Hangar 92 Brewing Pilsner Urkel
On Sunday, October 5, 2014, Steve and I brewed a Pilsner at Buckfield on the Brewdeck. It had not been used in two years, so we had to learn the system again, most of it on the fly and a little haphazardly.
The recipe is:
20 lb Best Maltz Pilsen malt
0.5 lb Melanoidin malt
3.5 oz Czech Saaz 3.6 AA 90 mins.
2 oz Czech Saaz 3.6 AA 20 mins.
2 oz Czech Saaz 3.6 AA 1 mins.
White Labs WLP800 (2 vials).
Steve added a little bit of lactic acid to the mash to help bring the pH down a bit. Our measurements were within the recommended pH level. Steve also added enough lactic acid to the sparge water to maintain proper pH.
The mash ran longer than expected due to some unexpected difficulties. The mash ran for just under two hours and we were at a low mash temp of around 140-142 degrees F. We hadn’t used the system for a long time and some temperature control issues caught us off guard.
The sparge ran for around one hour. It went pretty well. We used the Blichmann Autosparge for the first time. It worked great, controlling the flow without having to baby sit the valves.
Steve made two each gallon jugs of starter from Pilsner DME two day ahead of time.
The wort was cooled initially with tap water to around 69 degrees F. Further cooling with ice water heat exchange got it down to around 62 degrees F.
We hauled the wort to Hangar 92 in two 5-gallon fermentation pails, where the yeast was waiting in the fridge. We added the yeast to the pails and put in the fridge with the temperature set at 58 degrees F.
UPDATE: On Sunday, October 26, 2014, I went to Hangar 92 and set the temperature to 67 degrees F in order to allow for a diacetyl rest.
UPDATE: Tuesday, October 28, 2014, I set the temperature to 49 degrees F. I hope to keg it for lagering tomorrow.
UPDATE: Wednesday, October 29, 2014, I set the temperature to 44 degrees F in the morning. That evening, Steve and I racked the beer into corny kegs. SG=1.012. We tasted a sample of the beer. Still young, not bitter, and adequate body – pretty good! We’ll see how it tastes next month.
