Pilsner question

He’s got a helmet on… smart… Creature? :blush:
Sneezles61

yea I tried to get him to mow for me but all he wants to do is play with the front loader and drink my iced coffee…

One of my neighbors found this thing at a yard sale and has been moving it all around the road and putting costumes on him! you know how old retired dudes have to find something to do with their time…hahaha…or so I’ve heard…

edit: probably should’ve posted these in the annoying animals thread…

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Welcome Back!!
Sneezles61

So while await a part for the keezer…
My mind keeps wandering off… I’ve bought brews from Germany, pils style, how they get the signature “soft malt”?
I haven’t tried to read about a specific brewery and their way of brewing… BUT… is it terrior? or is it process driven…
Thats why I keep after water stuff… I think that I’ll unlock that mysterious secret…
The old world boiling water the day before, allow to cold crash in the cold months … along with a decoction mashing… long boils… Even noble hops… (I wonder if they really are?) … Perhaps I’m the only romantic knucklehead?:confused:
Sneezles61

Well ive been working on the pilsner style for awhile. Its a popular subject on this forum. I believe its like the holy grail. This is a beer made for drinking IMO. Now ive had some German bottles that were meh but in German restaurant from the keg always taste better. Probably in a beer garden in Germany even better. So atmosphere is important. We don’t give enough credit to presentation. That said the next thing is ingredients including water. Next and hard to qualify is time. A decoction mash may take a bit longer then a 75 minute boil. A cold slow fermentation followed by a cold lagering non of that force carbonation for the Pilsner or the Pilsener

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I’ve been doing some reading on decoction. One of the articles I’ve read indicated you may have 6 hours into doing a triple decoction mash before you ever get to the boil. I’m still reading… :nerd:

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Yes. It’s going to take time to bring a portion of mash to the next temp, let it sit for a specific amount of time, slowly bring it to a boil, and boil it for a specific amount of time. And this is why so many German breweries have opted to go with temperature step mashes. From my understanding many Czech breweries will still pull decoction for tradition and mouthfeel.
Now, for me with today’s malts and HERMS/RIMS systems I think you could do a pseudo decoction where you pull your decoction and SLOWLY bring it to a boil. In the meantime run the rest of your mash through the next step. For example, if your mashing in at 130° for a protein rest you plan on hitting 145° and 158° you could pull your decoction and while slowly bringing it to a boil use your HERMS/RIMS to get to 145°. While that rests you’re boiling your decoction and can add it to get to your next step of 158°. And you could then pull a decoction to get to mash out at 170°. Sure it will take extra time but not 6 hours that a traditional decoction will bring you.

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So lets break these down into each their own conversations…
I’ll start the water… or the what I understand for Pils…
Czech water is said to be very soft… And since Czech appears to be the “home” of Pils… I would like to copy it… or as close to it…
Soft water refers to water with minimal minerals… There are few different ways to get there… Buy it… Or get gizmo’s to manipulate it…
I see a few don’t mess with water… some use an RO… I’m still going to boil and cold crash… I won’t claim its the best-est… Or that I’m sticking old school… Its more about the journey… Finding out what helps with keeping the cost down…
Reading so much info about the Pils water points to Alkalinity… er, the lack of it as a big tribute to the allowing the profile of malt come through…
What are yer thoughts before we move into the next topic…
Sneezles61

It’s the water. Central european soft water. The one thing that I believe improved my pils most was targeting the Pilsen, CZ city water profile in Brunwater. For years I just used lactic acid to get there. It worked fine and was about the only treatment my water needed to hit the profile. Then @brew_cat finally convinced me to use acidulated malt. Much easier and works great!

Lots of people will tell you don’t use the city water profiles, use color, blablabla. I think this was the single biggest improvement in my Pils because it forced me to simplify water amendments and just focus on a lower alkalinity water profile that lets the grain and noble hops shine.

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All that said about the soft water and the Bohemian Pilsener is true. But up next for me is that northern German Pilsner using the Dortmund water profile. Hopefully i get it done before heading to CO next week. I’ll keep you all updated

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If you search back i posted a decoction profile for BIAB that doesn’t need to ad much time at all. Its how ive been doing all my German style

My water minerals are very good… short of having way too much coral butts, guts and nuts in it… I can cut my TDS readings in half with boiling and cold crashing… So up here… the cold weather helps…
I’ve not done a concoction mash… and I have the ability to step right out my brew door and have my gas rig set up and do this… I day dream alot… and I keep going to a thought of malliard reaction with the malt and boiling… I will attempt this once any ways… You can burst my bubble any time you choose… :sunglasses:.
I’ve used a step mash quite a bit… the only results are a lower final gravity…
I’m just saying… its fun to be able to try different stuff… and now, not having to squeeze more activities into a small fraction of time is very cool…
Sneezles61