Pilsner 2023 40L Brewing Journal

Started 24th June 2023

German Pilsner for the summer

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Recipe	Measure
Brew Length	40L
Pilsner Malt (EBC 3.5)	9000g
Munich Malt (EBC 25)	1000g
Melanoiden Malt (EBC 50)	500g
Saaz (Start of Boil)	39g
Tettnang (Start of Boil)	20g
Hallertauer Mittelfrueche (Start of Boil)	50g
Hallertauer Mittelfrueche (15 Min)	50g
Tettnang (15 Min)	30g
Yeast	34/70
Mash Liquor	26.25 Litres
Strike Heat	70C
Mash Temperature	64C
Mash Time	1 Hour
Sparge Temperature	77C
Mash Efficiency (estimated)	75%
Boil Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Fermentation Temperature	11.5C
Expected OG	1057
Actual OG	1053
Expected FG	1010
Actual FG	1004?

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 (26.25L)	19 ml
Total CRS to add to Sparge water (33.2L)	25 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	100 ppm
Adjustment	0 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 = 26.2L
Top Up = 9L
Final Batch Sparge = 25L

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 76C
Water treated with CRS and 1/2 Campden tab.
26.2L of water added to the mash tun, which settled quickly to 70C
Doughed in + 1 tsp of gypsum
Temperature dropped to 64C. which is perfect.
Mash will now be left alone for 1 hour.

Sparging

33L of sparge water was heated to 85C and treated.
Added Top up of 9l and started the re-circ
Recirc run for 10 minutes.
Pumped wort into boiler stopping once wort was no longer visible on sight glass
Sparge water set at 83c and added to Tun then stared re-circ for 20 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 Min 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.
1 Tab of Protofloc and remaining hops added for last 15 min
Recirc started as soon as flame out.
Post boil gravity = 1053 and it looks like around 40L
Pumped into fermenter 25C.
Fermenter chiller is on to reduce to around 13C.

Fermentation:

Fermentation temperature schedule:

Ferment at 13c 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:

24/06/23 20:00 Yeast pitched into 13c wort.
25/06/23 16:00 No real signs of activity
26/06/23 08:00 1cm Krausen
27/06/23 Fermentation is now well under way
02/07/23 Krausen has thinned out. Brix reading is 5.5 so calculated SG of 1.004 which is very low. The beer tastes good so it may just be a calculation issue with the fermented wort. Temperature wil now be raised to 15c then 17c the clean up.
03/07/23 Set to 0c and left for rest of the week.
08/07/23 Kegged and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

After kegging the malt flavour and hop character are both excellent. The beer tastes great but is still a little hazy, which will clear with a little conditioning.

A few days later and the lager is clear and crisp with a good hop after taste. This is a great summer brew.