Wals Pilsner Recipes

[blandy]

Lethal,

I don't know about saying that there's a tenfold improvement in homebrew quality when going to AG. Let's face it, you can get some pretty good beer out of a kit and kilo.

That said, mashing rules! you have so much more control over what goes into your beer and how it is made. After the initial investment of more equipment, the marginal cost of a batch is similar to a good quality kit brew (for example, the ingredients for my Rauchbier cost about $30 for the 20L batch).

Some things I've learned the hard way about all grain are:

- You get WAY more sediment from AG (due to grain dust), racking is very important.

- Grain and Grape is cheaper than Brewcraft for full mashes (duh)

- Chilling the wort requires lots of water. Get/make an efficient wort chiller, use ice, and recycle your coolant water.

- Boiling 10+L of wort for over an hour in summer makes the house even more hot and steamy. Winter AGs are much more enjoyable.

- The "brewery" smell is magnified. I guess everyone here likes it, but if there are others in the house, it might be worth letting them know your brew date in advance so they don't plan something that requires the house not smelling like a brewery.

[lethaldog]

Lethal,

I don't know about saying that there's a tenfold improvement in homebrew quality when going to AG. Let's face it, you can get some pretty good beer out of a kit and kilo.

That said, mashing rules! you have so much more control over what goes into your beer and how it is made. After the initial investment of more equipment, the marginal cost of a batch is similar to a good quality kit brew (for example, the ingredients for my Rauchbier cost about $30 for the 20L batch).

Some things I've learned the hard way about all grain are:

- You get WAY more sediment from AG (due to grain dust), racking is very important.

- Grain and Grape is cheaper than Brewcraft for full mashes (duh)

- Chilling the wort requires lots of water. Get/make an efficient wort chiller, use ice, and recycle your coolant water.

- Boiling 10+L of wort for over an hour in summer makes the house even more hot and steamy. Winter AGs are much more enjoyable.

- The "brewery" smell is magnified. I guess everyone here likes it, but if there are others in the house, it might be worth letting them know your brew date in advance so they don't plan something that requires the house not smelling like a brewery.

As far as the house smelling like a brewery goes, i got that one down pat, make sure the missus is out for the day as the only brew she ever liked the smell of was the classic oak wetpack i recently put in, ive also done a bit of research and was surprised at how cheap grumpys was but grain and grape are deffinately cheaper than brewcraft ( who isnt ), and i have always really enjoyed my kit brews but i just really wanted to experience the whole deal, if you no what i mean, although saying that i was going to try the lady liberty soon which i know isnt an AG but it was still a step up for me and im willing to earn my stripes slowly

[gregb]

This should by no means be thought of as the definitive Pilsner AG recipe but I had fund brewing it, and it made for more than a few 'wow' coments when drinking.

11 Litre batch (was not fully set up at the time)

2Kg Pilsner Malt.

For a first attempt aim to single infusion mash between 65 & 68 for one hour. Later attempts can take stabs at decoction mashing etc.. However, my ineptitude left me with no choice but to do a decoction to get my mash temp up - I had a low strike temp.

I batch sparged.

It was my first AG and efficiency was low. OG was 1038.

28 gm Saaz 60 mins
14 gm Saaz 45 mins
14 gm Saaz 30 mins
14 gm Saaz 15 mins
14 gm Saaz steeped into fermenter

I cooled the pot ( a 19L stock pot from Big W) in the kitchen sink filling the sink with ice and sitting the pot in it.

I used w34/70 yeast.

Have fun, and most importantly: ' Don't worry, relax, have a homebrew'

Cheers,
Greg

[lethaldog]

So is that 11 litres total in the fermenter gregb or is that just the boil?

[blandy]

With 2kg of grain, I'd say either the final volume is 11L or it's a recipe for Budwiser

[lethaldog]

Ok thanx m8

[nt]

Talking about smelling, I was going to boil saaz for 60 min but the smell is unbearable so I just stop at 30 min.

