Munich Helles Gavin's Mightily Malty Munich Helles

I spent a wonderful summer in Munich in the 90's, living in a 1 bedroom apartment with 7 friends. We lived just up the road from the Löwenbräu Keller. I developed quite a liking for this great style of beer. If memory serves , this version is not too dissimilar to all those steins of beer my mates and I enjoyed during that great summer.



This recipe has it's roots in Brulosopher's Munich Helles. I figured after changing the grain-bill, yeast used, mash profile and fermentation schedule I could justifiably call it my own so am posting it here. There's not a whole lot to recipe for a Helles. It is a very simple and flavorful beer with the malt taking center-stage.

Grain-Bill (80% Brewhouse Efficiency)


NB: The acid malt is needed in my setup as I utilize full-volume mashes. No sparging. Thinner mashes may need some form of additional acid. I use acidulated malt for this reason in calculated amounts and subtract them from the originally planned base malt to keep the OG unchanged. If acid malt is not needed in your setup simply delete it and substitute it with Pilsner malt.

Hops


Yeast
A starter size based on the date of the yeast vial and a lager pitch-rate with my usual method. The starter is decanted prior to pitching the yeast.

Water


Mash profile


A full-volume, no-sparge step-mash via direct heating of the mash-tun was carried out with my usual BIAB method.

Mash pH was 5.29

Another option would be a single infusion at 150F.

Gravity prior to ramping the temperature and the beer's final gravity (FG)


Fermentation Profile


NB: Despite the titles which I use to enable me to enter the differing temperatures with ease in Beersmith, all fermentation is done in the primary. No racking other than to the keg after cold crashing and gelatin fining. The stated times in the profile are approximate only. Changes to the temperature are dictated by visual clues and measuring the gravity.

This beer was kegged 2 weeks after pitching the yeast. The beer was lagered at ~35F for about four weeks while carbonating and was very good at this point. Force-carbonated to ~2.7 volumes. 6 weeks after pitching yeast it is good but this beer had an additional 2 weeks of lagering in the keg prior to me bottling some for competition. (8 weeks total).

Judge's Feedback.


Judges Feedback: Excellent Beer! Clean with nice malt character and well balanced hops

This beer is marvelous IMHO, and was my first lager. It recently scored an average of 43.5 in The Limbo Challenge in the light lager category, losing out to two other great beers including the winner of "Best in Show". This was my first competition. I'm obviously very happy with the positive feedback.

This beer has big fat foamy white head that persists. It is crystal clear with a great malty flavor and low hop bitterness. It is an extremely clean tasting beer with a nice grainy pilsner character. Very refreshing and delicious!

Gelatin


Helles Yeah!


I will be also be entering it in the upcoming Octoberfest competition here in north Texas. I'll post the judges feedback when I get it. I have high hopes for a good result.

If you brew it, let me know what you think. Prost!

That looks superb! I might have to brew this one later in the year.

phyllobeddo said:

That looks superb! I might have to brew this one later in the year.

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Cool. Let me know if you brew it. Love to know how it turns out for you.

Interesting. More mineralization than I've been using lately for my Helles, but you can't argue with scores like that. In my opinion, scores from experienced judges are far more telling than medals. A gold medal is easy to achieve if all the competition was crap.

Thanks for the illustrations on gelatin use. I've only used it once since my beers tend to fall clear without it, but I like your technique. It should be relatively sanitized by the mild heating.

mabrungard said:

Interesting. More mineralization than I've been using lately for my Helles, but you can't argue with scores like that. In my opinion, scores from experienced judges are far more telling than medals. A gold medal is easy to achieve if all the competition was crap.

Thanks for the illustrations on gelatin use. I've only used it once since my beers tend to fall clear without it, but I like your technique. It should be relatively sanitized by the mild heating.

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Thanks Martin. I add gelatin to all my beers in this way. Use the microwave to heat the water in bursts of 15 seconds or so. I've never done a split batch experiment to test the difference but I do like the clarity I get.

I'm probably going to start cutting my water with RO for some upcoming batches as the sulphate level is quite a bit higher than the target profile in Bru'n Water. Could be more important perhaps for a Pilsner I'm planning. Might just go 100% RO and build from there. Probably no going back to tap water after that.

