German Pilsner Malt Ideas?

[carola1155]

Ok so I knew I was going to be brewing my oktoberfest/marzen soon and was out of base malt so I decided to go out and buy a sack of Avangard pilsner. It is only now just clicking that the marzen really isnt going to use all that much of the pilsner malt since it also is going to have vienna and munich.

So... I have a lot of this german pilsner malt laying around now... haha

Anyone have any fun suggestions? or good recipes they used a German pils base for? My lager chamber is going to be full with the 2 batches of the marzen, so the quick "do a pilsner!" idea won't exactly work unless I use an ale yeast. I'm going to be doing a weissbier this weekend, but again that's got a lot of wheat malt so still not using much of the pils malt there either.

Thanks in advance,

 

[BrewerBrad82]

Belgian Dubbels, Tripels, or Golden Strong Ales all use pilsner as base malt.

 

[iijakii]

Make a simple pale ale with it. Comes out nice and light, great crusher. Throw some Munich if you want more maltyness.

 

[carola1155]

I don't know why it didnt occur to me to do a Belgian... I still have a quite a bit from my last tripel left over, but a Golden Strong may not be a bad idea.

 

[carola1155]

Make a simple pale ale with it. Comes out nice and light, great crusher. Throw some Munich if you want more maltyness.

have any hop recommendations? I think I had a pilsner/galaxy SMASH not too long ago that was pretty tasty.

 

[GrogNerd]

Devil's Backbone Brewing Company in Roseland, VA uses Pilsner malt in all their beers, including their 8 Point IPA & their Kilt Flasher Wee Heavy Scotch Ale (mixed with some Maris Otter)

 

[tim_c7]

Pilsner malt doesn't mean you have to use lager yeast. Ale yeast works just fine.

I have made IPA's, a Belgian DarK Strong, and Witbier with Pils as a base malt. I will be brewing a variant of this reciepe for spring @EdWorts Bee Cave Brewery Kölsch.

Enjoy!

 

[ba-brewer]

A kolsch would give you something lighter to go with your marzen. If you can find WLP515 make a belgian pale to have a amber beer you can drink while waiting for the marzen.

 

[carola1155]

Pilsner malt doesn't mean you have to use lager yeast. Ale yeast works just fine.

I know, I was just saying I can't do an actual true "pilsner" because I won't be able to lager it.

I have made IPA's, a Belgian DarK Strong, and Witbier with Pils as a base malt. I will be brewing a variant of this reciepe for spring @EdWorts Bee Cave Brewery Kölsch.

What kind of wheat/base malt ratio did you do on your witbier? My normal weissbier is like 70/30 wheat so it doesn't really do much to eat up all this malt... haha but I've yet to do a wit

A kolsch would give you something lighter to go with your marzen. If you can find WLP515 make a belgian pale to have a amber beer you can drink while waiting for the marzen.

I have been reading a bit about people doing kolsch styles at warmer temperatures so I may explore that a bit, but right now I'm leaning towards the belgian ale idea.

Thanks for all the ideas everyone.

 

[GrogNerd]

Pilsner malt doesn't mean you have to use lager yeast. Ale yeast works just fine.

I know, I was just saying I can't do an actual true "pilsner" because I won't be able to lager it.

I once did a mock Maibock (JZ's recipe) and used WLP060, fermented as cold as I could (in ice water bath using storage bin) and it did fairly well in brew club competition. no one knew it wasn't a true lager and club president said it was better than the calibration beer (Gordon Biersch Maibock)

and you can always lager in the bottle

 

[JKaranka]

Saison. Quick and easy.

 

[tim_c7]

What kind of wheat/base malt ratio did you do on your witbier? My normal weissbier is like 70/30 wheat so it doesn't really do much to eat up all this malt... haha but I've yet to do a wit

Mine is 50/50 wheat and Pils. I hop with Saaz. My wife likes the addition of a ounce or two of orange/lemon zest with a half ounce of toasted coriander in the last 10 mins of the boil. I ferment with dregs from a bottle of Hoegaarden (WLP400). In fact, I just brewed this in January.

 

[JonM]

Patersbier!

100% Pilsner, an ounce of saaz at 60, another at 10, and ferment at 62-64 with 1214 or WLp500. It produces an incredibly complex and wonderful beer for such a simple recipe.

 

[JKaranka]

Patersbier!

100% Pilsner, an ounce of saaz at 60, another at 10, and ferment at 62-64 with 1214 or WLp500. It produces an incredibly complex and wonderful beer for such a simple recipe.

You can even split the batch and pitch a Saison yeast in the other half to make both Patersbier and Saison in one go. Score!

PS: if you find that too boring add a few ounces of sugar in one of the batches.

 

[carola1155]

I had never even heard of a patersbier before... a little googling and I think that might be a good move. I wonder if I could even do a little quasi-parti-gyle saison/patersbier.

Thanks for the great ideas everyone.

 

[JonM]

As I understand it, it's what the Trappist monks brew for themselves.

 

[GrogNerd]

been my understanding patersbier was always a final runnings beer; a second or even third gyle, when brewing a bigger Belgian

 

[JonM]

Huh. That makes perfect sense.