Bo Pils For Christmas

[AndrewQLD]

Hi all,

I am putting this Bo Pils down for Christmas, It should have about 6 weeks to lager.
Feel free to comment please. If you see anything wrong please let me know as this will be for a large crowd and I would like to get this just right.
Thanks
Andrew

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Andrews Pilsner
Brewer: Andrew Clark
Asst Brewer:
Style: Bohemian Pilsner
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 38.00 L
Boil Size: 46.20 L
Estimated OG: 1.054 SG
Estimated Color: 7.8 EBC
Estimated IBU: 35.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 kg Pilsner Export Malt Craft (3.9 EBC) Grain 85.6 %
0.75 kg Cara-Pils (4.0 EBC) Grain 8.0 %
0.40 kg Acid Malt (5.9 EBC) Grain 4.3 %
0.20 kg Wheat Malt Malt Craft (4.0 EBC) Grain 2.1 %
100.00 gm Tettnang [4.50%] (60 min) Hops 28.6 IBU
20.00 gm Saaz [3.20%] (60 min) Hops 3.7 IBU
15.00 gm Saaz [3.20%] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 3.1 IBU
30.00 gm Saaz [3.20%] (1 min) Hops 0.2 IBU
1 Pkgs Pilsner Lager (White Labs #WLP800) [StarteYeast-Lager


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 9.35 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 24.36 L of water at 74.0 C 65.6 C 75 min

 

[GMK]

Looks all right to me - but drop the acid malt from 400 - to a max of 250 - as yours is a double..
If that stands for Acidulated malt - too much will really lower the ph of the mash and do freaky stuff.
Everything i have read states 150 max for a single batch so i would still be wary and not go above 250.

Hope this helps

Ken...

 

[AndrewQLD]

Sounds good Ken, I am using the acidulated malt (homemade) in an attempt to lower my mash PH, It is usually around the 5.8-5.9 for this type of grain bill, and since I have my new PH meter, I thought I would see if I can lower it this way.

Thanks for the help

Andrew

 

[Darren]

Heya A-QLD,
The wheat may cause some haze for your pils. Not sure if that is a concern for ya!
Out of curiosity how are you making your own Acid malt?
cheers
Darren

 

[AndrewQLD]

As posted by Neonmeate,

You can easily make your own, just get a one litre thermos, mash 200g of pale malt grain at 65 for an hour, let the temp drop to about 40-45 then sprinkle in a few dry grains, close up your thermos and let it sit overnight. (Longer if you like but overnight works) Should be nice and smelly the next day and will probably drop your overall mash pH by about 0.2-0.4. I did this for my last pilsener and it worked perfectly.

Seems like a good idea to me, and I can keep adding the malt required to drop my ph to a certain level, i will just have to check the ph a couple of times.
I don't think 200 g wheat malt should effect the clarity in 38 lt wort especially if I lager for 6 weeks (I hope).

Andrew

 

[Darren]

Andrew,
One thing you do not want in your pils is "smelly" especially if serving to guests.
If you cannot buy acid malt a pinch of tartaric acid or citric acid would be better if you really have to lower the pH.
cheers
Darren

 

[AndrewQLD]

The smell does'nt come through in the finished beer, it is boiled off in the boiler, this is a similar process to how acidulated malt is produced (or so I have read).
Andrew

 

[Darren]

Howdy again Andrew,
My advice would be to smell the concoction before you add it to the beer.
My experience is that "Larks vomit" as Warren63 described it, doesnot boil off.
Nor does it dissipate with aging. Unless your crowd is interested in "Belgian style" pils I would stick with a simple food acid additions.Again my 0.02 Aussie cents (not buying much here in the US)

 

[neonmeate]

My pilsener I did this way is still fermenting so I can't really say whether it tastes like lark vomit, but my method is straight from Noonan. The important thing is to make sure there's no excess air in there (which is why a [full] thermos works well) which inhibits the aerobic bacteria and lets the lactobacillus do its job.
Acidulated malt is made the same way isn't it? (which is why it doesn't break the reinheitsgebot, the lactobacillus is contained within the malt?) In the right proportions you can't taste acidulated malt so why should you be able to taste this?

But sure, if you have acids lying around use em.

 

[Darren]

Heya Neonmeate,
I am only suggesting this because Andrew is serving this beer at a Christmas function. The problem is that butyric acid can be formed by simply adding malt to water.
Sure some people will not be able to smell it. Others it won't get it past their nose.
I suspect that pure cultures of Lactobacillus are added to acid malt. Same as you add a pure culture of yeast to your beer rather than let it ferment the bugs that are naturally introduced into wort. This would result in a more consistent end product anyhow.
You can buy food grade lactic acid from the supermarket. 1/2 teaspoon will do.
It is fun to play around with beers that you "may" dump but not with something you wish to serve up at a function.
FWIW I have 65 litres of beer intentionally soured by long mash times. It was covered for the entire mash. It stinks. The stench didnot boil off. It is now more than 12 months old and it still smells like vomit.
Can wait to drop a couple of kilos of cherries into it this summer.

