German Pils Cat's **** "Bitburger" - Premium Pilsner

z-bob said:

Is there a dry ale yeast that will do this justice? Fermented in the low 60's and put up in big bottles in a cool cellar. (I know it won't be the same)

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You can use California lager yeast for this. Won't be exactly the same but it is a lager yeast that can handle up to 68℉

heckler73 said:

Thanks for the replies re: bottling.

What I don't get it when to bottle it. I'm at 3.5 weeks now at 50F in primary. My bottling is not forced carb-just adding dextrose at bottling.

Do I:

1) Bottle now, at 3.5 weeks primary, let it sit 3 weeks warm in bottles, and then lager for another 3-4 weeks at 34F.

or

2) Rack it now to secondary, let sit 3 weeks at 34F and then bottle and condition warm without adding yeast at bottling. This is how the recipe reads.


It's my first ever lager, and I'd hate to wait 2 months and end up with flat beer. That would suck!

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I follow #1. Since I usually let mine ferment for 3.5 to 4 weeks with a few days for the D rest. I just figured the yeast would carb faster before lagering. I've not had any issues doing it this way.

The only benefit I could think of for #2 might be a little more clarity but may take longer to carb.

Bigbeavk said:

I follow #1. Since I usually let mine ferment for 3.5 to 4 weeks with a few days for the D rest. I just figured the yeast would carb faster before lagering. I've not had any issues doing it this way.

The only benefit I could think of for #2 might be a little more clarity but may take longer to carb.

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I can tell you I have had Bigbeavk's version of this (that is why I brewed it!!!) and it was FANTASTIC and carbonated perfectly. I think you can go with 1 or 2, but I tasted it done the 1) way and loved it enough to brew it myself. Cheers and best of luck!!

Just did 11 gallons of this Friday. Used WLP800 as the HBS didn't have the dry stuff. Made a 6L starter for it and it took off in 24 hours.

Can't wait to see how it turns out!

LOL check the name it's Cat's Tits not piss! It's a great recipe,
I hope you enjoy it.

I keep this recipe as a regular in my rotation. Not exactly bitburger but pretty dang close.

Whoops, Fixed. I was reading another article about Simcoe and "Cat Pee" right before adjusting my sig. :-D

Tapped the keg today.... Sure glad I washed and kept 4 cups of yeast as I am going to do this one again for sure.

FG was a little high, not enough O2 think and fermentation stalled around the 1.018 mark, and I had to up temp to 60 to kick start and finish it at 1.010.

Either-way, very tasty and won't last long.

Just blew through a 10 gallon batch of this in record time, it didn't even last a couple months. I used straight well water to kind of mimic the "underground water caverns" from the original brewery. It definitely reminded me quite a bit of the original, but it had been a number of years since I had tasted the original. Fortunately, I had a friend over from Berlin and he was able to confirm it was pretty darn close, minus being a wee bit more hoppy (probably because I used a slight bit more hops) and just a hair stronger (probably because I was a bit high on OG)...but otherwise pretty darn close. I really enjoyed the kegs and will be brewing again in some sort of rotation.

Thanks much for the recipe, solid choice for a savory pilsener.

Snagged a sixer of Bitburger about a week ago...mine is quite different, but I think that is mainly due to the malt I am using (Chateau Pils). Love 'em both. I nursed two kegs, literally limiting myself and I still blew through two kegs in record time. Guess what's next on the brew list? Yeah!! Thanks again Bigbeavk for turning me on to this awesome recipe...definitely part of my permanent rotation.

5 pounds of LME for an extract version and use the rest of grains as partial boil?

You'd be better of using 6 to 7lbs of LME depending on your batch size. Use a brew calculator like BrewersFriend.com to adjust your recipes.

Chose this as my first all grain brew and it has turned out really well. I followed Mutilated's recipe with some adjustment of hop weights due to different AAs but corrected back to around 39. Fermented at 10 for three weeks and then bottled and primed for three weeks at room temperature (I slightly over primed as you can see from the photograph). I lagered for three weeks at around 3 (though lost three bottles after setting the 'fridge too low and suffering a freeze!) The colour, flavour and taste are all excellent, thanks to all of the good advice on this forum!
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Just brewed another batch! Can't get enough of this stuff.