(Love using Bru'n Water software BTW, a great tool, learned so much from it already. Thanks for all the added extras in the water knowledge section. Great stuff.)

Nice detailed recipe, thanks

I built up a starter of 833 but had not yet decided what to brew with it so I will give your recipe a shoot with a few tweaks.
briess pils 8lb
munich 1lb
tettnang or mt hood hops, saving my hallertau for a beer I get to taste them.

I had bought the briess pilsner malt to see if I could tell the difference between them and european pilsner malt and this recipe should work well for that purpose.

The fermentation graph does not seem to match your statement of 2 weeks to keg, is there a trick to reading that graph?

Thanks for sharing your recipe.

ba-brewer said:

I built up a starter of 833 but had not yet decided what to brew with it so I will give your recipe a shoot with a few tweaks.
briess pils 8lb
munich 1lb
tettnang or mt hood hops, saving my hallertau for a beer I get to taste them.

I had bought the briess pilsner malt to see if I could tell the difference between them and european pilsner malt and this recipe should work well for that purpose.

The fermentation graph does not seem to match your statement of 2 weeks to keg, is there a trick to reading that graph?

Thanks for sharing your recipe.

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The time-frame in the fermentation profile is just an approximate I put together in the planning stage. The actual times at the various stages including the time to make the change in temp from 50 to 67F is dictated by the gravity being a little shy of anticipated FG.

I just let things rise passively to 67F once I knew gravity was within a couple of plato from FG. It stayed there for a few days till I was sure fermentation had ceased, nothing off was noted (checking for diacetyl) and then crash-cooled and fined with gelatin prior to kegging. All told it was 2 weeks till kegging. Lagering in the keg.

Thanks for the clarification. This is going to be my 7th lager and the second time with 833, so it is nice to see your time frame was fairly close to what I have been seeing so far using a slightly more aggressive stepping of temp. My first helles using WLP860 came out a little fruity so I will try a less aggressive stepping this time. Thanks again.

There's not much you can change in a Helles.

You did a great job brewing a difficult style. Congratulations!

We Helles guys have to stick together.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=238906

Joe Dragon said:

There's not much you can change in a Helles.

You did a great job brewing a difficult style. Congratulations!

We Helles guys have to stick together.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=238906

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Thanks Joe. Much appreciated.

I wanted to say thanks for such a thorough recipe/account of the brew. I will embark upon my first lager this winter and will probably brew either helles, maibock, or bock.

MVKTR2 said:

I wanted to say thanks for such a thorough recipe/account of the brew. I will embark upon my first lager this winter and will probably brew either helles, maibock, or bock.

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Thanks for that mate.

When do you add the gelatin? At kegging? Thanks.

MapleGroveAleworks said:

When do you add the gelatin? At kegging? Thanks.

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The gelatin is added to the fermentor (FV) after fermentation is complete and the beer has been cooled to 32F. After another day or two the beer is kegged.

Adding gelatin to the keg is another method and can be done when racking the beer or added later on. Having done both methods I favor adding gelatin to the FV and not the keg.

Gavin C said:

The gelatin is added to the fermentor (FV) after fermentation is complete and the beer has been cooled to 32F. After another day or two the beer is kegged.

Adding gelatin to the keg is another method and can be done when racking the beer or added later on. Having done both methods I favor adding gelatin to the FV and not the keg.

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Thanks. When I restart my home brewery in March, this will be one of the first recipes I make. Cheers.

Brewing this saturday as my first lager! Will update with results. Currently stepping up a monster starter.

HopHound12 said:

Brewing this saturday as my first lager! Will update with results. Currently stepping up a monster starter.

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Cool. Look forward to hearing how it turns out for you. My keg kicked at the weekend. gotta make some more.

Keeping this one in mind for when the outdoor temps make lagering easy.

Yeast cake from the first round, decanting and stepping up with another 1500mL tonight for a total of approximately 3L.

HopHound12 said:

Yeast cake from the first round, decanting and stepping up with another 1500mL tonight for a total of approximately 3L.

