So I am in search of some guidance. I love a good german pilsner but have yet to brew one. I am deciding to take a stab at one this weekend and am looking for some advice on two items/issues.
A brief snapshot of the recipe: 5.5 gallons
100% pils (10.5#)
1 oz Magnum or Perle at 60 mins
1 oz Hallertauer at 20 mins and 5 minutes
White Labs 830
I have planned to do a single step mash with a protein rest for 15 minutes at 15 minutes and then ramping up to 148 sacch rest for 60 minutes. My question, which I am asking because I have found conflicting opinions/suggestions. Would I be better off doing a step mash or decoction? I was thinking for a beer like a german pils, I would want to limit any mallard reactions which is why I decided to go with a step mash, but would love to know what others do and any feedback you can provide.
D-rest: I have read to ramp up to 58-60 when activity starts to slow but also have seen ramping 1 degree F per day. Any suggestions or thoughts on best practice?
Thank you for any feedback or thoughts you can provide. Brewing my first pils on a new system is probably not the smartest ideas but…hey! What the heck!
Dude… German pilsner is great. I do have a few suggestions:
Skip the protein rest. It doesn’t help anything at all and will likely destroy body and head retention. Not needed with 21st century malts. Plus skipping it will make your mash schedule way simpler. Also…
You don’t need to do a decoction, but it really wouldn’t hurt anything if you wanted to try it. Just decoct from beta to alpha amylase, from 140 to 148 F or something like that. Or throw in an acid rest at 100 F and then take that up to 148 F. You could also decoct to mashout from 148 to 170 F. But skip the protein rest at 122 F.
When gravity hits half of the OG (e.g., 1.060 turns to 1.030), then it’s time to start the D rest. No need for ramp up, just get it in the 60s and keep it there for 3 days. You can keep the temperature up there even longer, for a week or longer if you want, with no ill effects. It just helps the yeast finish the job and clean up after themselves, which includes diacetyl, sulfur, acetaldehyde, or other “green beer” characteristics.
What’s your water going to look like? For this style, I would recommend jacking up both sulfate and chloride to enhance both bitterness and malt. If you’re not sure how much to use, start with a teaspoon of each and see how you like the result. Otherwise you can use software to nail the salt additions appropriate for the style.
How much yeast you using? Be sure to pitch a nice big starter. Maybe 2.5 to 3 quarts or liters would suffice. I wouldn’t use any less than that. Keep those yeasty beasts happy and you’ll be rewarded.
Personal opinion: I don’t think the late Hallertau additions will do as much for you as people think. In my experience, Hallertau (and any noble hops) taste better the LONGER they are boiled, not shorter. Others might not agree with me and that’s fine. If nothing else, consider the idea of using Hallertau and/or Perle for all your bittering, and skip the Magnum, if you want lots of noble hop flavor. I promise you, the noble hop flavors come through loud and clear even with just a single 60-minute addition and no later “flavor” additions. In theory this might be due to the lower alpha acid, which would require that you use a higher quantity of the hops to get the IBUs you want… and the noble flavor has no trouble hanging around for the entire boil and fermentation. You can also think about it this way… for a thousand years, breweries never boiled hops for any less than 30 minutes, and more often it was for hours. Late hopping is a 20th century concept. You want to brew a traditional German lager? Then brew as the Germans do.
My opinions, take them for what they’re worth, maybe 3 cents. ;D
I’ll chime in. I’m working on nailing the German Pilsner now. I’ve done a few variations with Avangard Pils, Best Pils, single temp mash, Hochkurz step mash, balanced water profile, yellow dry/bitter water profile, Hallertauer, Saphir, and Vanguard hops, and two yeasts - WY2124 & WY2308.
I personally like the Best Pils/Hochkurz step 145 for 45’, 158 for 30’, 168 for 10’ mash/bitter with Herkules flavor & aroma hops of Vanguard (but may go back to Saphir on the next one)/WY2124/yellow dry water profile. OG: 1.045, FG: 1.011.
Agreed.
This is similar to what I do. Start at 48F, hold at 50F for 5ish days, start the ramp up (slowly for me) to the mid 60s. Confirm terminal gravity & absence of green apple/butter, then crash down to 34F. Rack when clear.
