Alexandra Pils

this is a continuation on my attempt to make a dryish crisp pilsner with faint but fresh hop and grain flavor. started with a raw green bullet pils, then boiled green bullet. both were kind of funky. going to use the same yeast and a different hop this time to see what happens. still sticking with the 2row because i would like to be able to make this work with 2row since that is a majority of what i buy and have on hand all the time.,

using whatever hops i have in the freezer. looks like i dont have enough in style to bitter properly so i will supplement with millenium for the bittering and use german hallertau the rest of the way to try to keep the hop bill simpler.

going to mash at 150 this time hoping to get a lower FG and more dryness. i mashed at 158 i believe for the raw pils so maybe that was a factor in the thickness and body.

using recycled 2007 pilsner yeast with a starter im making 3 days ahead of time.

im seeing on forums to ferment at 54 for two weeks. another guy says start at 44 for a week and ramp up to 51 for 3 weeks. i think i will go with option a in the interest of time...

some say to do diacetyl rest : after about 10-12 days raise the temp up to 67 for 3 days then drop it back down to lager temps (some do it in steps, 1 degree per day)

byo fast ferment approach janFeb2017. reread but start at 44-50 let fermentation go 50% then (remove the probe from the fermentor let it reach ambient temp then...?) raise temp 5 degrees every 12 hours til you get to 65-68. once you get 100% you can crank down to lager temp for 3-5 days then you done. this will take care of diacetyl rest and apparently gets the lager completely done in 2-3 weeks.

According to fast ferment technique i need to start ramping up at 50% attenuation, ingeneral 4-7 days. On day 4 I measured 1.045 in refractometer => 11.2 brix. With wort correction factor of 1.00 that means the beer is at 1.038. Should start the ramp up at 55 - ((55-14)/2) = 1.034. so day 5 i guess.