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You should be in great shape yeast-wise.

HopHound12 said:

Yeast cake from the first round, decanting and stepping up with another 1500mL tonight for a total of approximately 3L.

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How'd it turn out for you?

So I brewered a tweaked version(briess pilsner, 1lb munich) of your Helles back in september, it came out very smooth and clean, a nice easy drinking beer. Not sure if it was the briess pilsner malt or something I did in my process, but it is a bit hazy.




My cold crash/gelatin routine is slightly different from your's but works fine with other beers but not this one. I actually gave it a second shoot of gelatin at around 4 weeks in the keg but it did not help. I did a single 150F infusion so maybe a stepped mash is appropriate for briess pilsner malt.

One thing I do believe did come from the use of the breiss malt was a lack of grainy aroma and flavor I get from german and belgian pilsner malts. Oh well lesson learned, I will stick with continental pilsner malt in the future for malty lagers and possible use briess pilsner in beers where hops or yeast play a bigger role to save a couple bucks.

I did enter it into a contest a few weeks ago so I will see what the judges think in a couple more weeks.

No update as of yet but brew day went well, ended up with just over 5 gallons hit the OG spot on. Looks as if it has been lagering about five weeks thus far. I just kicked the keg that it will be going so hopefully it will be in the keg, carbed and ready to drink within a week or two. Will update with finished results soon. Can't wait to try it!

ba-brewer said:

So I brewered a tweaked version(briess pilsner, 1lb munich) of your Helles back in september, it came out very smooth and clean, a nice easy drinking beer.

I did enter it into a contest a few weeks ago so I will see what the judges think in a couple more weeks.

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Glad it turned out well for you. Best of luck in the competition.

Man this looks like a great recipe. I didn't see anywhere that yeast was mention. Have you found a lager yeast you like for this? I have 2206 on hand and thought about making a helles and pilsner in the coming months, but was wondering if I should use something like WLP 830 instead. I have always wanted to brew a lager similar to Franconia Lager here in McKinney. Curious how close this is.

oujens said:

Man this looks like a great recipe. I didn't see anywhere that yeast was mention.

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Thanks very much.

I used WLP833 German Bock Yeast. I suspect this beer would be good with any lager yeast once you pitch enough of it to get that nice clean crisp lager profile in the final beer.

Really detailed recipe! I have been itching to make some more lagers this winter, may start off with your helles so I can grow a nice cake for a bock.

Brettomomyces said:

Really detailed recipe! I have been itching to make some more lagers this winter, may start off with your helles so I can grow a nice cake for a bock.

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I haven't made any big lagers yet. I think my Dunkel was the biggest at 1.053

Some sort of Bock would be fun to brew. I never realized that there were so many types of lagers till I started making a few.

I think Shiner is the only Bock I've had. Not sure that qualifies. I'd be hoping to make something more flavorful.

Gavin C said:

I think Shiner is the only Bock I've had. Not sure that qualifies. I'd be hoping to make something more flavorful.

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I like Shiner Bock a lot for what it is, but calling it a "Bock" is an insult to Bocks. Anything you came up with would be almost guaranteed to have more flavor.

I've made this one before, and really enjoyed it:

Loved your write up. I've been meaning to do a helles, having only made marzens and dunkels for my germanic obsession. I think I will add this to the list after next weeks pils! Also, thanks for the water profile, been struggling to figure out what to do with mine for light lagers. Prost!

CarbonTom said:

Loved your write up. I've been meaning to do a helles, having only made marzens and dunkels for my germanic obsession. I think I will add this to the list after next weeks pils! Also, thanks for the water profile, been struggling to figure out what to do with mine for light lagers. Prost!

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Thanks for the positive words @carbonTom. Glad you found it useful. I too, have been a bit obsessed with Germanic beers lately.

The water here in my part of DFW seems to be well suited to brewing. This Helles was made with my tap water and additions as shown but when I brew it again I will cut it with RO water to bring the sulfate and chloride levels down.

Could be a case of, if it ain't broke etc... but I'm interested to see if it can improve things.

