Pilsner recipe tweaks based on your thoughts!

[ThinBrewLine]

Hey Folks-
Gimme your thoughts based on these ingredients I have on hand:

10lb Weyyermans pilsner malt
1lb cara pils
1 lb Briess caramel 10L
2 oz Mosaic
2 oz centenial
2 packs of white lags pilsner yeast w/ starter

Oh and I have 1 lb of Pilsner DME

I know, I know- the hops are not NOBEL, caramel malt is not needed, and I don't need 10 lb pilsner malt.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

 

[Sammy86]

Get rid of the carmel and crystal...go straight Pilsner Malt...hops all late/whirlpool and call it an Italian or NZ Pils.

 

[Miraculix]

Hey Folks-
Gimme your thoughts based on these ingredients I have on hand:

10lb Weyyermans pilsner malt
1lb cara pils
1 lb Briess caramel 10L
2 oz Mosaic
2 oz centenial
2 packs of white lags pilsner yeast w/ starter

Oh and I have 1 lb of Pilsner DME

I know, I know- the hops are not NOBEL, caramel malt is not needed, and I don't need 10 lb pilsner malt.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

This is not a Pilsner.

Why do you list all the stuff that you know that it does not belong into a Pilsner?

Take the Pilsner malt, buy some saaz or mittelfrüh and brew a Pilsner with it. No late additions needed.

 

[mac_1103]

Get some US-05 and make an amber or brown ale.

 

[Velnerj]

If your looking to add a bit of malt character add Vienna or Munich malt instead of the crystal. Still not a pilsner but at least it'll be closer. Also when are you adding hops?

 

[Panderson1]

Get some US-05 and make an amber or brown ale.

lol

 

[AlexKay]

Straight pilsner malt would make a decent beer. As people are saying, if you had to add something else, there's Munich and Vienna and biscuit and others.

With the ingredients you have on hand, I'd skip the Mosaic completely and do a Pilsner/Centennial SMaSH. Aim for ~30 IBU, hopping at 60, 15, and 5.

If you must put crystal in, use the 10L at <5%. Carapils is worse than nothing.

 

[mac_1103]

lol

Thanks. I'll be here all week. Remember to tip your server.

But seriously, is the goal to make a Pilsner, or to use up all the leftovers?

 

[eliastheodosis]

Do you have a particular goal in mind here? Are you trying to make an actual pilsner or just use these ingredients to make something that tastes good?

Regardless, I would stay all pilsner malt. If you're trying to stay close to an actual pilsner then @Miraculix is right. You don't have the correct ingredients.

If you're trying to make a tasty beer then @AlexKay or @Sammy86 are on the right track. I personally lean to sprinkling some late boil hops and then whirlpool. I say one ounce of each at 5 mins and then one ounce of each in whirlpool. Call it whatever you want but just don't tell Miraculix it's a pilsner

 

[eliastheodosis]

is the goal to make a Pilsner, or to use up all the leftovers?

We had the same question at the same time. My suggestion was for using the maximum amount of ingredients. Centennial alone might make it a little more pilsner-like but Centennial and Mosaic play great together in late boil and whirpool in my experience!

 

[Hopalong]

Hey Folks-
Gimme your thoughts based on these ingredients I have on hand:

10lb Weyyermans pilsner malt
1lb cara pils
1 lb Briess caramel 10L
2 oz Mosaic
2 oz centenial
2 packs of white lags pilsner yeast w/ starter

