First beer of 2024, and first brew in quite a long time. I've been wanting an easy drinking lager, so today I'm brewing a Czech Premium Pale Lager inspired by Pilsner Urquell. This recipe employs a double-decoction mash. Water is especially important with this style; you want a very soft water profile so you’ll notice below that there are only very small salt additions. Here's the recipe as I'm brewing it today.
Target OG 1.051
Target FG: 1.013
IBU: 35
ABV: 5.0
8.375# Weyermann Barke Pilsner
1g BrewTan B in mash
2.75ml HopShot (90 min)
56.7 Saaz (20 min)
28.3g Saaz (10 min)
4.66g BCAA (10 min)
28.3g Saaz (0 min)
Whirfloc
Yeast nutrient
Wyeast 2001-PC Pilsner Urquell H Strain
Decoction Mash
- Protein rest at 125F for 15 min
- Pull first 1/3 decoction and heat to 158F and hold for 15 min.
- Proceed to boil and hold for 10 min.
- Return decoction to main mash and hold at 148F for 30 min.
- Pull second 1/6 decoction and heat to a boil.
- Proceed to boil for 10 min.
- Return second decoction to main mash and hold at 158F for 30 min.
- Mash out at 168F
90 min boil, chill to 48F. Raise temp 1F over 6 days to 54F.
Water Profile
| Target Water Profile | |||||
| Ca | Mg | Na | SO4 | Cl | HCO3 |
| 7.0 | 1.0 | 8.0 | 9.0 | 11.0 | 1.0 |
To 10 gallons RO water, add:
- 0.7g Gypsum (CaSO4)
- 0.6g Pickling Salt (NaCl)
- 0.1g Calcium Chloride (CaCl)
- 0.1g Chalk (CaCO3)
Brewing Notes
I’m definitely a little rusty having not brewed since July, so I’m glad that there weren’t any crazy issues. I fly sparge and I definitely collected the 6.75 gallons much quicker than I normally would. I may have miscalculated the efficiency and grain bill as I came in 8 points under target. Kind of a bummer, but I’ll still have beer in the end. This is closer to a Czech Pale Lager than a Czech Premium Pale Lager. Also, I thought I had more Saaz on hand than I actually did. I ended up doing about 30g at 7 minutes, instead of 28g at 10 and 0 minutes. I’m toying with the idea of dry hopping with some Saaz…TBD. Long story short, not the ideal brew session but it still felt good to finally brew a batch again. I’m propping up more yeast so I’ll probably give this beer another shot in the not too distant future.
| Session Readings | |
| Beginning mash pH | 5.52 |
| Ending mash pH | 5.44 |
| 1st running gravity | 22.8 (1.093) |
| Pre-Boil gravity | 8.0 (1.031) |
| Pre-Boil pH | 5.58 |
| Post-Boil gravity | 11.0 (1.043) |
| Post-Boil pH | 5.58 |
Update 1/21/2024
I transferred this beer to a corny keg fitted with a dip tube screen on top of 28g of Saaz. I’m planning on dry hopping in this keg for about 48 hours then I’ll transfer off the hops to a serving keg.
Update 1/23/2024
This beer got transferred to the serving keg along with some finings today.