Codebreaker Pilsner

Codebreaker Pilsner

Dermott Dowling
It's getting hot out there so time to either take all our clothes off or put down a Pilsner.  Reality is that should have been done last Winter or Spring in time to lager for a while before the Summer heatwave.  Normally in Jan/Feb in Melbourne its all about the tennis and 40+C heatwaves and the last thing you want to be guzzling in that heat is a triple hopped imperial IPA or an imperial Stout - its all about clean well balanced Pilsner which is hard to find both in good fresh condition made properly by the macros and from the micros because they are busy keeping up with Ale demands and have pressure on their tank space.  On with the recipe and show - with clothes on albeit - flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt :-)

Gladfield Malt Bill

Want to keep it simple here but leave behind a small residual sweetness with the Vienna for two simple reasons.  1) I don't have any Munich in the home brewhaus - technical difficulties - yah! and 2) I am using a very high AA new varietal hop from HPA called Enigma - a codebreaker so if its super heavy over the top that Vienna might offer a tincy wincy bit of balance - time will tell.
  1. Gladfield Pilsener Malt 4.25 Kg / 85%
  2. Gladfield Vienna Malt 0.45 Kg / 9 %
  3. Gladfield Gladiator Malt 0.30 Kg / 6%

Hops

Thanks to Owen & Tim @HPA and Peter & family @Bintani for the gift of some wonderful HPA new varietal Engima(r) Hops gifted out in the goodie bags back @ANHC4  - you will be the hero of this beer and lets see if you break the Bohemian Pilsner code in a good way or I stuff it right up!
  1. HPA Enigma 2014 Harvest 15.4% A/A
  2. Saaz (Czech) 2014 Harvest 3.5% A/A
Additions:
  1. 20g Enigma @ 60 mins into a 90 mins boil
  2. 20g Saaz @ 15 mins
  3. 20g Saaz @ 5 mins
  4. 20g Enigma @ 0 mins

Yeast

Mangrove Jacks M-84 Bohemian Pilsner dry yeast - thx team @iMake another goodie in the goodie bag @ANHC4 - cleaning out the contents!  Shame only one sachet as need two to brew for a 21L batch size and I realised that too slow into the mix to make a starter - my fault - doh! You could easily use any of the following great lager yeasts (dry or liquid) in the shop:
  1. Fermentis Saflager W-34/70 Yeast
  2. Fermentis Saflager S-23 Yeast
  3. GigaYeast German Lager GY045

Mash

  • 16L into the trusty Rubbermaid esky at 80C let to cool to 78C adding Malt Bill dropped to 70C - panick
  • Add ice - pull it down to 65C and finish at 64C - Mash my nightmare hole on the 18 holes of brewing!

Boil

90 mins

Fermentation

  • Pitched Yeast @14C dropped to 10C on temp controller and let it rise for last 3-4 days to finishing temp of 14.5C
  • Racked on 8th Feb and left in a glass carbouy to lager for the month of #FebFast  - what was I thinking? Clearly not!
  • Conditioning has struggled in the trusty throwaway on the verge fridge collected from my friendly Turk neighbours and its hovered around 6-9C when I was hoping to pull it down closer to 0-2C - thems the breaks in home brewing in a hot shed out the back.
Bottling asap  - have an ale starter at the ready as the lagering has cleared up the beer tremendously :-) CODEBREAKER PILS CONDITIONING