Oh and I have 1 lb of Pilsner DME

I know, I know- the hops are not NOBEL, caramel malt is not needed, and I don't need 10 lb pilsner malt.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Why don't you need 10 pounds of malt? Get rid of the specialty stuff. How are you going to make the beer? Place a third of the crushed malt into a kettle, the rest of the malt crush into the mash tun. Start out with warm water to reach a temperature in each mash 95 to 100F. Let the mashes rest to allow the inherent pH of lager malt to stabilize mash pH then add sour malt to reduce pH to at least 5.5. Then begin heating the small volume of mash to 122F and rest the mash for 10 minutes or so. Then, with boiling water increase the decoction mash temperature to 155F and rest the mash for 20 to 30 minutes. The rest will produce sweet tasting sugar that will be used for Maillard Reaction. Boil the decoction for at least one hour. The mash will darken but as it boils it will turn darker near the sides of the boiler, that is Maillard Reaction occurring. If the mash doesn't darken at the sides of the kettle sometimes it takes longer than an hour of boiling to form melanoidin. You can skim off some of the hot break as it forms in the decoction it lowers mash viscosity by getting rid of some of the protein goop. It makes fly sparging easier because less of a chance of sticking the mash. The main mash is at a low temperate to preserve enzymes so don't worry about beating the snot out of Alpha. After at least an hour of boiling add the decoction into the main mash the temperature you want will be 140 to 145F, at 140F rest the mash for 40 minutes at 145F 20 to 30 minutes. Beta activates and conversion takes place. Use boing water if the decoction isn't large enough to reach conversion temperature in the main mash and for maintaining mash temperature, closely. Pilsner is made from dextrinous extract, so the next temperatures need to be high enough to cause dextrinization and gelatinization. Boiling water infusion can be used to reach the higher temperature, but a decoction is better because extra water doesn't need to be figured in and also more amylopectin enters into the mash liquid when the mash is boiled the 2nd time. The complex starch, amylopectin rapidly bursts when mash boils and when Alpha liquefies the starch A and B limit dextrin are released which are tasteless, nonfermenting types of sugar that makes up part of the body and mouthfeel. The albuminous rest at 120 to 125F provides the right type of protein and pectin binds everything together.
You will need a secondary fermenter when conversion occurs and depending on the yeast the beer won't need to be artificially carbonated with sugar or CO2 injection. Maltotriose will carbonate the beer, but there are certain types of yeast mainly ale yeast that won't ferment maltotriose and wort can contain as much as 15% maltotriose. When yeast cannot ferment maltotriose beer turns out overly sweet. That is why it is best to obtain the spec sheet for yeast and if the yeast cannot ferment maltotriose the chemist recommends changing the rest temperature. Also, before buying malt obtain the malt spec sheet for the malt that you are interested in, they are online. Malt spec sheets come with every bag of malt, and they are used for determining the quality of malt before buying malt. There are three columns on a malt spec sheet the two important numbers in each column are level of modification (KI, SNR, S/T) and protein content. The higher the level of modification KI 42 and higher and protein content above 12% the less suitable malt is for making ale and lager. A recipe that doesn't mention the malthouse that made the malt is useless because a malt spec sheet cannot be obtained.

 

[Callacave]

You can call it whatever you want, but it's definitely not a traditional Pils. Do what you want though. Just don't ask for advice on something you already know to not be in style.

 

[AlexKay]

The beer will be fine! And we’re happy to give advice. As far as I’m concerned, if you make it with a ton of Pilsner malt, you can call it a Pilsner. Or maybe a Pilsner SMaSH. It’s all good.

 

[mac_1103]

maybe a Pilsner SMaSH

But, but, but... he's got three malts! And two hops!

 

[NSMikeD]

The beer will be fine! And we’re happy to give advice. As far as I’m concerned, if you make it with a ton of Pilsner malt, you can call it a Pilsner. Or maybe a Pilsner SMaSH. It’s all good.

Gotta love the kitchen sink brews using up what's on the shelves. forget the labels Reminds me of Charlie Papazian talking about this early club days experimenting : "We were a bunch of crazy people who tried out all kinds of things and infected one another with our enthusiasm and curiosity. We used whatever ingredients we liked, putting lemon grass tea, orange peel, chocolate, chili peppers or cloves in our beer, to name but a few examples."

=

 

[lawrenjl]

Depending on the IBUs, this is closer to an IPL...but I have used up a ton of left over stuff and called it kitchen sink pils...at the end of the day, it is your beer and you are the only person who has to be happy with it!

 

[Ren06]

Pilsner with just pilsner malt and saaz at 60, and whirlpool for 20 mins. Grain to glass in 7days. Still clarifying but tastes EXACTLY like a pilsner no extra malts needed.

 

[Miraculix]

View attachment 812426
Pilsner with just pilsner malt and saaz at 60, and whirlpool for 20 mins. Grain to glass in 7days. Still clarifying but tastes EXACTLY like a pilsner no extra malts needed.

Give it one or two months and it weill be even better!

 

[Ren06]

Give it one or two months and it weill be even better!

The taste is so good I don’t think it’ll make it that long

 

[Miraculix]

The taste is so good I don’t think it’ll make it that long

Learn from your mistakes!!

Next time, brew twice the amount!

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Gimme your thoughts based on these ingredients I have on hand:

You made the mistake of saying the word Pilsner, and aggravated the Style Police!

There is a growing trend of hoppy beers that combine aspects of Pilsner, and IPA/Pale Ale. I brewed a few batches that were 100% Pilsner with American hops (one was Citra/Simcoe, one was Simcoe/Centennial). Mine was a Cold IPA inspired recipe, but aiming for closer to 5%. I dropped the use of Corn/Rice which is common in Cold IPA, but I did ferment with 34/70 at 62F. It is a nice beer that many of my friends have raved about. Maybe it is a West Coast Pilsner? Cold Pale Ale? Beer?

I am not sure I would go for the full 1 lb of Crystal, but 5% Crystal 10L can add some nice character to a beer to balance out hop bitterness. I am not convinced if Carapils does anything positive or negative, but tossing that in there is fine. I might add a little bittering hop to the start of the boil and use the Mosaic and Centennial as late boil, steep, or dry hop additions.