Mutilated1's Bitburger recipe brew day. Some questions, some rambling, 1st ever lager

[thelastleroy]

I've been reading Mutilated1's Bitburger recipe thread and couldn't resist trying out an attempt at the style, even though I did not use the exact ingredients specified.

I have lots of 2-row Canadian malt, so it was substituted for the pilsner malt. I couldn't get a hold of the specific hops at the LHBS, so I ended up using a bunch of Hallertauer and Saaz, which are popular in this style at least, trying to match the IBU's as best I could for each addition. Here's my "recipe", which is untested, so use at risk of pain and suffering:

9.5 lbs 2-row Canadian G&P
0.25lbs Carafoam
0.25lbs Light Munich
0.25lbs Vienna

90-minute boil
1oz Hallertauer at 60mins
1oz Saaz at 60mins
0.5oz Saaz at 10mins
0.5oz Saaz at flameout/whirpool 5mins

My homemade grain mill is finally dialed in and I got ~ 80% efficiency out of the mash. I used rice hulls for the first time too, certainly worth the minimal cost for ease of lautering!

I made a big ~2l starter for the saflager 34/70 packet 24hours earlier, BUT:

I didn't buy DME (DOH!) at the brew store, so I had to make a starter from grain. Mashed on the stove for approx 40 mins at 152° and strained through a nylon brew bag. Boiled it for 25mins for sanitation, and sent it through the counterflow cooler, after preparing and cleaning everything. I'm never doing all-grain starters again, unless I have leftover wort of decent gravity.

The mash temp was a little low on dough-in, so I pulled and re-heated some to bring it up to 149°. Temp dropped to 147° over 90 mins.

I intended to add some Irish moss like I usually do at the end of the boil, but forgot to add it. Hanging with an old friend, drinking beer and acoustic guitar jam in the garage was enough to distract me from remembering. Do you guys find a lager will be clear enough without fining agents by virtue of temperature and time? I noticed no mention of Irish moss, whirlfloc etc....

Once the batch was cooled, I shook up the 2l starter and pitched the whole thing. The OG of the starter was a little high ie: 1.050, but I reckon it'll be ok, since the beer OG ended up at 1.052. If I shocked the yeast a bit on inoculation at least the survivors will be suited to consume this specific strength wort? Hopefully it's not an issue.

I put the batch into the fermentation fridge last night at 12:15am and as of 8:30 this morning it has a 1/4" layer of foam on the top, and fine particles slowly moving about. Does a lager yeast Krausen and ferment look the same way as an ale yeast?

I have a feeling the lagers will be a real test for my little fermentation fridge, It'll probably run more often than it is designed to do. So far it's holding 10°C pretty well, I've got the STC1000 set up to kick on after 0.5° differential with a 30-second compressor delay.

Looking forward to a taste in a few months, this is my very first lager attempt. Lagers are primarily what I buy when I go to the beer/liquor store, and I'd love to be able to brew a delicious lager at home. The hardest part for me to figure out is how to "dial in" a recipe on my specific equipment when the turn-around time is 8 weeks minimum. To maintain a pipeline, I'll need to brew 6 gallons every 2 or 3 weeks, 2 weeks for sure if my friends start to drink the stuff the way they drink commercial beer when they come over. Ideally I'd brew EXACTLY the same recipe after evaluating the finished product at the proper serving age, with small changes to improve on things that were off or missing. But with such a long turnaround time, I'd run out of beer before I could evaluate the changes made on the last batch and brew another. Brew IPA's in between lager batches i guess? Grain to glass time is faster.

What a hobby.........

 

[Gavin C]

Just a pointer based on some of the research out there

With a 2L starter and dry yeast (if you pitched the yeast dry into the starter) you will likely have a similar number of viable yeast cells (probably less), than if you used no starter and rehydrated only.

If on the other hand you rehydrated the yeast before putting it in the starter you are in better shape pitch rate wise.

Starters and dry yeast are a bad idea. You need about 3L starter to get good growth rates owing to the huge number of cells in the dry yeast pack.

Better to buy a second pack.

Don't know if a Pilsner without Pils will taste like a Pils. Never tried it so I'm sure someone will correct me.

 

[unionrdr]

I wouldn't mind cloning the Bitburger pils myself. Good stuff from Bundy's Beverage. Aldi's carries Wurnesgruhner pils that's pretty good to. either one would make a great clone. All must be going well, since it started visible fermentation this morning. Try brewing some pale ales, IPA's, cream ales & the like in between to fill the pipeline.

 

[thelastleroy]

Just a pointer based on some of the research out there

With a 2L starter and dry yeast (if you pitched the yeast dry into the starter) you will likely have a similar number of viable yeast cells (probably less), than if you used no starter and rehydrated only.

If on the other hand you rehydrated the yeast before putting it in the starter you are in better shape pitch rate wise.

Starters and dry yeast are a bad idea. You need about 3L starter to get good growth rates owing to the huge number of cells in the dry yeast pack.

Better to buy a second pack.

Don't know if a Pilsner without Pils will taste like a Pils. Never tried it so I'm sure someone will correct me.

If I'm going to continue the lager quest, i'll likely save yeast from this batch ie dump onto the yeast cake. 2 packets of 34/70 per batch would drive up my batch cost pretty fast.

Good advice on rehydrating first though, I hadn't heard of this until now but it makes sense. Going to chase the cream ale recipe in between lagers. Maybe an IPA too.