I recently brewed the NB Honey Country Pilsner one gallon batch, which was resoundingly well received by family and friends. So naturally, I’d like to scale it up so that I’ve got a good amount of it on hand. So I’m looking at making this a 5 gallon batch, partial mash. I would love thoughts/comments.
4 lbs German pilsner malt
3 lbs Breiss pilsen DME
8 oz clover honey
1/2 oz Willamette hops (45)
1/2 oz Willamette hops (20)
Saflager 34/70
Idea is to mash the pilsner malt BIAB style in ~ 4 gallons of water at ~150 degrees for one hour, then mash out at 168 degrees. Bring wort (~3.5 gallons) to a boil, add DME and proceed with recipe. No plan to sparge grains, but usually allow the bag to drain into the collected wort. Also planning a 60 minute boil.
Any input or thoughts on the recipe, particularly the hop schedule would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Looks pretty good to me, although since the 1G batch uses 2oz. honey, you might as well up that to 10oz. in the 5G batch. I didn’t see where in the boil they add it, but if you want any honey character at all, add it at flameout.
Have you run the recipe through an online recipe creator yet? There are multiple ones you can use( I’m happy with brewtoad.com) I would 1st plug in the #s for the 1G batch, and then change it to your 5G batch and make sure the #s are similar.
Since you mentioned the hops, only 1 oz. williamette seems low to me for a pilsner(won’t go into the weirdness of using that hop for a pilsner in the 1st place. If you liked the way the 1G batch turned out, then I guess I’d use the same ingredients). The recipe creator will be able to tell you if your IBUs are in the same ballpark.
Hope she turns out the way you’re expecting!
Thanks for the feedback. This is very helpful. I’m pretty comfortable with the malt bill. My brother ran it through his beersmith calculator and that’s how we arrived at the malt bill we did. It’s not spot on in terms of gravity but it’s close enough (and if my hand gets heavy on the pour, which is known to happen sometimes, I’m sure it will end up with 10oz of honey). 
For the hops, it’s a different question. I’ve thought about upping the additions for a couple of reasons. The first one being the one you pointed out, which is 1oz of hops seems light for the style. The second is that I’m using a fairly low powered hop (~4.9% alpha) which would give some room for error. So, I think if I were to go for more bitterness or aroma, I wouldn’t completely mess up the brew. Where I could see some challenge is that you get a higher utilization at greater boil volumes. So I’m erring on the side of conservatism in terms of what I presented above. I’m actually now contemplating a 3/4 ounce boil addition at 60 minutes and then a 3/4 ounce addition at 20 minutes. (pending brew calculator confirmation)
In regards to the beer itself (the 1 gallon kit already brewed), it’s not very bitter. It’s refreshing, malt forward with just enough bitterness to balance the honey dryness in the finish. And it doesn’t have a lot of hop flavor or aroma. It goes down smooth and you can drink a lot of it. Thus the popularity with family and friends. My wife says its one of the best beers I’ve ever brewed. I tend to disagree, but like to drink it anyway.
Finally, I tend to follow the Charlie Papazian method of brewing. Relax. Don’t Worry. have a Homebrew. So with your feedback and that of my brother I feel a lot more confident in what I’m putting in the pot. Thank you. Going to brew it this weekend and I’ll let you know how it goes.
Cheers,
Clint
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