First Pilsner. Thoughts? I realize the sterling is not traditional. Due to the higher AA%, it seems there are not enough hops. Do I need to use noble instead?
97.5% pilsner
2.5% melanoidin
10 g Magnum 60 min
21 g Sterling 20 min
21 g Sterling 5 min
1.050
~40 IBU
W34/70
Yellow Bitter profile
Mash pH 5.2
I have made several pilsners in the last 2 years. by far, I have been the happiest with the recipe I got here from the wiki for Ron “Bluesman” Price’s Ringler Pilsner, “A classic example of a German Pilsner”
100% Continental Pilsner
2.75oz Hallertau Mittelfrueh at 60
1.2oz Hallertau Mittelfrueh at 1 min
1.75oz Hallertau Mittelfrueh at 0 minutes
WLP 833
1.052OG/30.2IBU/3.0 SRM finished around 1.010 for 5.5% ABV after a simgle infusion at 149° for 90 minutes
I have made it with both 833 and 830, I preferred the hoppiness of the 830, the missus liked the maltiness of 830.
Super simple recipe, great tasting results. Thanks again to Ron for posting it in the wiki
edit to add: SO when you say too little hops, are you talking about quantity or overall IBU? The recipe above calls for 5.7oz hops but only a little over 30 IBU. What are you looking for in yours, remember, I am no pilsner expert, just know I enjoyed this one
edit again. Just checked Ron’s recipe and he calls for mash temp of 151°
When I say too little hops I am just referring to pure volume. I am just curious if a lot of the pilsner character comes from a large quantity of noble hops versus a smaller amount of higher AA hops. Using less than 2 oz of hops for a pilsner just doesn’t seem like enough to me. Does that make sense? This is something I know nothing about.
I am not necessarily going for a tried and true traditional German pilsner just something tasty that is close.
Yea, I think the high AA of the magnum gets the bittering done and helps to keep the vegetal matter low in the kettle. You will have to try it both ways to see what you like. I think it was dmtaylor who said how much he loves going all noble, as he thinks the noble hops add great flavor even when boiled for the full 60-90 minutes. Ron’s recipe does call for the traditional 90 minute boil and I did that for my first attempt. The 2x I have made it since, I went with a shortened 60 minute boil, lowering the hop amounts to stay at the 30.2 IBU. I think with your recipe you will have a nice pilsner. Tried and true traditional, I don’t have the experience to speak to that
Cool. Thanks! I may throw something in with the sterling as a compromise for my first go round. I have a lot of sterling on hand and thought this would be a good use for it. I am kind of modifying a pale lager that I brew that didn’t turn out great last time although is usually good. It’s hard to want to rebrew something that wasn’t great last go around.
Lots of good info to be found about Sterling in this other current thread, including high praise for it in a Pilsner:
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=27606.msg359706;topicseen#msg359706
I used it in an APA split with cascade that was interesting. Other than than that, I have only used it in my pale lager I think
Chris, what style of pils were you shooting for, more German or Czech? I’d probably bump late hops up a tad for either, and wouldn’t use melanoiden in the German but I would use a tad in the Bopils. Regardless, Sterling is a nice hop and would work really well.
Thanks Jon. Going for more a German pils. What about some carahell instead of the melanoidin? I thought I have seen that around here.
You could use a touch - I wouldn’t go over 2% personally. I like an all pils German, but carahell is really nice for some extra character.
Thank you. I will increase the late hop additions and move them back as to not increase the IBUs. Maybe go with 10 min and 0 min. I will decide on the carapils closer to the brew date.
Right now looking at something closer to:
Pilsner malt
possibly 4 oz carahell
bitter with magnum
1.25 oz sterling 10 min
1.25 oz sterling 0 min
~37 IBU
better? more late hops?
Sterlings and S34/70 make a great pilsner.
I love 40 IBU for German pils. Otherwise, I say brew it !
go for it!
+1 to the sterling I think it will work out like a mittlefruh or spalt would. good luck to ya
This one uses Sterling all the way. I like it.
http://schellsbrewery.com/beer/pils/
With the low alpha’s that continental noble hops are coming out with, I’d caution against using all noble in any hoppy or bittered brew. Supplementing the alpha content with an early dose of super-alpha hops like Magnum is wise, in my opinion.
I recently finished a Dusseldorf Alt that I bittered with only Spalt that had alpha on the order of 2.5%. It was something like 3 or 4 ounces of hops in a 5 gal batch. Even though almost all the hopping was at the bittering stage, there was a little green vegetal flavor in the beer. Next time, I’ll figure out how much Spalt I would need to add if the alphas were at more typical level and only add that amount of Spalt to the kettle. Then I’d figure out their bittering contribution and make up for the deficiency with a dose of Magnum. That will keep the vegetal level down at the more typical amount.
Good idea. The last alt I brewed I did that with sterlings.
I agree on trying to bitter with 2.5% hops - for hops of that low AA I like to go 50/50 Magnum with the low AA hop. After bittering with noble hops in lagers for the last year or two, I’m convinced there is noble character that you get from just bittering with nobles that you just don’t get from Magnum. Having said that, I don’t want to bitter with 2.5 AA, hence the 50/50. But I’ve got some Mittelfrueh that comes in @ 5.9 AA and I use it to bitter, with no Magnum. Gives great character.
The highest aa% noble hops I have got in the past couple years was tettnang at 3.6%. The spalt and hallertau are at 2.5% and below with the lowest at 1.6%. When bittering with them I have been supplementing with magnum.