Organized a Brew Day at Local Brewery For Xmas Present...

[Loetz]

As a Christmas present for my father, I organized a brew day for him at his local brewpub. He will get to go there and brew up a 15gal batch on their system. I told them that he's probably going to want to make a pilsner, and asked if they could send me a recipe so I could take a look at it.
This was their response:

Grain bill for our pilsner is Pilsen malt and light LME.
Hops are Crystal for bittering and Saaz for flavor and aroma. We'll ferment with a lager yeast. It should finish out around 30 IBU's, 4 SRM, and about 5.5 % ABV.

I'm a little surprised to see that they're doing a mash AND adding LME. Is this a common practice for breweries? Honestly I'm a little let down by their recipe. The whole purpose of this arrangement was to have them show my dad how a brewery works, but their process seems really uninspired. I've never made a pils, so I'm not really sure what usually goes into it. I emailed back to inquire about the LME and to ask if there was any chance to at least work some carapils in there for head retention, but I don't want to come off looking like a dick. I haven't heard back from them yet. Maybe I can request another type of light lager which might include some more specialty grains so that my dad can feel like he's doing something more than just dumping one ingredient in a vat and adding some extract to it. Using a complex recipe makes it more fun and engaging.

Also, I should note that my dad lives far away and doesn't have the means to come for a visit and do a brew with me. Otherwise I would just show him on my homebrew rig.

 

[bobsbeer]

Sounds like a really nice present. I'm sure he will enjoy the day, whatever he makes. Presumably he gets to drink the 15 gals at some point?

 

[Loetz]

Oh yea, he gets to keep all the beer. They're even letting us use their labeler for our custom labels.

 

[Loetz]

So I just got an email back from them and this is what they said:

With our setup, we can't do all grain brewing, so we have to go with partial mash (more precisely, brew-in-a-bag). Hence the LME. I like to include the malts because I think it adds to the flavor and complexity of the beer (purely subjective on my part, but that's one of the perks of being the brewer).

Here is a photo of their rig:

Why on Earth would they not be able to do all-grain using that equipment? It looks like those things are well insulated and would be great at maintaining a constant mash temp.

Does BIAB require LME? I was under the impression that it was still basically all=grain.

 

[Runwell-Steve]

They look like fermenters to me.