First Pilsner!

[Daddy Biers]

Howdy my brewing family,

So in my pursuit of become a better well rounded brewer I did my first ever Bo Pilsner! I started the yeast (2001 Pilsner Urquell Wyeast) up a week in advance on my stir plate. Then mid week drop it down to around 4 c (45 f) then decanted the spent wort off a added fresh wort.

The brew day went very well! And because that I believe that I had enough yeast, fermantion took off by the next morning at 10 c (50 f)!!!

But now, oops. I didn't do any water treatment! And the water here is between temporary and permanent hard.

So my question is, if everything goes smoothly with the fermantion and the lagering what flavors do y'all think I'll pick up from the mid/high minerals in the water?

Thanks in advance and have a great day.

Daddy Biers!

[brewinhard]

I think your fermentation profile will produce a clean beer, but depending on your water hardness it could lend some hop harshness to the finish. I bet it will still be a tasty beer that will benefit from some additional lagering time.

[Daddy Biers]

Thanks soooooooooo much!!!

I was already planning on lagering it at 1c (32f) for about four weeks do you think longer?

DB!

[brewinhard]

4 weeks of lagering sounds about right. Are you bottling or kegging? What do you plan on lagering in?

[Daddy Biers]

Straight up kegging!!! Maybe a few bottles to friends with the Beer Gun. Speaking of kegging you gave me some advice a long time ago, and I said I would let you know how it worked out . Everything is going great, thanks!!

So I'm planning on racking to one of my keg and then drop the temp. in my fridge and leave it there for four to five weeks( maybe dry hop with some saaz in the last few days of lagering).

Sorry to drop this new questions on you but, like I said if everything goes well. I would like to harvest this yeast and use it in future batches eventually have enough to do a DOPPELBOCK!!!!

So the new question is, how long at cold temp. could I store this yeast??

Oh yeah, and I should let it warm up a bit in the last few days of primary right?

Dude thanks soooo much, no one I know has ever brew a pilsners so it's really nice to have a life line.

Have a good weekend,

DB!

[brewinhard]

Yes, it is wise to raise your temps a bit for a diacetyl rest to help clean up any buttery flavors that may be present before racking off the yeast cake into your keg for lagering. I usually like to start slowly raising the temps a couple degrees per day after the krausen starts falling back into the beer to keep the yeast active and happy. With a lager, I will usually get those temps up to the low to mid 60's (F) for about 3-4 days for a proper diacetyl rest before racking to a keg for long term lagering.

As for building up the yeast for a dopplebock you will definitely have enough to brew one with this yeast cake from your pilsner in your primary fermenter once you rack the beer off. Your best bet would be to brew your dopplebock the next day after you rack your pilsner into your keg as the yeast will be most viable and ready to ferment a strong lager. If you plan on storing the slurry, then 2-3 days in your fridge is about the time span you should try to repitch it into your dopplebock. Be sure to check Mr. Malty's website for slurry repitching calculations so you are saving enough yeast for your big lager.

If you don't plan on using the saved slurry within 2-3 days, then you will need to make a starter (or even a stepped up one) to get your yeast ready to ferment the dopplebock. I would try to use up the slurry within 2 wks if it is going into a starter, but have been successful storing it for longer (6-8 wks), although most definitely fresh is better. Your best bet is really to repitch that saved yeast slurry the day after kegging the pilsner IME.

[Daddy Biers]

Man oh man did that bier taste good when I racked it this afternoon!!!!! But, I am a home brewer and patience (five weeks of it) runs thought my veins hahahaha. So just a quick update, there was no hint of diacetyl WOO HOO!!! But I did run into something a little bit different when I was harvesting the yeast.

What I always do is , I have a tall glass vase. Once I've racked and added the pre boil and cooled off water that will fit into the vase . I then wait for stratification, which is always all of the trub ( dead yeast and some hop material) sinks to the bottom. Then when I see a white line forming on top of the trub then I stick my racking cane in and get all of the creamy goodness.

So the white line usually forms in about 20 mins , when I went back to check on it "WHAT THE FUNK"!!!! The normally brown and green trub is on top of the white creamy goodness!!!! So in panic mode I called a brewing buddy who had no clue how to help ( like I said no one brews pils) but he did give me a bit of advice. He did say that it's a bottom fermenting yeast so that the creamy goodness would be on the bottom.

So basically I put my racking cane all the way to the bottom and started the siphon. PLEASE tell me I did good!!!! If not, oh well just another leaning exp. gOd I love this hobby!!!!!

Thanks a lot and keep Brewinhard!!!!

Daddy Biers!!

[brewinhard]

Are you planning on pitching your harvested yeast from your pils soon? What did the harvested yeast look like after you collected and let it settle out in your container?

If you are repitching the harvested yeast soon, I wouldn't be too overly concerned with how "clean" the pitch is. You should have enough yeast cells to do the job. For example, I just kegged a dortmunder today and left a little beer on top of the yeast cake. I swirled the carboy to suspend the yeast and let it sit for a few minutes to drop out the heavier trub/hop debris (not much since I racked in fairly clean to the fermenter), then simply poured about 300 mL into a sanitized mason jar (how much mr. malty said I needed to ferment out my bock). I will repitch that totally into my bock I am brewing tomorrow.