Salt Mines Bohemian Lager [Master]

Recipe for a classic Bohemian Pilsener

This is a 38L batch. Two 5-gallon fermenters, not the FastFermenter. It's too much work to only yield 26L.

It's a decoction mash too, so you need to have a second burner and a s/s pot that will hold up to 10L or so. Try to organize it so that the 2nd burner is close to the mash tun. You will have to carry 10L of hot steaming mash back and forth!

I BOUGHT A NEW S/S pot, with about twice the capacity as my current one so I can do larger decoctions without worry. So consider modifying the steps to start with a larger volume in the mash tun, which would require larger decoctions.

BUY A 3.5 Kw Induction Heater instead of using the gas burner. Safer, easier, and probably faster.

YEAST

My preference is ESCARPMENT LABS CZECH LAGER LIQUID YEAST but any true lager yeast could be used.

Set up a starter two days before the brew. It should follow the "Pro Brewer 1.75 lager" setting on the BF Yeast Calculator. Normally a two-step starter is required.

Note: increasing efficiency for this recipe. 55% is too low. For SaltMines5, it predicted 1.049 and I got 1.060. I've set it to 60%
and dropped total grist by .5 Kg.
GRIST
Increased it a bunch with salt mines 4, but maybe too much so, as I just said above, I'm dropping it by .5 Kg. Looking to get around 1.052, but I'm still cheating on the high side. Dial it in closer in the future. (SALT MINES 7 was very close to 1.052.)

700g acid malt is what was required for SALT MINES 7 and I still didn't get to 5.2. I've set this master to 700g but monitor this too.

DECOCTION MASH

Use mash cheat sheet at google drive in my beer and brewing folder.

Dough in (protein rest) and first decoction
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• Bring HLT to 134F and dough in 19L.
  
• • Strike temp = 122 °F (50 °C). Hold for 10 minutes (maintain until return of first decoction)
    
• Pull a thick decoction: one-third to one-half the mash; s/s pot is ~80% full and weighs ~ 9.4 (10.9 Kg minus tare of 1.5)
  
• Heat the decoction to 150°F; hold for 10 minutes
  
• Heat the decoction to 162°F; hold for 10 minutes
  
• Heat the decoction to a boil; boil for 20 minutes. ('boil' means visible boil plus 208F thoughout, with lots of stirring.)
  
  Beta Amylase rest and second decoction
  -------------------------------------------------------------
  
• Return the decoction to the mash, strike temp = 144–147°F ; hold 15 minutes (Maintain with HERMS, if necessary, until return of second decoction.)
  
• Pull a second thick decoction one-quarter of the mash; s/s pot is ~65% full and weighs ~7.5 (9.0 Kg minus tare of 1.5)
  
• Heat the decoction to 162°F; hold for 10 minutes.
  
• Heat the decoction to a boil; boil for 10 minutes.
  
  Alpha Amylase rest and mashout
  -------------------------------------------------------------
  
• Return the second decoction to the mash, strike temp = 158°F; hold for 30 minutes.
  
• Use HERMS to raise temp to mashout 170F
  
• get a sample before you sparge. (For SaltMines5, the gravity was 1.096 at this point!)
  
• Sparge and lauter as usual
  
  HOPS
  
  Use 450 alpha points (my system - g * AA%) or 16 AAU (BF system - ounces times AA%) or 30 IBU (BF-reported) of a noble hop. Normally Saaz or Hallertau. Ideally, all of those values should line up with the same values.
  
  Do the first wort hopping thing (https://byo.com/article/first-wort-hopping-techniques):
  Take a quarter of your bittering hops and toss them in the kettle as soon as there is wort heating in it. Don't wait for it to reach a boil. Throw the rest in when it reaches a boil, and boil for the usual 60 minutes.