Agreed. If you’re into using Brunwater - I find the “yellow dry” or “yellow bitter” to be just about perfect.
As a German lover… I hate to agree with this, but I do. Hallertauer just doesn’t seem right when it’s used as a later addition. It’s probably due to the freshness of hops we can get from those regions. As such, I’ve started using American versions of German Noble hops.
I’m a huge fan of all things Pilsner! Personal anecdote:
A GP I made using 90/10 Belgian Pils malt and Vienna malt single infusion mashed at 150F and fermented with WLP029 advanced to the second round of NHC. Was it the best GP? Nah, but it was damn tasty.
Some of the best ones I have made used Hallertau Mittelfruh at 20, and Saaz at 10. A fair amount of both. I like to use Tettnanger as a mid boil addition.
Low alkalinity is a plus, mash in the 5.2-5.3 range, as you want a crisp finish.
I have a bag of Best Pils to try, as the reviews that I have read are very positive.
60 - bittering, Perle, Magnum, or a higher AA US noble derivative like Sterling.
30- Tettnanger
20 - H. Mittelfruh
10 - Saaz or HM (I might use 4 or 5 oz of HM here, 10 gallon batch)
Shoot for half of the IBUs to be from 30 on, half from 60 minutes.
Single addition at 60. I grow my own Hallertau and always have plenty of that on hand, so that’s what I use, although Tettnang, Spalt, Saaz, Mt. Hood, Liberty, Perle, Sterling… all those should work well with this single hop regimen. I like the first four. Haven’t tried the others yet.
The last one I made was bittered with Sterling, finished with Liberty and Mt Hood in the whirlpool/steep. No other boil hops. The flavor and aroma were very nice.
I have seen two mention of the technique of blending several varieties and the using a portion of the blend for each addition. That is on my list of things to try.
The last pils that I brewed was 100% Best pilsner malt and mittelfruh hops. It turned out real good with an infusion at 150f and fermented with S-34/70 at 52f.
A huge thank you! This is great information. So I wonder if a step mash or decoction is worth it. Given the high modification of the malts, maybe a single infusion? I have a 2.2 liter starter crashing right now. Should do the trick.
Thanks for the info on the D rest. Very helpful.
For water, I am using Brun Water and utilize “yellow bitter” and it has me adding about 2.5 g of citric or lactic which is new for me. It typically doesn’t have me add any acidity. It does have me adding a total 4 g gypsum. Giving me a estimated mash pH of 5.7.
Hermen, with info found here on the forum, I have targeted around 5.2 pH for my last 2 German Pilsners. Using Bru’NWater, with yellow bitter with RO water. Your 5.7 seems high, and won’t yield the crisp finish you likely want in your GP. At least that’s how I have interpreted what I have read here
Thats exactly what I was thinking Frank. I might have to go the RO route. Never made water from scratch…but I guess there is a first time for everything.
I forgot to mention mash pH previously. The easiest way to fix that is to add a few ounces of acidulated malt. Use 1% per 0.1 points of pH you need to lose. So to go from a mash pH of 5.7 to 5.3 in a 5-gallon batch, you need to use about 0.4-0.5 lb. This is very common with light colored beers that have little if any specialty Malts to bring the pH down. Problem solved, and without having to buy or measure any acid additions.
If you know your pH is going to be high around 5.7, then it certainly doesn’t hurt to try to bring it down either. Will you get exactly 5.3? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe you’ll get 5.2 or 5.4. All good.
A mash pH that high is not likely to be pleasing. I find that pale lagers really need to have a lower mash pH to help them be crisp. I hypothesize that this is due to lager yeast not being that much of acid producers and they tend to have a final beer pH a few tenths higher than ales. I have found that I need to increase the mash pH a bit when brewing ales to keep them from being too crisp or tart.
With respect to the acid used in brewing, only consider lactic acid in German beer brewing. It is an underlying nuance in all German beers and it is preferred over citric since it’s flavor is more neutral.
I’m surprised to see so many using the Yellow Dry profile in a GP, but it does have a similar balance as Jever water. My only concern is that the Yellow Dry includes a bit more sulfate and chloride than the Jever profile. For those using Yellow Dry in a GP, is it more minerally? I like the light minerally character of Jever Pils. I suppose that it might get better at a little higher level. I have only used the Yellow Balanced profile in GP.
