Help me with my SWMBO recipe - can you say Stella Artois?

[HB2 HughBHomeBrew]

In my quest to brew something she likes, here is the latest attempt:

• 8 lb German Pilsner - Weyermann Malt
• 0.5 Cara Pils / Dextrin

Single step infusion (BIAB)
Strike temp 157F. Initial mash temp 154. After 60 minutes, mash temp 152F. Water is tap water - I have no idea the pH, hardness, calcium or sulfate levels

• 1 oz Northern Brewer 53 minutes
• 0.5 oz Saaz 13 minutes
• 0.5 oz Saaz: 4 minutes.

SG 1.050

Pitched smack pack of Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager at 74F. After 8 hours put in fridge at about 50F and left for 2 weeks at about 44F

Diacetyl rest for 48 hours at 68F

6 weeks lagering at about 42F

FG 1.009 - ABV 5.4% Color is very pale, light.

Taste test:

Me - tastes good (duh!) Light in body and flavor. Minimal hoppiness.

Her: “bitter”

Compared to Stella Artois - the Stella no question has an immediate sweetness and more malt flavor.

OK, it needs to be sweeter. So what’s next? Higher mash temp? More Carpapils or some Crystal? New recipe?

 

[Bilsch]

Well firstly I'd use a Belgian pils because, well it makes sense and my preference would be for carahell instead of CP. Second Stella is said to have maize and that could be corn itself or brewers corn syrup, either way it will lighten up the flavor. This is a very clean beer so your probably going to have to think about pitching at a low temperature and holding there, 50-55f is good, until the ferment is done. Also you are going to want to pitch more yeast, like at least 3-4 smack packs or making a starter or two. Don't worry so much about diacetyl rests especially if you pitching the correct large amount of cells. You didn't mention anything about aeration or oxygenation of the wort and if your not doing that, you should be. I'd mash lower and longer if your doing a single rest but even better if you did a hochkurz type step mash.

And finally, not knowing your water composition and mash pH is really flying blind. All the other positive improvements you do could be a waste of time if your water and or pH is crap. This is a very hard style of beer to brew correctly. Good luck.

 

[BigEd]

In my quest to brew something she likes, here is the latest attempt:

• 8 lb German Pilsner - Weyermann Malt
• 0.5 Cara Pils / DextrinWater is tap water - I have no idea the pH, hardness, calcium or sulfate levels

• 1 oz Northern Brewer 53 minutes
• 0.5 oz Saaz 13 minutes
• 0.5 oz Saaz: 4 minutes.

SG 1.050


Taste test:

Me - tastes good (duh!) Light in body and flavor. Minimal hoppiness.

Her: “bitter”

Compared to Stella Artois - the Stella no question has an immediate sweetness and more malt flavor.

OK, it needs to be sweeter. So what’s next? Higher mash temp? More Carpapils or some Crystal? New recipe?

You did not list the AA% on the hops but you need to find out what your tap water's profile is. Knowing your water's makeup is vital for all-grain brewing IMO and for a light lager it's imperative. Sulphate levels should be very low here. Even a little bit too much is going to put an accent on the hop presence. This style of beer gives you nowhere to hide imperfections.

I'd also back up the OG a little, maybe shoot for 1.045. The Weyermann pils is a good base. If your LHBS carries Belgian pils malt that would be even better. Consider using a light crystal, 10L, instead of the CaraPils and boost the percentage a bit. (7.25 lbs pils, .75 lb 10L crystal and use German or Belgian)

I think two hop additions are enough and use all low-alpha Nobles. It's not going to take a lot. At 4.5%AA a Hallertuer, Spalter, Tettnager, etc try one ounce @ 60 minutes and .25 ounce @ 20 minutes. That should get you in the low 20s which seems about right for Stella. Your original hop listings might have put this beer in the low 30s IBU.

