I’m sure there are hundreds of these in here but I thought I would share as I make styles like this quite a bit. Some of the ingredients are interchangeable, I suppose so this is just one of many that I might make.
Czech Pils… 5 gallons
8 lbs Weyermann Bohemian Pils
1 lbs Best Munich 1 (the 6-8°L stuff)
4 ounces Carafoam
22 IBUs Magnum at 60
1 oz Tettnanger 2.4% for 15
1 oz Saaz 2.4% for 10
1 oz Saaz 2.4% for 5
1 oz Saaz 2.4% for 2
Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager yeast
OG: 1.052, FG: 1.011, SRM: 4, IBU: 35, ABV: 5.0%
I haven’t used Weyermann Pils in a very long time. It smelled really nice in the mash. I have been using Durst, Best and Avangard for a very long time so I thought I would mix it up. The Tettnanger is in there because I only had 3 ounces of Saaz. I got a 2L starter onto the stirplate on Thursday and it looks REALLY active. It’s crashing in the fridge now and smells lovely. All filtered tap water with 2.7g of Calcium Chloride in the mash. pH lined up nicely throughout the process and this should be a nice (slightly low on ABV and IBU) example of a Czech Pils. Cheers. I mean, Na Zdrovie!
The mash pH was 5.27 after some futzing around [see post in the GENERAL section about my disastrous mash!] and the kettle pH came in right around 5.3 as well. Cheers.
Monday night I’m brewing german-style. So ive been doing some study. I was going to mash at 5.3, which I’m sure would be fine, but I heard that a german technique is to mash at ~5.5 to boost enzyme activity, and supposedly help clarity, then manually adjust post-mash/pre-boil to ~5.0 so I’m going to give that a go. Also step mashing so I can either be pleasantly surprised, or be able to say from experience that its not for me.
Side note, I used to think that Czech Pils wasn’t german till someone pointed out that the CR used to be Bohemia… I’ve never been there so I can’t say that for sure LOL
Jim, that’s interesting in the 5.5 mash, 5.0 kettle pH. Never heard that before. The Czech Republic and Germany share a lot of culture and I have taken the train from Prague to Munich (which is a beautiful ride, btw). The beers are stellar on both sides of the border.
I’ve brewed a similar recipe several times and always thought a little bit of Munich was appropriate to get that darker color and flavor but a couple reliable sources have told me to try about 2% caramunich instead of the Munich. I have one lagering now and have another planned to brew soon.
