Brewing American Pilsner
Original Gravity range: 1.040–1.046 (10–11.5 °Plato)
Final Gravity range: 1.004–1.007 (2–3.5 °Plato)
SRM range: 2–5
IBU range: 10–14
ABV: around 5%
American Pilsner beers are not a favorite among homebrewers, although many who know how difficult it is to brew a lightly-flavored, delicately-balanced beer acknowledge the high level of technical expertise required to brew this style to the consistency of the major breweries. As Editor of Brew Your Own, I’ve received quite a bit of mail asking how to brew beers like this, often with the explanation that the brewer wants to brew this beer for a party, family member or friend. Whether you’re interested in brewing a beer for ice fishing with Uncle Bob, learning techniques you could potentially adapt to other beers styles or are a homebrewer who actually enjoys the style, this article is an overview of the ingredients and — most importantly — the techniques used to make American Pilsner lager beer.
Basic ingredients and process
The basic ingredients for an American Pilsner are barley malt, adjunct (corn or rice), hops, water and yeast. Given the light overall flavor profile of the style, your ingredients need to be fresh and of high quality. Any stale flavors from your malt or adjunct or cheesy flavors from your hops will show right through. Likewise, when brewing an American Pilsner, you need to pay attention to anything in your brewing process that can cause off flavors or aromas.
Six-row and two-row malt
The malt bill for an American Pilsner may be composed of 6-row barley malt or a blend of 6-row and 2-row pale malts. The malt should be lightly kilned, with a color around 1.6-1.8 °L, as the target color for the beer is very light — generally 2–5 SRM.
The amount of protein varies in different types of malted barley. Generally, 6-row barley malt contains around 13% protein, while domestic 2-row malts contain around 12%. (For comparison, wheat malt often contains around 14% protein.) Since it contains more protein, 6-row pale malt has correspondingly more diastatic power (DP) than domestic 2-row malts. Six-row malts are usually rated around 160 DP compared to 2-row malts, which are usually rated around 120 DP. This “extra” enzymatic power is needed to convert to starches from the adjunct.
Six-row malts also have smaller kernels than 2-row malts and have correspondingly more husk material per unit weight. As such, 6-row malt yields a more “grainy” flavored beer than 2-row, but the flavor difference is subtle.
Barley malt occupies around 60–70% of the total grain bill of an American Pilsner, with the remaining 30–40% being adjunct. At home, German Pilsner malts can be substituted for the 2-row portion of your grain bill, but don’t use 2-row pale ale malts from the UK for an American Pilsner. With a color rating around 3 °L and a diastatic power around 45 DP, they are too dark and do not have enough enzymatic power to make this style of beer. No crystal malts, “cara” malts (such as CaraPils®, CaraFoam®, etc.) or other specialty malts are used.
Corn or rice adjunct
Corn is the most common adjunct in American Pilsners, although some — including, Budweiser and Coors — are made with rice. (Interestingly, potatoes were used briefly by the Lucky Brewery during World War II, due to rationing of foods.) Corn and rice supply starch to the mash, which is degraded into sugars by the enzymes from the grain. Corn and rice yield very little color and their flavor is nearly neutral.
Corn and rice are also low in protein compared to malt, with corn grits usually containing around 9% protein and rice grits containing 5–8%. The combination of low protein adjunct and high-protein 6-row barley malt yields a wort with protein levels comparable to that of a beer made from only 2-row malt.
The corn or rice used in American Pilsners is not malted, so it contributes no starch-degrading enzymes to the mash. The corn or rice starch is degraded by amylase enzymes from the malt or, in the case of very high adjunct rates — as when making a malt liquor — by enzyme preparations added to the mash.
At home, you have some options when it comes to the adjunct you use. If you are making a corn lager, you can use either flaked maize, corn grits or brewers corn syrup. Flaked maize (or flaked corn) is “pre-gelatinized” and can simply be stirred into your mash. If you use grits, you need to do a cereal mash. Brewers corn syrup is a kettle adjunct; just add it for the last 15 minutes of the boil. If you choose rice, your choices are similar — flaked rice, rice grits or rice syrup.
Commercially, American Pilsners are brewed as strong beers, then diluted to working strength prior to packaging. The initial wort may be as thick as 16 °Plato (OG 1.064) prior to fermentation and is then diluted so that the “virtual OG” is 10–11.5 °Plato (OG 1.040–1.046). To give one example, Bud is brewed at 14.5 °Plato (OG 1.058), but diluted with water to virtual OG of around 11.25 °Plato (OG 1.045). As a homebrewer, it is much easier to brew this style at working strength.
