Brew Day #1 - Bohemian Pilsner

First brew day of 2010. I'm brewing a Bohemian Pilsner (Category 2B), sometimes referred to as Czech Pils since the classic example of the style is Czechoslovakia's Pilsner Urquell. This is only my second attempt at brewing a lager. It's a tough style to do well as such a light and crisp beer has nothing to conceal any imperfections, sort of like standing naked under florescent lighting. As such I fully expect this beer to taste like Ass in a Glass. A pale, blotchy, flabby ass at that.

  The recipe itself is uncomplicated. Twelve pounds of Continental Pilsner Malt, 12 ounces of Carapils, and 4 ounces of Acidulated malt to help lower the PH. A single infusion mash at 154. The target OG is 1.055. There are 4 hop additions, each using Saaz hops at 3.9% AA. 1.5 oz at 60 minutes, 2 oz at 30 minutes, 1 oz at 10 minutes, and 1 oz at flameout. This gives us 40.6 IBU's (Rager). For water I'm using 11 gallons of Reverse Osmosis water, with the addition  of 1 gram of chalk, 1 gram of epsom salts, and a dash of table salt. This should get me pretty close to the soft water profile that this style requires. The yeast is White Labs WLP800 Pilsner yeast. I'm using two vials, one utilizing a 2 liter starter, and the second pitched directly for a little insurance. I'm pitching cool at 48 to try and avoid diacytal production, and then fermenting at 50 degrees.

I hit my mash temp on the money at 154, at a PH of 5.2. Sent 8 gallons to the brew pot for a 90 minute boil. With all of this Pilsner Malt I want a full 90 minute boil for sufficient DMS reduction. My OG after the boil came in at 1.062 which is 7 points higher than I calculated and 6 points high of the guidelines. Damn. With luck I can get sufficient attenuation from the WLP800 to get it down to a finishing gravity of 1.016 or lower.

Two mishaps...I broke a Better Bottle, which is amazing since they're made of plastic and seemingly unbreakable. (It says as much right on their web site.) But I'm just that good. I also broke a garden hose by ripping the metal coupling right off the hose itself, which is something I'm not sure I could have done had I tried. I'm like Conan. The Barbarian, not the wronged Tonight Show host. Don't fuck with me today. Seriously.

 

Yeast pitched, aerated, and safe in the cooler at fermentation temp 4 hours after leaving the brew pot: