Tackling a Jever

[The Judge]

[SIZE=medium]Lads, I’m tackling a Jever (northern German Pilsener, bitter and dry) and would like some input if you know anything about this beer. There’s no tried and tested clone recipe out there (that I could find). I have done some investigation on other forums and a little bit of my own thinking. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Here’s the background:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]The back of the bottle reads: “For 150 years, in the Friesland region of northern Germany, the Jever Brewery has used only pure Friesian spring water and fresh Hallertau hops in a beer that has become prized for its distinctive palate and crisp, dry finish - Jever, The Original Friesland Pilsner."[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]It’s about 38-42 IBU and a dry beer.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Here’s my approach:[/SIZE]

• [SIZE=medium]100% Pilsener malt[/SIZE]
• [SIZE=medium]Mashed at 63°C[/SIZE]
• [SIZE=medium]Target 1046-1050 OG for ca. 5% abv [/SIZE]
• [SIZE=medium]90 min boil (DMS boil off)[/SIZE]
• [SIZE=medium]Hallertau-Mittelfrüh hop additions at 60 mins, 30 mins and 10 mins (proportioned appropriately to hit 38-42 IBU).[/SIZE]
• [SIZE=medium]Wyeast 2042 Danish Lager Yeast[/SIZE]
• [SIZE=medium]Diacetyl rest[/SIZE]
• [SIZE=medium]No adjuncts[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]I’m yet to do the calcs for the right mass of all the ingredients, but will do it after a little appraisal. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Hit me with some comments please! Cheers[/SIZE]

 

[Beertard]

The secret lies in the water, which is still taken from the same well used well over 100 years ago. The water from the well is unusually pure and soft. That allows the brewers to add a touch more hops to create the Friesian-bitter taste that distinguishes Jever Pilsner from any other beer.

how would you recreate their soft water?

 

[The Judge]

Well...... seeing as this is a first attempt, I won't be recreating that part! If the backbone is right, then I'll give the finer specs a try downt he track with a second or third attempt ;-)

 

[mje1980]

Pitch a heap of yeast and pitch it cold. Let it ferment for a few weeks before taking a gravity reading. I brewed 2 lagers recently with Danish lager. I pitched a lot of yeast into the first one, then broke my knee cap, so it sat in primary for around 7 weeks, then I kegged it. Super smooth and crisp. Great lager.

The next one I tried a different method, pitched cold, but slowly let the temp rise every few days to 16-18. It fermented out much quicker but the time I saved in the fermentor I had to wait once I kegged it, it wasn't as smooth and now it's probably over 7 weeks but i don't think it's anywhere near as good as the first one.

For that gravity I'd do a 4 litre starter. Do it at room temp, then when finished, add to the fermenting fridge to cool to slightly below pitching temp ( 6c in my case ). Make sure your wort is that temp as well. Pitch, then let raise to 8-10c. Then forget it for a month, and then go from there.

You probably won't need a d rest if you pitch cold.

 

[Weizguy]

BYO mag link to Nth German pils profile and recipe. Jever is referenced.

Hope it helps

 

[The Judge]

MJE, thanks for that. I made a 1.5 L starter at 17C (kept it small because the batch was small and didn't want any obscuring flavours coming in). Judging by your method there I have probably underpitched. I pitched it at 17C and left the wort to sit at 17C for 24 hrs (ambient temp), and now it's sitting in the fermenation freezer at 8-10C.

Will give it a D rest in about a week from now.

Depending on the results of this batch, I'll give your method a shot (i.e. big starter and pitch at 6C). Cheers mate.

 

[The Judge]

Cheers Les, that's a good article in many respects.

 

[The Judge]

From the link that Les posted, here's a pretty cracking recipe (which I'm yet to try) that is based on the Jever. To be tried another day in spring I think.

 

[Weizguy]

how would you recreate their soft water?

A lot of Australian water is soft. Newcastle is very soft and low in minerals, and many other cities are happy to boast the same.

This IS the lucky country!

 

[The Judge]

Yeah i've never had a water sample analysed from my place in Perth, but it also doesn't have all the characteristics of hard water, so it's probably reasonably soft. Might see if the council has some water chemistry data available...

 

[neonmeate]

good luck, ive actually tried to clone this beer a few times. last time was the best (i think the recipe is on ahb here). http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/54067-recipedb-jever-homage/
i used weyermann premium pilsener, tettnang and mittelfruh.

getting a superclean ferment to let those malt and hops out is the challenge - i had success with 2 packs of 34/70 but it took 3 months' lagering at 0C to really get there. even with 45+IBU i couldve used more bitterness. the real thing is stingingly bitter, especially in Germany - at least it used to be. i wonder whether i get anywhere near the bitterness software predicts. or how much AA% is lost over time in hbs freezers. the other thing i find is that too much hop flavour gets in the way of bitterness. so for a beer like this where you want it sharp as a knife you dont want too much flowery stuff round the outside of the flavour. if you get me. a hop tea for aroma after a long lagering is a good move too.
prost kamerad

 

[neonmeate]

i should add that that dornbusch byo recipe looks great, i wish id seen it before i spent ages researching my own recipes...

 

[The Judge]

All good info. Makes sense what you're saying about hop aroma being secondary to bitterness. I had to carefully program my hop bill as i used 2012 and 2013 harvest Hallertau Mittelfreuh which had 3.2% and 4.4% AA respectively! But they were boiled pretty early on. My biggest concern for this brew is getting the right bitterness strength and balance, and keeping the beer crisp. Sounds like it'll take a few attempts.