Been getting RO at $0.39/gallon at Walmart so it's hardly a big expense. ~$3 for 8 gallons and build to target.

hunter_la5 said:

I like Shiner Bock a lot for what it is, but calling it a "Bock" is an insult to Bocks. Anything you came up with would be almost guaranteed to have more flavor.

I've made this one before, and really enjoyed it:
View attachment 317417

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That looks fantastic. Really like the simple grain-bill on that one. Beautiful copper color. Thank's for the recipe Hunter.

Beer is on on tap and I find it to be quite tasty but unfortunately I am getting a slight fruity aroma to it. I was originally not sure about it but now I feel like I might be able to taste it as well but maybe it is in my head. I believe it to be green apple-ish possibly acetylaldehyde?? Gavin could you describe to me what the aroma is like on the one you brewed?

Clearly this is not a recipe problem but possibly something with my technique. I believe I pitched enough yeast so I am really not sure what went wrong. However, the WLP yeast was about a month or so over the six month date but I did make the monster starter. I fermented for approx two weeks at 55 or until the airlock was pretty much done then raised to 67 for a few days then down to lagering temp for about a month. Unfortunately I do not remember if this flavor was or was not there prior to kegging it as I do not remember the sample. Could this possibly due to contamination in my keg or lines or maybe due to the older yeast even though I pitched a large starter? Thanks

HopHound12 said:

Beer is on on tap and I find it to be quite tasty but unfortunately I am getting a slight fruity aroma to it. I was originally not sure about it but now I feel like I might be able to taste it as well but maybe it is in my head. I believe it to be green apple-ish possibly acetylaldehyde?? Gavin could you describe to me what the aroma is like on the one you brewed?

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I'm rubbish at describing tatses and flavors. It is not something I have ever been able to do.

My Helles had a pretty minimal hop aroma if I remember well. If I can dig up the score sheets and see what they say in that respect I'll let you know. To me it just smelled like a light lager should smell. Sorry, told you I was rubbish.

Here is more information on what you may be smelling from the HBT wiki.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/acetaldehyde

Sorry I can't be of more help.

I got a package today from a contest I entered a few months back and there was a blue ribbon my helles brewed with this recipe. Thanks Gavin.

I think one of the judges picked up the fact I did not use german malt but in general I think they liked it. I also got comments about some low level DMS even though I did a 90min boil with a very health boil off, hard to hide things in such a light beer for sure.

ba-brewer said:

I got a package today from a contest I entered a few months back and there was a blue ribbon my helles brewed with this recipe. Thanks Gavin.

I think one of the judges picked up the fact I did not use german malt but in general I think they liked it. I also got comments about some low level DMS even though I did a 90min boil with a very health boil off, hard to hide things in such a light beer for sure.

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Congratulations mate. Great Job. Thanks for being so through in posting the judges' feedback. That beer sounds delicious. Cheers!

Gavin C said:

NB: The acid malt is needed in my setup as I utilize full-volume mashes.

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I was wondering if you could tell me, does Bru'n water calculate your pH correctly for full volume no sparge mashes?

I ask because I just did by first one (usually I batch sparge) and the calculated pH was off by about 0.3. (my target was 5.4 and I got 5.08).

I've checked and checked my entry fields and I don't appear to have entered everything wrong.

Other than this one time, it has been very accurate for me.

mclaughlindw4 said:

I was wondering if you could tell me, does Bru'n water calculate your pH correctly for full volume no sparge mashes?
.

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Yes. I find it to be a very useful too.

Typically, measured mash pH is within 0.1 of the predicted mash pH value per Bru'n Water.

Gavin C said:

Yes. I find it to be a very useful too.

Typically, measured mash pH is within 0.1 of the predicted mash pH value per Bru'n Water.

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I was hoping you would say no. Since this was first time I've been off, and just so happened to be the first time I did a full volume mash.

Perhaps it was something else then. I guess you find you need a lot more acidity when using full volume? This is what bru'n water was telling me as well, except I way overshot it.

Anyways, sorry to de-rail your thread. I've asked over in brew science but will need to ask again cause I got no response. Need to figure out why I was so off.