Help getting that crisp Lager taste

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Unless your water is high in Carbonate, it isn't really going to matter, just make you have enough Calcium available (50-100ppm is regarded as a minimum - I add about 100ppm to my local waters 35ish ppm). Much more important to get your pH right and ideally a bit lower than for ale say 5.1-5.3pH
You need to be using a good Pilsner Malt, I would choose a German malt, for me Weyermann Premium Pilsner.
Absolutely do step mash, you want to spend some time (say 30miinutes) at low (63-65oC) Beta Amylase promoting temperatures, then up to Alpha Amylase peak (69-74oC), then mash out around 80oC. If you cant step, give it an hour around 63-4oC.
Better to mash in thinner (more water) thing 4-5:1 or even all your water in at the start (no sparge) don't over sparge.
Avoid overdoing gravity, bitterness and especially late hops. For learning Lager making I would start with what the Germans call Standard Beer 12oP (1.048) and 24IBU. Ideally start with one addition of a good German hop like Hallertau Mittlefruh, Hersbrucker, Tettnang… or Czech Saaz. Look up Budweiser (the Czech one), one malt one hop, one addition, the worlds best SMASH
Pitch Cold, Pitch Lots. Yeast management really is the key to making good Lager/Pilsner. If you pitch a truly huge amount of yeast at 8-10oC let it rise to 12oC and if necessary ramp up to around 20oC at the end to speed up Diacetyl (and other VDK's) removal as well as finishing off any sugars.

I know we all poke a bit of fun at mega brewers, but this is what they are doing day after day, its technically very demanding and leaves nowhere to hide mistakes.
Practice makes perfect as they say, but really yeast management is king.
Mark





Will also add, (for the original poster) I have better success with Wyeast liquid smack packs than with whitelabs which seem to take longer to get the numbers up, I krausen on to the next batch generally about 3 - 5 litres when it's pumping, rather than re use the cake or bothering to wash and re use as there a lot of dead soldiers in the trub,

PlZn Urquell (Wyeast 2001) is back in production and available after being unavailable for about 18 months (my favourite yeast) i like this Czech pilsener as I'm on tank water and it distinguishes the malt and hops flavours nicely without adjusting water compositon too much, a bit of calcium carbonate and sulphate go into all my beers though. .Urquell may not be everyone's cup of tea as I wouldn't describe it as a "crisp" lager. Another good Wyeast I've tried is BudVar (2000) which is true to the style with the yeast throwing more fruitier esters than the "cleaner" urquel strain.

If I were going to chase a crisp clean lager I'd look at a Stella clone, or if you like it a bit bitterer maybe a Grolsch. But as above with any beer, mash at a lower temp to reduce body to keep it drier, and make the effort to use the right yeast rather than a generic 34/70 it makes a big difference.

Another thing and I don't know if there's any science to it or not but the colder the beer is served, the least maltier it tastes, hence 'crisper' to my palate anyway and interpretation of 'crisp' in context.. Might have something to do with CO2 being better absorbed or activated more and giving it more of a tang perhaps? Not a chemist, could never balance equations.
 
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