Munich helles production method

[staucher]

Hello all,

I joined this forum just today, but have been homebrewing on and off for several years now. I've recently switched over to the all-grain method, and am trying to produce a good example of the Munich Helles (similar to Andechs Helles. In Munich, my favorite is the delicious Augustiner edellstoff). My attempts to produce a lager with extract have all failed, even with good temperature control. I always end up with an ale.

Anyway, I've been reading these beer forums for some time now, and I've noticed that most Helles recipes call for a much lower percentage of Munich light malt compared to Pilsener. I'd be interested in your thoughts on this recipe, given to me by De Falco's homebrewing here in Houston. I've produced 30 gallons to its specifications, but my first batch need to lager for another month at 32 degrees.

5 lb of German Pilsener
4 lb Of Munich light Malt
0.5 lb Cara-Foam
0.25 lb Melanoidin Malt

0.75 oz Perle hops
1 oz Hallertau Mittelfrueh

I've been mashing at between 148 and 152 degrees for an hour, usually with 3 gallons. Then, I drain the wort. Pour 3 gallons of 170 degree water onto the grain and let sit for 20 minutes before draining again. As it's draining, I will pour another gallon of 170 degree water slowly and evenly onto the grain to extract any remaining sugars. Boil for an hour, up to 70 minutes.

Quickly chilled down with a wort cooler, and then into the fermenter for about 3 1/3 weeks at 45 degrees. 3 days for the D-test at 65 degrees before kegging. Once in the keg, I crash the temp straight down to 32 degrees and leave it to lager for 2 months. I've skipped the gradual cooling down steps, so it goes from 65 to 32 degrees overnight.

I'm about one month away from sampling my first all-grain Munich Helles. Thoughts? Is my process generally sound?

One more question. I use the Johnson digital 409 thermostat for my three chest freezers, but have noticed that the temperature still fluctuates about 4 degrees. Would insulating the PET carboys during fermentation help? Producing the highest possible quality and most consistent Munich Helles is my goal.

 

[samc]

90 minute boil
seems like a lot of hops, but I am going from memory
Johnson digital shouldn't fluctuate that much
I doubt the real Helles uses Melanoidin - you might seek the real "methods"

I am no expert on Helles or Lagers - my one Helles was awful and if I want to drink one I just go buy it.

 

[Patirck]

The recipe looks like it will make a tasty beer but..

I like Munich as much as anyone, but I think the percent of total grain bill is way too high. You can certainly do a decoction mash instead of adding melanoidin but I find it easier to add .25 - .5 melanoidin instead and get very similar results.

Unless the AA% is way low, 1.75 oz of hops is too much by far. You should end up with 16 - 22 ibus. If you want more hop aroma than a traditional helles, try adding mostly late additions. By having more than half of the ibus as flavor or aroma hops rather than bittering hops, you end up with something more like north coast scrimshaw pilsner than traditional helles - both are great but if you want to add that much hops, you should probably do it with later hop additions.

What yeast are you using? This is a huge factor.

Another can of worms for this style of beer is the water profile - read the sticky in the brew science section. I say that because now I feel compelled to make my own water from distilled when I make light continental styles as my tap water is about 270ppm sulfates (very hard).

I would try to stick to one temperature for mashing - for this style of beer 149, 150, 151 or 152 would work. The higher the temperature the thicker the body. My current pilsner I just started carbing I think has too much body for the style - next time I'll mash at 150.

As said above, when using pilsner, you usually want a 90 minute boil.

 

[staucher]

Thanks for the comments so far.

I guess I'll see how the beer turns out in about a month. From the taste of the wort while I was transferring into the keg, the all-grain is a whole different animal compared to the extract, and it tastes very promising indeed. Very malty and much more full-bodied.

