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Looks good, but just to warn you we've had plans to release a Rye Pils for a while now, so just don't think I stole it from you if/when it shows up on tap somewhere.

Personally the only changes I'd make is to up the IBU's to ~40. Our German Pils usually comes in anywhere between 50-60 (lab verified) w/ a similar OG and it's definitely on the bitter side, but not overly so (IMO of course). We also use WLP830 which I believe attenuates a bit better, so with that yeast 40 IBU's should still leave plenty of delicious maltiness to balance things out.

With that said, I've always wanted to try the Urquell yeast, so if you brew it definitely report back on how it comes out!

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I really need to make it down there to your brewery to try some of your stuff one of these days! Do you guys distribute out to League City? I'll be there in July for my wife's family reunion.

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Question on lagers, since that will be my first of those. My research has come up with this very general fermentation schedule: Ferment at 50*F or so (yeast dependent, of course) until it's about 75% done, then slowly raise the temps up to the mid 60s for a diacetyl rest. Leave it there for a couple of days, then rack off the yeast into a secondary vessel (can I just use a corny keg for this?) and lager (age) for a month or two, down around 33*F. Is that about right?

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I really need to make it down there to your brewery to try some of your stuff one of these days! Do you guys distribute out to League City? I'll be there in July for my wife's family reunion.

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I don't generally deal w/ sales, but I know we're in Nobi and they often have several of our beers. I've been meaning to get down there!

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Question on lagers, since that will be my first of those. My research has come up with this very general fermentation schedule: Ferment at 50*F or so (yeast dependent, of course) until it's about 75% done, then slowly raise the temps up to the mid 60s for a diacetyl rest. Leave it there for a couple of days, then rack off the yeast into a secondary vessel (can I just use a corny keg for this?) and lager (age) for a month or two, down around 33*F. Is that about right?

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That's almost exactly how we ferment most of our lagers. From the literature I've read, it's often referred to as a "modern" lager fermentation as it tends to be a good balance between tank time and flavor profile. If you ever want to read more on other schedules, this is one of the best websites I've found: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fermenting_Lagers . There's a really cool graphic a little down the page that shows a few different methods.

The only thing I'd suggest is not using a set time for diacetyl rest, but rather test for VDK precursors which is really easy. Just heat a small sample (a few ounces is fine) to 140F and hold for ~30 minutes. If you strongly smell diacetyl, it needs a little more time. For a standard gravity lager, 2-3 days is pretty common given everything else was in check, but it's just too easy to test to risk it.

And racking to a keg is perfect if you don't have a conical. I'd probably crash it in the primary first though and rack it over after a couple of days to remove the majority of the yeast. Honestly a week or two of "lagering" is usually fine IMO, but the great part about it being in the keg is it will continue to lager as you drink it.

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I really need to make it down there to your brewery to try some of your stuff one of these days! Do you guys distribute out to League City? I'll be there in July for my wife's family reunion.

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I don't generally deal w/ sales, but I know we're in Nobi and they often have several of our beers. I've been meaning to get down there!

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Thanks, I'll have to swing by there at least once. I'm not sure yet if we're going to drive down or fly. If we drive, we'll go through Conroe, so I'll see if I can convince the wife to make a stop!

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Ok so new recipe, or actually just my last one modified, to be tried out soon on my upgraded brewing set. let me know what y'all think

Blonde Ale (working on a name for if I like it, currently thinking about "Blonde Confusion" since at this point i am just guessing at what i am doing)

target of 5.5 gallons into Fermentor

Mash:
Pale Malt (3.5 L) - 5.5 lbs
Vienna Malt (3.5 L) - 5.5 lbs
60 minutes @ 154F then mash out (last time i did a 90 minute mash but am not sure i gained anything from the extra 30 minutes so i bumped the temp for a little fuller body. what say yall? 60 min or 90?)

