What the Hell

[Gabe]

e's do you brewers think of this Helle's recipe? What's yours?

Munich Helle's

OG 1.058
FG ?
WLP 838 German Southern Lager

14# Weyermann Pils
4# Weyermann Pale Munich

2oz German Tettnang 4.3AA 60min
1oz German Spalt Select 4.8AA 20min

 

[homebrewer_99]

Your ingredients look good, but since I just do partials I'm going to convert your recipe to DME for my understanding first.

Your 18 lbs of malt equal 10.8 lbs DME.

I rarely ever use over 6 lbs of malt to 4.5AAs, but I remember using 8 lbs once. Looking at the AAs % I would brew it and be satisfied with the bitterness.

Are you looking at 5 gals at the finish? I would think your OG would be higher than 58, maybe more closer to 70-75 depending on your efficiency. A pretty heavy brew for a helles, closer to a fest beer.

I don't like a lot of bitterness to my brews although I've had my share of Helles in Germany and just went with what I was served at a local fest. Never disappointed.

If you can you should download Beersmith, or is it Brewsmith, and run your ingredients through that.

It would be better able to tell you more than just my guesses.

 

[Beerrific]

For 5 gallons?

Looks like it would be pushing the upper limits of a Munich Helles, maybe closer to a Helles Bock.

My Helles was
10.5 pils
0.5 Munich
1oz Hallertau at 60 min

 

[menschmaschine]

If you're trying to be within style...

Your OG is a little high. Should be at or below 1.051. This would put your FG too high for style as well. You might reduce the Munich malt to achieve the lower OG as you're in the upper range (actually over) for SRMs and that's a bit much for Munich malt to fit the style. You might consider a little Cara-Pils too if you have it, although it's not necessary.

If you're doing a 10 gallon batch with 86% efficiency and a 90 min boil (which you should be doing with all of that pilsner malt), Beersmith is telling me you've got 18.2 IBUs, which is fine. However, I would consider switching the Spalt to 60 minutes (for a total of 21.3 IBUs... or slightly lessen the amount of Spalt to bring the IBUs back down). If you keep it at 20 min, you might have too much in the hop flavor department. Helles really don't need flavor or aroma hops.

The rest is in your procedure. Unlike many other styles of beer, Helles is more about technique (mash style/schedule, temp. control, etc.) than it is about ingredients. 100% Pilsner malt, 1 German Noble hop, and a German lager yeast can make a great Helles. It's really about technique.