 

[Darren]

Hey again,
I should go to bed but,......
The reinheitsgebot doesnot allow you to add yeast to your beer either.
Hops, malted barley and water. Thats it!

 

[Green Iguana]

The yeast is an assumed ingredient as far as i know.....can't have beer without yeast me thinks.....

cheers

 

[dreamboat]

My understanding si the the Reinheitsgebot was originally written before yeast had been "discovered" as an organism, so was obviously not included. It was added to the list after its discovery.

Or so I believe.


dreamboat

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Some info on Reinheitsgebot !

http://www.xs4all.nl/~patto1ro/reinheit.htm

C&B
TDA

 

[neonmeate]

hmmm you are right about the acidulated malt actually, it is sprayed with lactic acid (so technically breaks the law if you brew with it in germany!)(though i agree with that article the reinheitsgebot is a load of bollocks)

anyway there is admittedly a risk with mucking around with bacteria, but 5% of the mash i wouldnt think would cause too many problems. it is a traditional method.

however if i'd known you could get lactic acid in the supermarket i probably wouldn't have bothered with the sourmash with my pilsener last week in the first place ( i only did it cause i forgot to buy acidulated malt), which aisle is it in?

 

[Darren]

Sorry supermarket was for citric acid. Lactic acid would be available from most chemical suppliers.
Just make sure you get FOOD GRADE stuff.
Might cost a bit more. If it is not food grade it most likely contains traces of heavy metals like Zinc, Mercury, cadmium, lead.
A teaspoon of citric acid (Available in the baking section of the supermarket) would probably suffice. Truth be known no-one will be able to tell if you added it or not.
Too much acid also rots your teeth

 

[Bobby]

at the amount of citric you add to the brew i doubt it would matter. with heavy metals speciation is the most important thing, not purely if for example mercury is present. mercury was actually used to be used as a gravimetric form of laxative...
an interesting aside sodium met. contains similar amounts of these

Citric Acid : It shall conform with the following standards :
Assay : Minimum 99.5 percent by weight of Citric Acid.
Water Insoluble matter : Not more than 30 ppm.
Sulphated ash : Not more than 100 ppm.
Chloride (as Cl) : Not more than 5 ppm.
Phosphate (as P2O5) : Not more than 5 ppm.
Calcium : Not more than 25 ppm.
Heavy metals (as Pb) : Not more than 10 ppm.
Tridodecyclamine : Not more than 0.1 ppm



Sodium Metabisulphite : It shall conform with the following standards
Assay : Not less than 95.0 percent by weight of Na2S2O5.
Arsenic : Not more than 1.5 ppm.
Heavy Metals (as Pb) : Not more than 10 ppm.
Iron : Not more than 5 ppm..
Selenium : Not more than 10 ppm

 

[Darren]

at the amount of citric you add to the brew i doubt it would matter. with heavy metals speciation is the most important thing, not purely if for example mercury is present. mercury was actually used to be used as a gravimetric form of laxative...

Citric Acid : It shall conform with the following standards :
Assay : Minimum 99.5 percent by weight of Citric Acid.
Water Insoluble matter : Not more than 30 ppm.
Sulphated ash : Not more than 100 ppm.
Chloride (as Cl) : Not more than 5 ppm.
Phosphate (as P2O5) : Not more than 5 ppm.
Calcium : Not more than 25 ppm.
Heavy metals (as Pb) : Not more than 10 ppm.
Tridodecyclamine : Not more than 0.1 ppm



Sodium Metabisulphite : It shall conform with the following standards
Assay : Not less than 95.0 percent by weight of Na2S2O5.
Arsenic : Not more than 1.5 ppm.
Heavy Metals (as Pb) : Not more than 10 ppm.
Iron : Not more than 5 ppm..
Selenium : Not more than 10 ppm

Hey Bobby,
Where are those standards from?
Doesn't sound like food grade to me.
More like metalurgy standards. How mant ppm in lead paint?
If it doesn't say "FOOD GRADE" don't eat it.
I really hope that no-one is using soldering grade hydrochloric acid for lowering their mash pH's.
It is definately NOT food grade.
D

 

[GMK]

for those in adealaide - i am getting some Lactic Acid - guaranteed Food Grade - cheap and some sort of peroxide sanitiser/cleaner that the wineries use.

Will let you know when i get some and the price....

Pm me if u r interested.

 

[Bobby]

i checked they were food grade, dont have the links anymore though. do a search for it and you should find what constitutes food grade. to me the data looks correct for food grade.

i can get back to you on the lead if you want.