Pilsner Urquell

I have brewed a few batches of helles and would like to try cloning Pilsner Urquell.
Anyone have any suggestions or advice? Someone did NB’s Pils and used Wyeast 2001
and said that came pretty close.
Thanks

Czech or German Pils malt, Czech Saaz hops, and Wyeast 2001.

Pretty much what danny said, keep the ingredients simple and high quality. For the malt Weyermann does offer a floor-malted pils malt made from Bohemian barley. If you can source it you would be one step closer to authenticity although a good German pils malt will do a fine job. You can throw in a touch of CaraHelles or CaraPils if you like and save a few bucks by blending some Magnum or German Norther Brewer hops with Saaz for the bittering addition but this beer is about the pils malt and Saaz hops. The yeast is also very important so use the mentioned Wyeast 2001 or the White Labs WLP-800 which are each supposedly derived from a PU strain. :cheers:

Take a look at this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=28819&hilit=Pilsner+Urquell+clone

I started bittering with Cluster based on this article some years ago:

and have never looked back.

Chumley!

I didn’t know you posted here. You used to be one of my favorite posters on HBD. In fact, I’d actually forgotten about HBD until now. Think I’ll swing over there and see what everyone is brawling about, if it’s still alive.

Nice to see you here. :cheers:

Thanks. I don’t post here very often, I just browse this forum when I am placing an order.

I am the OP here and am pretty much a newbie so someone please help me out here.
If you were shooting for a Pilsner Urquell clone and were going to order the stuff
from NB for a 5 gal. AG, what malt would you order and what hops and additions
would you use? What mash schedule? I know this is a tall order and if no one
responds I will certainly understand. So far, I have been doing BIAB so that may
have some bearing on what would be the best way to go. I will be using distilled water
and have made a few nice helles brews so I thought I would use the same water build
for this unless someone has a better idea. I use .4g each of Gypsum and CaCl per gallon
of water. If I don’t hear any better ideas, I will just order NB’s AG kit and use Wy 2001 Urquell
yeast. They use German Perle 60 min. and Saaz at 30 and 15 min. I have never tried
any mash but a single infusion. Thanks for reading all this.

[quote=“1tun”]I am the OP here and am pretty much a newbie so someone please help me out here.
If you were shooting for a Pilsner Urquell clone and were going to order the stuff
from NB for a 5 gal. AG, what malt would you order and what hops and additions
would you use? What mash schedule? I know this is a tall order and if no one
responds I will certainly understand. So far, I have been doing BIAB so that may
have some bearing on what would be the best way to go. I will be using distilled water
and have made a few nice helles brews so I thought I would use the same water build
for this unless someone has a better idea. I use .4g each of Gypsum and CaCl per gallon
of water. If I don’t hear any better ideas, I will just order NB’s AG kit and use Wy 2001 Urquell
yeast. They use German Perle 60 min. and Saaz at 30 and 15 min. I have never tried
any mash but a single infusion. Thanks for reading all this.[/quote]

First thing I do is talk you out of the gypsum. Just go all Calcium Chloride here to get up to ~60ppp Ca+.

If you want to go a la carte rather than a kit you could try this for a five gallon batch:

9 lb Best Malz pils malt
.25 lb Weyermann CaraFoam

4 oz Czech Saaz hop pellets (you may not need all four but NB does not list a specific AA%, only a range)

2001 Yeast

Do a single temp mash @ 150F and a 90 minute boil.

If the Saaz are 3.5% you will need two ounces for the bittering addition and one ounce @ 20 minutes. If they are lower than 3.5% you will have the extra ounce to compensate. Three ounces of 3.5%AA Saaz with a five gallon beer should get you to 40-42 IBU which is PU territory. No need in this small of a batch to sub for higher alpha hops IMO.

The Best pils malt should mash just fine with a single temp. Personally I always go decoction mash with this style of beer but you can save that for the future along with the floor-malted Bohemian pils malt. I like a lower mash temp and a small dose of the dextrin malt to get a combination of a clean, dry finish and a good mouth feel. Others may suggest omitting the dextrin and mashing higher, you can decide that for yourself. :cheers:

Good suggestions from BryanH, but I would suggest getting rid of the carafoam and mashing higher :slight_smile:

It doesn’t fit into your process (BIAB), but this beer would work great with a decoction, or at least a step mash. 20 minutes at 140 to let the beta-amylase chop off fermentables, then 40 min at 158 to allow the alpha-amylase to create body-building dextrins.

