Helles critique. Also first decoction.

I have had this one planned for a while. I want a nice Helles lager for spring time. I plan to follow Kaiser's decoction as illustrated in his videos. I'm pretty excited to do my first decoction. I plan to do the same with my Oktoberfest planned for next month. I'm still figuring amounts for the mash. I have a 17.5 gallon boil kettle that's pretty wide, so I have an exceptionally high boil off rate. I also have an ounce each of northern brewer and Hallertau. So I'm open to suggestions on the hop schedule. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Munich Helles
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 8.75 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.029
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity: 1.008
ABV (standard): 4.96%
IBU (tinseth): 21.57
SRM (morey): 3.58

FERMENTABLES:
8 lb - German - Pilsner (Weyermannn) (84.2%)
1 lb - German - Munich Light (Weyermannn) (10.5%)
0.5 lb - American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt) (5.3%)

HOPS:
0.5 oz - Northern Brewer, Type: Pellet, AA: 10.3, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 21.57
0.5 oz - Hallertau Hersbrucker, Type: Pellet, AA: 4.3, Use: Aroma for 0 min

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 95 F
2) Decoction, Temp: 122 F, Time: 5 min
3) Infusion, Temp: 145 F, Time: 30 min
4) Infusion, Temp: 158 F, Time: 40 min
5) Decoction, Temp: 170 F, Time: 15 min
6) Sparge, Temp: 170 F, Time: 15 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.5 quarts
YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - Saflager - German Lager Yeast W-34/70
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 83%
Flocculation: High
Optimum Temp: 48 - 72 F
Fermentation Temp: 48 F

 

Go for it. I did my first decoction back in Dec following those videos and I am probably never going back. Be prepared for your efficiency and SRM to be higher than what you think they will be. Especially with that many steps, your going to get a lot more sugars out of the grain than you are used to and the grain is going to darken quite a bit while boiling.

Your recipe and decoction steps look good to me, keep us updated on the finished product.

 

This is what I did for my Helles, which happened to be my first decoction and lager. I think it turned out pretty awesome. I used the Hochkurz decoction method.

Edit: I would personally back off on the aroma hops, unless you're targeting that, but typically a Helles would have a low hop profile.

 

I have been researching it A LOT. So I hope it will go well. How much higher will the OG be? I was really trying to keep it in the 4.5-5% range. Will do!

I really just want to stay true to the style. I may back it off to around .25 oz. I read the style guidelines and it says some noble hop aroma is accepted.

I guess that's an advantage for me. I have done several lagers. I love them. I love German styles and I'm very interested in the history of brewing in Germany. I have a Helles, oktoberfest, and an alt planned as my next three brews. I'll be doing a decoction on all of them.

 

That's what I've been seeing as a typical schedule. Kaiser doesn't use the acid rest in his recipe, but I read an article in BYO that recommended one. Kaiser does start at 122 though. I guess my main concern is when I pull the first decoction, it will be sitting at the first rest temp for an extended time until I add part or all of the decoction back to the main mash. This is why I thought an acid rest would be helpful. I would dough in at acid rest temps, from your advice I could take the decoction straight to 130 and rest. Heat to 145 and rest. Heat to 155 or so and rest, then boil the decoction and ad back to the main mash in the same steps. I thought this would be best because at no point does the mash sit at a temp that converts for an extended period of time, yet I have still doughed in. This is purely my thoughts and I very well could be wrong though.

 

So I ended up being a little short on time. I did a step mash at 130,145, and I ended up missing my last temp of 158. I hit 154 which I was ok with. Then I did a decoction mash out boiling for 15 min. For some reason I miss calculated big time on how much sparge water I needed. So I ended up sparging twice which wasn't a big deal since I batch sparge. I missed my OG by a few points, which will still be instyle for a Helles. All in all it didn't go too bad. It's sittin in my fermentation chamber as we speak. Hopefully I'll come home to it happily bubbling away. When I brew my Oktoberfest next month I'll have to plan it for a day when I'm not getting off work that morning so I can have plenty of time to brew.

 

Looks like a nice recipe, I've been researching this style and am planning a brew for next weekend. I'm kinda curious on the malt bill and whether or not to have some Munich, Vienna and or Carapils along with the base Pilsner malt. I'm tempted to just go straight 100% Pilsner with a single decoction. What do the Germans use in their Helles?

 

BYO has a great article on the style. From my research, some Munich is accepted, but I've also seen some that were all Pilsner. I wanted a little more malt to mine. Braukaiser.com also has a great recipe and explanation. Just transferred to secondary and did a diacetyl rest on this one. It came out great so far! Well see after it lagers for a while. Good luck with it!

 

BYO article on German Helles style.

 

I do straight Pilsner with a touch of carapils for head.