I just learned recently that there is no awful smell when boiling with malt.

[gregb]

With 2kg of grain, I'd say either the final volume is 11L or it's a recipe for Budwiser

Spot on.

Cheers,
Greg

[lethaldog]

I finally put in my first wals pilsner in today and it went like this.

Wals pilsner
1kg ldme
250gm crystal grain ( havent got any pilsner grain yet )
will dry hop 12gm saaz ( maybe )
made up to 22 l
czech pilsner wyeast

I gotta say that the only reason i said maybe for the hops is it looks and smells fantastic just as it was so ill see what happens when i rack it.

P.S Am gonna try gregs AG pilsner next but maybe ill do a double batch not sure yet, im a sucker for having to fill up the fermenter.

[lethaldog]

This should by no means be thought of as the definitive Pilsner AG recipe but I had fund brewing it, and it made for more than a few 'wow' coments when drinking.

11 Litre batch (was not fully set up at the time)

2Kg Pilsner Malt.

For a first attempt aim to single infusion mash between 65 & 68 for one hour. Later attempts can take stabs at decoction mashing etc.. However, my ineptitude left me with no choice but to do a decoction to get my mash temp up - I had a low strike temp.

I batch sparged.

It was my first AG and efficiency was low. OG was 1038.

28 gm Saaz 60 mins
14 gm Saaz 45 mins
14 gm Saaz 30 mins
14 gm Saaz 15 mins
14 gm Saaz steeped into fermenter

I cooled the pot ( a 19L stock pot from Big W) in the kitchen sink filling the sink with ice and sitting the pot in it.

I used w34/70 yeast.

Have fun, and most importantly: ' Don't worry, relax, have a homebrew'

Cheers,
Greg

Hey greg
do you remmember what the fg was for this one?
How would i go doing 2 seperate batches and adding together?
Is it ok to boil hops in a seperate pot and strain in or is the effect not the same? If it is ok how much water would you use to get optimum effect?
Im asking all this because i have not got access to a 30-40 litre pot as yet but i do have access to the one you describe and i was concidering doing a 22 litre batch. any help would be fantastic thanks m8

Cheers,
Leigh

[gregb]

Lethal,

FG was 1006.
I can see no reason not to do two batches and add them back together.
I've no idea about the boiling of hops separatley.

Cheers,
Greg

[blandy]

Hi Lethal,

For bitterness, hop utilisation is a function of the boil time, the SG of the boil, and the type of hops (as in cones, plugs, pellets). Find yourself some hop utilisation tables, I haven't looked for any on the internet, but I'm sure they're out there. I use the ones in "The complete joy of Homebrewing" by Charlie Papazian. If you're OK calculating IBUs and all that, these tables will hive you an idea of how to go about scaling up or down a boil volume.

as for aroma and flavour, if a methad works for a kit or extract batch, then there should not be much of a problem doing what you'd do then. Remember, once you've sparged and strained the grain out, there's not much difference between all-grain and partial.

[Boonie]

Lethal,

I don't know about saying that there's a tenfold improvement in homebrew quality when going to AG. Let's face it, you can get some pretty good beer out of a kit and kilo.

That said, mashing rules! you have so much more control over what goes into your beer and how it is made. After the initial investment of more equipment, the marginal cost of a batch is similar to a good quality kit brew (for example, the ingredients for my Rauchbier cost about $30 for the 20L batch).

Some things I've learned the hard way about all grain are:

- You get WAY more sediment from AG (due to grain dust), racking is very important.

- Grain and Grape is cheaper than Brewcraft for full mashes (duh)

- Chilling the wort requires lots of water. Get/make an efficient wort chiller, use ice, and recycle your coolant water.

- Boiling 10+L of wort for over an hour in summer makes the house even more hot and steamy. Winter AGs are much more enjoyable.

