Spring Pilsner

[simple one]

Spring Pilsner:

Pilsner Malt 4kg
Melanoidin Malt 46g
Munich Malt 400g

Magnum 14.5 % - 90 mins - 25 grams
Saaz 3.3 % - 10 mins - 50 grams
Saaz 3.3 % - 0 mins - 50 grams


Final Volume: 19 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.053
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 5.3% ABV
Total Liquor: 28.3 Litres
Mash Liquor: 11.1 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 40 EBU
Colour: 8 EBC

Brew day will be as soon as I have a couple of free days. This will be lagered in a corny for about 3 months.

Yeast I am using is the WLP 800 Pilsner yeast. I have built this up from the vial to a 2L starter, and then on to a 3L starter. Will this be an adequate size, as I intend to ferment around 12C??

[simple one]

Addition for my plan. Ferment at 12C with a 22C diacetyl rest after 14 days.

[WishboneBrewery]

I see you are now on Tw@ter, different chicken!

[bosium]

Hey, good to see you're back in the area. Great looking recipe, good luck with that!

[leedsbrew]

Looks great man. infact I have all of that in stock except the yeast! As it happens I need to order some stuff from TMM!

Cheers

LB

[adomant]

Will the lagering be under carbonation? If so what pressure? Will you dispense from same corny or transfer?

[simple one]

Well at the moment just trying to convince the Wife that it's a good idea that I brew this on Christmas Eve, as this will be my first day off for ages.

This will be lagered under "certian" (enough to seal the lid and a few more psi for good measure) amount of pressure in a corny, and as close to 0C as I can get in my lader fridge. Once bright I'll transfer to another corny and possibley bottle a few which should be interesting as I haven't done much keg to bottle transfering before.

If I don't get the go ahead I think I'll just up the starter.... again!

[simple one]

Mash just finished.

[leedsbrew]

Nice one matey! Pics?

[simple one]

Taken a few, nothing amazing or out of the ordinary really.
Half way through the boil, the hot break is pretty chunky, and the wort is pretty clear after 45 mins.

Bit of a simple brewday so far, not looking forward to trying to get this wort down to 12C.... good thing I get free water.

[simple one]

Well got it down to 12C using an IC so that's good. Got 20L in the end and didn't bother taking a SG hydro reading, although got one mid way and it was in the right ball park.

All pitched up with a good glug of WLP800, (hopefully) fermenting away at 11C for today.

[simple one]

This is now down to 1.028 so will probably do a diacetyl rest in 48 hours time. Looks like it's dropping an average of 5 points a day. Although I would say it's faster than that at the moment due to the activity.

Lifted the lid of to take a sample, the yeast has gone mental. A good two inches of yeasty foam, and that's down at 11/12C. The yeasty sample tastes nice though, although the saaz aroma is still subtle.

[simple one]

Diacetyl rest started this afternoon.

[simple one]

Well after the diacetyl rest. I decided to keg in to a corny (and stick one in a bottle), and continue a form of secondary ferment at 12C. Just to make sure any residual yeast activity had finished prior to lagering. So now this is down to 0c.

And some of the pictures....

The really aggressive starter.


Really clear wort from the run off from the mash tun.

[phatboytall]

Just ordered some WLP800 for another go at a decent Pils, then stumbled on this post, looks to be a great recipe!

Is this a recipe you have done before?

I may well do something very similar this wknd, but with Mittlefru instead of Saaz to finish.

Doubt i'll be able to lager it for 3months though! My ferm fridge is pretty much operational at all times at 20c with brews in it.