All grain Pilsner and Lagers

[MyQul]

I'm thinking of doing a mini 5L batch of lagered stout come the winter. Similar to clibits sugesstion, I'll just ferment outside on the balcony and condition it in the fridge

 

[clibit]

Dude you are probably sick of getting asked for recipes, but when you say a lager type beer, do you have a recipe in mind? hint! hint!:-D

I'm not a dude, I'm a bloke in his 50s with a beard. :-)

Been thinking about how to brew a lager like beer with ale yeast. My daughter asked! A lager is basically pilsner malt, noble hops ((Saaz, Tettnang, Spalt, Hallertau) and a lager yeast. The more you change things, the less like a lager it will be.

So I would use pilsner or lager malt, bitter with Perks or Msgnum hops, aroma with one of the noble hops, aim for about 35-40 IBUs, and then ferment cool with US05.

Personally, I think I'll use a different hop and ain for something a little different. I have four hops in the freezer I'm considering. Crystal, Sterling, Motueka and Bobek. The first three were all bred from noble hops. I'll get a recipe together. I'll probably bitter with Sterling as it's 9% AA, and aroma with Crystal or Motueka.

 

[clibit]

Here is a Pilsner Urquell recipe from GW:

Batch Size (L): 10.0
Original Gravity (OG): 1.048
Final Gravity (FG): 1.011
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.84 %
Colour (SRM): 3.1 (EBC): 6.1
Bitterness (IBU): 40
Boil Time (Minutes): 150 (GW says Urquell simmer the wort gently for 2.5 hours. You could do a regular boil, but 90 mins is recommended for pilsner malt. )

2.000 kg Pilsner (94.97%) (You could use lager malt)
0.106 kg Carapils (Dextrine) (5.03%)

27.0 g Saaz Leaf (3.6% Alpha) @ 150 Minutes
14.0 g Saaz Leaf (3.6% Alpha) @ 45 Minutes
6.0 g Saaz Leaf (3.6% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes

4.0 g Irish Moss @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Water: Very soft water is ideal. Very soft water is what United Utilities pipe into my house.

Yeast: If you use a lager yeast, you can get Urquell yeast as Wyeast 2001 or Whitelabs WLP800. If you use dried go for Saflager W-34/70. You need twice as much yeast for a lager. Ferment around 12*C.

Alternatively, Ferment at 15/16*C with US-05.

Useful info here on fermenting,conditioning and lagering:

https://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_lagerbrewing.cfm


I'm thinking of changing the hops to something like this (same IBUs):

20.0g Sterling Leaf (7.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Or Perle, Magnum, Cluster, Herkules, Green Bullet, Target adjusted for AA%)
15.0g Crystal Leaf (2.5% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes
15.0g Crystal Leaf (2.5% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes

Crystal sounds like a good aroma hop for an alternative kind of lager, likewise Sterling, Motueka, Wakatu, Summer. Or go mad and use Citra, Amarillo etc.

Or go for a German noble hop or similar for a more European lager flavour: Saaz, Tettnang, Spalt, Hallertau, Saphir, Perle.

 

[Dads_Ale]

I used this recipe and it was very nice:

Lager malt - 6kg

mash at 50c for 30 mins
increase temp to 65c for a further 60 mins (I added boiling water but only got to 64c and mash tun was full)

Saaz hops - 45g - 90 mins boil
Saaz hops - 30g - last 5 mins boil
Saaz hops - 25g - o mins

Yeast US05

fermented at about 19 - 20c

Initial volume in boiler - 33 litres

Final volume in fermenter was 27 litres

OG - 1058
FG - 1006

ABV 7%

This has had good review on bottle swaps. Also done a lower ABV version with less malt. Also nice.

 

[Leon103]

That's nice and straight it ward. Did you mash for another 30 mins after raising the temp? Did you condition at low temperatures?

 

[Dads_Ale]

That's nice and straight it ward. Did you mash for another 30 mins after raising the temp? Did you condition at low temperatures?

Missed that bit. the 65c was for a further 60 mins (now added)

The main problem with raising the temp with boiling water was the amount needed. With the second version I started at 55c and brought it up to 64c with about 6 litres of boiling water (didn't seem to affect the final result), so you need to start off with a fairly stiff mash.

After 2 weeks at room temp the bottles go into my beer fridge which is set at 10c for as long as it takes to drink them all :)

 

[Leon103]

At the moment I am thinking the bohemian Pilsner from gregs book with s-05