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Pilsner recipe


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I am about to make my 1st keg of lager and have some Saaz hops and Urquell 2001 yeast which arrived today  ... just wondering if the lager aficionados had a go-to Pilsner recipe that they would like to share  ...  I intend to treat it with the respect it deserves and lager it for around 2 months in my new kegger, which I have all but finished, before tapping it ...  

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I have one that I brew regularly and it's always nice unless I mess something up. Don't have access to it on my phone but it will be listed about 4 or 5 times in the brew day thread. Actually due to keg it next Saturday, although unfortunately this time it won't really get the proper lagering. 

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Thats mine marty styled on Budvar. Rain water is the key. Very soft water. Also the melanoiden malt which mimics a traditional decotion mash. I used to do a step mash but now just mash for 90 @64 and boil for 90 with a quick chill. It will give you a nice pilsener with a little bit of maltiness. Works well with Budvar Yeast. Not sure about Urquell though. Never tried.

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Yep soft water is a key ingredient to this style. You probably wouldn't even have to do anything to your rain water. That's originally why I got my still, so I could make the soft water I wanted. Now I use it for everything bar the red ale, as that beer turns out its best with straight tap water. I did brew one batch of my pilsner with straight tap water as an experiment to see what difference the water made, and it was not as nice. It lacked the crispness and the hops were subdued, likely because of the higher chloride to sulphate ratio, which made it rather dull and a bit on the sweet side. A useful experiment though. 

My recipe has gone through three strains of yeast over the four years or so I've been brewing and tinkering with it, and my favourite of them was the 2001. The recipe itself is based on what I could find out about how Urquell is brewed. I'm currently using 2278 which is quite close to 2001, and prior to that I used 2000 Budvar. They are all great strains, for me in order of what I liked most is 2001, 2278 and 2000. 

Whichever recipe you choose, be sure to make a large yeast starter for it (3-4 litres). What you get in a smack pack is nowhere near enough for a 20 odd litre batch of lager.

Edited by Otto Von Blotto
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On 7/4/2019 at 5:55 PM, Greeny1525229549 said:

Thats mine marty styled on Budvar. Rain water is the key. Very soft water. Also the melanoiden malt which mimics a traditional decotion mash. I used to do a step mash but now just mash for 90 @64 and boil for 90 with a quick chill. It will give you a nice pilsener with a little bit of maltiness. Works well with Budvar Yeast. Not sure about Urquell though. Never tried.

Screenshot_2019-07-04-19-46-15.png

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I just had 33 litres of rain water delivered by my old man to try my first all grain Pilsner👍

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