2015/02/23 PeeYou!

Continental Pilsner book by David Miller gives PU stats:
OG: 1.049 FG: 1.014 IBUs: 43 Color: 4.2°L
This recipe is close to all these except color. Hoping the double decoction darkens it that much - probably will.
Traditional pilsner mash schedule discussed in this book is triple. 95 mash in. 1/3 mash removed, brought to 158(!) for at least 15min. and then boiled 15 min. Returned to mash to raise to 122. Next decoction raises the mash temp to 149 (not 158…) and then the next decoction raises it to 168. Also says NOT to get sparge water above 168.
However, since we live in the real world, he suggests ONE low-temp rest at 131 as a good compromise for peptidase, glucanase and protease. We could mash in there. Pull first decoction, rest at 158 and then boil, add it back in to raise main mash up to 149 or 153-4. Then another decoction to get it to 168.
He suggests 75 min. boil, with traditional 3 hop additions, at least at PU. Cool and ferment at 48-50. Suggests 4-5 weeks of lagering.
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OK, that was what the book said.

Made starter - next time use 10-1 ratio.

Mash-in - Had the burner on full, no mishaps so disc was very hot. Overshot strike temp we think, and temp settled at 135 even after adding 2 quarts of cool water. Main mash at 135. Pulled 14 quarts of thickest part, brought to 158 for 15 min. Brought to boil for 15 min. Added back to main mash to bring it up to 143 from 127ish. Recirculated to bring up to 153-154. Rested for 45 minutes. Pulled 15 quarts and brought to boil for 15 min. Added back in to raise to 168 for 10 minutes. Worked!!

First runnings 1.071 - sparged for 80 min. - only collected 12 g. or so because the gravity of the runnings went down to 1.006 - maybe because the sparge temp. dropped a fair bit??

Boiled 75 min. and afterwards it was 1.068 so we added a lot of filtered water to bring the gravity to 1.054. Cooled to 60 and pitched 2 vials and the starter.

Very active fermentation which started in about 12-24 hours. Fermented 3 weeks, which dropped it to 13-14. Diacetyl rest for 2 days at 62 degrees (40 watt bulb in heater could only maintain 62, even though outside temp was 70 during the day). Cold crashed to 38° for 5 days. Racked to kegs on day 28 - dryhopped and stored cold for one week. Mark dryhopped for 2 weeks.

When racking, tasted fairly thin and not so malty - decent hop bitterness. Carbonated and stored cold for.......a while. Tasting improved markedly as time when on. 2 weeks - crappy, thin and soapy - 4 weeks, drinkable, more hop bitterness evident, still not a lot of malt. Nah... just crappy. Crappy until I poured it down the sink. Very sad.