60 min boil:
Saaz (Cz) -3.5 AAU - 1.5 oz - 60 min
Saaz (Cz) -3.5 AAU - 1.0 oz - 15 min
Cascade - 5.8 AAU - 0.25 oz - 15 min (is this enough to get the flavor profile coming through of this hop?)

into primary fermentor at 65 degress with two packets of rehydrated US-05, cold crash for 2 days then bottle condition for 2-3 weeks.

everything is still in the mail at this point so i am very open to suggestions or comments.

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Jock itch or somebody else can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that beer is light enough that you only need one US-05 package.

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Jock itch or somebody else can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that beer is light enough that you only need one US-05 package.

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I always thought that the extra 30 minutes was used since with full volume BIAB, you're skipping the sparge step. If it's not doing me any good, I'd rather just bump it down to a 60 minute mash to save time.

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I always thought that the extra 30 minutes was used since with full volume BIAB, you're skipping the sparge step. If it's not doing me any good, I'd rather just bump it down to a 60 minute mash to save time.

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Depending on your crush, mash temp, etc...conversion is usually done much faster than 60 minutes even. The only reason to extend it is to increase attenuation a bit, but for the most part after 60-90 minutes you see diminishing returns.

FWIW, it takes us about 15-20 minutes to mash in and we start vorlaufing immediately. As soon as the wort is clear we start running off, sometimes as soon as 30 minutes total and we always see full conversion. 60 minutes is a good "safe" time which I guess is why it's used so much, but it generally doesn't even take that long.

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On a slightly different subject, is it still a good rule to do 90 minutes boils when using Pilsner malt to get rid of more DMS?

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On a slightly different subject, is it still a good rule to do 90 minutes boils when using Pilsner malt to get rid of more DMS?

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Hate to use the "it depends", but that's the truth. It really just depends on how vigorous your boil is (basically how much boil off your're getting since that's what we're trying to do w/ DMS precursors). We do a 90 minute boil on our Pils just to be safe, but once we have a way to test for it I have a strong feeling we could cut that time back a bit. With that said, our boil is pretty strong so for the average homebrewer I think sticking w/ the 90 minute rule is the best bet.

And for a fun factoid, there are some production kettles that use either a calandria or external boiler under pressure to superheat the wort which dramatically increases the boil-off rate. From what I understand, some breweries are getting away with as little as a 30-45 minute boil! Some day, some day...

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I have yet to begin my house pale ale recipe trials, but I'm pretty sure I want to work with Palisade for the main aroma/flavoring hops. I have brewers gold at 60 minutes for the bulk of the IBUs and a charge of palisade at 10 minutes and a dry hop of palisade after primary. Like I said, the recipe itself is untested, but I think it should make for a nice interesting variation of the style everyone knows well. I also throw flaked oats in for the heck of it.

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Ok, so here's what I've got for my Red Vienna-style Lager:

6lbs Vienna
4lbs Pilsner
1lb Munich I
0.25lb Dehusked Carafa II

Will that amount carafa add enough color to get me a nice red color?

Hops:

1.5oz Hallertau each at 60 and 10

WLP830 German Lager yeast (probably 2 vials into a 2L starter, I'll check with Mr. Malty)

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Mr. Malty is calling for a 3.74L starter if I use 2 vials (assuming 1 month old yeast, that seems to be what I normally get from LHBS). I only have a 2L Erlenmeyer flask currently. If I do a few 1L steps, will that get me the yeast count I need?

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Any of y'all use honey as priming sugar?

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Speaking of Force carbing. Does anyone have any experience with bottling from a keg using either the beergun or counterflow filler?

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Overall looks really nice. I'd have to plug the recipe into Beersmith to see about the color, but at ~2% Carafa I would guess it should be in the amberish range. Another option if you like the taste of Munich would be to replace all of the Pils w/ it. Our Festbier from last year was 80% Vienna/20% Munich and still had a really nice amber color to it. With that said, the Munich can overpower the Vienna so that's totally your call as far as what you want in the beer.

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For yeast though, I always suggest the dry W/34-70. It's our house lager yeast right now and behaves very similarly to WLP830 in my opinion. It's also much cheaper/easier to just pitch a couple packs instead of building a starter.

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