Another step in my journey to brew all the BJCP beer styles. Of the 23 top level categories, there are only 2 that I haven’t brewed at least 1 sub-category – light lager and amber lager. So, my plan is to brew this Helles and then harvest and pitch the yeast into a Vienna. I looked at Brewing Classic Styles and NHC winners and put it all together to make this recipe.
Helles 1
1-D Munich Helles
Size: 9.15 gal
Efficiency: 85.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 161.35 kcal per 12.0 fl oz
Original Gravity: 1.049 (1.045 – 1.051)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.008 – 1.012)
Color: 3.83 (3.0 – 5.0)
Alcohol: 4.77% (4.7% – 5.4%)
Bitterness: 21.0 (16.0 – 22.0)
Ingredients:
14.5 lb (94.3%) Pilsner Malt – added during mash
.5 lb (3.3%) Munich TYPE II – added during mash
6 oz (2.4%) Acidulated Malt – added during mash
.25 oz (11.1%) Magnum (14.5%) – added during boil, boiled 60 m
1.5 oz (66.7%) Tettnanger (3.9%) – added during boil, boiled 60 m
.5 oz (22.2%) Tettnanger (3.9%) – added during boil, boiled 10 m
1 tsp Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 10 m
2 ea Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager
Notes
tettnanger i bought were a bit low on alpha so used a small amount of magnum to adjust bitterness
starter: yeast a bit old (~2 months) so a bit bigger starter needed than normal. 3.75L starter used.
mash salts:
1.2g Gypsum
2.9g CC
sparge salts:
2g Gypsum
5g CC
acidify sparge to below 5.8 (~10ml of 10% phosphoric in 10G of water)
should give mash pH of 5.4
15.38 lb of grain
1.5 qt/lb = 23.07 quarts = 5.78 gallons
mash @ 152
mash in water temp 162.4 so ~163.4 into mash tun
pitch @ 48 and ramp to 50 over 2 days then hold till done (~14 days). rack to keg and drop 2 degrees a day to 38 and lager for one month. rack to clean keg and force carb to 2.5 volumes.
brew day notes:
3/1/14 Made 4L starter but somehow only ended up with 3.5L in ehrlenmeyer. Weird. Otherwise normal starter.
3/3/14 super cruddy weather. started at 50F and dropped all day to freezing by the time I pitched which always makes things interesting. Seemed to go pretty normal so fingers crossed. Had very high efficiency again ~85% so ended up with a ton-o-wort. Almost 10G. Worked out well b/c I had planned for that ahead of time and adjusted my hops. Also, had very clean wort into fermenter since didn’t get anywhere near the trub when racking to the fermenter.
3/4/14 a bit slow to get going but had a very small kreasen but no real bubbling at 12 hours and 1/2″ kreusen and slow bubbling at 24 hours.
3/5/14 still 1/2″ kreusen but good slow steady bubbling – bubble about every 1 sec.
3/6/14 ditto
3/9/14 kreusen has fallen and bubbling has slowed a bit. still churning with yeast.
3/10/14 slowing and seems to be clearing a bit. still bubbling every 2 sec.
3/12/14 bubbling every 7 sec. moved to bubbler. 1.0.14. a bit of sulfur in the nose. little diacetyl? tastes very nice. malty delicious helles. very promising.
3/13/14 raised 5 degrees a day to 60 for diacetyl rest
3/14/14 bubbling picked back up a bit to every 7 seconds
3/16/14 bubbling slowed to every 30 seconds
3/19/14 pulled sample for forced diacetyl test. getting a bit of diacetyl in warmed sample? hard to tell. if so a very low level.
3/23/14 transferred to keg for lagering. sample is 1.008. final pH 4.46.
force diacetyl test negative. only noticeable issue is low burnt match type sulfur in aroma and flavor. should lager out hopefully. will blow off head space once a week during lagering to make sure. starting 2-3 degree a day drop to 40.
3/30/14 moved to lagering fridge @ 35