Tentative Pils Recipe/Process

[Brody]

Alright, I wanted to piggy back on earlier post and run my tentative brew day by you guys for some more feedback:

The Beer: Pilsner – 1.048 OG, 30Ibus.

Method/Equipment: Full Volume, No Sparge, using a Blichman Boilermaker and brew bag over a Propane Burner.

Recipe:

Grain: 83% Weyerman Pils, 11% Weyerman Carafoam, 3% Weyerman Carahell, 3% Acid Malt.
Hops: 21ibus of Magnum (or C02 Hop Extract) at 60m. 1/2oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh at 30m, ½ oz Saaz at 10m
Water: Blend of Distilled and Brita Filtered Philly Tap adjusted with 4g Gypsum/2g CaCl. Target is 67ppm Ca, 4ppm Mg, 13ppm Na, 95ppm S04, 64ppm Cl. 5.4 mash pH target.
Yeast: I’ll probably stick to a local brewery’s (Iron Hill) ‘Czechvar’ yeast since I can get as much super fresh yeast as I want and pitch ~100ml of it. (But I’ve also been debating on using 820 beefed up by pitching into 1l of the wort while the main batch is cooling and pitching at high krausen.)

The Process:

Dough in at 95f. Why? For no rush pH measurement and adjustments. (Using 88% Lactic Acid/Baking Soda)

Once pH is on point (5.4) I’ll turn on the burner on medium and stir the mash as I bring it up to 135f (targeting <4f rise per minute)

After a 10m rest at 135f I’ll turn the heat back on and raise to a 145f Alpha. Why? Actually I’m debating on this rest. From what I’ve read a higher ‘protein’ rest positively affects head/mouth feel but I’ve also read the reverse.

I’ll hold the Alpha rest for 30m. Why? From what I’ve read that’s a good starting point. If the end product feels like it could use more attenuation, I’ll lengthen it.

Next, I’ll fire the burner back up and raise the mash to 158f for an hour rest. Why? To try to further increase mouth feel and body.

In general, I try to brew low gravity beer – so as I go on I’ll probably be targeting more ways to have great body, flavor, and mouth feel in a low gravity beer.

The final step would be a 175f mash out for 10m.

Next I’ll begin a 70m boil with the first hop addition at 60m… or maybe I’ll split the 60m with FWH. I’ll add a bit of 88% lactic acid to target a 5.2 cast out pH.

Post Boil: I’ll cool with an immersion chiller as low as I can go. Rack the wort off whatever break, etc has settled into a corny keg doing my best to minimize O2. I’ll place the Corny into my chest freezer and crash it down to 50f. Once it hits 50f I’ll aerate and pitch the yeast.

Fermentation: I'll set the freezer at 48f initially. As fermentation begins to wrap up I’ll skim the krausen and raise the ambient temperature to 68f for a diacytel rest/clean up. Once the beer is fully attenuated (I’ll do a FFT) and clean I’ll crash it to 30f and lager it for a week before transferring the beer off the yeast into a serving keg and carb it up.

[Roachbrau]

Watch that mash out temp. General guideline is 75-78 C, ie 167-173 f. 175 is way too high, and risks tannin extraction and denaturing a-amylase

[Brody]

Sounds good, 170f it is.