MK Pilsner 40L Brewing Journal

Started 18th April 2020

Summer brew time. The Helles style of Lager was well received by all last year, so I have decided to do this again. There are a few changes this time as I could not get all of the ingredients due to the COVID19 outbreak. However, I did manage to get the Imperial Havest Yeast, which is supposed to be from Augustiner, so this may prove quite interesting. In terms of hops, I could not get Hallertauer so will be using Saaz but as there are no late hop additions in Helles this should not prove an issue. IBU's are planned at just under 20.

This brew was renamed Pilsner due to an accidental over hopping. The bitterness was much higher than you would normally expect from a Helles, so we now have a Pilsner instead.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Recipe	Measure
Brew Length	40L
Pilsner Malt (EBC 3.5)	9000g
Munich Malt (EBC 25)	700g
Melanoiden Malt (EBC 50)	100g
Saaz (Start of Boil)	65g
Yeast (Using Starter)	Imperial - Harvest
Mash Liquor	24.5 Litres
Strike Heat	72C
Mash Temperature	65C
Mash Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Sparge Temperature	77C
Mash Efficiency (estimated)	75%
Boil Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Fermentation Temperature	11.5C
Expected OG	1053
Actual OG	1050
Expected FG	1012
Actual FG	1012

Water Treatment:

Recipe	Measure
CaCo3 Adjustments
Calcium Carbonate CAC03	171 ppm
Calcium Carbonate Required	30 ppm
Adjustment Necessary	141 ppm
CRS per Litre Required	7.5 ml/10L
Total CRS to add to Mash (24.5L)	18.3 ml
Total CRS to add to Mash (9.8L)	7.3 ml
Total CRS to add to Sparge water (24.5L)	18.3 ml
*Chlorine Treatment*
Campden Tablets (half in mash, half in sparge)	1 tablet
Calcium Adjustment (using brupaks calculation)
Calcium in Water	122 ppm
Calcium Required	180 ppm
Adjustment	58 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 = 24.5L using 18 ml of CRS +1/2 Campden Tab
Top Up = 9.8L using 7 ml of CRS
Final Batch Sparge = 24.5L using 18 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 80C added to mast tun.
HLT topped back up and set for 77C
Water treated with 18ml 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.
Measured temperature with Thermapen and mash was showing as 65C but mash tun probe is still showing 65C in middle of mash.
Mash will now be left alone for 1.5 hours.
Added Top up of 9.8l at 85C and started the re-circ

Sparging

25L of sparge water was heated to 85C and treated.
Added Top up of 9.8l and started the re-circ
Recirc run for 10 minutes.
Pumped wort into boiler stopping once wort was no longer visible on sight glass
Added 25L of water at 83c 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.
All hops added at start of boil. An immediate boil over occurred when the hops were added which seemed to eject mosty of the hops from the boiler. To compensate I added some Hallertau pellets that I had available but now have no idea of teh IBU's.
Last 15 minutes. added Immersion coil inserted to ensure sterilised.
Some boiling wort was drawn into pump/pipes to sterilise.
1 Tab of Protofloc added for last 10 min
Recirc started as soon as flame out.
Post boil gravity = 1050 and it looks like around 45L
Pumped into fermenter once below 30C.
Fermenter chiller is on to reduce to around 11C.

Fermentation:

Fermentation temperature schedule:

Ferment at 11c 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 1.8L 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.
When the wort was under 18C, some was transferred into the starter flask to acclimatize.
The chiller connected to my fermentation vessel is on and set to 10C.
18/04/20 18:00 Yeast pitched, temperature 14C
19/04/20 15:00 Temperature is now 10C, only small signs of fermentation. Raised to 11C
20/04/20 - High Krausen
21/04/20 - 11 Brix
27/04/20 - 7 Brix
28/04/20 - 6.5 Brix
29/04/20 - 6.5 Brix, Temperature set to Zero C
07/05/20 - Gelatin Added
08/05/20 - Kegged

Tasting Notes:

Despite the accidental over hopping this beer was really good. The malt profile was very smooth and easy drinking with just enough hop bite to give character. The beer cleared well, had a light golden colour and a creamy head.