Brewday: November Rain - Czech Pilsener 14 Nov 2009 - with pics

[Bosium]

November Rain - Bohemian Pilsener
OG: 1.054
FG:
IBU: 41.5 (Tinseth Formula)
SRM: 4.5

82% Weyermann Extra Pale Pilsener Malt
7.3% Munich Malt
6.7% CaraPils
2% Melanoidin Malt
2% Flaked Barley

18 IBU - Czech Saaz - 100Mins First Wort Hopped
6.6 IBU - Czech Saaz - 70Mins
5.5 IBU - East Kent Goldings* - 65 Mins
7.0 IBU - Czech Saaz - 30 Mins
4.5 IBU - Czech Saaz - 15 Mins
0 IBU - Czech Saaz - 30g added at flame-out (3.3% AA)

Mash for 70 minutes at 154 deg F, mash-out by means of kettle denaturing.
Whirlfloc tabled added at 10 mins left of boil.
Wyeast 2001 - Pilsener Urquell - big starter.


Hi all,

So, this weekend I had a crack at a pilsener, a recipe I've been working on for some time. I started by reading the section on pilseners in Designing Great Beers, Radical Brewing and Brewing Classic Styles, and listening to the Jamil podcast on Bohemian Pilseners. I decided to forgo the decoction mash and have instead boosted the maltiness by additions of Melanoidin and Munich. Foam retention is boosted by CaraPils, and a 2% addition of flaked barley. If I'd had more CaraPils, I probably would have skipped the flaked barley but hopefully the small amount won't cause me any haze problems. Either way this beer should have a great head on it, which is how I like my beers. I actually ended up with 84% efficiency on this one, single infusion, single batch sparge. I always seem to get unprecedented high efficiencies when I use Weyermann extra pale pilsener malt. I usually get about 78% efficiency on my system.

I had two different strength packets of Saaz hops, one that has been in the freezer for some months at 5.1% AA originally, and some fresher 3.3% stuff, both from HopShop. *I had such unexpectedly high efficiency that I had to use 10g of 6.8% AA EKGs as well just to get the bitterness back up to where I wanted it, as I ended up with more beer than I had anticipated. Hopefully it shouldn't affect the flavour much. If I brew this again, I'll use all Saaz as originally intended and skip this addition. I always use whole flower hops as I use a modified bruheat boiler which tends to be defeated by hop pellets. I also like the way they work with the hopstopper to keep a lot of the break out of the FV - although having said that, this time I had quite a lot of break come through as I didn't really let it settle long enough before draining the boiler. I had to add 2L of water to the kettle during the boil to keep the level where I wanted it. I ended up with 26L of wort post-boil. 22L in my fermenter, 1L in my fast-ferment test, 2x 1L bottles frozen for making starters with and 1L lost to trub.

I used the Pilsener Urquell strain - Wyeast 2001. I actually ordered the Budvar strain, but my LHBS sent me this one. No matter though, I'm sure 2001 will be perfect. I made a 2L starter, then stepped it up by another 2L a few days later, then decanted the spent beer and added a new 4L of fresh wort a fews days after that. There was quite a bit of slurry, although I didn't measure it, but it must have been several hundred ml's. I held a small amount back to use for a fast-ferment test, so that I can get some sort of idea of my limit of attenuation. I pitched cold at 6 degrees C, set the fermentation temp to 7degC, and 12 hours later (i.e. this morning), stepped it up to 8. I will increment the temperature by about a degree every 12 hours until it reaches 10degrees, which I will hold it at until fermentation completes. I am not planning to do a diacetyl rest with this beer, I should have very little thanks to the cold pitching technique, and a small amount is actually present in Pilsener Urquell anyway.

For water, I used store-bought Mountain Spring water, as it is nice and soft. I have had problems before with high mash pH's due to pale malts and alkaline water and I was taking no chances this time. Also, I wanted the softer water profile as it is typical of a Czech Pils. Again, after a bit of research, I made some salt additions to change the profile slightly - to boost Calcium levels and to reduce Residual Alkalinity. I used Calcium Chloride mainly, with a very small Gypsum addition to try and keep the Sulphate / Chloride ratio slightly more balanced. I used Palmer's mash spreadsheet to work out the figures. I managed to get around pH 5.3 in the mash.

Ashbeck Water:
Bicarbonate (Alkalinity) - 25ppm
Calcium - 10ppm
Magnesium - 2.5ppm
Sodium - 9ppm
Chloride - 12ppm
Sulphate - 10ppm

After additions:
Bicarbonate (Alkalinity) - 16.4ppm
Calcium - 76ppm
Magnesium - 2.5ppm
Sodium - 9ppm
Chloride - 109ppm
Sulphate - 38ppm

Pics to follow.

 

[Bosium]

Ingredients:

Weighing out grist:

Adding strike water:

Mash temp and pH:

Vorlauf:

First runnings and FW hops:

Mash-out of first runnings by temperature de-naturing on stove-top:

Draining second runnings:

FW hops stewing in the boiler as it comes up to temperature:

 

[Bosium]

One of the many hop addition:

Boil:

My newly-built masive immersion chiller in action:

Cold pitching:

OG 1.054:

Wort in FV, in fermentation chamber at 7 degrees C:

Massive amount of hops left after boil. I squeeze the wort from the leftover hops and break, then strain through a sieve and paper towl. I usually get 2-3L of extra wort this way, which I can freeze and use for starters or krausening.

Spent grain. I give this to a mate at work who has a pig, who apparently goes crazy for it once it's a few days old and festering with whatever bacteria has colonised it. Occasionally I get some eggs in return for the grain and some homebrew.