Tomorrow's Pilsner

My primary is finally going to be free after my pumpkin ale gets kegged tomorrow (a two week primary fermentation?!?!):rockin:. Anyways I'm brewing my first lager/pilsner tomorrow. The recipe is pretty set, I'm still kinda mulling over the yeast, but I think I'm just gonna use two packets of Saflager w34/70. Depends what my lhbs has. .5 carapils... too much, too little? Thoughts appreciated as always.

5 Gallon recipe
7.0 lb Pilsen Light Liquid (Liquid Extract)
.75 oz Saaz (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
.5 oz Saaz (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
1.0 oz Saaz (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
.5 lb Cara-Pils® Malt

Yeah, looks pretty good to me.. it's alot like my very first brew.. i think i had 1# carapils instead.. and a little more bittering and flavor hops, but mine were hallertau...
Should be a tasty brew.. let me know when it's done

FWIW.. i used wyeast 1007 german pilsener on mine.. my favorite for these beers, since it resembles lagers, when fermented at temps in the low 60's

I accidentally doubled my carapils (1.5 lbs) once and it came out fine, great foamy head...

There's an article in this month's BYO about Bohemian pilsner, and Jamil talks about using pilsen extract. He says that that extract already has carapils/dextrine in it, so it shouldn't be used. In AG batches, he says no more than .5 pound of carapils is appropriate.

I'm going to be doing a pilsner later this winter (don't have enough saaz hops right now) and I think I'll follow his guidelines. Ideally, I'll use the Budvar lager or Urquell strains. (Wyeast's 2000, or 2001).

Well I was shocked to find that my lhbs didn't have ish for lager yeasts, except dun dun dun... Saflager 23. Not that I care yet, everything went as planned as far as cooking and chilling the wort, it's chillin in the chest freezer as I type. I pitched the yeast dry right on top of the wort per instructions, and that's it. Thanks for the heads up yooper, I'm saving the carapils for another day.

I have had good results with safelager- 23.

Checked it the first night after; the yeast settled to the bottom, checked it last night; had a nice frothy top, so it's definitely going to work. Temp control says it's at 47 (temp probe taped to the side of the bucket). Who knows if it's 5 or 10 degrees warmer in the middle of it, hopefully it's the latter or under. Very stoked about this lager.

Kegged the batch into 2 3 gallon kegs, took a little sip and damn... can't believe something so simple could be this good. I was pretty skeptical of s23 from what I had heard through out the web, but the still sample was pretty damn good. It's also the clearest beer I've ever made. Used gelatin for the first time and it looks like it did a great job. Hopefully it's carbed by the time my new glasses come in the mail!

I've made a few batches with s-23 and like the results. I found it to make some minor fruity tastes when it was under pitched (two dry packets no starter) but it was totally clean when I pitched onto a cake of it. Even the fruity beer was damn good, I'm the only one who seemed to even notice...

Over all impression: eh...

I'm not a big hop head, but I think this would have to be much drier to detect any of the saaz. It looks good, but the taste is eh. Getting a slight taste of diacetyl which I find odd after being at 60-62 for four day d rest. I wanted this to be simple, but not like this. It's not god awful, and it's my first lager so I'll take it, but there's room to grow fo sho.

Carapils really do need to be mashed, although some places say it don't. I think it has to do with the amount of protien that could lead to haze.

I'm hoping to do my Pilsner later this week. I have about twice as many hops in my recipe.

How sweet did yours finish? My last lager came out too sweet and had a hard time detecting the hops. This time I am using a stir plate, and my OG is 1.045 and not 1.056 so it should dry up well I think.

Dubcut said:

Over all impression: eh...

I'm not a big hop head, but I think this would have to be much drier to detect any of the saaz. It looks good, but the taste is eh. Getting a slight taste of diacetyl which I find odd after being at 60-62 for four day d rest. I wanted this to be simple, but not like this. It's not god awful, and it's my first lager so I'll take it, but there's room to grow fo sho.

Click to expand...

Not sure about your diacetyl problem, but as for the taste... You made a lager in 3 weeks, which is ale territory. Yes, BMC goes from grain to bottle in 28 days, but on a homebrew scale, the rule of thumb is to ferment fully, then lager a week for every 8 points of original gravity, or more. I wouldn't use gelatin either, as that drops the yeast out quickly, where the lagering process will do that on its own, gradually letting the least flocculant cells lager the beer as they drop.

Maybe its just me, but every lager i've made with extract (3 batches) has needed a great deal of improvement. Mine always tasted like the beer equivalent of frozen juice from concentrate, and when I went all grain it was like fresh-squeezed.

Petep, It finished 1.020, def a little sweet and full bodied, not what I was looking for. It's a bummer cuz it was the first time I was using Saaz. I also noticed late in the boil that a ring of hops had been sticking on the insides of the pot -above the boil- for a good portion of the time, probably after the heat break. I'm extra anal now about pushing the hops back into the mix after the wort rises.

Greenbirds, my primary was about a month, and my d rest was 4 days, but the lagering period was definitely sacrificed mostly cuz I just couldn't wait.

Mark, have you tried a partial mash lager by any chance? I have an oktoberfest that I'm doing partial mash with, coming in the mail. Hopefully it makes the difference.