Getting ready to set a 100L # of this next weekend It's a good summer beer.

"When you just want to enjoy a beer on a hot summer day "

Bigbeavk said:

Just brewed another batch! Can't get enough of this stuff.

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Me too! Had a bad day yesterday with equipment and brewer issues ( I forgot how! ). Anyhow, brewed up a batch starting yesterday and finished up today. In my freezer now and waiting a bit to pitch. Hit all my numbers so it should be another fine summer sipper!

Thanks again Bigbeavk for turning me on to this recipe!

Any reason I couldn't use 2-row Canadian malt instead of the pilsner malt for this recipe? I do love the Bitburger, and I have a big bag of 2 row.

thelastleroy said:

Any reason I couldn't use 2-row Canadian malt instead of the pilsner malt for this recipe? I do love the Bitburger, and I have a big bag of 2 row.

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It will taste a bit different, but no. I have a friend who only uses pilsner malts and another one who only uses standard 2-row, no matter what beer they are making, as base grains. Both make excellent beers, no matter what the style.

Just finished lagering this, kegged it up, and am carbing it. Ended up with 12 gallons, so 2 gallons went into jugs and into the fridge to be added to the keg later. Poured a glass for quality control purposes and man is it good! Should last me most of the summer if I go easy...which I won't!

Can't wait to get into kegging. Lagers would be so much simpler if I could keg up the entire batch after fermenation and forget it for a month, and then put the keg on gas and start drinking it when it's ready. Jealousy.

Still bottling for now so:

The recipe says 3 weeks primary. I'm officially 13 days in and 1.008 sg down from 1.052, on the specified 34/70 yeast . My fermenting fridge has been a steady 10°C since day 1. I expect the ferment is exhausted, but want a true "lager" taste experience. I did a bit of reading on diacetyl rests, and from what I've read it's too late for that process, since a D-rest is indicated at approximately 2/3 of the way through fermentation.

I sampled the beer when I checked gravity and it tasted like a mixture of bread, beer and God, but no popcorn. Does anyone diacetyl-rest this recipe or does it take care of itself in the specified 3-week primary?

If D-rest is not necessary, is it reasonable to assume that I can prime and bottle this recipe after 3 weeks primary ferment and continue "lagering" in bottle? Any use in ramping up temperature with a FG so low already? Any gains to be had by lagering in bulk vs bottle? I have a gut feeling that somehow bulk secondary/lagering is preferable due to overall yeast population, but I would like some personal "homebrew" anecdotal opinions, if possible.

I would prefer not to rack this beer, because (1) my carboy is not big enough (batch came to 25L), and (2) I'm not sure I can rack softly enough from the spigot in my fermentor to avoid oxygenation. If the bulk lagering is really worthwhile, I'll attempt it though, and just bottle up whatever doesn't fit in the carboy. Any advice?

I do a d-rest at the end of fermentation right before I cold crash it to lager. I usually just pull it out of the freezer after fermentation dies to nothing and the krausen has sunk in, which usually is about 3 weeks in. I let it sit for ~48 hours and come up in temp naturally. Then I will either cold crash and keg, or keg and cold crash. This time I did the former, but usually do the latter. Wanted to see if I get less gunk in the keg, which has never been a problem so not sure why I am bothering now, other than another homebrewer questioned me on it so I thought why not...shrug! If you are going to do a d-rest, I would do it in bulk versus bottled. Look, you have waited this long and don't want the beer to have any flaws, so go ahead and do a d-rest, let the yeast clean the beer up to perfection, and in a few short weeks you will be pouring a truly wonderful, crisp, clean, fresh, home made, delicious beverage. Cheers!!

PS - I am a lazy homebrewer. I never bottled as it seemed too much work. Went straight to all grain and kegging. Just seemed the right thing to do, for me...cuz I am lazy! Best of luck with this beer!!

