Bohemian Pilsner

Looking for comments/suggestions

5 Gallon Recipe. 3 to 1 distilled to spring water.

9lbs Pilsner Malt
.5lbs Carapils
.25lbs Melanoiden Malt

1 oz Sazz at 90
.5 oz Sazz at 45
.5 oz Sazz at 20
1 oz Sazz at 10
1 oz Sazz at 0
1 oz Sazz Keg Hops

Single infusion mash at 154 for 60 minutes. Continuous sparge with 180 degree water. Collect 7 gallons, boil 90minutes. Hoping the carapils and higher mash temp will help keep the beer from fermenting out too much.

Ferment with 34/70 lager yeast at 50F then lager for a month. Add Keg Hops when I put it on gas.

For my tastes, 1/2# of carapils in a 5 gallon pilsner is too much. I just brewed a pilsner which came out great - used 100% pilsner malt, nothing else. did a multi-step infusion. FG was about 1.011, exactly within my target range.

i did a pilsner for all intents except for using s-05 a while back and notice that even with only 125g of crystal malt its plenty full feeling. if you want that pilsner crispness maybe consider discounting the carapils

I'm still up in the air about carapils. I was looking at the guidelines for a bo pils and the FG is supposed to be 1013+. I just know if I don't use any it will finish much lower than that

can a pils be made with us05 or any other california ale variant?

RonPopeil said:

can a pils be made with us05 or any other california ale variant?

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It can, but you have to know what you're doing to get a clean beer. Even then, good luck getting it to turn out like a true pilsner...

I just don't think US05 would produce the kind of beer you (ok, I) want a pilsner to be. Pilsner purists would tell you it's not a pilsner if you're not using a lager yeast. The pilsner i mentioned in my post above was done with a kolsch yeast and it's one of the best beers i've ever made, and i doubt anyone would be able to tell. So there's a good option.

i fermented the s-05 between 60-63F and it still definitely does not taste like a clean lager at all. tastes like an APA with tettnang hops. kolsch yeast might taste more cleanjer

Brewed this as described today. Had to back off on the hop additions as I got a deal on US Saaz for a buck an ounce and the US version was over 8% AA.

Will let you all know how it turns out.

DoctorDuvel said:

Pilsner purists would tell you it's not a pilsner if you're not using a lager yeast..

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That's because it's true. It might be a good beer but it is not a lager. You cannot duplicate a true lager with an ale yeast.

BigEd said:

That's because it's true. It might be a good beer but it is not a lager. You cannot duplicate a true lager with an ale yeast.

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Yep, totally.