Red Pheasant Pilsner

When I was 17, I spent a year living in Germany. What followed was one of those classic stories. Boy discovers beer. Boy drinks beer. And so on. Basically, I fell in love with German Pilsners. When I first thought about brewing, a German style Pilsner was what I thought about first. Those straw colored beers are the images that pop in my head when you say the word beer.

Which is to say, the beer I brewed yesterday is the first incarnation of what will hopefully become sort of my "haus bier." It is my homage to all the delicious Warsteiners, Radebergers and Hasseroeders that I consumed back in the good old days.

The recipe:

Grain
8 pounds German Pilsner
1 pound Munich

Hops
1/2 oz. Hallertauer Hersbrucker- 60 minutes
1/2 oz. Hallertauer Hersbrucker- 45 minutes
1/2 oz. Mt. Hood- 15 minutes
1/2 oz. Mt. Hood- Knockout

Yeast
This batch was pitched directly on to the yeast cake from the batch of Blue Blood Lager. I literally racked the Blue Blood, and poured this batch on top.

Final stats:
OG- 1.048
SRM- 3.5 or 4. It could end up slightly darker than I was hoping. TBD.
FG- TBD. Having pitched on to the yeast starter from Blue Blood, I had about a 3 hour lag time. This one should ferment nicely. Hopefully making up for all the other stuff that went haywire.

I tried to stay a bit closer to the "guidelines" that the style calls for than I did with the Blue Blood a few weeks ago. I was looking for a particular flavor this time. I also elected to do a step mash, due to the less modified European malts. I doughed in at 125 degrees for a 20 minute protein rest, infused hot water to bring it up to 152 for 40 minutes, and then did a decoction to get to the mash out temp. I nailed the protein rest and saccharification temperatures. The decoction worked nicely, but I missed the mash out temp by at least 8 degrees. I attribute that more to not pulling the correct amount as opposed to poor execution. It was on to the sparge.

What followed was the mother of all plugged sparges. I vorlaufed 8 quarts, and it just didn't seem to clear properly. I guess I should have known something was wrong, but I don't think there was anything I could have done about it at that point. The damage was done. I blew back up the hose like a good brewer does. Nothing. Blew again. Still nothing. And again. And again. And again. No flow.

I was basically at the point where temps were dropping in the mash tun and the hot liquor tank, and something was going to have to happen, or I was going to be dumping the entire mash into the composter. And then drinking every drop of alcohol in the house. Luckily, I remembered a post from The Daily Ikura where he had a similar problem. I took his lead and basically transferred the entire mash from the cooler to a bucket. Sure enough, about half a pound of grist had gotten underneath the false bottom, plugging it all up. Thing is, the more I think about it, the more I feel like my blowing in the hose lifted the false bottom and made it worse.

Whatever the case, I managed to get it all relatively straightened out. I'm sure things got screwed up a bit as far as efficiency is concerned, but somehow I managed to actually hit the starting gravity I had planned for to get in the fermenter. From this I think it is safe to assume that I planned on brewing like a moron.

I was much more careful about the boil this week, and brought it up to 212 slowly, thereby avoiding the wort launch that I got with the Blue Blood. The rest of the day went pretty quietly. Again, chilling in 32 degree weather is a breeze. Especially when the cold water coming out of the tap is only 40 degrees or so.

I got another education about brewing today. The decoction was much easier than I thought, although I will be more careful in the future about calculating and then pulling the right amount. I will also be adding a port to the side of my brew kettle next time. Poor Kerry nearly froze helping me pour. Also, I spilled some. There is a better way, and I'm convinced that that way is draining as opposed to pouring a heavy-ass pot into a funnel.

The main thing I learned is that this is going to take time to get working right. I have read four or five books, and blogs and forums beyond count about brewing. But there is nothing like giving something a try, keeping good notes on it, and learning from it. Technique cannot be picked up in a book.

Small bit of housekeeping: I have to give props to Brian from The Daily Ikura. If I hadn't read that post of his about transferring the mash, I don't know that I would have come up with a solution in time to save this batch. Prost, Brian!