Brewday 26 Nov '09 - Bohemian Pilsner w/ pics

[mysterio]

Alright, i'm planning this for tomorrow. Bit worried about the Amarillo in a beer like this, I don't think it will be too weird (hopefully).

Comments and suggestions welcome. Hoping to get some pics up too... Get the Kleenex ready... Here's the HLT filling

Water: Might add a couple of tsp of Ca Cl to the mash and a couple to the boiler just to provide some calcium for everything to take place smoothly. My measured residual alkalinity is 28ppm. I may add a little acid to bring it down a little.



Bohemian Pilsner

Type: All Grain
Date: 25/11/2009
Batch Size: 45.43 L
Boil Size: 52.01 L
Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 kg Pilsner Malt (3.0 EBC) Grain 84.66 %
1.00 kg Munich Malt - 10L (19.7 EBC) Grain 10.58 %
0.45 kg Melanoiden Malt (39.4 EBC) Grain 4.76 %
100.00 gm Amarillo '06 Crop [4.00 %] (60 min) Hops 19.4 IBU
15.00 gm Bravo [13.50 %] (60 min) Hops 9.8 IBU
90.00 gm Saaz [4.00 %] (30 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
90.00 gm Saaz [4.00 %] (10 min) Hops 7.0 IBU
10 Pkgs SafLager German Lager (DCL Yeast #W 34/70) Yeast-Lager

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.049 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.95 %
Bitterness: 36.3 IBU
Est Color: 9.7 EBC

My Mash Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Step Add 25.51 L of water at 73.3 C 67.0 C

[WishboneBrewery]

A good amount of Saaz Mmm

10 packets of yeast!!! eek!

[mysterio]

Yeah I hoped someone would pick up on that

Maybe i'm crazy but I got a really great lager flavour & character from repitching my last batch of this yeast, so I thought i'd hike up the pitching rates to what they recommend on the website (taking Aleman's lead on this one).

[WishboneBrewery]

what temp will you be pitching at?

[196osh]

Sounds superb. That pitching rate should leave you with no off flavours at all.

[mysterio]

what temp will you be pitching at?

8 - 9C, then let it ferment around 9 C

[196osh]

8 - 9C, then let it ferment around 9 C

What sort of chiller do you use?

[mysterio]

Just an old fridge... got it for free.

Use an ATC-800 to control it and a tubular heater for heating. A TC-10 would have been nicer but this is fine for now.

[196osh]

Just an old fridge... got it for free.

Use an ATC-800 to control it and a tubular heater for heating. A TC-10 would have been nicer but this is fine for now.

So do you chill it down as much as you can and then put it in the fridge to get down to pitching temp?

[mysterio]

Yeah I just chill it down until I get bored then put it into the FV (probably at about 16 - 17C), stick it in the fridge, about 5 - 6 hours later it's ready to pitch.

Optimal would be to chill it down to pitching temps in the copper and leave the break behind. In theory the break material in the ferment will cause a more vigorous ferment (more nucleation sites for CO2) and more esters which you don't want in a lager. In practice, i'm not going to have a problem fermenting at 9C with a big pitch.

[196osh]

Good stuff. I am sure it will turn out great I think I may steal the recipe at some point.

I dry hopped my APA tonight. 40g of centennial in 20L tastes quite subdued so hopefully the dry hop will liven it up.

[mysterio]

Yea i'm drinking my APA at the moment that was dry hopped with goodly amount of Cascade & Centennial. TBH the aroma is pretty low but the flavour is decent. Hoping the '09 crop of US hops is a bit better.

[196osh]

Hopefully it will improve this will be the beer that gets fed to non beery guests at low temperatures.

At some point in the new year I am going to make something like SNPA on steroids so hopefully the hops will be better as you say.

[kfm]

Good luck with this mysterio; a lot of good info on your post: I have my first AG lager planned in a couple of weeks with 3 x W34/70 yeast slurries to play with from kits I recently did. If I were to use the slurry, is it just a case of running the wort straight on to it? Also, if the slurry is unprotected (i.e. the beer it has fermented has been racked) how long will it last for in the FV?

[adm]

Eeeek! 10 packs of Saflager! That should ferment out nicely then!

Good luck with this one - my last 34/70 lager is now tasting pretty good. Still a bit more fruity than it should be, but I only pitched 2 packs for 23 litres. However, my Imperial one done with 750ml of the slurry is clean as a whistle, so I'd agree that the more yeast, the cleaner it will be.