Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

This was my first attempt at a pilsner of any sort and I really like how it came out.  I shared some with Christopher and he requested I post the recipe.  I will list the original recipe first and then put my hop substitutions (due to the price of Saaz hops, I only used them for flavor and aroma additions) in brackets.  Let me add that this recipe requires that you lager your beer, after fermentation, for an extended period of time at 40 degrees F.  If you don't have access to some sort of refrigerator that can hold your fermentor, it will be hard to do.


Bo Knows Hemians Pilsner
Jamil Zainasheff, modified by Tom Wallace
Brewing Classic Styles, page 60

Ingredients:
- 12 lbs Durst Pilsner Malt
- 12 oz Briess Carapils Malt
- 1 Whirlfloc Tablet
- 1.65 oz Czech Saaz Hops (3.5% AA) [0.8 oz Pride of Ringwood] - 60 min
- 2.0 oz Czech Saaz Hops (3.5% AA) [1.0 oz Pride of Ringwood] - 30 min
- 1.0 oz Czech Saaz Hops (3.5% AA) - 10 min
- 1.0 oz Czech Saaz Hops (3.5% AA) - 0 min
- Wyeast Bohemian Lager Yeast Pack

Stats:
- O.G. - 1.056 [1.061]
- F.G. - 1.016 [1.015]
- IBU - 40 [I forgot to record mine]
- Color - 4 SRM
- Alcohol - 5.3% ABV [5.7% ABV]

Instructions:
- Make a starter, which is very important for fermenting lagers.  I only made a 1 liter starter, but I would have made at least a 2 liter starter, if I had the container.
- Mash the grains at 154 F for 60 min.
- Run off and sparge with 170 F water until you collect 7 to 7.5 gallons of water (needed for the long boil).  My kettle maxes out at 6.5 gallons, so my higher gravity and alcohol were because did not have as much water in the kettle and the wort concentrated more.
- Boil for 90 minutes (needed to drive off the DMS precursors).
- Cool quickly down to around 50 F and oxygenate your wort.
- Pitch the yeast at 50 F and keep the temperature between 45 and 50 F until fermentation is mostly complete (10 to 12 days or so).
- When fermentation is mostly complete, ramp the temp up to about 60 F to allow the yeast a final boost of activity and to reabsorb diacetyl.
- Lager at just above freezing (my fridge only got it down to 40 F) for 3 to 4 weeks.
- Bottle or keg at a carbonation level of 2 to 2.5 volumes of CO2.  If you are bottle conditioning, you should probably pitch a little dry yeast into your bottles when you bottle the beer, as the lager yeast is not in much of a state to carbonate the beer.


I like how the beer turned out.  It is a litte bitter, so I think I will back off on the hops a little bit next time (or at least write down my IBUs).  I also read that this style benefits from soft water, so I will probably replace 30 to 50% of my tap water with DI water, effectively softening the whole batch up.

I'm definitely a little slow. Only this morning after probably glancing at your Bohemian recipe a dozen times did I finally notice the witty word play-quite funny and better than JZ's title. Props to ya for venturing into the forbidden land of pure pilsners. It would be interesting to taste your 1 liter version next to one using the 9 liter starter that JZ mentions based on that chart in the back of the book. Is he in league with Briess and White Labs? Maybe he's getting a kick back on sales. I haven't made any lagers since they seem so finicky and require pampering and such. 9 liters seems like a big jug so maybe a 4 liter starter with 2 packets would do the trick. Interestingly enough, before I started getting interested (or worried by) pitching rates my beers were turning out fine although I wasn't making lagers which I've read take 4 times the amount of yeast compared to an ale. That being said, until I rustle up a batch of Bo's Special Brew I'm just blabbin' about what I've read. It might be interesting to try the dry yeast as well. Was the bitterness "hop-centric" or could it be from some excess fermentation by-products without the requisite amount of "bumpin' yeasties" with the energy to reabsorb and eat down any left-overs from their malty dinner? Without tasting the fruits of your labor, I'm just typing nonsense but anyway, congratulations on venturing down an untrodden path. Word. 

I looked up the dry yeast alternative, the Fermentis Saflager S-23 in How To Brew and it looks like a good way to go, especially since you only need to use two packets. Hmmn--give the time and money issue I might just give the recipe a try. I'd be interested in what  you think about it. Additionally, Palmer notes the strain ferments at 48-59 with soft estery notes at the low end and a more ale-like character towards the hotter end. Oh yeah, with your refrigerator it might be a sure fire yeast since Fermentis recommends not lagering the strain any lower than 45 degrees!

After all this posting about it, I'd better make it.

Good thoughts.  I always try to use liquid yeast, and I have not used dry yeast for beer in years, but it might be worth a try.  The 1 L starter did ok, I would definately make a bigger one next time if I get a larger starter container.  I think a 2L is the way to go.

Thanks for the props on the name, I thought it was quite whitty.  The whole "Bo knows baseball" thing is dating myself somewhat, but what can you do.

I will have to get you a sample of the pils to try.  And I had better do that fast, as the beer is leaving my house rather quickly.  Damn my thirst . . .

Ah yes, the homebrew flows too quickly doesn't it? Its a shame it takes so much time to craft and so little to consume. I'm a liquid yeastie myself but am interested in doing a split batch comparison with a dry yeast of recognized pedigree. Maybe a Pilsner would showcase the clean malt/hop profile and make for a good experimental batch. Of course I'll need a 15 gallon kettle and a 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler to make it happen, so realistically Christmas sounds about right. Maybe I'll order the Saaz and freeze 'em to commit myself to such a highly scientific endeavor. Anybody got 8 oz of Saaz they don't know what to do with? 
Peace out Johnny Sauerkraut.