Brewing my first Pilsner.. tips?

[welly2]

Hello all,

Planning on a brew day this weekend. And was going to make a (NZ hop hopped) pilsner. It'll be my first pils/lager brew so this is a new adventure. I've been doing some reading on decoction mashes and how it's the practice of choice particularly for pilsners. It might make an interesting addition to my brew day so thinking of going down that route.

Recipe is looking like:

4.8kg Pilsner malt
0.2kg Terrified wheat (head retention and to make it scary)
20g Wakatu (7%) at 90
20g Wakatu (7%) at 45
20g Wakatu (7%) at 15
WLP800 Pilsner yeast

ABV: 5.1%
EBU: 36.7
OG: 1.051

Questions are: fermentation - what's a good temperature to ferment and what about lagering? I've literally never made a lager before so this is a totally new practice.

Cheers!

 

[razz]

Stick with the fermentation range on the pack and you can't go wrong. Build up a large starter if you are able and also get your wort down to the low end of the ferment range before pitching the yeast. You may lager after final gravity is reached, generally people here will drop the temp down a couple of degrees each day until around 1-2 degrees and keep it there until ready to bottle/keg. Some people also crash chill down to lager temps overnight. Good luck.

 

[razz]

I forgot to ask, do you have a fridge for cold conditioning?

 

[welly2]

I forgot to ask, do you have a fridge for cold conditioning?

I do, yep! Got my STC-1000 controlled fridge. I got the impression lagering was more involved than just dropping the temperature slowly. That works fine for me! Cheers!

 

[The Judge]

My 2c: Boil for min 90 mins. Some pilsner malts produce high levels of DMS and you want to boil that sheez to oblivion. Only boil for shorter duration if your boil is properly rolling like a mofo.

 

[slcmorro]

0.2kg Terrified wheat (head retention and to make it scary)

Terrified wheat? Did you threaten it's family, or did it see a pic of you naked or something?

I think you mean torrified wheat, but thank you for the laugh. Had a good chuckle at that one!

To be helpful, I'd suggest pitching a literal fucktonne of yeast (well, a lot anyways) by either using several packs or building a starter. That's an integral part for any lagers IMO.

Best of luck with your brew

 

[manticle]

Terrified wheat is real and hangs out with the rice gulls.

 

[welly2]

My 2c: Boil for min 90 mins. Some pilsner malts produce high levels of DMS and you want to boil that sheez to oblivion. Only boil for shorter duration if your boil is properly rolling like a mofo.

Ah yeah, I almost forgot about that. I did read a while back that pilsner malt likes a long boil.

 

[manticle]

Most modified modern malts, even pils probably won't need 90 mins to get rid of smm/dms but your beer will still benefit from a longer boil in other ways.

90 mins is minimum for me for all beers these days.

 

[MartinOC]

Don't forget to raise to a diacetyl rest (about 18C) for a couple of days when you're 2-5 points away from terminal gravity. Then slowly drop to lagering temps for a nice long sleep.

 

[indica86]

brulosophy's quick lager method is a VERY good fermentation guide to follow for lagers/ pilsners

 

[Blind Dog]

My 2cs:
- Make sure you have a decent stock of beer around, or another fridge / means of fermenting other batches
- if you have a water report try to work out if you need to adjust the pH to get into the optimal range. I find with pale beers like lagers and kolsch, I need a 2% addition of acidulated malt plus some water salts to get to the pH I'm aiming for
- I'm doubtful of the benefits of decoction; some swear by it, I've yet to try a decocted brew that makes we want to try it. If you're that way inclined, go for your life and enoy
- big stater
- oxygenate if you can, aerate well if you can't
- ferment at lager temps (as per packet)
- think about a diacetyl test (its simple and useful), and add a diacetyl rest if required
- slowly redcue temps so as not to shock the yeast
- if you can lager at 0C, do so (4 weeks is a good startting point). If you can't, you may need an extra week for each degree above 0C
- think about racking off the dead yeast and other trub before you reduce the temps, to redcuie any autolysis off flavours
- be patient

Don't be tempted by 'quick lager' methods. Get at least one really good, traditionally brewed lager done and be happy with it, and then try the quick methods - at least then you have a valid reference point to make a judgement

 

[welly2]

Cheers all! Some useful info there!

 

[droid]

If you are interested in a decoction then try it. It will bring out a grainy/maltyness from the pils malt that allows you to keep the colour light but provide a malty profile which with 36 IBU's would be good.

You have to get a big starter going

You have to do a D rest

Can't comment on the hops

 

[Rocker1986]

brulosophy's quick lager method is a VERY good fermentation guide to follow for lagers/ pilsners

Yeah, it's about the only thing he's done that actually works to produce a good beer. I use it on my pilsners too and they always turn out really nice.

 

[Weizguy]

Don't forget to raise to a diacetyl rest (about 18C) for a couple of days when you're 2-5 points away from terminal gravity. Then slowly drop to lagering temps for a nice long sleep.

If you sample the beer and it's not diacetyl-flavoured, ignore this step, as it only required as a remedial measure, as discussed last night with MHB.

+1 for a suitable sized pitch of yeast.
How much? Depends on your batch size (not indicated), but for a 22 litre batch at that gravity, Palmer recommends about a 2 litre culture, but do you own calcs based on your yeast's vitality.

I'm getting back in to some lager brewing, FWIW, and may post more, sooner or later.

 

[Coalminer]

With respect to lagering would it be suitable to chill to lagering temp then transfer to keg for the lagering process?
I have plenty of kegs and a spare fridge but a limited supply of shiny fermenters

 

[manticle]

You can do this but lagering works because of contact with active, healthy yeast working slowly at low temps. I prefer to lager for a few weeks in the cube (around 4 deg) then transfer to keg and drop to 1 till it drops clear.

 

[Dan Pratt]

Use rain water, its zero parts per anything. Add very small salt additions to get to about 5ppm for each.

Mash dry at 62c for 90mins

Yeast....whatever you think you need quadruple it!!!!

Pitch yeast cold at like 5c and raise to 8-9c for ferment.

Lager at zero for 4wks.

Good luck.

 

[nosco]

Mash 45@ 62c and 45 @72c and you wont need the wheat.