Is it even possible to achieve that authentic German crispness in a homebrewed lager?

[+HopSpunge+]

The palmer book says to do the yeast that way. The brewing lager one says to pitch the yeast 5° warmer. I always built them at the same temp. Not sure if it makes a difference or not. I need a r.o. Filter or need to start buying my water from the store. The last one I made the mash ph was 5.5 even after adding a bunch of acid malt ... See what happens i guess.

 

[shelly_belly]

Do you crash/decant?

I don't crash as the yeast have usually dropped out and the beer is very clear. I do decant - I rack into a corny keg for drinking. Lightly hopped DME lagers are really pretty tasty!

I'm sure this would work just fine, but I don't think you can make any plausible argument that it's an improvement or that it's a generally-accepted best practice. You're simply making yeast, not beer, and you're only pitching the yeast, so....

Not saying it's better, just saying it has worked better for me.

 

[tgmartin000]

How about carbonation? I carb my lagers to a higher volume than my ales. I've found it makes a big difference - my first couple lagers were undercarbed. Getting them to about 2.7 volumes or so made a much better beer.

 

[osagedr]

I fermented a Dortmunder at 43 earlier this year, with my normal (slightly high according to mr. malty) pitching rate. It came out a sulfury mess, I think because the fermentation wasn't vigorous enough to off-gas. Have you noticed similar problems fermenting lagers this cold?

I don't think I've ever gone as low as 43, and I'm also very bad at picking up sulphur. But it's a good point; stressing yeast is in general a risky business.

 

[SpeedYellow]

Just to dredge up this thread I started, I SOLVED IT! Two things: (1) 100% distilled water, plus minor minerals, and (2) lots of noble hops. I've realized I must get terrible hop utilization, because when I aim for 35-40 IBU, I get a wonderfully crisp, lively lager. As opposed to boring lifeless beers when i do 20-25 IBU. I also switched to dry yeast (34/70) exclusively, but I don't think that was the big difference.

Sitting here drinking a BoPils that's FAR better than anything I've ever bought, Urquell included. Very happy!!

 

[beersk]

Nice. I was wondering if water played into it. I'm surprised about the hops. I'd think it'd get too, bitter/tannic, maybe, if you upped the noble hops too much. I target around 35 IBU for my Bo Pils and it's tasty. I think low mineral water makes a big difference.
Nothing wrong with 34/70, it's great yeast. Easier to use than buying a smack pack of 2124.
Sucky thing about buying distilled water is you gotta buy all those jugs. Recycling them is fine, but it's just more stuff to lug around and they're more expensive than getting RO out of the machine.