Bohe Pils....wife ordered my Christmas gift

This is the recipe I gave her. It's based on Stephen Snyder's Bohemiam Pilsner.

5.5 gallon, extract, Bohemiam Pilsner
OG 1.045
FG 1.011
~35 IBUs
5.7 SRM

5.50# Extra Light Dry Extract - 3/4# of which will be used in the starter
6oz caramunich

1.5 oz American Saaz @ 60 min
.5 oz American Saaz @ 45 min
.5 oz American Saaz @ 30 mi
1 oz Czech Saaz @ 10 minutes

I went with the higher AA American Saaz because my lagers are 2 - 2.5 gallon boils.

And I will be going with 2 packages Wyeast 2278 Czech Pilsner Yeast in a 3qt starter per Mr Malty.

Primary @ 48°F for 2 weeks, then d-rest for a week at 60°. Bottle, prime for a week in mid 50s, then lager @ 35°F for 8 weeks.

I'm excited about the two packs of yeast. It's nice when someone else pays for your recipe. The description says it's a good O-fest yeast, so hello to yeast washing killer, babied, viable yeast off this batch.

why not just take one pack... and step it up to 3QT? ad leave the other for a second brew!

According to Mr. Malty if I want to do it with 1 pack @ 99% viability my starter will need to be 1.83 gallons.

I don't have a stir plate. And worry not, I'll wash the yeast.

I ordered a stir plate, and decided to pseudo lager. I can actually lager fine, but maintaining primary ferments temps for a lager yeast is difficult without spending money on a fridge which will have poor temp control anyways.

I can get the job done with (1) pack of Kolsch yeast and a 2l starter at my current basement temps. Sweet! This only saves me about $10 on the actual ingredients and another $100 on a fridge.

In my usual impatience I had a bottle last night. It was properly carbed, and malty delicious but there was almost zero hop flavor. Nothing. It tasted like a good American Lager above anything else.

I can only lager some at a time, but will aging bring out any Saaz flavor? I've never had a beer seem so under hopped.

usually aging deminshes hops......

claphamsa said:

usually aging deminshes hops......

Click to expand...

That's what I thought.

Hmmm, well, here's to it being a good pseudo lager.