But that is really optional. The real keys to a Bo-Pils is soft water, a firm body from Pilsner malt mashed a bit on the high side, and firm bitterness from saaz hops and only from saaz hops.

Thanks for posting. How would a person determine the acidity of the Saaz?

[quote=“rebuiltcellars”]Good suggestions from BryanH, but I would suggest getting rid of the carafoam and mashing higher :slight_smile:

It doesn’t fit into your process (BIAB), but this beer would work great with a decoction, or at least a step mash. 20 minutes at 140 to let the beta-amylase chop off fermentables, then 40 min at 158 to allow the alpha-amylase to create body-building dextrins.

But that is really optional. The real keys to a Bo-Pils is soft water, a firm body from Pilsner malt mashed a bit on the high side, and firm bitterness from saaz hops and only from saaz hops.[/quote]

You can perform a decoction mash with BIAB. All you’d need is a second pot to boil the pulls. The only reason I haven’t tried one yet is time. I BIAB and just haven’t had a full day to focus on a decoction. I usually have a 4-6hr window which is just enough for a normal brew day.

I’ve done double decoctions with BIAB and it really hasn’t added substantially to my brewday time FYI. I’ve done it on a single burner as well, just lifted the main kettle off, pulled the decoction volume, and added to a smaller kettle, then add the whole thing back. Boom.

Missed a few steps there.

It should be advertised and (depending on where you buy them) labeled on the package.

If you walk into a brick & mortar LHBS you can look at the label on the package. If you buy online you may have to estimate. Like I said above, the NB site has a range not a specific AA% hence my suggestion to buy and extra ounce to have in case the AA% is below the anticipated number.

I have a wonderful pils on tap right now. I did a double decoction with Weiermann’s Floor Malted Bohemian Pils malt. The color is no where near as dark as PU or Staropramen though. The 2001 yeast really emphasized the hop character. I split the batch with WY 2206, and that version is not as good. The hops are muted and the malt character that is there is not as much as PU or Staropramen. I compared my beer to the Staropramen, and my beer was lacking a slightly toasty, malt character. I plan to add 5% melanoidin malt on my next batch and just do a step mash or single decoction. I will probably split the batch between 2001 and the Bohemian yeast. I made a nice, refreshing 1.045 pils last year with that yeast.

Missed a few steps there.[/quote]

Right, but none of this really adds time to the mash/brewday, depending how long your rest intervals are and length of the mash itself. I look @ decoctions this way: Are they necessary with modern malts? No, and there is a study out there somewhere that proves it. Is it kind of a cool thing that allows you to reach different rest temps while futzing with stuff as homebrewers like to do? Yes.

I am in the previous thread, but the keys for me were

  1. About 96% floor malted pilsner from Weyermann and 4% carapils.
  2. Hochkurz mash at 142 and 158.
  3. 120 min. boil.
  4. Equal additions of Saaz at first wort, 80 and 30 min.
  5. Pitch at 39 F and let it rise to 45. Give it time.

Bumping this thread to get some ideas for water profile for an Urquell clone. I understand pilsners are best with pretty soft water so I was thinking of just using distilled water and adding enough CaCl to get the calcium to about 60ppm as suggested above. This would keep chlorides below 100 but I’d still need some lactic acid to get the pH to 5.3 according to brunwater using the pseudoBohPils water profile.

I’ll do a single infusion 60 min mash at 150 and boil 90 mins.

Any suggestions?

Recipe is:

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Czech Pilsner
Brewer: Danny
Asst Brewer:
Style: Bohemian Pilsner
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications

Boil Size: 7.17 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.67 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 3.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 42.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 83.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
9 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 97.3 %
4.0 oz Carafoam (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 2.7 %
1.20 oz Saaz [5.90 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 3 28.8 IBUs
1.00 oz Saaz [5.90 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 4 13.6 IBUs
2.0 pkg Urquell Lager (Wyeast Labs #2001) [124.2 Yeast 5 -

Mash Schedule: BIAB - Danny’s
Total Grain Weight: 9 lbs 4.0 oz

Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash in Kettle Add 19.38 qt of water at 157.7 F 150.0 F 60 min
Sparge Add 12.00 qt of water at 200.0 F 168.0 F 10 min


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