Pearly Pils

[FedoraDave]

I'll be making this Labor Day weekend, in hopes that it'll be fully conditioned by Homebrew Alley VIII, which should be some time in early February. I made an LBK batch of this last year, and it taught me a lot about how long a lagering process can be. I've made some tweaks to the recipe, as well, since the original was more of a Czech-style, which I don't think I can really emulate. This recipe is more of a Bohemian or German Pils, and I think I'll have better luck with it. This is for a five-gallon batch.

GRAIN:

German Pilsner malt - 10 pounds
Crystal 10 - 1 pound

HOPS:

Hallertau - 2 ounces - 60 minutes
Hallertau - 1 ounce - 35 minutes
Hallertau - 1 ounce - 7 minutes

I'm also toying with the idea of dry hopping an ounce of Hallertau a couple days before bottling, but I haven't made up my mind yet.

YEAST:

WLP830 (German Lager Yeast)

I'll be cutting my tap water with distilled water to soften it up. This worked pretty well when I did it before. I used a ratio of 2:1 distilled to tap, as my water can be pretty hard. I've set the Johnson Controller to the mid-50s, although I may drop it down to around 52, since the 830 has an optimum range of 50-55. I'll also be doing a cold crash a couple of days before bottling, in hopes of getting the best clarity possible. I'd love for this to be a pale, clear straw color with a snow-white head.

Yes, I'm brewing with a competition in mind, which sort of goes against my grain, but I do want to be able to make the best pilsner I'm capable of, and I feel the feedback and experience I gain from this will help with that.

Later (maybe in November), I'll be brewing a batch of Bit O' Bitter for the same competition. This is just for fun, since I already like this recipe, and just want to know how close to BJCP standards for an Ordinary it comes.

[BlackDuck]

Very nice looking recipe. I've got my Sapphire Pilsner cooling right now. You interested in swapping? PM if you are. Would be neat to compare the two next to each other.

[Brewbirds]

Dave, I don't do 5 gallon all grain so this is certainly not advise but I see you want to enter this beer in a competition so...

What if you took an LBK size amount of the wort from the rest and dry hopped that so you could taste them side by side. Then you could enter which one you like best.

[FedoraDave]

Birdie, I think that's more trouble than I want to go to. I decided to dry hop it, since I do want it to have a good nose. I also changed the hop bill to Tettnang for the flavor boil. In looking over the hops descriptions at the LHBS, Hallertau has a floral/spicy aspect, and Tettnang a more spicy aspect, hence my reason for changing. I want to get a good mix of them together, so it's not too floral or too spicy and has some depth. This sort of tipped the balance in favor of dry hopping, since the bitterness and aroma boils will be Hallertau, and dry hopping with Hallertau would help influence that initial impression. Then, when the beer is moving across the tongue (and, I hope, in the finish as well), the spiciness of the Tettnang will come through.

Black Duck, I'm gonna take a pass on swapping the recipes right now. I just don't want to tie up the fiver with too many lagers initially. That being said, I would totally be up for an actual beer swap. So if you want to exchange a couple bottles so we can compare them side-by-side when they're both ready, that would be cool.

[BlackDuck]

Dave...I should have been more specific. I meant swapping a couple bottles when they are ready. Let me know!!!

[FedoraDave]

Dave...I should have been more specific. I meant swapping a couple bottles when they are ready. Let me know!!!

In totally in on this! We can PM with our shipping info when the beers are ready. It would make a nice Christmas present for both of us!