Possible areas for improvement seem to be the boil time (increase from an hour to 90 minutes) and possibly less hops. Depending on how it comes out, perhaps I'll knock the hops back to 1 oz of Hallertau and 0.25 oz of perle next time. I generally make two batches at a time, about 6 gallons each. One batch gets the Bavarian lager yeast, the other Munich helles yeast (from those crush packs). I've been reusing the yeast. I brewed 10 gallons over the weekend, and the two carboys have got an inch and half of white foam on them at the moment. The reason that I ferment at 45 degrees (rather than 48-50) for about 3 1/2 weeks is because I'm trying to prevent the foam from overflowing into the airlock and popping it off. Once, I brewed a batch with some honey in it, and the yeast went absolutely nuts.

Another area for improvement might be in starting off the yeast before I pitch it. When I did that, my wort started fermenting within an hour.

For the water, I run tap water through a fresh brita filter.

Patrick -- can you explain what you mean by the percent of grain bill? What proportions would you suggest? Each batch is producing more like 6 gallons, rather than 5 gallons.

 

[markg388]

there are a few things you have to hit, i've been obsessed with this style since day 1. practice and patience are probably most important.

This beer should be a showcase of german pilsner malt, the malt bill should be made up entirly of that stuff with an optional small addition of dextrin malt. Hopping should be very minimal, if you're doing a late addition it should be like .25 - .5oz... i don't even add late hops in mine.
you should definitely be making yeast starters, fermentation management is crucial for lagers like these. other than that, your fermentation schedule looks about right... but the times should be determined by the beer rather than a pre-made schedule. IE. raise temp for d-rest when gravity is 1.020, hold d-rest until the butter is gone rather than just trusting the 3-day rule of thumb. keep at it, you'll get there.

 

[staucher]

Cool forum, thanks everyone.

One more question, has anyone had success in producing a helles or pilsener with a nice golden (not amber) color? The all-grain wort is definitely lighter in color than with the extract. Instead of a dark amber, I'm getting a much lighter amber, but still amber. How to get that nice golden yellow color?

Of course, the Andechs helles has a slight amber tint, as shown here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21084130@N08/4672392085/

 

[remilard]

Use all Pilsener malt.

 

[bnmir]

+1 for less munich and at least a single decoction

 

[dstar26t]

Remove all visible cold break before pitching, especially if you're going to reuse the yeast.

Use 1.5 million cells/mL/ºP if you're pitching at 45F

IBU/GU around .4

I would go back to a gradual chill (1ºC/12 hours) after your d-rest.

Get your water tested by Ward Labs and do what AJ says in the Brewing Water Chemistry Primer sticky in the Brew Science Forum.

Good luck, it's a tough style to nail but when you do it's worth the work.

 

[Bmorebrew]

I am very pleased with the helles recipe I brew - 100% german pilsener malt, a single 60 minute hallertau addition and a BIG starter using wlp833 yeast.

This beer should be a showcase of german pilsner malt

Right on. Which is why I like to keep my bitterness low (its not a pils after all) and with low hop aroma.

Oh, and if you worry about head retention, a touch of flaked wheat or carafoam will do ya.

 

[badhabit]

I messed with the Munichs for a long time before I started decoction mashing. That is the only way to go to get the true malty flavor out of the grain like the Germans do. Also I would encourage a Lager that is one day for every 1000th of OG so 1.056 would be lagered for 56 days. Use a German malt and of course noble hops. IMHO Augusteiner makes the best beer in the world and my goal in life is to have a brew that tastes as good....still have a long way to go.

 

[markg388]

don't get discouraged if this batch doesn't come out right, it'll probably take quite a few tries... I still haven't had a helles from a microbrewery that has "that german taste". I've been making mine non-stop for almost 4 years now and it's soooooo close to perfect, but still not there. It takes an awful lot of tinkering, keep at it!

 

[cklages]

I have not yet brewed my first lager, but I have been reading a lot in preparation of doing it this fall. My question would be are you making a starter? It seems that underpitching lagers usually causes 'ale' like characteristics due to the stressing out of the yeast during the reproductive phase.

 

[BigEd]

Use all Pilsener malt.

staucher, follow remilard's advice. 100% pilsner malt although a few per cent of CaraHells or CaraPils would be OK if you like. This is a subtly hopped beer, in the very low 20s IBU, so I think it makes sense to use nothing but low-alpha German Noble hops. This is also a beer where checking your water profile is a good idea. It should be very low in sulphate so don't use gypsum. Make your Calcium additions with Calcium Chloride and a touch of Calcium Carbonate for a soft edge to the beer.