Drank Bitburger beer almost on a daily basis when I was stationed at Spangdahlem Air Base in the early 80's. This will be on my to do list.

does anyone know what the extract version of this recipe would be?

Here is my estimate via BeerSmith:

6 lbs. Briess Pilsen LME
8 oz. Munich malt (steeping grain)
8 oz. Carapils Dextrine (steeping grain)

1/2 oz. German magnum @ 60 minutes
1/2 oz. Perle @ 10 minutes
1/4 oz. Hallertauer @ 10 minutes
1/4 oz. Tettnanger in the whirlpool / flameout.

I would use 3 packages of Wyeast Bavarian Lager or make a 3L starter. I would start at 44 degrees Fahrenheit and let it rise to 48 degrees for 3 weeks before lagering at 34 degrees for three additional weeks.

Just kegged a batch of this yesterday (Brewed 12/23/15, Lagered 3 weeks) with no clarity finings and with a couple slight variations due to what I could get in organic varieties. Recipe here: http://brewgr.com/recipe/17567/bitburger-clone-german-pilsner-pils-recipe?public=true

Ended up getting much better efficiency on the batch than I anticipated so it is somewhere right around 6%, crystal clear, and it is TASTY.

Big thanks for the recipe! Prost!

PS. Excuse the terrible cellphone picture.

Looks great, this is on my short list since its Lager season. How does it tastes compared to the original? I find a lot of times when I try to clone I usually come up with an even better beer than what I was going for.

MollyHatchet said:

Looks great, this is on my short list since its Lager season. How does it tastes compared to the original? I find a lot of times when I try to clone I usually come up with an even better beer than what I was going for.

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Hard to say as to do it justice, you probably want it side by side in Germany. I find most of the imports are a little off from what you get in Europe. Maybe it is because they pasteurize the beer or do something else to get it into the country? I will say this, I prefer this beer over the bottles of Bitburger I have bought at Total Wine! YMMV...

made this to bait my brother to come visit(he's a big bitburger fan).

some subbing as I didn't have all the exact same ingredients in stock. was 1 point over og...


Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (G): 5.6
Total Grain (lb): 11.266
Total Hops (oz): 1.65
Original Gravity (OG): 1.052 (°P): 12.9
Final Gravity (FG): 1.009 (°P): 2.3
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.65 %
Colour (SRM): 4.1 (EBC): 8.1
Bitterness (IBU): 32.9 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 90

Grain Bill
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10.803 lb Finland - Pilsner Malt (95.89%)
0.243 lb Finland - Cara Pale (2.15%)
0.220 lb Finland - Munich Malt (1.96%)

Hop Bill
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0.56 oz Columbus Pellet (14.3% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.1 oz/Gal)
0.28 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh Pellet (3.8% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.1 oz/Gal)
0.53 oz Northern Brewer Pellet (7.8% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.1 oz/Gal)
0.28 oz Tettnanger Pellet (4.5% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (0.1 oz/Gal)

Misc Bill
----------------

Single step Infusion at 147°F for 90 Minutes.
Fermented at 54°F with Saflager - German Lager Yeast W-34/70

Made 10 gallons of this February 10th. I used Best Malz Heidelberger Pils malt and W34-70, fermented at 50 for 3 weeks. Kegged, lagered for 2 weeks, added gelatin, then lagered and carbonated for about 1.5 weeks more until it dropped crystal clear.
This beer is fantastic. Very clean, straight forward German Pils.

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FYI.
The beer is sitting on a batch of blueberry wine. I own an organic berry farm here in canada and do about 10 gallons of wine year.

Brewed an 11g batch of this on March 12th. Split it into 5.5g batches with W34/70 and WLP800. I used the quick lager method from BYO magazine. OG 1.051 FG 1.008. Total time from grain to glass = 4 weeks including 10 days of lagering. It's crystal clear and tastes amazing. I think I'm liking the WLP800 batch a little better.

