German Pils Cat's **** "Bitburger" - Premium Pilsner

[Mutilated1]

Recipe Type

All Grain

Yeast

W34/70

Yeast Starter

Optional

Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter

Pitch 2 Packs or make a starter

Batch Size (Gallons)

5

Original Gravity

1.052

Final Gravity

1.010

Boiling Time (Minutes)

90

IBU

39

Color

3 SRM

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

3 Weeks @ 50F

Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

Not needed, but don\'t let me stop you

Additional Fermentation

Lager 3 Weeks @ 34F

Tasting Notes

Its the Cat\'s Tits.

This is a real guzzler. Guarantee you'll love this one, its off the chain. Simple recipe too.

================================

Malts:
9.5 pounds Weyerman German Pilsner Malt 1L - 1.035
.25 pounds ( 4 oz ) Weyerman Light Munich Malt 8L - 1.033
.25 pounds ( 4 oz ) CaraPils Dextrine Malt 1L - 1.035

Hops:
Bittering Hop @ 60 Minutes
1/2 oz Magnum Pellet 14% AA - 34 IBUs
Flavor Hops @ 10 Minutes
1/2 oz Perle Pellet 7.8% AA - 4 IBUs
1/4 oz Hellertauer Pellet 4% AA - 1 IBU
Aroma Hops @ 5 Minutes
1/4 oz Tettnanger Pellet 4.5% AA - 1 IBU

Yeast:
Any German style Lager strain of yeast would be good. My personal favorite is Saflager W34/70. Use two packs, or make a big starter, or reuse yeast from another batch.

=================================

Heat a little over 3 gallons of water to 155F, add water and grains then check the temperature of the mash, we are shooting for 146F. If the temp comes up a little too hot, relax don't worry and have a homebrew. If the temp comes up a little short, you can pull some of the mash out and heat it on the stove before adding it back, sort of a mini-decoction if you will.

Mash at 146-147F for 90 minutes or until fully converted. Might need to mash a bit longer when mashing at that low a temperature, but you want to do the lower temperature because this beer needs to finish crisp. If the beer doesn't finish crisp enough for your tastes, next time omit the 4oz of CaraPils.

After mash is converted, sparge till you have approximately 7.25 gallons in the brew pot.

Bring to a boil, and start the timer. Going for a 90 minute boil. Boil for 30 minutes with no hops, then at 60 minutes till flameout add Bittering hops. At 10 Minutes to flameout add Flavor hops. Aroma hops at 3-5 Minutes.

Chill wort to 55F and pitch your yeast. Ferment for 3 weeks at 50F, Secondary fermentation optional. You simply have to Lager this beer to get it right. Lager for at least another 3 weeks at 34-35F.

Keg it up and enjoy!

This recipe is the Cat's Tits.

 

[DaBo]

I was looking for a Bitburger clone for a while now, I will definitely brew this in 1-2 Weeks and post results & pictures.

Thanks

 

[GunnerMan]

Hmm should I make you recipe or this one: BeerTools.com Recipe Library - Bitburger Clone

 

[Mutilated1]

I've Never made that one, but it looks like a good recipe. I'm fine with mine though, it doesn't need tweaking.

 

[Mutilated1]

I've got my 5th keg of this recipe on tap now, its been on the gas since Sunday evening - sure hoping its carbed up and ready to drink when I get home.

I just cannot believe how good this beer is, every time I pour a big glass I just get a big grin on my face because I made it myself.

Want to see a Picture ?

This is a picture of a glass of maybe the second batch I made of this beer, taken when I was sitting out on my back porch cooking up the third batch a few months ago - probably around March or so. The picture really doesn't do this beer justice though - when I pour it from the tap its a lot clearer and you can see the carbonation better. For some reason the camera makes it look flat and somewhat different color.

 

[Pangea]

Beautiful!

How is 39 IBU in this? I've never had the balls to drop that kind of bitterness into a beer like this yet. I made something similar, 1051 OG, with vienna and crytal10 instead of the munich, and I also used hallertau and saaz only. It's good, but wondering if it could be more bitter now....

 

[Mutilated1]

39 is just the number that the beer calculator came up with. As I understand it SNPA is also about 39-40 range in IBUs, yet this beer doesn't as bitter as SNPA.

Tastewise, its Bitburger all over.

Also, as I'm looking over the recipe I notice that I said you didn't really need to do a secondary. Well the last couple of times I've made it I've done a secondary mostly just because I needed a place to store the beer until I had an empty keg to put it in and I wanted to use the fermenter that it was in for something else. I don't know if it was the secondary or just the longer lagering period -- maybe I'm just getting better at brewing it now that I have a few under the belt so to speak. Anyway, if you brew it maybe do a secondary and longer lagering period if you have the ability

 

[Trubadour]

What water profile do you use for this one?

 

[Mutilated1]

What water profile do you use for this one?

I have no idea.

I use regular city water from the kitchen sink.

 

[Mutilated1]

I put keg #6 of this beer on the gas last night, so hopefully will be drinking it by this weekend.

Unfortunately, its the last beer I have in the pipeline at the moment.

 

[zman]

i just did this one two weekends ago. I took a hydro reading on Sun and it is at 1.012. Did you do a diacetyl rest?

 

[Mutilated1]

i just did this one two weekends ago. I took a hydro reading on Sun and it is at 1.012. Did you do a diacetyl rest?

thats a good idea to do one

 

[fuznutz04]

I've been looking for a good recipe for this beer. I've had this beer while over in Germany and brought some back. I love it. However, I havent made the jump to all grain yet. I still to extract brewing. Is it possible to get this recipe converted into an extract version?

