Phil's Highway to Helles
Munich Helles *OG 1.051 *FG 1.012 *IBU 35.4 *SRM 2.7-2.9
Batch Size 25L (This is actually to brew a 21 liter batch, but leaves enough leftover wort for Gyle priming)
Boil Size 32.6L
INGREDIENTS:
4.7kg Pilsner Malt
30gm Hallertau 4% AA @ 40min
30gm Hallertau Hersbrucker 1.7% AA @ Flameout
Wyeast Munich Lager 2308
(Hop additions calculated to factor in a 20min extended “boil” time due to using no chill – if using a chiller add 20mins to the additions and target 16-18 IBUs from approx 4-6 AAU's worth of hops, splitting the additions about half/half between bittering and flavour additions)
MASH:
50c for 30 mins, then raise to 63c and hold for 15 mins, then raise to 67c and hold for 15 mins, sparge at 77c
90min boil
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METHOD:
So here Im gonna geek out and waffle on for a bit while Im waiting for shit to boil…
PART 1: LAGER YEAST STARTER
The first thing that needs to be said is that this beer needs A LOT of yeast.
Lagers are beers that rely heavily on proper techniques because as a style they are meant to be clean and crisp, and yet malt driven without being too sweet . They need to be properly attenuated at a low temperature while trying to avoid any off-flavours or diacetyl. Without a heavy hop-bill to mask these things, it all comes down to proper pitching rates and temperature control.
There are 3 ways to get this kind of yeast volume: either buy 2 packets of yeast, make a batch of beer beforehand and pitch onto the yeast cake or make a massive starter.
I'll explain option 3 and how to make it work without having to literally produce a 6-9 litre starter, but be warned – it can take up to 10 days!
Im gonna explain this the long way, but to sum up, you're basically gonna make a 2 litre starter, ferment for 36-48 hours then cold crash for 2-3 days and decant. Then add another 2 litres of 1.040 wort to step it up and repeat.
To properly explain how to get that kind of cell count (some 390 bil) without making a 6 -9 liter starter, Ill go through a way to kind of “cheat”.
If you've not used Mr. Malty, point your browser to www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html.
First, click the preferences tab and set the measurements to metric.
Click back on the “liquid yeast” tab and punch in all your stats – TYPE: Lager, OG:1.051, VOLUME: 21L, and check “calculate viability form date” then enter your yeast manufacture date.
Then, look down and select either “intermittent shaking' or ”stir PLate“ from the drop down menu.
Then, slide the slider at the bottom of the window all the way to the right.
Now, click ”calculate" and what you'll get is instructions to grow an approx 396 bil cell pitch rate and somewhere between 5-10 liters of starter depending on your yeast viability – which is pretty ridiculous.
SO – what you do is, scale down your target volume until you get a recommended starter size of around 2 liters. If youre set for stir plate, this should end up being around an 8-8.5 target volume.
This is your first starter.
THEN – take note of the cell count – if you're still following this example using the recipe numbers, this should now be sitting on around 160 billion.
What you need to do now is, uncheck ‘calculate viability from date’ and set your viability to 160% (a percentage based on the notion that a fresh packet of yeast contains 100 billion cells), now set your target volume to the full 21 litres and press calculate.
What you have now is stage 2 of the starter, which is about 1.8-2 litres in size and about 390 billion cells.
In other words, thats how you get 390 billion cells into a 2 litre starter.
Like I said before, this whole process will take around 10 days, so unless you're cubing your wort and can keep it safe and sterile until your yeast is ready, make sure you plan ahead.
PART 2: THE MASH AND THE BOIL
This is a 3 step mash and can easily be done in a 20LTR mash tun using boiling water infusions.
Start with a Liquor-to-grist ratio of 2L per kg. You want to start thick because youre aiming for a proteolytic conversion temp of 50c and these enzymes work better in thick mash. The next step is to raise the temp to 63c for beta saccharification and hold for 15 min. Next you want to raise the temp to 67-69c for alpha saccharification and hold for a further 15min.
With my set up using this recipe, it goes like this:
-Heat 9.4lt of strike water to 56.4c and dough in. Stir mash until it stablises at 50c and rest for 30min.
-Then, add 4.1 litres of boiling water, stir in thouroughly to stabilise temp to 63c and rest for 15min
-Then, add 1.9 litres of boiling water, stir in thouroughly to stablise temp to 67-69 and rest for 15min
-Fly sparge for 60 min at 77c
Collect all runnings, take a gravity reading and then boil for 90mins adding two hop additions as per recipe.
At the end of the boil (depending on how you do things from this point) collect 21 litres for the fermentor and the remainders to set aside as gyle.
I simply cube the whole lot, then when Im ready to pitch, pour 21 litres into the carboy and then the rest goes into a saucepan which I bring to the boil and pour while still hot into hot sterilised passata bottles. These are capped immeadiatley and as they cool, the vacuum lids sucks in and bam – you have preserved wort that will store unrefridgerated for years.
When youre ready for bottling, use an online gyle priming calculator and simply open the passata bottles and bulk prime with the required qty. As long as your sanitary, there's no need to do anything else as the wort is pasteurised and goes straight in.
Best part about this is, while there's an added step to the process, there's no need to buy DEX or use sugar or DME or whatever. You priming your beer with your beer – no difference in flavour, no change in gravity.
PART 3: THE FERMENT
This part is a little bit open to interpretation, but here's what Im doing:
Ferment between 9-10c for about 2 weeks. On around day 14, raise temp to between 14-16c and hold for two days for a diacetyl rest. Then, gradually drop the temp at a rate of 2c per day until your sitting at lagering temp of 3c. Hold for about a month or so, then bottle using your saved gyle. once bottled, cold condition for a minimum of 1 month.
POST FERMENT:
Brew another lager and pitch directly onto the yeast cake!!!!!!!!