Münchner Helles
 

My favorite drinking beer I can drink all day and all night.

This is based heavily on BierMuncher's Helles Belles.

All Grain Version (75% brewhouse efficiency)
==============

8# German Pilsner
8oz Munich
8oz Vienna
8oz Flaked Wheat
1oz Tettnang, Tradition, Saaz, or Hallertau (4-5% AA, target is 18-22 IBUs so you may need to adjust slightly)

Mash for 60-75 minutes at 150-152*F. An optional short protein rest at 131*F will improve yield with German pils malts. First wort hop, and boil vigorously for 90 minutes, topping off to 5.25 gallons if needed. Chill as quickly as possible to ensure a solid cold break. I use a hop strainer, and I like to whirlpool and siphon to keep the wort as clean as possible.

Partial Mash Version
==============

3.5# Extra Light DME or Pilsner DME (if you can find it)
2# German Pilsner
8oz Munich
8oz Vienna
8oz Flaked Wheat
1oz Tettnang, Tradition, Saaz, or Hallertau (4-5% AA)

Combine crushed grains in a grain bag and drop into 1 gallon of filtered tap water or bottled spring water (not softened water!) heated to 166*F. Temp should stabilize around 154*F. Remove pot from burner and wrap in a blanket. Let mash for 60 minutes. Then bring 1 additional filtered gallon of water to 175*F in a second pot. Remove grain bag and drop into second pot. Let soak for 5 minutes, drain, and discard grains. Move contents of second pot to first pot and top up to 2.5 gallons. Add the hops, bring to a boil, and boil for 75 minutes. Carefully add extract to avoid scorching and add one Whirlfloc tablet. Continue boil for 15 additional minutes. Chill quickly in a water bath or using an immersion chiller. Fast chilling is important for this style to ensure you do not have chill haze. Since this is a light brew it is also a good idea to use a strainer to strain out hops and break material to keep them out of the fermenter. Top up to 5 gallons in the fermenter with bottled water of your choice.

Fermentation
==============

As far as fermentation you have a couple of choices. You can lager with a lager yeast like WLP830, or you can use a lot of clean ale yeast and ferment it cool. WLP810 is rumoured to work well, I have yet to try it though.

As a lager: I used 2L starter of WLP830 pitched at 50*F and did a single vessel fermentation. I fermented at 52*F for two weeks, did a three day diacetyl rest, and lagered in the primary for four additional weeks at 42*F before kegging and force carbonating.

As an ale: Two packages of US-05 at 64*F will yield a very clean beer. Or you can use a 2L starter of WY1007 German Ale yeast at 62*F. Or you can do what I'm going to do next time I do this as an ale and pitch a package of German Ale yeast plus a package of US-05 dry ale yeast making a yeast blend. Temperature control during the first few days of fermentation will be key to getting this beer to come out to style. I use a water bath for my ales and change the ice 2x daily. I have found that 3# of ice twice a day will keep the temps 60-64*F which is ideal for a squeaky clean ale. I keg so I do not secondary this beer. I give it three weeks in the primary and then let it sit in the keg for a week before tapping. With the German Ale yeast finings such as KC or Gelatin may be helpful if it does not clear.

Thanks for the recipe. For the sake of clarity, do you really boil the DME for only 15 minutes? Just wanted to be sure.

Yes I always do late extract additions when I use extract.

Sacc...

Hey, I am thinking of doing this brew on my next brewcast on the 4th...

Looks nice. Id mash for 15 min. at 132F and 60 min. at 150F to dry it out.

I brewed up the partial mash version of this a few weeks ago. It's stepping down for lagering right now. :rockin: I had an ounce of Vanguard hops I used FWH. We'll see how it turns out.

I'd like to revive this dead recipe.
Saccharomyces, why do you add 8 oz of flaked wheat to this recipe? What does it add to the flavor and/or body of the beer?

Hacker Pschorr Munich Gold
 

Does anyone have a Hacker Pschorr Munich Gold recipe?

I use the flaked wheat to improve head retention without adding sweetness like you would get with carapils. (Yeah I know folks say carapils isn't sweet but in a beer this delicate you do notice)

Looking to do my first lager and like your partial method (not ready for all grain just yet). I am more liking amber lagers have you any thought on slight modification to make it more of an amber lager?

Sure if you wanted to do a amber lager variation on this recipe, use 1# of munich, drop the vienna, and add two ounces of carafa III de-husked (or debittered black malt if you can't get the carafa). That should net something similar to Yuengling, but maltier.