NZ Pilsner Recipe Critique

Beer Recipes
1

Ok, I have never had one of these beers and I am basing my attempt off of Gordon Strong’s style guideline draft (https://dev.bjcp.org/beer-styles/x5-new-zealand-pilsner/). Let me know what you would recommend. I have cascade, amarillo, simcoe, galaxy and chinook available, as well.

for 11 gallons:
91% Viking Pils
4.5% Weyermann Carafoam
2.25% Great Western White Wheat
2.25% Weyermann Acid Malt

1 oz Millennium 15.5% AA 60 mins
1 oz Palisade Cryo Hops ~14% AA (calculated due to hops being unopened frozen 2017) 5 mins
2 oz Nelson Sauvin 12% AA Flameout

Mash at 149F for 60 mins
WLP802 fermented at 50F, raised to 68F when finished, then lagered at 34F for 2-4 months and kegged with gelatin

2

Depends on howm authentic you want to be.  Most I had there had  no wheat.  I believe all I had were made with ale yeast.

3

I suppose it’s really more like, “I want a refreshing pale lager” than anything else. My original thought was just brewing a basic German Pilsner with US hops (Millennium, Mt. Hood and Sterling) and having a Single (WLP545) and a Pilsner (WLP802) from that brew. Then I got the idea to try a NZ pilsner instead. I read that wheat was occasionally included and that ale yeast was sometimes used, but I have been meaning to brew again with my WLP802 and I suppose the wheat was just because I like the billowy head that I get from a touch of wheat.

I am also planning to split the batch and brew half with WLP545 to help build up a lot of yeast for a beer I am planning to brew in a couple weeks. At one point, I was just going to do 5.5 gallons of a Trappist single.

4

Anyway, I slightly modified this recipe to consider hop utilization losses from using my stainless spider on this one. I literally just pushed the Palisades over to 10 mins and otherwise brewed as planned. Got a slight efficiency bump, ended at 1.050, with an expected 37 IBUs. Mashed at 150F. Water profile pretty soft – just about 56 ppm Ca, 7 ppm Mg, 22 ppm Na, 100 ppm Sulfate, 67 ppm Chloride and 16 ppm Bicarbonate (starting with RO). I used Brewtan B in the mash, sparge and boil, but I have a copper Immersin chiller and I did not pre-boil my water, so this is not a truly Low DO beer.