simple pilsner q's

[brownrice]

I have 15lbs of pils malt I wanna use, and my buddy is requesting a pilsner. I cannot lager.

I also have a half pound of Perle hops (AA~8%) and S-05 yeast.

FYI- my efficiency has been super low, so I'm gonna use all 15 lbs. and just go 90min on both the mash and the boil. I'd love to be surprised by a high efficiency and water down the results for more end product.

My questions are as follows;

1) Malt- Should I stick to a SMaSH?
Makes it easy, as I have the ingredients. But it doesn't necessarily make for a better beer; would you add 0.5 lb cara-pils? 1-2 lbs biscuit/aroma?


2) Hops- are Saaz that much better than Perle? combine the two?


3) Hops- 4oz@8%aa? 60-10-5-0? more or less? dry hop?


4) yeast- fermented in the low 60s F, is a Kolsch yeast that much better than S-05? especially bc I don't have time/material to make a starter, and low-pitch-count=>esters.

 

[m00ps]

I would add some biscuit or something to make it interesting. Maybe some saaz at foaneout since perle isn't too exciting or expressive ime

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Da fuq is a foaneout?

 

[JonM]

What comes after a three-and-out?

 

[Yooper]

A pilsner would be weird to me with anything other than 100% pilsner malt, and maybe a little carapils for foam retention. Biscuit malt and the like just don't "go" in a pilsner in my opinion. For hops, I'd use the standard noble hops, hallertauer or tettnanger but if you want something like Pilsner Urquell, you could go with Czech saaz hops.

If you can't lager, I'd still try to make something more "lagerlike" than using s05 yeast. Maybe a kolsch yeast (but not the one that's kind of fruity), or even nottingham ale yeast, and ferment it at as close to 60 degrees as possible. If you could go lower, that'd be even better. Nottingham yeast at 57 degrees can give a very lagerlike finish to a pseudo-lager. S05 gets weirdly "peachy" at under 65 degrees, so I'd hesitate to use that.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

What comes after a three-and-out?

The proper Germanic pronunciation would be "fown-yowt". 2 syllables.

 

[giraffe]

1) either 100% pils or 95% pils 5% munich. Id skip the carapils, even a faux bopils should be dry.

2) saaz has a spicy floral note that is just lovely in a pils. Perle is more herbal. If you can afford it, id use saaz for the late additions. Sterling is a domestic saaz sub, but large late additions can give an out of place pineapple note.

3) keep the ibus in the 30-40 range (use a calculator). id go 60/20/10. maybe a small flameout addition.

4) depends on temp. As long as the s-05 doesnt throw peach/apricot. Personally id go wlp029 and aim for 1.044ish OG.

 

[brownrice]

for posterity, here's the result:

I wanted to simulate the melanoidins of a double decoction to bring out the malt flavor as much as possible.

I used all pils, mashed at 135 for 30 min;
I scooped out a bit less than half of the mash (barley and liquor) and heated it to 156F, held for 10 min. Then heated that again til boiling, boiled for 20 min.

I scooped out half of that and returned it to the mash, which had cooled significantly. I added some boiling water to the mash as well as the boiled malt and got the mash up to 145F. Held at this temp while boiling the rest of the malt (~25% of the total grist) for an additional 20 min. Then I returned it to the mash, vorlaufed, batch sparged, and did a 75 minute boil (ran out of time).

hop schedule was all Perle (8%AA) @ 60min(1.25oz) 15min(1oz) 0min(2oz).

OG was a whopping 1.075 after topping up to 5.5gal, so I guess I'll have an imperial... pilsmalzwine?
I guess my efficency is not a lost cause.


fermented in low 60'sF with one rehydrated packet of S-05.

hopefully I don't have to wait ages before I can drank this beast.

edit- just wanted to mention that if it doesnt get dry enough, i'll dose it with a small amount of harvested 3711 French Saison, just cuz it rips through everything.

edit 2- i respect the nomenclature and won't call it a pils or pilsner. among my friends tho, i probably will.

 

[schematix]

A pilsner would be weird to me with anything other than 100% pilsner malt, and maybe a little carapils for foam retention. Biscuit malt and the like just don't "go" in a pilsner in my opinion. For hops, I'd use the standard noble hops, hallertauer or tettnanger but if you want something like Pilsner Urquell, you could go with Czech saaz hops.

If you can't lager, I'd still try to make something more "lagerlike" than using s05 yeast. Maybe a kolsch yeast (but not the one that's kind of fruity), or even nottingham ale yeast, and ferment it at as close to 60 degrees as possible. If you could go lower, that'd be even better. Nottingham yeast at 57 degrees can give a very lagerlike finish to a pseudo-lager. S05 gets weirdly "peachy" at under 65 degrees, so I'd hesitate to use that.

^^^ This is how you make a Pilsner.

If you do pretty much anything else, it won't be a Pilsner! This is a style that requires restraint.

Grain: 90-95% european Pilsner malt. Could optionally have 5-10% maximum of carapils or vienna. Munich not so much. Biscuit and crystal are no-nos. Gravity no more than 1.055 (1.048-1.050 is ideal).

Hops: Noble hops define the style. Could use Magnum for bittering. American or brithish hops are way out of style (Cascade pilsner makes a fine beer though, just not a real pilsner). Need 25-45 IBU depending upon style. You definitely want a bittering, flavor and aroma addition. A very small dry hop could work in a hoppy rendition, but must be restrained (like 0.5oz/5G)

Yeast: Must be extremely clean. Lager yeast at 50 is best. As Yooper said, notty might be passable for an ale yeast fermented cold. Kolsch could work here too. If you are going to ferment above the low 60s you won't make anything remotely passable for a Pilsner.

Sounds like the OP went on a bit of a tangent. Hopefully it'll be a fun experiment for them making a Pilsner inspired beer.