Advanced · 20 litres · all grain
German Pils
Drier and far more bitter than a helles, on hard water, with a spicy German hop character that has to stay clean rather than turning coarse. The hardest style on this site to brew well.
Original gravity
1.048
at 72% efficiency
Final gravity
1.010
78% apparent attenuation
Alcohol
4.9%
by volume
Bitterness
37 IBU
Tinseth
Colour
3.4 SRM
7 EBC, Morey
Grain bill
4.30 kg
0.21 kg per litre
Brewed to German Pils, and all five computed figures land inside the published ranges for it.
OG inFG inABV inIBU inSRM inWhat decides this beer
Where the bitterness comes from. Firm and clean is the target; get the IBU from a small clean charge early and the aroma from late additions, not from an hour-long boil of aroma hops.
Fermentables
| Malt | Weight | Colour | Extract | Of grist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pilsner malt | 4.20 kg | 1.8 L | 37 ppg | 98% |
| Acidulated malt About 2% of the grist, which drops mash pH by roughly 0.2 without any tasteable sourness. | 0.10 kg | 3 L | 33 ppg | 2% |
Colour and extract are read from the malt reference, not typed into this recipe, so they are the same figures every other page on the site uses.
Crushing your ownGrain mill$92.90Hop schedule
| Hop | Weight | Alpha | Time | Contributes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magnum A clean high-alpha bittering charge keeps the bitterness smooth. A big weight of low-alpha hops boiled an hour is where harshness comes from. | 16 g | 13% | 60 min | 24.5 IBU |
| Tettnanger | 30 g | 4.5% | 20 min | 9.6 IBU |
| Hallertau Mittelfrueh | 30 g | 4% | 5 min | 2.8 IBU |
Alpha acid varies by crop year and lot, which is why it lives on the recipe rather than on the variety. Brew to the figure printed on your packet and the bitterness will move; the IBU calculator will tell you by how much.
Method
- 01Mash at 64C for 60 minutes for a fermentable wort.
- 02Boil 90 minutes uncovered. Pilsner malt makes DMS and only a vigorous open boil removes it.
- 03Chill to 9C, oxygenate, and pitch a large starter.
- 04Ferment at 10C, then a two day diacetyl rest at 18C.
- 05Lager at near freezing for six weeks. There is no shortcut and every week is visible in the glass.
Numbers for the day
- Mash
- 64 C for 60 min
- Strike water at 3 L/kg
- 70.0 C
- Strike volume
- 12.9 L
- Boil
- 90 min
- Ferment
- 9-11 C
- Carbonate to
- 2.6 volumes
- Priming dextrose
- 136 g
- Yeast
- German LagerSafLager W-34/70
Strike temperature assumes grain at 20C and priming assumes the beer peaked at 20C after fermentation. Recompute both for your own kitchen on the strike and priming calculators.
For the mashDigital thermometer$12.31
For the fermentTemperature controller$36.00Before you package
Take a gravity reading two days apart and only package when it has not moved. A beer bottled while still fermenting keeps fermenting in the bottle, and the sugar you prime with lands on top of whatever was left. At 2.6 volumes this one needs about 136 g of dextrose for the batch.
To know it has finishedHydrometer and trial jar$21.99