American "Helles"... am unorthodox brew day

[Brody]

So usually before brewday I make a trek up to Keystone Homebrew (about 45m each way) bypassing several LHBS in Philly to take advantage of their ingredient selection (both German and UK). Today I decided to see what would happen if I stayed local, went to the Philly Homebrew Outlet, and made substitutions as needed. Turns out they don't carry Weyerman and are primarily a Breiss shop. The place didn't even carry lager yeast except 34/70 dry (doesn't matter as I still have a quart of 833 slurry).

Why? I'm brewing up 5 or 6 batches to have on tap for a party - since a lot of it will get blown through it's as good a time as any to experiment. I figure I'll do 3 proper, 1 like this, and one to the papers recipe but with no O2 treatment. Should be interesting to note the flavor differences.

The Grist:
84% Avangard Pilsner
5% Breiss Carapils
5% Breiss C-10
2.4% Breiss Flaked Barley (this worked up a hell of a head on a pils I did a while ago, figured since I was straying this batch why not?)
3.6% Acid Malt (they couldn't tell me maltster, does anyone other than Weyerman make this?)

The Water:
Im the spirt of the brewday I used my tap water instead of the usual soft water. (43ca, 13mg, 42na, 44 s04, 92cl)

The Mash:
60m at ~150f, 30m @ 160f. To be honest I was just going to single infuse it (again, going with the theme) but decided to rest at 160f for a spell.

I guess Avangard pils gives up it's sugars easier, my efficiency went through the roof (over 100% conversion efficiency) ... looks like I'm brewing a bock. So an oz of 2.5% aa mystey Hallertau won't do, time to break out the Magnum.

Hops:
35 ibus of Magnum

At the moment I'm entering the boil. The flavor is obviously quite different. Maybe more hay/grass like? Lighter - Less of that bread & honey thing I've gotten used to. I think this batch may allow me to easier justify the trek to Keystone for the good stuff.

I've been attached at the hip to my new DO meter, I'll post about that as well.

[Owenbräu]

[Owenbräu]

[Brody]

[Kit_B]

Oooo...Yeah...
Don't do that.

That's WAY too aggressive.
Magnum will probably be rough.

Next time, try something far more mild...
Mittelfruh
Hersbrucker
Tradition
Tettnang
Spalt
Even the generic Hallertau I find are nice.

[Brody]