Ultra Light Pilsner

SWMBO et al enjoy my various homebrews, and keep requesting a lighter brew for longer consumption periods, such as a day of tubing, or frolfing, or just drinkin all day to drink all day....basically coors light.

see current recipe here

I just finished brewing the cream of three crops cream ale, I wanna go a little lighter; so here's what I've come up with:

Light Pilsner
Batch Size: 5.5 gal
Boil Size: 7 gal
Estimated OG: 1.036 SG
Estimated Color: 1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 11 IBU
Estimated ABV: 3.5%
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
3.00 lb 2 Row Pilsner
2.00 lb Brown Rice
1.00 lb Brown Sugar
0.50 lb Flaked Maize

0.50 oz Williamette (60 min)

If it works, it'll be 5 gallons of swmbo beer for just under $10.

brewing this on saturday..

turtle said:

SWMBO et al enjoy my various homebrews, and keep requesting a lighter brew for longer consumption periods, such as a day of tubing, or frolfing, or just drinkin all day to drink all day....basically coors light.

I just finished brewing the cream of three crops cream ale, I wanna go a little lighter; so here's what I've come up with:

Light Pilsner
Batch Size: 5.5 gal
Boil Size: 7 gal
Estimated OG: 1.036 SG
Estimated Color: 1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 11 IBU
Estimated ABV: 3.5%
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
3.00 lb 2 Row Pilsner
2.00 lb Brown Rice
1.00 lb Brown Sugar
0.50 lb Flaked Maize

0.50 oz Williamette (60 min)

If it works, it'll be 5 gallons of swmbo beer for just under $10.

Click to expand...

Maybe sub 6 row for pils since 50% of the grain bill is adjuncts

I wouldn't use the brown sugar the molasses flavor will overpower everything else, also with the plain brown rice you'd have to do a cereal mash for starch conversion.

Here is my ultra light pilsner.
I try to make it as light in color as possible without it looking watery.

7.4 gal. at 85% BHE
Target ABV 4.4%
10.4 lbs grains


% Grain/adjuncts

52.7 % German Pilsener
21.0 % Flaked Corn
21.0 % Flaked Rice
5.3 % CaraPils


% Weight (oz) Hop Form AA% AAU Boil Time Utilization IBU
65.1 % 1 Fuggles Pellet 4.7 4.7 60 0.270 12.8
34.9 % 0.357 Saaz Pellet 4.0 2.1 15 0.134 2.9

I wouldn't use brown rice (needs a cereal mash, plus would leave a flavor) or brown sugar (doesn't taste good when fermented, especially in a light beer). But regular flaked rice or Minute Rice would be great, as would flaked corn or corn sugar.

I'd do something more like this:

2.50 lb 2 Row Pilsner
1.00 lb 6 row
.5 lb carapils
2.00 lb Minute Rice
1.00 lb corn Sugar or flaked corn

cool, thanks for the replies. I'll probably go with yooper's idea, cause she's the shizzle.

Just curious, what kinda flavor does a brown rice cereal mash impart? I recently mashed brown rice as a substitute for flaked rice in a couple diff recipes..I guess I could just wait and see how they taste? My only reason for using it was it's dirt cheap here...and my understanding of brown rice is it still has the rice hulls on, which helps the mash somehow..

....also...if I'm trying to achieve a coors light taste, should I just leave out the flaked corn in yoopers recipe and go with 3lb minute rice?

after reading these threads:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/what-flavor-does-caramelized-brown-sugar-impart-233460/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/adding-brown-sugar-45110/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/sugar-honey-brown-sugar-taste-test-125450/

I'm gonna stick with my original recipe this time, keeping the brown sugar, only using 1lb of brown rice instead of 2, and adding 1lb of cane sugar. So the new recipe is:

Light Pilsner
Batch Size: 5.5 gal
Boil Size: 7 gal
Estimated OG: 1.039 SG
Estimated Color: 1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 10 IBU
Estimated ABV: 3.7%
Mash: 80 Minutes in 2 gallons at 152°F
Boil: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
3.00 lb 2 Row
1.00 lb Brown Rice(pre-cooked cereal mash)
0.50 lb Flaked Maize(cereal mash)

0.50 oz Williamette (60 min)

1.00 lb Brown Sugar(flameout)
1.00 lb Cane Sugar(flameout)

I'll post back how the brew goes and again once I taste a carbed sample. This will definitely be interesting...and still under $10 for 5 gallons of swmbo beer.

just got to todays brewsite, I thought I had williamette, but only have hallertau. oh well, the IBU's will be 6 instead of 8 this time. I should probably start keeping track of the exact ingredients I have available at each of my brew sites...

on another note, I'm tasting the cream ale I made last month that I substituted brown rice in, it has a very subtle "brown grain" type flavor that adds a good character to the beer. It's only been in the bottle 1 week, I'm sure it'll change as it ages.

It hasn't changed much as it aged...and the more I drink it the more I'm thinking I won't ever use brown rice or brown sugar again in my beer, other than in very small portions..

Was thinking of making something like this. Was just wondering how did the recipe come out? Any improvements been made since last post? What yeast did you use?

Lol. 2011

LOL indeed. Lucky for you I've got a couple bottles left I just stick in my fridge last night, I'll let you know tonight

[EDIT!]On second thought, I was an idiot when I came up with this recipe. I'd definitely ignore it and use Yooper's recipe:

Yooper said:

I wouldn't use brown rice (needs a cereal mash, plus would leave a flavor) or brown sugar (doesn't taste good when fermented, especially in a light beer). But regular flaked rice or Minute Rice would be great, as would flaked corn or corn sugar.

I'd do something more like this:

2.50 lb 2 Row Pilsner
1.00 lb 6 row
.5 lb carapils
2.00 lb Minute Rice
1.00 lb corn Sugar or flaked corn

Click to expand...

[/EDIT]

It turns out this beer got really good after 4 years of sitting in a hot garage. Go figure...I guess if you give anything long enough it gets better. Maybe next time I'll try for a 10 year batch using toilet water and molasses...

I swear there was a good head on this, but I didn't think to take the picture until a few minutes after pouring..

better pic..