 

[HB2 HughBHomeBrew]

Thanks for the input! A few things for me to work on, but especially the water. I agree that if I'm going to get serious about making this style, I'll need to get serious about my water. Along those lines, my porters and IPAs seem to come out well with my unmodified tap water and I get good feedback from my friends who like those styles. Would make sense that if my water is good for those, it isn't good for Pilsner styles. I know I have hard water and here is the report I can get online:

https://www.cityoftyler.org/Portals/0/Documents/Tyler Water/WPQ/Water Quality Reports/WaterQualityReport2017.pdf

Sulfate does look high and calcium too.

 

[BigEd]

That water report is insufficient for brewing purposes. It's really just a consumer/health report to let the public know the water is safe to drink. The Ca+ is low and the alkalinity is fairly low but I do not see things like SO4 and other important brewing ions. The water is modestly hard but not all that bad. However, get a full ion test report from the water department or if that fails send out to Ward Labs for a test. You don't have to fall down the rabbit hole but getting a hand on your water's stats and making even modest adjustments for various beer styles can definitely improve the results of you brewing. Again, for light colored and subtle beers it's even more important IMO.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Lowering bitterness:
I'd recommend keeping IBU around 10-15, and use low-cohumulone hops (under 30% preferred).
Keep late hop additions to an ounce or less.
Oxidation can also cause malt-related bitterness, so avoid oxidation as much as possible.

+1 water is important. I'd suggest adding some calcium chloride to hit ~60ppm chloride, and using some lactic acid or acidulated malt to get mash pH in the 5.2-5.6 range.

SO4

SO4 = sulfate. Take another look

 

[BigEd]

SO4 = sulfate. Take another look

Damn, I missed it twice.

 

[DromJohn]

FWIW, Austin Homebrew Supply

 

[HB2 HughBHomeBrew]

FWIW, Austin Homebrew Supply

Thanks. What would you use for water with this recipe?

 

[DromJohn]

I'll defer to posters above on water advise. I use local tap water, and the only time I've fooled with the water was for Wells Bombardier.

 

[HB2 HughBHomeBrew]

So. In totally un-scientific homebrew fashion I did pretty much a little of everything y'all said for the next version. I changed the water, backed off on the hops, added Cara Hell. Here's what I did copied and pasted from my brewing log:
Grain Bill

• (from AIH unmilled)
• Milled in Monster mill at .018 gap - twice
• 8 lb. Belgian Pilsner Malt
• 0.75 lb. (12 oz) German Cara Hell
• 8.75 lbs total fermentable

Points/Pound/Gallon (PPG):
32
Efficiency:
87%
Hops/Irish Moss

• 0.5 oz GR Northern Brewer aa 9.0% from Hops direct goal: 30-60 minutes. ACTUAL 52
• Irish Moss, 1tsp, goal: 15 minutes. ACTUAL 18
• (Did not have any Saaz. Used lowest aa I had: Mandarina Bavaria aa 6.1%)
• 0.5 oz Mandarina Bavaria 6.1aa goal: 10 minutes. ACTUAL 12
• 0.5 oz Mandarina Bavaria 6.1aa goal: 1 minute. ACTUAL 1

Water

• Ozarka Spring Water - no modifications. 2017 report: Ca 1.8-5.9, Sulfate 1.4-6.2, chloride 3-25, total hardness 8.1-22, Mg 0.9-1.9, Alkalinity Total as CaCO3 ND-14m

Yeast

• Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager from batch 4 original smack pack then batch 9 - drawn off batch 9 20 days post pitch and used immediately
• Pitched at 68F then dropped after 4.5 hours

BIAB

• Strike water 7.5 gal (8 gal was too much last time), 157 F
• Ambient (grain temp) 68F
• Initial mash temp 153.5
• Mash duration 60 min
• Final mash temp ?? - usually 2F less
• SG after removing grain, bag squeezing, heating and stirring - 1.040, 7.25g
  • predicts 1.053 at 5.5, 1.050 at 5.75. Actual was 1.051 at 5.5g

 

[HB2 HughBHomeBrew]

Follow up!
This version is much better! I know I changed a lot of things but I do think the water made a big difference. Is fuller, no sharp bitterness. My wife said it was “good.” Still didn’t ask me to pour a pint for her, but this is progress!