Pseudo Pilsner with American hops and ale yeast?

[ghill424]

Hi,

I am newish to home brewing, and new to all grain. For my next beer, I would like to brew a crisp clear pilsner (4-5% abv, 40ish IBU). I do not have cold temperature control or a spunding valve, however my basement is consistently in the low 60’s and I have a brew box that is set to 70.

1) would it be ok to use dry safe lager yeast or should I use an ale yeast. Perhaps I could use lutra, but again don’t have a way to keep it that warm.
2) what hops would you recommend? I was thinking 1-2oz of saaz at the beginning and cascade to finish it off with a nice floral nose.

thoughts?

 

[Miraculix]

The "warm fermented lager" thread will give you plenty of info on that!

 

[ghill424]

The "warm fermented lager" thread will give you plenty of info on that!

Thanks!!

 

[Panderson1]

Lutra works great in the 70s

 

[Miraculix]

It works great at almost every temperature, just tastes like kveik...

 

[bwible]

The "warm fermented lager" thread will give you plenty of info on that!

The warm part only applies to the primary fermentation that is normally done around 50ish degrees. You still need to age the beer cold after the fermentation is done

 

[Beermeister32]

You might be able to succeed at your low ‘60’s temp. If I were pulling this off, I’d use W34/70 dry lager yeast. Use two packs if you aren’t building starters.

Saaz is OK for a Bohemian Pilsner, my choice would be Hallertau Mittlefruh for a Bavarian Pilsner. Cascade is wrong for a Pilsner. Wrong flavor, wrong part of the world. Keep it all continental European varieties for it to taste right. 2 row is OK for now, you can move on to Pilsner malts once you get some more experience, there are some issues there. Keep your mash temps low, I’d suggest 147-149F for an hour or more, stepped up to 154F for a half hour or so. You want a dry mash profile, not sweet.

Since you don’t have temperature control, get a big tub to put the carboy in. You can place water and frozen water bottles in the tub. You may be able to push fermentation down to the low to mid 50’s. Do this for the first week which is the critical time while the flavor profile is being established. You can also place a wet T-shirt around the carboy for further chilling.

Lagering is the key, I like 90 days. Since you have no lager capacity yet, bottle your beer and after conditioning, place them in your refrigerator wherever you can find space. I like 500 ml bottles if you can find them. It will lager nicely in the bottles, try them along the way, they really improve by 3 months.

Prost!

 

[jrgtr42]

I've done similar before. What it comes to is really being careful of your fermentation temps. I find my beers are a little better at the lower end of the fermentation range anyways, and the pseudo-pils I do is right at the bottom. You need to make sure you have a really clean ale yeast, and go light on the hops - 40 IBU is a bit much for the style. Beermeister is right - cascade is the wrong hop profile for a pils, but using them at that rate could still be a tasty pale ale or something.

 

[Steveruch]