Neutral hop blend
The hopping rate for American Pilsners is very low, with IBU levels generally around 10–14. Most any hop variety that is relatively neutral, or a blend of hop varieties that is relatively neutral, will work. For many years, the variety Cluster was popular among American brewers. Noble hops are also a good choice.
Anheuser-Busch (A-B) grows Saaz and Hallertau hops in Idaho and buys domestic Cascade and Willamette hops. They also import Strisselspalt and Spalt Select hops. They also own a hop farm in Bavaria, Germany. Miller uses tetrahydroisohumulones, added after the boil. These bittering compounds are extracted from a hop variety high in beta acids, likely Newport. Coors is known to buy a lot of Sterling hops, although they probably use other varieties as well.
Lager yeast
American Pilsners are brewed with lager yeasts and most lager strains will do a decent job. Your best choice, however, may be Wyeast 2007 (Pilsen Lager) or White Labs WLP840 (American Lager). Yeast companies don’t generally give the origins of their yeast strains, but the above offerings are rumored to be Budweiser’s strain. Wyeast 2035 (American Lager), which may come from Minnesota’s Schell Brewery, is another good choice. Wyeast 2042 (Danish Lager), White Labs WLP850 (Copenhagen Lager) or White Labs WLP940 (Mexican Lager) yeast are also good choices.
Commercial practice is to pitch about one million cells per milliliter per degree Plato. For 5 gallons (19 L) of wort at a specific gravity of 1.044 (11 °Plato), that means around 210 billion cells. To raise this number of cells, a 3-quart (~3 L) yeast starter should be made. Make the starter by boiling 0.5 lb. (0.23 kg) of dried malt extract and a pinch (<1/16 tsp) of yeast nutrients in water to yield 3 qts.(~3 L) of starter wort at around SG 1.030. Cool the starter wort and oxygenate it with a 60 second shot of oxygen (or 5–10 minutes of air). Pitch the yeast and let the starter ferment at room temperature. Just after high kräusen, refrigerate the yeast starter to crash out the yeast. Use the yeast within the next couple of days.
Soft water
Water quality is crucial when making an American Pilsner. First and foremost, your water should taste good. If your brewing water has off flavors, your beer will have the same off flavors.
For the best results, your brewing water should have less than 50 ppm carbonates and around 50–75 ppm calcium ions. If you have high carbonate water, dilute it with distilled or RO water until the carbonate level is less than 50 ppm. If needed, add back calcium ions by adding calcium chloride (CaCl2•2H20) or gypsum (CaSO4•2H2O). For 15 gallons (58 L) of distilled water or water purified by reverse osmosis (RO), adding 3.0–4.5 teaspoons of calcium chloride or gypsum will get you in the target range.
Treat your brewing water to remove any chloramines. The easiest, most effective way to do this is to add one Campden tablet (potassium metabisulfite) tablet per 20 gallons (76 L) of brewing water. Prepare your water the night before you brew, add the Campden tablet and let your water sit, loosely covered, overnight. The chloramines in your water will be neutralized virtually instantly and the sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas released by the tablets will diffuse out of your water overnight. Residual chloramines in your water will yield a band aid-like character to your beer.
…and still more water
If you plan to brew a strong beer and dilute it, you will need to prepare your dilution water the day you package your beer. Your major concern in doing so will be minimizing dissolved oxygen in the dilution water. If you boil your water strongly, and perhaps bubble CO2 through it when it cools, you will reduce the amount of gaseous oxygen (O2) in the water to less than 1 ppm. However, this is still enough to promote early staling. Unless you plan to drink the beer in the few weeks after packaging it, it is probably better to just brew the beer at working strength.
Mash for high fermentability
How you mash will depend on your choice of adjunct. If you use a pre-gelatinized adjunct such as flaked corn or rice syrup solids, or a kettle adjunct, you can use either a single infusion mash or a stepped infusion mash. For a single infusion mash, a rest at 148–150 °F (64–66 °C) will work fairly well, although the wort may not be as fermentable as it should be for the style. A step mash with a 15-minutes rest at 122 °F (50 °C), a 30-minute rest at 140 °F (60 °C) and a saccharification rest at 150–152 °F (66–67 °C) would work better. The length of time you spend at 140 °F (60 °C) will influence how dry your beer is. (Bud Light has a long (2-hour) rest at this temperature and big breweries will adjust the length of this rest based on the DP of the combined malts.) Whether you do a single infusion or step mash, mash out with a final rest of around 5 minutes at 168 °F (76 °C) before lautering. Use a mash thickness of around 4:1 (1.9 qts./lb. or 4 L/kg), which is thinner than a typical infusion mash.
