Leftovers Pils- Does This Sound Ok?

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kierent

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Hi all.

I have some grain that I originally bought for a BIAB Dr Smurto's Golden Ale but I'm out of Pilsner and still have plenty of Ale so I had a play on Brewmate to see what I could come up with using a Czech Pilsner yeast I have and leftover hops. I'm new to AG (have done 3 BIAB's in 20L pots) and brand new to recipe creation so thought I'd get opinions before I start.

I realise it's not going to be a Pils by style as it's too dark but I love this yeast so thought I'd see what happened using it with these malts and hops. I also realise Hallertau isn't usually used for bittering but I only have 24g of Amarillo and 11g og B Saaz. The 40 min Hallertau addition was a guess and the 9g Hallertau aroma hop was just to get it to 1g/L (with the 11g Saaz).


Any thoughts?


Amarillo Saaz Hallertau Pils

Original Gravity (OG): 1.046 (P): 11.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (P): 3.1
Alcohol (ABV): 4.52 %
Colour (SRM): 7.3 (EBC): 14.4
Bitterness (IBU): 38.8 (Average)

56.47% Pilsner (2.4kg)
18.82% Munich I (800g)
18.82% Wheat Malt (800g)
5.88% Caramunich I (250g)

1.2 g/L Amarillo (9.2% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (24g)
0.5 g/L Hallertau Tradition (5.7% Alpha) @ 40 Minutes (Boil) (10g)
0.6 g/L B Saaz (6% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (11g)
0.6 g/L Hallertau Tradition (5.7% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (9g)


Single step Infusion at 65C for 75 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 12C with Wyeast 2278 - Czech Pils


Recipe Generated with BrewMate
 
Looks OK, mostly, but just a couple of thoughts:
1. Do you really need 5.88% Caramunich? Seems way too much for my taste, especially as you already have 18.82% Munich I as base malt.
2. Amarillo hops? I know they're there for 60 minutes for bittering, but they'll still leave some of their character. If that's what you like, fine, but for me it will clash with the classic Hallertau and B Saaz.
 
Id get rid of the caramunich and the amarillo.

Bsaaz for bittering at 45mins with 2 hallertau additions, 12g at 10 min 7g at 5 min.
 
i suspect your about to get some very interesting opinions to your recipe questions..

do you have more pils malt? If so, id consider maybe upping it to 80% and then going 10/5/5 with the other malts in order.

I'd also get rid of the hallertau, and use a different yeast. I know you want to use it, but your grain bill is more suited to an ale than a typical lager (pils is a lager).

I reckon Amarillo would work great with B Saaz (Motueka), and that grain bill adjusted should be ok too.

EDIT:
not trying to be a smartass, as i don't know how experienced a brewer you are, but i just looked at your pending title of the recipe and it dawned on my that you may not know that B Saaz is a very different hop to what most brewers would call "Saaz".

Yes it's a saaz derivative, but there's very little similarity between B Saaz (new zealand variety) and the original Czech Saaz which is much more "noble" or subtle.
 
Sweet, thanks for the replies gents. I'm glad I asked!

No worries Big Nath, i'm not worried about smart assness. I am not an experienced brewer really (definitely not as an AG brewer) and had no idea B Saaz was different from Czech Saaz. And to make it even more embarrassing I just double checked and the hops I have are Czech Saaz!

The grain bill is set, I ordered it milled and mixed from Craftbrewer and it was going to be a Dr Smurto's Golden Ale so I can't separate anything out from that. Being new to AG I have fairly limited understanding about base malts and spec malts so didn't really realise that some grain bills are much better suited to ales than lagers. I've had a few really nice dark lagers so thought maybe it'd work.

warra, I wasn't sure about Amarillo hops in it either but saw a recipe somewhere that used Saaz and Amarillo together so thought I'd try it. Best to go with other's experience though I think :)

I think best bet would be to use this grain bill for another ale seeing it's delicious anyway and get a new grain and hop order for my pils. The only reason I considered it was because my keg of pils is nearly empty and i have much more ale left.

Thanks again for the input. If anyone else has anything to add go for it but I think we can safely let this thread die and I'll stick to the basics that I know make great beer for now!! KISS like they say, small changes at a time so I know what changes I like and what I don't like.
 
If your keen on using that yeast id'e just go with mostly pils malt some wheat say 10% and a dash of caramunich 1 say 3-5% and just use the hallertau at 40min and 5min in boil. mash around 66 for an hr and I reckon you will get a great beer. Bitterness with that OG will be mid 20's id think.
Cheers
 
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