Bohemian Pilsner 40L Brewing Journal

Started 27th May 2024

Bohemian Pilsner malt and Saaz hops but at a lower bitterness of around IBU 16.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Recipe	Measure
Brew Length	40L
Pilsner Malt (EBC 3.5)	9000g
Munich Malt (EBC 25)	1000g
Melanoiden Malt (EBC 50)	100g
Saaz (Start of Boil) Barthaas Saazer	80g
Saaz (Last 10 Min) Barthaas Saazer	20g
Yeast (Using Starter)	OYL-114
Mash Liquor	25 Litres
Strike Heat	71C
Mash Temperature	65C
Mash Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Sparge Temperature	77C
Mash Efficiency (estimated)	75%
Boil Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Fermentation Temperature	13C
Expected OG	1055
Actual OG	1053
Expected FG	1012
Actual FG	1010

Water Treatment:

Recipe	Measure
CaCo3 Adjustments
Calcium Carbonate CAC03	148 ppm
Calcium Carbonate Required	30 ppm
Adjustment Necessary	118 ppm
CRS per Litre Required	6 ml/10L
Total CRS to add to Mash (25L)	15 ml
Total CRS to add to Mash (10L)	6 ml
Total CRS to add to Sparge water (24L)	14 ml
*Chlorine Treatment*
Campden Tablets (half in mash, half in sparge)	1 tablet
Calcium Adjustment (using brupaks calculation)
Calcium in Water	105 ppm
Calcium Required	120 ppm
Adjustment	15 ppm
DLS (using GW Calc it suggests adding none)	1 Tsp

Water Schedule:

This brew will be batch sparged, so the water will be scheduled as follows:

Mash = 25L using 15 ml of CRS +1/2 Campden Tab
Top Up = 10L + Final Batch Sparge = 24, Total 34L using 20 ml of CRS and 1/2 campden tab

Mashing:

I am using my SS Brewtech infussion mash tun, which will need to be preheated.

12L of water at 77C added to mast tun.
HLT topped back up and set for 80C
Water treated with CRS and 1/2 Campden tab.
25L of water added to the mash tun, which settled quickly to 73C, so stirred until 71c
Doughed in + 1 tsp of gypsum
Temperature dropped to 65C. which is perfect.
Mash will now be left alone for 1.5 hours.
Added Top up of 10l at C and started the re-circ for 15 Min

Sparging

Mash Tun drained into Boiler and heating started. Stopped draining once wort was no longer visible on sight glass
24L of sparge water heated to 79C was added to mash tun
Recirc run for 10 minutes.
Pumped wort into boiler
Added 25L of water at 79c to Tun and stared re-circ for 15 Min.
Pumped wort to boiler, stopping just as turbid last runnings appeared in the pipes.

Boiling

Boiler switched on as soon as first few litres of wort were drained from mash Tun.
90 minute boil
80g hops added at start of boil.
Last 15 minutes. added Immersion coil inserted to ensure sterilised.
Some boiling wort was drawn into pump/pipes to sterilise.
20g hops and 1 Tab of Protofloc added for last 10 min
Recirc started as soon as flame out.
Post boil gravity = 1053 and it looks like around 40L
Pumped into fermenter once below 25C.
Fermenter chiller is on to reduce to around 12C.

Fermentation:

Fermentation temperature schedule:

Ferment at 12c for around 5 days or until 50% attenuated.
Raise the temperature slowly by 1c per day until 18c is reached.
Hold 18c for 2 days for diacetyl rest.
Chill to as close to 0C as possible for 5 days

Process:

A 1.7L yeast starter was prepared 2 days before and refrigerated the evening prior to brew day.
Yeast was removed from the fridge around 1 hour prior to pitching and the main volume of liquid poured off.
The chiller connected to my fermentation vessel is on and set to 12C.
27/05/24 18:00 Yeast pitched at 17c
28/05/24 10:00 No activity so far so raised to 13C
28/05/24 19:00 Fermentation now well under way.
29/05//24 High Krausen, fermenting well
02/05/24 Gravity reading is now 1013, temeprature will be slowly raised to 18C for a couple of days to allow yeast to clean up any diacetyl. Set Temp at 15C.
03/06/24 Set Temp at 18C
05/06/24 Brix reading was 6 which was lower than expected. Refractometers do not seem to work well on some fermented beers and this seems to be one of them. Tasting the sample there was no evidence that the beer had fermeted as low as the Brix reading suggested and some residual sweetness was evident. I estimate FG is about 1010. Set Temp to 0C to lafer for 1 week.

Tasting Notes:

The lager was quick to clear but had a lasting sulpher smell when it was young. Once aged the sulpher disappeared and this has been the best lager that I have brewed to date. It is easy drinking, light and crisp with a subtle hop flavour. Head retention is excellent, definately one to do again.