 

[Hammy71]

Made this a couple of months ago. Not a big fan at first. Been in the keg around three months, and wow....very awesome brew if you give it the chance to age. Very nice. Thanks!!!

 

[passedpawn]

Made this a couple of months ago. Not a big fan at first. Been in the keg around three months, and wow....very awesome brew if you give it the chance to age. Very nice. Thanks!!!

Age a lager? Imagine that!

 

[bottlebomber]

Age a lager? Imagine that!

I've found that almost all beers benefit from aging with the exception of IPAs (although even those benefit, they just lose some hop aroma but gain other flavors).
I made a lagered kolsch a few months ago, and figured id better drink it because it wasn't going to get better than it was.
Now im hoarding the last two bottles in the beer fridge.

I know you were probably being sarcastic but most people don't know that almost all homebrew improves to at least the 6 month mark

 

[passedpawn]

I know you were probably being sarcastic

Moi?

 

[Hammy71]

LOL. Oh aging for me isn't a problem....Lagered the beer for a 5 weeks before putting on the gas, and then 3 months in the kegger.

 

[Moerdertaktiken]

I'm glad that you gave credit for this recipe to Tess and Mark Szamatulski. They wrote this clone recipe and it's in their "Clone Brews" book. Oh wait, you didn't give credit! Plagiarism aside, this is a great beer.

 

[RyanWeary]

Just kegged this after a 2 month lager - absolutely terrific. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Rubes]

If I were to use liquid yeast would Wyeast Bavarian Lager be a good choice? I also have access to their Munich Lager if that would be better..

 

[RyanWeary]

If I were to use liquid yeast would Wyeast Bavarian Lager be a good choice? I also have access to their Munich Lager if that would be better..

If you HAD to use liquid yeast, I'd suggest 2308 Munich Lager Yeast. If you can get Saflager 34/70 though, use two packets per 5 gallons. The ease of use alone is enough to make me a believer. The quality beer it produces solidifies it as a top notch lager yeast.

 

[Rubes]

Okay thanks. Are we talking about the 11.5g packets?

 

[RyanWeary]

Okay thanks. Are we talking about the 11.5g packets?

Yes, two of the 11.5g packets will do the trick just nicely.

 

[Rubes]

Perfect, thanks.

 

[Soulshine]

So did anyone have a partial grain recipe for this?

 

[marcelo]

must brew this!

 

[YeastieBoys]

Good recipe. I did this last winter. I really found out that you need to lager for at least 3 months. I plan on doing this recipe again next week.
Thanks for the recipe!

 

[fosgate]

I was stationed in the Bitburg Germany area and the locals loved this brew and making cola-beir from it in the pubs. Basically a shot of cola in a mug and pour the beer second.

 

[YeastieBoys]

Just did this recipe again. OG was 1.052 for 5.5 gallon batch. I used tettnang for aroma instead of hallertrauer because that's all I had on hand. I also used two packs of 34/70 with a 2 L starter. I'm glad I did this because it took off within 12 hours. Before I only used one. It's at 51 degrees right now.

I was happy with this recipe before. This is a must brew.

 

[Bugaboo]

Pitched at 42 let rise and primaried this for 10 days at 50 and 3 day drest at 60. Lagered for 3 weeks. Turned out really nice. Not too bitter for being high in ibus for style and not too much alcohol for being too high in gravity. I would make this again. I'm gonna try to let it age and not drink it too fast, but not promising anything.

p.s. used 2124 bohemian lager

 

[robbo007]

Yeast question. Do you use 2x 11G packs sprinkled on top? of the wort? Why so much yeast?

Thanks,
Rob

 

[RyanWeary]

Robbo007:

Yes, two packets of yeast are required for lagers because you're fermenting at a lower temperature and yeast metabolism slows down quite a bit in colder environments, therefor you increase the size of your pitch rate to make up for the difference so you don't have any off flavors - diacetyl being the biggy.

Personally, I use 34/70 quite a bit - and if I'm not repitching I use two packets and have never had an issue. I ferment my pilsners at around 50. I don't do a diacetyl rest and I've never had an issue. When I pitch liquid yeast I use a minimum of 1.5 liters of slurry for each 5 gallons. 34/70 is a great yeast if that's the one you're using - I've never had a bad lager with it.

 

[robbo007]

Another question if I may. What would be the maximum temperature you could ferment this recipe at? I'm in Spain so its quiet warm. My brew room is sort of underground and at present has a temp around 20 degrees. This is probably too hot for this recipe?

 

[RyanWeary]

Yes, that's too warm for lager yeast - I would say the highest temperature would be about 13 Celsius.

 

[robbo007]

ok thanks. I'll have to devise a system to control the temp.

 

[robbo007]

The Hellertauer hop you mention is the same as HALLERTAUER TRADITION ?

 

[Bigbeavk]

Thanks for the recipe! I brewed a batch today and pitched WLP800. After reading a few posts I think I better pitch another vial. I'll pick one up tomorrow to make sure this beer finishes properly.
Is it normal to have a bunch of tan looking material floating around in the boil? I tried to sift most of it out but it still has alot in it. I expect it will settle to the bottom. My first time using Carapils so maybe that's what it is?

 

[robbo007]

Ive just finished this recipe. Came out a little more cloudy than the ales I brew. I did strain before bottling. Any suggestions how to filter at home? Or is expected from a lager?

 

[YeastieBoys]

Ive just finished this recipe. Came out a little more cloudy than the ales I brew. I did strain before bottling. Any suggestions how to filter at home? Or is expected from a lager?

My advicw would be to add some irish moss or a whirfloc tablet into your boil next time. You can use gelatin to help clarify your beer before you start lagering next time. I would stay away.from straining your beer next time. You don't want to oxygenate your beer doing this.