Batch 62

Third time in a row and the Czech pilsner train keeps going! I’m doing all these Czech pilsners because I want to make myself a great pilsner for my upcoming wedding. That’s right, I’m getting married and of course I need to bring my own beer to my own wedding! So I’ve been testing and tasting a lot of different self-made recipes but I think I’ve been too much all of the place. With these recipes I’ve tried to come up with a good base and then make small tweaks to get it where I want it to be.

I mentioned in Batch 61 that I was happy with the Motueka hops but at the same time not. It’s tasty but perhaps not what I’m looking for. So I turned to old recipes and looked for something that might get me in the right direction and thought I should try Mittelfruh for this one. I’m glad I did because it was what I was looking for so now I’ll stay with this choice – for now at least. I’m using the same hops for the whole hops schedule and I’m thinking if I should bump all additions up or just replace the 60min bitter addition for example Magnum and put the leftover Mittelfruh to the later additions, something to test but not for the final recipe that I’ll brew for my wedding though.

Something I’ll change however is the choice of yeast, I’m switching from Wyeast 2278 to WLP800 and it’s only because of the better packaging by White Labs, the two yeast strains should be more or less the same so I’m not expecting a difference in taste even though I’m a bit nervous for it.

I’ll also be adding a mash out step to halt the enzymes, I’ve been getting really well attenuated beers for the past batches I can remember and even though it’s spot on what I estimate with the help of software, I still want a bit more residual sugars. So because the estimate is correct I’ve to keep observing if the mash out will yield big enough difference and if it does, I need to calculate with a higher FG.

Yet again a delicious beer and I’m starting to think I’m pretty much there to add it to the Core category which is a bit exciting. I’ll try first adding a bit more hops and see if I like it or not and then make “the final version” of the recipe. It’s a big change but I think I’ll change the grain bill with 100% Bohemian pilsner malt as well to get a bit darker color and a bit thicker body. It might change how well the hops are perceived but then I can always make those granular changes if necessary.