 

[Boodlemania]

I too love the German Helles. I am planning on attempting this recipe in the very near future as my first lager.

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Edel_Hell

 

[Patirck]

For the water, I run tap water through a fresh brita filter.

Patrick -- can you explain what you mean by the percent of grain bill? What proportions would you suggest? Each batch is producing more like 6 gallons, rather than 5 gallons.

The water profile is a critical part for this style of beer. There is a sticky post in the brew science area of the forum. Your best bet is to get a water sample from both before and after your filter and send it off to wards labs. My water is so high in sulfate that I start with distilled water and add the various salts to create super soft water that is just ground water from pilsen.

As for the percent of grain bill, what I meant is that the percent of munich in your grain bill is way to high for a munich helles. Many others here recomend using 100% (or at least 98.5%) pilsner malt. I think adding munich or vienna is fine but no more than 10% for a pilsner style beer. Having said that, one of my favorite recipes is one that does not fit in to a particular style category but is:

5 lb pilsner
5 lb vienna
1 lb crystal 8L
1 lb melanoidin
.5 lb carapils

noble hops to 22 or so with at least half in the last half of the boil

Wyeast 1338 euro ale

This is not a pilsner but is a full bodied malty ale similar in many ways.

If you want to make a munich helles, go for it. I love that style and similar ones. I also try not to get too stuck on style guidlines and make what I enjoy drinking.

 

[staucher]

Great to see all the enthusiasm for the southern Bavarian Helles style! Ayinger is another one for which I have great respect. Their weissbier is top notch.

Mark -- I too have not across any Munich Helles here in the States that does an effective job of replicating that beer experience from Southern Bavaria -- although the Sudwerk brewery in Davis, California, produces some very good German style beer.

 

[Patirck]

I have recently had hangar 24 helles lager and it is very good - not the same as the real thing but pretty close. I wonder how many small breweries are set up to do a decoction mash. I would imagine that most are not.

 

[dstar26t]

Urban Chestnut in St.Louis, MO makes a great Helles called "Zwickle". Florian, the brewer/owner hails from Germany and the beer tastes like it.

 

[staucher]

Hi folks,

I haven't been on here for a while, but I've just tapped the keg for this recipe after about 7 weeks of lagering at 32 degrees. What I ended up with is a relatively light-bodied oktoberfest beer. The first sip has a pleasant malty aftertaste with that "grainy" texture typical of an oktoberfest. Very enjoyable, very easy to drink, and very clean beer. It is a not an ale; it is a lager, my first successful lager beer ever! There's no doubt that it's a German beer. A very nice first run of an all-grain recipe, but not a helles.

One interesting thing that I've noticed with this first batch of all-grain beer versus the previous method of using extract is that it doesn't give me a hangover. Not only is it considerably cheaper than bottled beer, it tastes better and is better for my health. All-grain = all natural, without all those preservatives from the commercial beers.

Last weekend, I brewed another batch, modifying my recipe as per your suggestions:

8.25 lb German pilsner grain
0.75 light Munich malt
0.5 lb carapils
0.25 melanoidin

I cut back on the use of hops, although 1 oz of hallertau and 0.75 of perle worked very well for the oktoberfest. This time I used:

1 oz hallertau
0.4 Perle hops

After mashing at 152 degrees (sparging at 170) I boiled gently for 90 minutes in lieu of one hour, and reduced from 7 gallons to 6.5 gallons. There was a considerable amount of evaporation, and I'd estimate that I ended up with about 5.5 gallons. It is fermenting away at 49 degrees with a fresh pack of wyeast Munich helles yeast.

And I ordered the book "Bavarian helles" to get some more ideas for recipes. I will continue to focus on this style, but later on, I'd like to try to pull off a "friesisch herb" Jever-style beer from northern Germany.

 

[dstar26t]

That is a very good book. Much more great information than just Helles stuff.