Brewers Best Continental Pilsner Advice

[Flame18]

Hello,
I picked up the Brewer's Best Continental Pilsner extract kit from my local homebrew store, and after looking through the ingredients I have a few concerns I was hoping someone could advise on. Also this is only my second attempt at extract brewing, so I do not have a whole lot of experience.

The kits ingredient list and instructions can be found online at their site below

http://www.brewersbestkits.com/pdf/1008 2013 Continental Pilsner Recipe.pdf

The only difference is instead of Liberty Hops I was given 3 .05 oz packets German Hallertau hop pellets with an aa percentage of 2.7%. This seemed kind of low to me so I used an online calculator and got something like 7.5 IBU's instead of the target 28-33. Maybe online calculators aren't reliable, but I don't want to waste my time. Do I need to buy more hops before starting? Thanks!

Also how necessary is it to use a secondary and lager at 35-42 degrees? Could it all be done in a primary at a slightly higher temperature?

Thanks again!

 

[eluterio]

The only difference is instead of Liberty Hops I was given 3 .05 oz packets German Hallertau hop pellets with an aa percentage of 2.7%. Do I need to buy more hops before starting? Thanks!

Also how necessary is it to use a secondary and lager at 35-42 degrees? Could it all be done in a primary at a slightly higher temperature?

German Hallertau 3.05oz at 60 min on my calculator gets me about 42 ibus if you add them all at that mark. If you follow what they are telling you and add them at 60, 20, 10 your looking at a low bitter medium hoppy beer. I would suggest getting more hops. Get some Continental noble hops I would suggest more Hallertau hop at a higher Alpha or Saaz hop would be fine. I put it in my calculator and with a 5% AA at 1.5 oz at 40 mins would get you in the 40 range. Then I would use the 3.05oz split them in half and add at 20 and 10 mins.

The great debate of using a secondary or not. I don't in lagers or ales. I let them ferment out rack into keg and lager at 32-40 degrees for several weeks.

 

[Brettomomyces]

Three 0.5oz packets? Still not a ton of hops. Even all of them at 60 minutes is probably not enough bittering. If you LHBS has them, German Magnum hops are a good choice for just bittering. You could get an oz of them and probably be much closer to your target IBU.

The lagering phase is a big component of the overall crisp, clean character of the beer. Do the best you can to age it under 40F for a couple weeks, it will help. I don't know much about that kit, but if they gave you lager yeast (saflager s-23 or 34/70) you will need to keep the beer between 48-54F during primary fermentation. Higher that this is going to make a lot of fruity flavors and other byproducts that are considered flaws. If they gave you ale yeast (like Nottingham or S-05), keeping it in the low 60's will help come closer to a true Pilsner. If you can't keep it around 50, I'd recommend going the Ale route.

*edit, didn't see that pdf! Ok, so yea, 1.5oz hops total. Not sure what yeast they gave you, but try to get it as close to 50F as you can during primary. Those temperature instructions are pretty good though.

 

[Flame18]

three individual .05 oz packets

 

[slym2none]

You mean 0.5 oz packets... right?

 

[Flame18]

Right .5 oz my mistake