Pilsner for a Pale Ale

[mofox1]

I'm planning a run of single hopped pales, only I've run out of MO and I've got a chance to brew on Thursday. Originally, the grist was something along the lines of:

85% MO
12% Wheat
3% Crystal 30L

OG: 1.048, SRM: 6.0

I've got a stack of Pilsner to use, so I figure I'll sub it in. I know I can use it and it will turn out fine - my Coopers Pale clone I did had about the same % grist with the Pilsner/wheat/crystal. But it lacked depth, and I was wondering if I could use some amber, or munich or something to "MO" my pilsner...

So I'm now thinking 50% Pilsner & 25% Munich to keep the same colour, and hopefully a bit of the MO profile.

Anything else to pimp my pils? I'm an impatient bugger, so putting off brew day until I get more MO ain't gonna cut it!


Next bulk buy buy two bags. Next bulk buy buy two bags. Next bulk buy...

 

[Blind Dog]

Other than seeming to lose 10% of your grist, you should be fine. I used a 60% Pils, 30% munch 5% wheat 5% crystal a number of times in APAs. Its not quite MO but makes a nice beer. Or maybe just go 75% Pils and 25% Munich or similar with a Belgian yeast & lower alpha hops for a Belgian Pale Ale?

 

[warra48]

I often use some Amber and a good proportion of Munich in my Pale Ales.
Go for it, it should turn out fine as you have designed it, although about 5% Amber wouldn't go astray either in that recipe.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I got a bag of JW Pils malt last year that had fallen on the floor of the malting plant.

I used it in an APA, with an increase in crystal to account for it and mashed at 63 degrees single fusion mash.

Worked very well for mine. Sure, it's not MO but made a tasty beer nonetheless.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Nothing wrong with pilsner malt

 

[manticle]

Munich or vienna to pimp it.

 

[mofox1]

Other than seeming to lose 10% of your grist, you should be fine. I used a 60% Pils, 30% munch 5% wheat 5% crystal a number of times in APAs. Its not quite MO but makes a nice beer. Or maybe just go 75% Pils and 25% Munich or similar with a Belgian yeast & lower alpha hops for a Belgian Pale Ale?

Lol. Math bad. That was s'posed to be 35% for the munich.

Cheers for the grist reference. Looks good, similar to what I was thinking (not a validation in itself).

Nice tip with the belgian, might do it some time but for now I want to profile some pungent hops like galaxy, nelson and ella in their single (cube) hopped glory. This batch will be around 48L to fill 3 x 15L cubes. Although I'm thinking of cheating and bittering about 15 IBUs with a clean bittering hop at the start of boil, just to reduce my hop cost....

 

[lukiferj]

I have made pale ales for ages with pilsner malt. I prefer them a bit maltier now so generally throw some munich in there. Have made plenty with just pilsner/crystal which turned out fine though.

 

[mofox1]

Thanks all. Throwing in some amber to ration the munich (it was meant to go into a marzen when I finally get around to it).

70.5% Pilsner
12% Wheat
10% Munich I
4% Amber
3% Crystal 30L
0.5% CaraMunich III

As an added bonus, it adds up to 100% this time.

 

[Midnight Brew]

I often use some Amber and a good proportion of Munich in my Pale Ales.
Go for it, it should turn out fine as you have designed it, although about 5% Amber wouldn't go astray either in that recipe.

Warra got a question for you without trying to hijack the thread.

My usual APA grist is: (for a 40ibu/1.050og beer)
70% Pils
20% Munich
8% Wheat
2% Crystal

I do like it but I do think it is missing a little something. I'm trying to move away from throwing unnecessary types of malts into the one brew and keep it simple unless I feel it is needed, but in saying that I have thought about using amber malt around 5% to beef it up some more.

I was toying with this idea: (for a 40ibu/1.050og beer)
55% Pilsner
30% Munich
8% Wheat
5% Amber
2% Caramunich III

In your opinion what do you think Amber malt brings to the style?

 

[warra48]

Midnight,

My usual grist is not unlike yours for an APA. I like a little Amber, as it adds some biscuity complexity to the malt, whereas Munich gives it a more malty depth. I also like up to about 1% Choc Malt in mine to give it some depth of colour, and some additional complexity.

I'm a fan of more complex beers, I'm not a SMASH type of brewer.

The beauty of home brewing is that we can experiment, and do what we like until we find something to suit each ourselves.

Here;s the malt bill for one of my more successful APAs.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

85% Pilsner
10% Wheat
5% Xtal

SG 1055

Bitter with SAAZ to about 35IBU

Nice ale yeast like Coopers bottle yeast



Bingo. An Ale Pilsner

 

[mofox1]

Looks a bit like the Cooper's Pale clone I did... only better.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

You just need the POR for Bittering.

POR + SAAZ = Coopers Mild

 

[pajs]

Pilsner malt plus a little Munich or Vienna plus an ale yeast is a common start point for the German ales I've been doing. Minus the darker malt used to colour up an Altbier, the rest of that kind of recipe would make quite a tasty ale, I think. Pale colour, bit of malt backbone, grainy character from the Pilsner malt, bitter up with some noble German hops...

 

[mofox1]

Cheers guys, worked out well. The sweet wort tasted pretty good, malty and delicious.

3 x 16L cubes. A bit darker than expected... Had to pitch one the morning after brew night cos it didn't seem to seal properly.

Ended up with a Nelson/cascade, a galaxy and an Ella, all cube hopped 32 IBUs plus a 10 IBU bittering addition from some Columbus in the boil.

I've dry hopped the Nelson/Cascade with 10g of each, will do so with the Ella, but not so sure about the galaxy... Seems it has an ill repute for extended dry hopping (and I'm not likely going to rack off it).

 

[Jazman]

i use pilsner malt for the base for all my ales and ofcourse a bit a of weyermann munich 2 around the 10 to 20 % but that may be a bit too much for some people

 

[Goose]

Interesting.
Anybody tried using ale malt to make a pilsner then ?

 

[Tahoose]

Yep I've tried that, I wouldn't really do it again though.

 

[Goose]

curious as to why fella. too dark ? strange flavour ?