- The "brewery" smell is magnified. I guess everyone here likes it, but if there are others in the house, it might be worth letting them know your brew date in advance so they don't plan something that requires the house not smelling like a brewery.

As far as the house smelling like a brewery goes, i got that one down pat, make sure the missus is out for the day as the only brew she ever liked the smell of was the classic oak wetpack i recently put in, ive also done a bit of research and was surprised at how cheap grumpys was but grain and grape are deffinately cheaper than brewcraft ( who isnt ), and i have always really enjoyed my kit brews but i just really wanted to experience the whole deal, if you no what i mean, although saying that i was going to try the lady liberty soon which i know isnt an AG but it was still a step up for me and im willing to earn my stripes slowly

Where did you guys get the Large Pots to boil this stuff?

[OldBugman]

I got a stainless 19L pot with glass lid from Big W, $19.80

[lethaldog]

Lethal,

FG was 1006.
I can see no reason not to do two batches and add them back together.
I've no idea about the boiling of hops separatley.

Cheers,
Greg

Cheers m8 ill just give it a go and see what happens
Will let you know how it turns out

[lethaldog]

Hi Lethal,

For bitterness, hop utilisation is a function of the boil time, the SG of the boil, and the type of hops (as in cones, plugs, pellets). Find yourself some hop utilisation tables, I haven't looked for any on the internet, but I'm sure they're out there. I use the ones in "The complete joy of Homebrewing" by Charlie Papazian. If you're OK calculating IBUs and all that, these tables will hive you an idea of how to go about scaling up or down a boil volume.

as for aroma and flavour, if a methad works for a kit or extract batch, then there should not be much of a problem doing what you'd do then. Remember, once you've sparged and strained the grain out, there's not much difference between all-grain and partial.

Thanks m8 ill do that, i imagine it would be some interesting reading/research anyway

[Ed]

Lethal, I got a Robinox 50 litre pot from the HBS for $232.00. I bought a second one from an Asian food supermarket for $55.50 that I'm using as a HLT. Not a thing of beauty, but it would do the job. Doesn't have the nice encapsulated base or wall thickness of the Robinox but the price is brilliant for 48 litre stainless steel.

More info where I bought it and a picture in this thread if you want a look http://brodiescastlebrewing.com/index.php?topic=544.0

Cheers, Ed

[lethaldog]

Lethal, I got a Robinox 50 litre pot from the HBS for $232.00. I bought a second one from an Asian food supermarket for $55.50 that I'm using as a HLT. Not a thing of beauty, but it would do the job. Doesn't have the nice encapsulated base or wall thickness of the Robinox but the price is brilliant for 48 litre stainless steel.

More info where I bought it and a picture in this thread if you want a look http://brodiescastlebrewing.com/index.php?topic=544.0

Cheers, Ed

Thanks ed, much appreciated, i think this is really what i need so i wont have to do a double batch, would be alot easier, i dont mind payin the $230 but ill just have to see if my HBS has em, in any case ill go with one of these first and see how it goes and worst case scenario, the missus gets a nice big stock pot

[lethaldog]

would it matter if the pot was aluminium, ive heard everyone talking bout stainless but the local HBS has 40 litre stainless for $219 And 40 litre aluminium for $113 also 60 litre aluminium for $140.
Ed i had a look at the place you recomended but they are in WA and there site doesnt seem to be working properly so i wasnt able to send a querie through, will keep trying though

[Ed]

I wouldn't bother trying to contact them, their English is not the best and found I actually had to go down there. Couldn't even tell me what capacity the pots were or how much they would cost, so I did the calculations when I got there.

Aluminium is just fine. There was some controversy over them before, but it's now acknowleged there is no problem at all. Dogger uses aluminium pots, and I would've as well but couldn't find any over here. I'd probably opt for the 60 litre pot in your shoes, but you could get away with the 40 litre if space/money is a concern.

Next you'll have to think about a chiller, something for a HLT, a burner, maybe a mill, and a mash tun. Got a big wallet?

Cheers, Ed