

[RabMaxwell]

This looks good info made a copy & stored it in my beer folder. Cheers

[steve_flack]

Thanks Aleman.

[steve_flack]

If our Tescos lacks a decent Asian section, will polenta 'powder' do?

[Aleman]

Yes should have made it clear that if you are going to use polenta then you definitely want the unprocessed uncooked floury stuff.

The corn bread sounds good stuff as long as it has no wheat flour in it it could be an interesting surprise of She

[Aleman]

I have to say that Jeff sent me a bottle of his over a couple of years ago, and it is an incredible refreshing flavourful beer. The cluster hops provide this wonderful fruity flavour probably Blackberry and or Blackcurrant, which means the Pacific Gem are a good substitute . . . . . but you don't need much at 18%AA

Jeff also mentions using Styrians as the FWH and Flavour additions.

[Barley Water]

Great information, thanks for sharing. This will be my next beer once I do some serious drinking to give myself some cold storage space. My last attempt at this style came out really well but I used flaked maize rather than employing a ceral mash, this time, you have inspired me to use grits. By the way, you are the first person I have run into who likes Cluster hops. I am not a big fan of them however I know they are traditional in this style.

My first question for you concerns water chemistry. Certainly life would be easier if my water was softer but alas, I am dealing with moderately hard water that has both temporary as well as permanent hardness. Are you using really soft water or otherwise treating your brewing liquid? I try to get around this issue by using the 5.2 buffer in the mash and hopping with traditional noble hops to avoid harsh flavors in the beer. Do you have any suggestions for improvement?

The CAP I made last year would have won a first place ribbon except that the judges felt it needed more hop aroma. I was planning to aggressively dry hop this year's attempt with, most likely, Saaz. Do you think that heavy hop aroma is needed in a quality CAP or should I just disregard that suggestion?

Finally, I noticed that you suggest using a Bock yeast which I assume will accentuate the malt and leave the beer a little less attenuated. On the other hand, you mention that you want to mash for attenuation rather than body. I guess I'm a little slow but it seems like those two things would tend to work at cross purposes, is there something I'm missing?

Again, thanks for the information, I always learn something going through your posts.

[mysterio]

Very interesting, i've bookmarked it and will probably give it a go this year.

Just to clarify one part, when you say add 20% by weight barley malt, does that mean you're adding 292g of pils malt to the polenta for the cereal mash, and mashing the rest of the pils malt (4308g) separately?

[Aleman]

Great information, thanks for sharing.

You're welcome, I was talked into brewing this style by Jeff and it has become one of my favourite styles. I'm happy to persuade more brewers to try it, just seems funny that a brit should be doing so to Americans

By the way, you are the first person I have run into who likes Cluster hops. I am not a big fan of them however I know they are traditional in this style.

I'm not a big fan of Amarillo or Cascade type hops myself, but I do think Cluster hops have a really nice flavour

My first question for you concerns water chemistry.

Oh Shit!

Certainly life would be easier if my water was softer but alas, I am dealing with moderately hard water that has both temporary as well as permanent hardness. Are you using really soft water or otherwise treating your brewing liquid?

Code: Select all

My Water profile
              Calcium  Magnesium  Sodium     Sulphate    Chloride   Hydrogen 
                                                                    Carbonate

mg/L ppm       15.4        1.6      7.4        18.3         8.1        18

as you can see it is pretty much distilled

I try to get around this issue by using the 5.2 buffer in the mash and hopping with traditional noble hops to avoid harsh flavors in the beer. Do you have any suggestions for improvement?

A couple of things could help, try and reduce your temporary hardness by boiling or an acid addition, the only way to drop the permanent hardness is to dilute the liquor with distilled or RO water say trying a 50 50 mix. Or even to use some store bought mineral water

The CAP I made last year would have won a first place ribbon except that the judges felt it needed more hop aroma. I was planning to aggressively dry hop this year's attempt with, most likely, Saaz. Do you think that heavy hop aroma is needed in a quality CAP or should I just disregard that suggestion?

I didn't detect a heavy hop aroma in Jeff's sample, I know that it is a characteristic of bohemian pilsners, and some judges have difficulty with Pre Pro CAP not really knowing what to look for. I'm not a fan of Dry hopping and saaz isn't a great hop to do it with - Grassy, I'd be more inclined to do a 70C steep with a big handful of aroma hops, some will be lost during fermentation, but at such low temperatures it should be too much. Another benefit that I have in brewing large batches is that I can split a wort 4 ways and treat it differently to see what I prefer. I wish I'd dome that with my IPA and Dry hopped one with goldings and left the other 'clean'

Finally, I noticed that you suggest using a Bock yeast which I assume will accentuate the malt and leave the beer a little less attenuated. On the other hand, you mention that you want to mash for attenuation rather than body. I guess I'm a little slow but it seems like those two things would tend to work at cross purposes, is there something I'm missing?

Thanks for pointing it out, i have in fact suggested the wrong yeast. the correct yeast that Jeff loves using in this style because it is so clean is WLP833 German Bock Yeast which is the Ayinger strain (allegedly ). This was originally released as a platinum series, but within a couple of months was released to general availability such was the demand. It is an incredibly clean well behaved yeast, that both attenuates well and yet allows the malt profile to promote itself. I'm not sure that I would use it in a German or Bohemian pilsner, but it is perfect for a CAP.

[Barley Water]

"I'm happy to persuade more brewers to try it, just seems funny that a brit should be doing so to Americans "

Yes that is strange isn't it. To my knowlege I am the only one in our club who has tried this style (and we have over 100 members so it's a fair sized club). I guess I just have a need to be different. Part of the reason I guess is that only a minority of our members mess with lagers of any sort. The other reason you don't see it much is because there are no commercial examples to provide inspiration. From a technical perspective, if you can get a CAP to come out well, you should be able to brew most any style since light lagers are generally pretty difficult. Using 6 row malt is also frowned upon over here as the contental pils malts get the best press. I must agree with you though, it's a nice style for a hot summer day, very refreshing.

[steve_flack]

Take the cereal grits (Cornmeal/polenta - I use Natco Fine Cornmeal purchased from Tesco Asian Foods aisle),

I went back to the town where I used to live today - they have Asian stores there....I got myself a 5kg bag of cornmeal for £3.99.

[Aleman]

Take the cereal grits (Cornmeal/polenta - I use Natco Fine Cornmeal purchased from Tesco Asian Foods aisle),

I went back to the town where I used to live today - they have Asian stores there....I got myself a 5kg bag of cornmeal for £3.99.

Thats good Steve, Hopefully it was degermed, as if not the oil can cause it to go rancid (similar to rye malt). I've always avoided buying cornmeal from Asian food stores for this reason.

[BitterTed]

Nice to see you promoting this beer Aleman! Jeff's recipe makes a great beer, I have made it about 7 or 8 times, trying different things each time and will say that Cluster and Styrian combo gave me the best beer. I have used a variety of yeasts in this and liked White Labs Mexican Lager WLP 940 and White Labs WLP 838 Southern German Lager yeast the best, although I have not used the WLP 838 yet, but will make a point of doing that.

The CAP I made last year would have won a first place ribbon except that the judges felt it needed more hop aroma. I was planning to aggressively dry hop this year's attempt with, most likely, Saaz. Do you think that heavy hop aroma is needed in a quality CAP or should I just disregard that suggestion?

I am not sure I would dry hop this beer, maybe a good amount at flameout, if that's what you are looking for. Frankly I would disregard that suggestion for the same reason Aleman pointed out

[steve_flack]

Thats good Steve, Hopefully it was degermed

How would I know? It's the Natco stuff you mentioned.

[Aleman]

Thats good Steve, Hopefully it was degermed

How would I know? It's the Natco stuff you mentioned.

Its difficult TBH, The Natco stuff is 'designed' to have a long shelf life so has to be degermed. The Asian food stores in Preston often sell corn meal out of 50 gallon drums . . . and there is no way of knowing if it is degermed or not, but as they shift a lot of it it doesn't matter. . . . . To them