Thinking about trying my first Lager....

Hello again. I am going to try to brew again on Sunday, and plan to either do another batch of the blood Orange Hefeweizen, or try my hand at doing a Lager for the first time. I am thinking about a Czech Pale Lager, and this is what I have come up with. As always, I would love any advice you can give me on this recipe. I am really unsure about the mash temp for this style. Would I mash at 148F for light body, or 152F for a medium body. Sadly, most of my experience in drinking Lagers has been with the BMC type beers, which was a major factor in the reason I pretty much only drink Ales (IPA, APA, Hefe, and the rare Stout or Porter). Thanks again for your help.

Czech Pale Lager (Name Pending)
Czech Pale Lager
Type: All Grain
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %

6 lbs Pilsner, Floor Malted (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM)
12.0 oz Munich 20L (Briess) (20.0 SRM)
12.0 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
4.0 oz Carapils (Briess) (1.3 SRM)
1.50 oz Saaz [3.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min 21.4 IBUs
0.50 oz Saaz [3.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min 2.6 IBUs
1.0 pkg Czech Pilsner Lager (Wyeast Labs #2278) [124.21 ml] 1.5L Starter

Est Original Gravity: 1.039
Est Final Gravity: 1.010
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.8 %
Est Color: 4.8 SRM

Mash at 152F for 60 min.

 

Overall, looks good. I recently made a Czech Pale Lager with about 98% Weyermann Floor Malted Pils and 2% melanoiden malt. It turned out very flavorful. If it were me, I would ditch the Vienna and Munich all together. They may get in the way of the subtle melding of pils and noble hops that makes a great pilsner. Also, definitely mash at 152.

 

Thanks for the advice. With that grain bill, did you have good head retention?

 

Another question on this. I will be putting this batch in bottles, as I don't have the space or money t set up a kegging system. Once it is finished fermenting, should I cold crash it and let it lager a few weeks before bottling, or cold crash it, fine with gelatin and then bottle and let carbonate, and then lager in the bottle?

 

The head retention could have been better, so a bit of carapils could probably help it out. I have done batches in the past that I cold crashed, fined with gelatin, and then bottled and lagered. They turned out well, but I haven't tried doing it the other way.

 

I wouldn't think cold crashing is necessary since you are gonna lager it for months.

 

Got the Lager brewed today. Just waiting for it to finish cooling down to pitch temp. OG was .002 higher , at 1.040, than predicted, but that's no problem. I mashed in at 152F and after 60 min it was 148F. 5.5 gal in to the fermenter. It was a beautiful pale yellow color and crystal clear. I hope is that clear when it is ready to drink. I will be pitching a 2.25L starter of WY2278 at soon as it is down to 54F. I did SWAG the water additions, other than the lactic acid. My well water tested somewhere between RO and Pilsen water, so I targeted the Pilsen profile in Bru'nWater. To hit that profile dead on, my gypsum, Calcium Chloride, and Epsom Salt additions would have been less than .2g for the mash and sparge water combined, so I just added a tiny pinch of each. The only major addition was 3ml of lactic acid to the mash water to get the pH around 5.3.

 

Looks great! What did you end up going with for a grain bill?

 

I ran several possibilities by the guys at a local brewery, and the convinced me to go with something close to my original thought. The CaraPils was dropped, and I upped the amount of Floor Malted Pilsner, and lowered the Munich and Vienna. Final was 86.7% Floor Malted Pilsner, 6.7 % Munich and 6.7% Vienna. The OG sample smelled and tasted fantastic. It had good malty-ness, and the Saaz came through well. I will be dry hoping with 1oz of Saaz as well. Depending on how this one turns out, I may do another one with just the Pilsner malt and the Melanoiden to compare the two.

 

When you make a starter with lager yeast, do you have to keep it at lager temp? Also, does it take longer than an ale starter?

 

No, you don't have to make a lager starter at lager temps, especially if you are decanting the starter before pitching. At room temperature, it takes a little longer but not much.

 

I made the starter at room temp, and let it go on the stir plate for 48 hours, the same amount of time I do for ales. I let the starter come to room temp before pitching it into the wort that was at 54F. I pitched it at 2:30PM yesterday afternoon, and this morning at 6:00AM, I had airlock activity, so it started it's thing within 12 to 16 hours. The ales I have done normally take around 8-10 hours before I see any activity.