If you use corn grits or rice grits, you will need to perform a cereal (or double) mash. In a cereal mash you begin by heating a mash of your adjunct and small amount of your 6-row malt to 158–160 °F (70–71 °C) and holding there for about 5 minutes. Then you heat the mixture to a boil, boil for 30 minutes, and return the cereal mash to the main mash. The bulk of your barley malt can be mashed in at 122 °F (50 °C), then heated to 140 °F (60 °C). When the boiled cereal mash is added to the main mash, the temperature moves into the saccharification range. Cereal mashing requires a nearly constant stirring of the mash. Using flaked maize is much simpler.
Lautering
After the mash, recirculate until the wort clears substantially, which usually takes at least 20 minutes. Next, shoot for collecting the wort over about 90 minutes. Keep your sparge water hot enough to keep the grain bed around, but not over, 168 °F (76 °C). When the specific gravity of your late runnings drops to 1.008 — or the pH climbs above 5.8 — stop sparging.
If you are brewing the high-gravity version, you will probably have roughly the right amount of wort for your boil. If you are going to brew your American Pilsner at working strength, add water so you have a wort volume large enough for a 90-minute boil.
Boiling and DMS
The equipment and procedures for wort boiling vary quite a bit among big breweries, and a review of all the methods currently in use would take an article unto itself. For homebrewers making an American Pilsner, the main thing to focus on is achieving a good hard boil.
As with the boil for any beer style, you want to sanitize the wort, isomerize the alpha acids in your hops and produce a good hot break. In addition, with American Pilsners, volatilizing dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is of special concern.
DMS is a molecule that causes beer to have a cooked corn-like flavor and aroma. During malting, the precursor to DMS (s-methyl methionine or SMM) is formed as the barley is germinating. SMM is converted to DMS when heated. In the darker base malts — including Munich malt, Vienna malt and pale ale malt — the heat of kilning converts SMM to DMS. And, since DMS is very volatile, the heat also drives it off. In lightly-kilned malts — such as 2-row pale malt and especially 6-row pale malt — SMM is still present in the malt and must be converted to DMS and driven off during the boil. A good 90 minute rolling boil, evaporating about 10% of your wort volume per hour, should achieve this.
Many homebrewers contemplating making their first light lager beer may wonder if such a long boil is really a good idea, preferring instead to minimize color development by employing a short boil. In reality, a 90-minute boil should not darken a very light wort much unless the evaporation rate is excessively high or heat from your burner is focused onto “hot spots” under your kettle.
When boiling, a small addition of calcium is very helpful. Calcium helps drop the pH of the boiling wort to the proper level and lowers color pickup during the boil. For a 5-gallon (19-L) batch, about 1/4–1/2 tsp of calcium chloride or gypsum during the boil is sufficient. When the wort first comes to a boil, skim the dark brown “crud” in the foam.
After the boil, cool the wort as quickly as is feasible. Even after a good boil, some SMM will be left in the wort. If you cool too slowly, it will get converted to DMS, but not evaporate out of the wort.
Cooling with either a copper immersion chiller or counter-flow wort chiller will work fine. You don’t need to cool the wort blindingly quickly, but letting the wort cool overnight, as some homebrewers do for their ales, is a bad idea.
Some commercial breweries have additional, or alternate, ways of dealing with DMS. Anheuser-Busch employs a relatively short boil and “wort stripper” — a set-up that blows air through a stream of hot wort after the boil.
Fermentation and VDKs
For the best results, cool your wort all the way down to fermentation temperature. A temperature in the mid-point of your yeast’s recommended range will work fine.
You will want to separate as much break material from the wort as you reasonably can when you send it to the fermenter. If you use an immersion chiller, let the wort settle for 15–30 minutes after cooling, then rack the wort to your fermenter. If you use a counterflow chiller, run the cold wort into a sanitized bucket and let the break material settle before transferring it to your fermenter. Brewers lucky enough to have a cylindro-conical fermenter can just dump the hot break by opening the bottom valve. There is no need to worry about leaving behind every last bit of trub. (In fact, a small amount helps with yeast nutrition.) But separating the bulk of the break material from the wort will help minimize off flavors.
