The brewhouse was designed to
perform decoction mashing for continental lagers (but works great for
American and Belgian ales too) but also using whole flower hops. Its
my opinion that the wonderful aromatics evident in HopDevil and Prima
are a result of using whole hops and a hopback as well as the careful
watching of Ron and Bill. BTW, Victory is located in Downingtown,
Pa, about 35 miles west of Philly. Directions are on the web site.
Heres some pointers on making a homebrewed version of Prima Pils:
Prima is slightly higher OG than the traditional German pils, aim
for around 13P. A grist of 100% pils malt from Germany or the Czech
republic would be good. Perform a multi step mash or decoction
according to the malt specs, ie if needed. Take care to avoid oxygen
pickup during mashing and lautering. Hopping is around 50-60 BUs,
you can choose to use all noble hops if you can fit all the hops in
your kettle, or start with a higher alpha kettle hop like German
Perle or Northern Brewer and follow up with the traditional flavor
and aroma hops such as Hallertau and plenty of Saaz. Do not dry hop
pils and be sure to boil the last hop addition for at least 5-10
mins. Use a huge starter of clean lager yeast, a one gallon starter
can be allowed to complete and take the slurry from that for 5-6
gals. Oxygenate to saturation by injection/bubbling pure O2.
Ferment cool, keeping below 50F. Lager 5-6 weeks at 31F.