Just brewed this with Avangard Pilsen and the same grain bill minus Carapils. Used magnum for the bittering addition and hallertau Hersbrucker for the other additions. Kept the ibus the same as the recipe and used a slurry of wyeast 2112 from a local brewery instead of 34/70 (can't stand that yeast!) Anywho if I were kegging and lagering in the keg 34/70 may be alright but I'm bottling so wanted something a tad clean at room temp (bottle priming). Anywho bottling today and man this is a fine brew!

rtstrider said:

Just brewed this with Avangard Pilsen and the same grain bill minus Carapils. Used magnum for the bittering addition and hallertau Hersbrucker for the other additions. Kept the ibus the same as the recipe and used a slurry of wyeast 2112 from a local brewery instead of 34/70 (can't stand that yeast!) Anywho if I were kegging and lagering in the keg 34/70 may be alright but I'm bottling so wanted something a tad clean at room temp (bottle priming). Anywho bottling today and man this is a fine brew!

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Bottling didn't go as planned. This was my first infection It reeked of solvent and tasted like it too! At first I figured it was fusels but didn't get that flavor from a sample I pulled a few days ago. Needless to say I'm giving this try number 2 this weekend. Hoping for MUCH better results!

Bummer on the infection. Just wondering why you don't like 34/70.

VVbrewery said:

Bummer on the infection. Just wondering why you don't like 34/70.

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I've never had a brew with it that's "clean" it has a weird ester to it. At first I thought maybe it was my technique or pitching rates so tried a few batches and got that same weird off flavor using different packets of the yeast. Some had starters, some didn't, pitched at a 2.0 rate, fermented between 53f-55f and even tried warm ferment. Same off flavor. Now I finally was able to get a hold of the Weinstephaner Original Premium (which I'm assuming uses the same yeast as w34/70 is a lager strain from Weinstephaner) same off flavor. Tried the Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest which was brewed in collaboration with Weinstephaner so I'm assuming it's the same exact yeast as it has the same off flavor. If I had to describe it it's something I would definitely expect in a german style weizen. It's like a banana/pear/bubblegum just weird and not appealing to me. Now I'll say if I wasn't bottling and could lager this for a good bit in a keg it might be ok. But since I bottle it seems having the bottles at room temps while carbing only exacerbates this issue. When I think lager I think clean. No esters and no phenols. Wyeast 2112 was a good representative of what I was shooting for when fermented at 58F for a few days with a slow ramp up. If the brew wasn't infected it would've been perfect!

Mutilated1 said:

I've got my 5th keg of this recipe on tap now, its been on the gas since Sunday evening - sure hoping its carbed up and ready to drink when I get home.

I just cannot believe how good this beer is, every time I pour a big glass I just get a big grin on my face because I made it myself.

Want to see a Picture ?

This is a picture of a glass of maybe the second batch I made of this beer, taken when I was sitting out on my back porch cooking up the third batch a few months ago - probably around March or so. The picture really doesn't do this beer justice though - when I pour it from the tap its a lot clearer and you can see the carbonation better. For some reason the camera makes it look flat and somewhat different color.

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Brings back fond memories of my 3 years at Bitburg Air Base, Germany: 61-64. "Bitte in Bit!" was the saying every day and every beer was only one Mark (25cents). Those years in Bitburg helped me to learn what a really good pilsner really tastes like!! I'm not brewing any more, but I know it takes special care to brew a good pilsner beer because of its subtlety.

Brewed a month ago, great recipe!

I brewed this for a Christmas party and it went fast.

That being said I felt there was an off-flavor on the front end: a lemon/lime/citrus fruitiness.
I fermented at 50 F and then had a week D-rest prior to cold crashing, kegging, and lagering for a month.

From some searches it sounds like 34/70 can throw lemon/citrus at the lower end of the temp range.

The result wasn't bad, it just wasn't as clean as I had hoped.

I'll probably try it again at a higher ferment temp or with a different yeast.

What mash pH should i aim for? cheers brewers!

Take a look here: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.ph...ed for,grist should yield a mash pH round 5.4.