Aerate the wort well, with a 60-second shot of oxygen or 10 or more minutes of filtered air from an aquarium pump.
Take the yeast starter out of the fridge while you are cooling the wort and let it warm just a bit, then pitch the yeast sediment from the starter immediately after aeration.
If you ferment in a bucket or cylindro-conical fermenter, open the fermenter up at high kräusen and skim the darkest, resiny bits of hop “gunk” from the kräusen with a sanitized spoon. This removes some of the harshest bittering compounds and leaves a smoother tasting final product. (It also lowers your IBU level slightly.)
If you ferment in a carboy, try to ferment enough volume such that the kräusen will just hit the top of the glass. This will cause some of that material to stick. At Anheuser-Busch, they use fermenters with false ceilings for this.
One character that is considered a flaw in American Pilsners is the presence of vicinal diketones (VDKs) — such as 2,3 pentanedione and, especially, diacetyl.
Like all brewers yeast strains, lager yeast secretes the precursor of diacetyl (a-acetolactic acid) into wort. In the wort, outside of the yeast cells, diacetyl is formed. The formation rate is increased by the presence of oxygen. Later on in the fermentation, the yeast absorbs the diacetyl. As such, you need to ensure that any diacetyl is cleaned up before separating your beer from its yeast.
The simplest way to ensure that the yeast absorb the diacetyl is to perform a diacetyl rest. As fermentation slows, and the specific gravity of the beer falls to a couple points above its predicted final gravity, let the temperature rise to around 60 °F (16 °C). Hold it there until sampling reveals no detectable diacetyl. This usually only takes a couple days, but many homebrewers simply let diacetyl rests go for three or four days, without taking any samples, before they start cooling their beer.
Kräusening is another option for dealing with diacetyl. Finished Budweiser is a mixture of their base fermented beer, a different beer brewed especially for kräusening and the final dilution water. If you do kräusen, retaining the CO2 produced for naturally carbonated beer is an option. See page 54 for how to build a spunding valve and accomplish this.
Once the diacetyl in your beer has been reduced, and it has reached its final gravity (usually 1.004–1.006, if you brewed the beer at working strength), it is best to separate the beer from the spent yeast. (If you are going to kräusen, you can do this earlier by racking from primary to a Corny keg.) Either rack the beer to secondary or dump the yeast from the bottom of your cyclindro-conical fermenter. Cool the beer to lagering temperatures — refrigerator temperature (40 °F/4.4 °C) is a convenient option — and let it cold condition (lager).
At commercial breweries, lagering time is usually around 3 weeks. How-ever, filtering and sometimes other techniques (such as A-B’s beechwood aging) will speed the lagering time compared to beer sitting in a bulk tank (such as a Corny keg). As such, it’s best to lager a little longer at home — 5 weeks should be adequate, but let your taste buds be your guide.
Once the beer is conditioned, you can either fine the beer or filter it for clarity. Stirring in 2 tsp of Polyclar AT, dissolved in hot water, per 5 gallons (19 L) of beer the night before you rack the beer to your keg or bottling bucket is a good option for homebrewers without a filtration system (i.e. most of us). In the keg or bottle, shoot for a carbonation level of 2.5–2.8 volumes of CO2. Serve the beer ice cold.
Success or failure
American Pilsner is one of the hardest styles to brew at home. You do not have any room for off flavors or aromas to hide. As such, you need to pay attention to every stage of brewing — from ingredient selection, to hot side procedures to fermentation and conditioning.
For many homebrewers, their first stab at the style occurs when they brew a batch for a party. If you do this, I strongly recommend brewing a test batch first and identifying anything in your ingredients or methods that may yield off flavors or aromas.
RECIPES
Red, White and Brew
(7.5 gallons/28 L, all-grain with adjunct)
OG = 1.044 FG = 1.005
IBU = 12 SRM = 4 ABV = 5.0%
This is a modern American Pilsner, though not an attempt to clone any particular brand. It is brewed like a 5-gallon (19-L) batch, but after the addition of the kräusen beer and dilution water, you end up with 7.5 gallons (28 L) of beer. Your base beer (and kräusen beer) will have a gravity just over 14 °Plato (1.056) and have 16 IBUs.
