Hangar 92’s second attempt at a Bohemian pilsner was made on Sunday, November 9, 2014, on the BrewDeck.
The recipe:
19 lb Best Maltz Pilsen
1 lb Melanoidin malt
1 lb Munich malt 10L
5.0 oz Czech Saaz 2.4 AA at 80 mins
0.5 oz Czech Saaz 3.6 AA at 80 mins
3.0 oz Czech Saaz 2.4 AA at 20 mins
White Labs WLP800 Pilsner yeast (2 vials)
I made up two each two liter starters the Friday before using light DME. I made the standard 100 grams per liter mix. I stirred them frequently and kept them at room temperature the first 24 hours then dropped them to 50 degrees up until they were pitched Sunday night.
The brew day went better than the previous one. We learn a lot about how to work the system. I used a Sabco style mash return tube lying on top of the grain bed with about two inches of water on top. I did stir the top layer occasionally to help prevent or break up channels.
The mash started at 125 degrees for about 20-30 minutes then heated to 142 degrees. After about 1.5 hours I brought the heat slowly up to 154 degrees for about 15 minutes.
Once sparging began, I replaced the mash return tubing with the Blichmann AutoSparge. The sparge ran for about an hour.
The boil ran for 90 minutes. The pre-boil SG=1.036. We began recirculating wort through the Therminator to sterilize it about 15 minutes before flame out. The Therminator chilled the wort to below 70 degrees. Post boil SG=1.048.
The lagering refrigerator temperature was 68 degrees the first night and then turned down to 53 degrees. The high temp on the first night was because the temperature probe was free floating in the refrigerator. The next day I taped it to the side of one of the fermenters covered by a folded up pot warmer. The controller temp rose to 68 pretty quickly. Ugh!
The lagering temperature has been at 53 degrees since then.
UPDATE: Thursday, November 27, 2014 – set temp controller to 63 F. It took two days for the temp to rise to 62 F.
UPDATE: Sunday, November 30, 2014 – set temp controller to 57 F.
UPDATE: Monday, December 1, 2014 – set temp controller to 52 F.
UPDATE: Tuesday, December 2, 2014 – set temp controller to 48 F.
UPDATE: Wednesday, December 3, 2014 – set temp controller to 45 F.
