Brewing a Bavarian Helles

[Brandon]

Too much for me, in fact. If I'm going to brew American styles, I need to rethink all recipes. I'm digging the lagers at the moment though, they have been my brewing life's ambition.

[Owenbräu]

I haven't tried brewing stouts and porters yet, but based on the schwarz and dunkel I've brewed, rostmalts are going to need relearning too. Every style I've brewed lodo so far has been amazing.

[wobdee]

My latest lodo Helles FFT sample 1.007, OG 1.046
91/Barke Pils, 4/CF, 3/CH, 1/CM1

IMG_20160428_141131425_HDR.jpg (2.68 MiB) Viewed 14057 times

[KenLenard]

Wow, wobdee... looks great. Nice color.

I'm picking up speed here. I have ordered SMB, a spunding valve, some high-temp tubing and an SS chiller. Also, I thought that I had used my 2352 four times already but I was wrong. I made a festbier, a pale bock and a helles so I'm going to use a slurry from that yeast and make yet another helles. I also have some distilled water and I may use a combination of my modest-ion source water + distilled. The 2352 was just used last Saturday in that helles so I would have to wait until at least next weekend but the process and the timeline are starting to get clearer. My guess is that it will end up being more like "lower-O2" brewing but I have to start somewhere, right? Cheers.

[KenLenard]

Can anyone shed some light on the part of the paper where the conditioning of the malt is described (section 2.2, towards the bottom of page 4)? If I had a grist consisting of 10 lbs (160 ounces), I should add 1.6 to 3.2 ounces of water (tap water?) to the grains before they're milled? Is it as easy as pouring that water into the bucket of grains and working the water in with your hands? Leave it for some amount of time before running it through the mill? Will this gunk up the mill at all? Seems like it wouldn't but I have never done this before. Thanks for the help.

[caedus]

Use a spray bottle and spritz the malt with it, while churning the malt by hand. Repeat slowly and evenly across the malt.

The malt won't be "wet". The water gets absorbed pretty quick into the malt. Less dust, nice pliable, whole husks. Good stuff.

[Kit_B]

The amount of water used is up to the discretion of the brewer.
Personally, I fill a spray bottle with water & spritz it on, until I feel that the kernels are adequately dampened.
The first time I tried this, I went overboard & seized up my mill.
...So, care should be taken.
mix the grains around & try to evenly distribute the moisture.
I like to use a large, shallow bin, rather than a bucket...Just makes everything easier to mix.
I find it's best to spray & allow a brief sitting period, so the husks can absorb enough moisture & get pliable.

One of the best write-ups I've seen was done by Kai.
(Not even remotely shocking, right?)

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?ti ... nditioning

[KenLenard]

Thanks guys. More information for my already-full brain. I'll probably be getting my LODO feet wet next weekend. Cheers and thanks again.

[Kit_B]

I can't wait to see your reaction, when you taste it, Ken.
I hope someone gets an audio recording.

[KenLenard]