What Have I Done?

[Powhatan]

I was going for a relatively tame lager. I ended up with 11 gal of 1.078 OG lager. It is obvious that I have no grasp on my effiencies as of yet as I was targeting the high 1.050's (I've got lots of excuses - the primary being the new grain mill).

The premise of my (mis) calculations was a 5.5 gal batch I brewed using malt milled by my LHBS:

11.7# Pilser
1.3# flaked Maize
1.0 oz NZ Hallertaur 7.0 @ 60 min
1.0 oz Hallertaur 4.0 @ 5 min
OG 1.056

I liked the results and wanted to up it to an 11 gal batch and modify just slightly...

23# Pilser
2.5# flaked Maize
1# Crystal 40L

Step mash: 122 --> 146 --> 156 --> 167

2 oz NZ hallertaur 7.0 @ 60 min
2 oz hallertaur 4.0 @ 15 min

I split it into two 6.5 gal carboys. I pitched each with 1 pack rehydrated SafLager. After seeing the OG, I tossed in a second pack of dry SafLager for good measure. Both showed activity within 2 hours of pitching. I did pitch a bit warm at 70 deg as I have the carboy's sitting in Igloo coolers with an ambient temp of ~40 deg and anticipating them staying in the low 50's.

My questions: what category would this recipe be placed? And, did I totally hack by bitterness ratio?

[dparsons]

Well, its still a Pilsner. You did go from a mildly hoppy Pilsner to a strong and not hoppy Pilsner that is technically a bit outside of the style guidelines. Given the Maize, perhaps you could call it a "Double Miller." :p Sorry. Bad joke. If you like the result, call it good.

I'd recommend dry-hopping it. You won't get the bitterness up but you can give it a little more interest than just a midly sweet drink. One of my summer brew recipes follows just that balance - mildly hopped, a touch of sweet, and a good floral nose. Its quite enjoyable.

I'd also check the attenuation on the yeast and make sure it is fairly attenuative (75% or more). With the Crystal malt, the high gravity, and the low bitterness you don't want a low attenuation yeast or the beer will taste too sweet.

On your efficiency, for the second batch I come up with 77% which is pretty decent. The first batch I get 59% which is not so good. If you can hit 77% consistently, you don't need so much grain.

[markaberrant]

definitely dry hop it.

[Powhatan]

As if I don't already have enough problems with this batch... the average ambient temp around here is 40 deg F. Thinking I'd hedge my bets - I pitched a little warm expecting it to drop during the lag phase to the target 48-58 deg. (Carboy's are in coolers to help buffer temp swings). Tke SafLager kicked off almost immediately which is a good thing - but I was counting on a little more cool down time.

Anyway - checked the temp when I got home from work and it is at about 68. I pulled the carboys from the coolers to get them cooled down (hopefully not too fast).

As for the bitterness - I don't have a software package but (attempted to) used the calculations in Designign Great Beers and came out with something around 28 IBUs... that doesn't seem totally out of whack - or, is my math screwed too?

Good thing this is just a hobby and not my day job - but it sure is fun! :)

[dparsons]

I got 28 IBU's on the 5 gallon batch and 24 IBUs on the 10 gallon batch. Way low.

[Powhatan]

Thanks DP,

I've gotten the temps stabilized at around 53 which falls in the range specifed for this strain (48-58) and the yeast are still active - so at least I didn't shock them too badly.

Bare with me as I'm still trying to get a handle on bittering... The IBU is a factor of: the hop type, OG, A%, and U%.

Since the gravity is factored in - and according to Ray's specifications for pale lagers (if I recall he quotes 20-30 IBUs) wouldn't 28ish be sufficient? I realize that this batch will be on the low bitterness/low hop aroma side - but isn't it still within the ballpark?

Again - I'm kind of figuring this out on my own as I go so I appreciate the guidance from the more experienced brewers on this forum.

I get that dry-hopping will help the 'complexity' - but this shouldn't be cloyingly sweet - should it?

If it does turn out to be to strong and insufficiently bitter - I could brew up a weaker, more highly hopped batch and mix the two as a (albeit more challenging) fix?

[dparsons]

28 IBU's balances with a gravity of 1.055. At a gravity of 1.078 you want to be at 40 IBU's to get the same bitterness ratio.

[beerking]

If it is too sweet, another option is to add isohop extract. That will increase bitterness in the beer.