Bohemian Pilsner
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Upon starting this blog, I had promised the occasional post on home-brewing and/or sharing recipes. At long last, I am doing that now. Making a pilsner requires that you can dedicate a spare refrigerator to the task (something not all of us have). You also need an external thermostat, like this one. Here goes ---

Category: lager/pilsner, extract

Comments: Final product begins with a mild fruit flavor of apricots and nectarines, but finishes dry and mildly bitter. An excellent warm-weather beer!

------------------------------

Ingredients:
  • 8 oz Pilsen Malt (Wyermann 2-row)
  • 88 oz. (5 ½ #) British Extra Light DME
  • 2.0 oz. Saaz plugs (60 minutes-bittering)
  • 1.0 oz. Saaz plugs (30 minutes-flavor)
  • 1.0 oz. Saaz plugs (2 minutes-aroma)
  • 1/2 oz Saaz plugs (dry hop)
  • Wyeast Bohemian Yeast directly from the pack (no starter)
Procedure:

Steep the Pilsen Malt in 3 quarts of water at 150 degrees for 30 minutes. Sparge with another 3 quarts hot water (~190 degrees). Put all six quarts of steeped and sparged water in a large kettle, and add another one gallon of fresh water. Bring to ~190 degrees, remove from heat, and add DME, strring constantly. Bring up to the boil.

Boil the wort and follow the hop schedule as indicated, starting with the sixty-minutes hops as soon as the wort reaches the boil. Once the boil is complete, cool the wort quickly, either in an ice-bath or by adding chilled water (bring to a total volume of 5 gallons). When the temperature reaches 65 degrees, pitch the yeast.

Let it remain at ~65 degrees for one day, and then place into a 'fridge to begin lagering. I started at 50 degrees (I have an external thermostat for a spare 'fridge in my garage) and brought it down to 36 degrees over 14 days. At 14 days, rack to a glass carboy, add the dry hop, and continue the secondary ferment at 36 degrees for eight weeks. Bottle with 1 ¼ cups of corn sugar in 2 cups of boiling water.

Specifics:

  • O.G.: .1044
  • F.G.: .1008
  • ABV: 4.9%
 
posted by Kepler at 14:41 |


1 Comments:
« back home
Post a Comment


At 7/31/2006 02:50:00 AM, Blogger Kobra

Hey, man. It is nice to see that there are other beer lovers out there. I attempted to brew once, and because I appreciate more full-bodied beers, I attempted to brew an imperial stout. Unfortunately for me, 5lbs of malt had hidden itself in the rear of the fridge thus avoiding the kettle. It was WEAK!

Some of my favorite over the counter stuff is:

Avery Brewery's stuff:

The Beast
http://www.averybrewing.com/BigBeers/seasonal/thebeast

The Czar
http://www.averybrewing.com/BigBeers/seasonal/czar

North Coast Brewery stuff:

Old Rasputin
http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/ras.htm

Old Stock Ale
http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/oldstock.htm

The other brews that these two brewers offer are good as well. I have a taste for scotch so beer lately hasn't been able to fill the bill, but when it is my desired drink for the evening, I like it to be strong.

 


« back home
Post a Comment
Track with co.mments