Helles hubris

Just tapped my latest and it is DAMN good. :smiley:

Recipe? I think I may do a helles next

This is actually Northern Brewerā€™s kit. Not sure why, but they havenā€™t stocked it in a whileā€¦

10 gallon batch OG 1.051 IBU 21
15 gallons of RO water w/ 7 gr each of gypsum and CaCl and 4 gr of Mg added.

18 lb of pils, 1 lb carapils. mashed at 140 for 20 min and 148 for 80 min. mash pH 5.4. Mashed out at 168 for 10 min. Added 1 ml lactic acid to sparge. Did a batch sparge and collect 11.5 gallons of wort.

2 oz whole hallertauer for 60 min
1 0z pellet hersbrucker for 15 min

Pitch WLP 830 from starter at 48 degrees. Fermented at 52. 6 weeks in primary. Cold crashed and transferred to secondary for 20 days at 38.

Kegged and force carbonated.

I have to ask and I really donā€™t mean to put it down as it seems as though you are an experienced brewer: why do you bother using the kits still? Wouldnā€™t it be easier to just buy a sack of pils and make a beer like this? Just curious as to whether there is any advantage to a kit here. Beer sounds awesome. I think I rushed the one kolsch I ever made.

I use the kits mostly for ease and repeatability. I donā€™t brew a huge variety of beers and I know what I like. German lagers and British ales suit my fancy. So I do a lot of the same grain bills and just tweak my water/IBUā€™s/yeast. Iā€™m lazy too. Clicking a button is easy. Rounding up all the ingredients takes a while.

Your point about buy sacks of grain is a good one. Iā€™ve considered that a lot and not sure why I havenā€™t pulled the trigger.

Cheers!

I still buy kits every once in a while usually for clone recipes. Just brewed the HT clone yesterday

Roger that, understood!

@ Matt, how high did you go on sulfate? Iā€™d be curious to see how close you think you got, and your ferment temps.

[quote=ā€œPietroā€]Roger that, understood!

@ Matt, how high did you go on sulfate? Iā€™d be curious to see how close you think you got, and your ferment temps.[/quote]

Sulfate was 300 based on a year old Ward labs report (should probably get a more updated one here one of these days). Fermenting at 66 for the first 3 days then plan to bump it up around 70-72. Initial tastes before pitching was VERY bitter (almost unpleasant) but there was still quite a bit of hop material in suspension.