Pilsener

[Wassa]

Howdy guys,

I am thinking of trying to make a Pilsener from an extract brew and thought of the following:

3kg of lightDME
Disslove in 5 litres of hot water and bring to boil for 1 hour.

20gm of Saaz at 60 minutes to go
20gm of Saaz at 45 minutes
20gm Saaz at 15 minutes and 12gm Saaz at flameout.

Transfer to fermenter and bring up to 22 litres. Put down with Czech Pilsener Yeast starter.

Any comments/ideas or improvements would be welcome.

Thanks,

Wassa :chug:

 

[sam]

What AA are the Saaz?

Thats not going to be bitter enough, I'd try about 40g @ 60 and 40g @ 45 of ~3.5% AA, to get a little above 30IBUs.

Other than that, should be good.

 

[T.D.]

I agree with Sam. There should be some good IBU calculators out there that can estimate the bitterness based on boil volume, boil gravity and alpha acid level. Although, it sounds like Sam may have already done the calculation...

I would probably go for a minimum of 30 IBUs - I reckon 35-40 is the sweet spot for a bohemian style pils.

The late additions look pretty good.

 

[T.D.]

By the way, I used 70g of 4-ish% saaz at 60mins for a recent pilsner that was 35IBUs. That was in a full size boil.

 

[sam]

And to agree with TD, I would also try and aim for about 40 IBUs.

You can use a higher AA European bittering hop, like Perle or Northern Brewer, to reach the IBUs if you don't want to have so many hops in the kettle.

But, for a traditional Bohemian Pils, use of all Saaz is the go.

 

[Wortgames]

You might find that it will come out a little darker than planned, a concentrated boil like that will probably caramelise a bit. You'll also get reduced hop utilisation, so I'd definitely aim for the higher end of the scale.

 

[pint of lager]

3kg of DME in 5 litres of water is too much DME.

I suggest using 1.5 kg of DME and boiling that with your hop additions. Keep a kettle boiling and keep topping your boil back up to the start mark, otherwise evaporation will destroy your brew. About 10 minutes before the end of boil, remove the pot from the flame, dissolve the rest of the DME, bring back to boil, then restart the timer for the final 10 minutes.

Chill the pot and then pour through a strainer such as panty hose into the fermenter. With a full quantity of bitter, flavour and aroma hops, if you try and pour the wort and leave the hot/cold break and hops in the boiler, you will lose at leaset 1.5 litres to the crud. That is, 1.5 litres of very concentrated wort from your 5 litres.

I agree with the IBU's that people are suggesting, 35-40.

Make sure you have the correct alpha acid rating of your hops. Some homebrew shops sell NZ saaz which are over 6%, whereas the European saaz are around 2-3 AA. That is a huge difference in bittering.

Also make sure your software or IBU calculator takes into account for the concentrated boil which leads to poor utilization of the hops.

 

[Mr Bond]

As an experienced extract brewer from way back I agree with everything POL says!

I would only boil 1kg of extract in 5 litres and keep it at a constant level.I add about 500/ 750 ml boiling water over an hour to mantain levels roughly and add the rest of extract after flame out.

An all extract beer ( liquid or dry) will be darker and sweeter with more mouthfeel than a real lager even with the yeast(trust me I've tried it plenty of times)

250 gms of dex will help to thin/dry it out a bit,but don't expect to get anything like a real lager from extract.Only grains will give you the lighter colour and drier finish of a true pils/lager.
Good luck :excl:

 

[yard glass]

hi guys,

I would like to try this, would it benefit from the use of some specialty grains ?

cheers
yard

 

[T.D.]

Maybe... although, when I think of "specialty grains" I think of darker malts usually. I can't be sure that I remember this correctly, but I think light grains don't take kindly to steeping (ie, it should be mashed).

If you are happy using specialty grains you are probably well and truly able to do a partial mash. That would be a good way to get a genuine pils without going all the way to all grain brewing.

Try something like

1.5kg LME
2.5kg Pils malt (mashed in 7.5L of water at 65degrees)

That's the only way I would be willing to use grain in a pils, short of AG of course.

Steeping specialty grains is not really something I know a hell of a lot about so somebody else may have a better suggestion...

 

[pint of lager]

Yes, TD is right. Pilsners don't really need any "specialty" grain and a partial mash of the right base grain would be the way to go. If you want to have a crack at partial mashing, do a search on the nick cubbie and partial mashing, you should dig up an excellent thread where he has posted all the different links to partial mashing he could find and outlined the process. The usual "specialty" grains that kit and kilo and extract brewers use are crystal, chocolate and roast. These only need steeping.

"Specialty" grains do not need mashing, only steeping at anywhere from 20-60 deg to extract the benefit of their flavours. Base grains such as pale ale, pilsner, Munich and Vienna must be mashed, which is steeping at a very special temp, 65-67 degrees where enzymes convert the starch of the grain into wort sugars. The resulting solution from either steeping or mashing must be boiled to sanitise it.

You will need a bigger saucepan than 5 litres to partial mash. Even a basic extract that you are attempting, 5 litres is a very small quantity. Have a look in Asian shops, they sell cheap large saucepans. Big W and Kmart are also sources.

The other thing to watch out for is boilovers, no matter what size you have.

Before undertaking your extract brewing, have a read of John Palmer's site which includes a section on extract brewing. Howtobrew link

 

[yard glass]

T.D and pint of lager,

thanks for the tips and links.
by no means an expert, as i have only played with steeping some crystal a couple of times, but just that (imho) has improved my beers.
I'm getting close to my 1st Partial, i've read Palmer until 2am etc...
just getting a bit more gear ( can never have enough ) and some spare time.

beers
yardglass