Advanced · 20 litres · all grain
Munich Helles
Nowhere to hide. A pale, malt-forward lager with almost no hop character and no yeast expression, which means every process flaw you have is on display in the glass.
Original gravity
1.048
at 72% efficiency
Final gravity
1.011
76% apparent attenuation
Alcohol
4.7%
by volume
Bitterness
20 IBU
Tinseth
Colour
4.0 SRM
8 EBC, Morey
Grain bill
4.30 kg
0.21 kg per litre
Brewed to Munich Helles, and all five computed figures land inside the published ranges for it.
OG inFG inABV inIBU inSRM inWhat decides this beer
Pitch rate and patience. A lager needs roughly twice the yeast an ale does, fermented cold, then a diacetyl rest and weeks of lagering. Rushing any of those produces a beer that tastes of butterscotch or green apple.
Fermentables
| Malt | Weight | Colour | Extract | Of grist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pilsner malt | 4.00 kg | 1.8 L | 37 ppg | 93% |
| Munich malt | 0.30 kg | 10 L | 35 ppg | 7% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hallertau Mittelfrueh | 34 g | 4% | 60 min | 16.0 IBU |
| Hallertau Mittelfrueh | 15 g | 4% | 15 min | 3.5 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 65C. A 90 minute boil drives off DMS precursors, which pilsner malt has plenty of.
- 02Chill to 9C and pitch a very large, healthy yeast starter.
- 03Ferment at 10C until gravity is within a few points of terminal.
- 04Raise to 18C for two days: the diacetyl rest, and it is not optional.
- 05Drop 2C per day to near freezing and lager for at least four weeks.
Numbers for the day
- Mash
- 65 C for 60 min
- Strike water at 3 L/kg
- 71.2 C
- Strike volume
- 12.9 L
- Boil
- 90 min
- Ferment
- 9-11 C
- Carbonate to
- 2.5 volumes
- Priming dextrose
- 128 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 2.5 volumes this one needs about 128 g of dextrose for the batch.
To know it has finishedHydrometer and trial jar$21.99