Ingredients
- 5 lb. 14 oz. (2.7 kg) 2-row pale malt
- 3 lb. 14 oz. (1.8 kg) 6-row pale malt
- 4 lb. 2.0 oz. (1.9 kg) corn grits
- 1/4 tsp calcium chloride (90 mins)
- 1 tsp. Irish moss (15 mins)
- 4.5 AAU Magnum hops
- (0.28 oz./8.0 g of 16% alpha acids)
- 0.5 AAU Saaz hops
- (30 mins in kräusen beer)
- (1/8 oz./3.5 g of 3.5 % alpha acids)
- 0.5 AAU Hallertau hops
- (30 mins in kräusen beer)
- (1/8 oz./3.5 g of 3.5 % alpha acids)
- Wyeast 2007 (Pilsen Lager) or
- White Labs WLP 840 (North American Lager) yeast
- (3.5 qt./~3.5 L yeast starter)
Step by Step
Reserve a handful of 6-row malt. Mash in remaining barley malts by combining crushed malts with 4.5 gallons (17 L) of water at 133 °F (56 °C) in your kettle and begin mashing at 122 °F (50 °C). Combine corn grits and handful of 6-row malt with 1.5 gallons (5.7 L) of water in a large kitchen pot and begin heating cereal mash to 158 °F (70 °C). Rest cereal mash at 158 °F (70 °C) for 5 minutes, then bring to a boil. Boil for 30 minutes. (The cereal mash will need to be stirred almost constantly while being heated and boiled.) After boiling the cereal mash for about 5 minutes, begin heating the main mash to 140 °F (60 °C) at a rate of about 2 °F (~1 °C) per minute. Hold main mash at 140 °F (60 °C), once that temperature is reached. Stir main mash while heating to prevent scorching. When cereal mash is done boiling, combine with main mash (at 140 °F/60 °C) and adjust temperature — if needed — to 153 °F (67 °C). Keep mash at 153 °F (67 °C) for 20 minutes, then begin performing an iodine test every 5 minutes. When iodine test is negative (no color change to blue or purple), begin heating mash to 168 °F (76 °C). Transfer mash to lauter tun, let mash settle for 5 minutes, then recirculate wort for 20 minutes (or until substantially clear). Sparge with water hot enough to keep grain bed at
170 °F (77 °C ) and collect about 5 gallons (19 L) of wort, add 2.5 gallons (9.5 L) of water and bring to a rolling boil.
Once wort comes to a boil, stir in 1/4 tsp of calcium chloride and then remove 1 gallon (3.8 L) of wort and place it in a covered pot to cool. This will be your kräusen wort you will use later. Once wort cools, siphon to a 1.0-gallon (3.8 L) jug and refrigerate until needed.
Boil the remaining 6.5 gallons (25 L) of wort down to 5.0 gallons (19 L) over 90 minutes, adding single hop addition at 60 minutes left in boil. Add Irish moss with 15 minutes left in boil. Cool wort down to 48 °F (8.8 °C) and transfer wort to fermenter, leaving behind as much trub as you reasonably can. Aerate wort with a 60-second shot of oxygen and pitch all but about two tablespoons of yeast sediment from yeast starter. Refrigerate remaining yeast sediment in an air-tight container (like a White Labs yeast tube).
Ferment beer at 52 °F (11 °C). When fermentation slows greatly, prepare kräusen beer. To do this, take the 1.0 gallon (3.8 L) of wort you reserved, add the kräusen hops and boil for 30 minutes, shooting for 0.75 gallons (2.8 L) of post-boil wort. Cool kräusen wort to 52 °F (11 °C), siphon to sanitized 1.0-gallon (3.8-L) jug, aerate and pitch with remaining yeast. Let kräusen beer begin fermenting and come to high kräusen. Add kräusen beer to main batch of beer and let fermentation finish at 52 °F (11 °C).
After the fermentation is finished, separate beer from yeast and cool to 40 °F (4.4 °C). Allow to cold condition (lager) for 5–6 weeks. When you are ready to keg the beer, boil 2 gallons (7.6 L) of water down to 1.75 gallons (6.6 L) and cool rapidly. Add two-thirds of the dilution water — a little over 4.5 quarts, or 4.4 L — to a 5-gallon
(19-L) Corny keg and the remaining third of the water to a second Corny keg. (Use a 3.0-gallon (11-L) keg, if you have one, for the second keg.) Transfer beer to first keg until it is full, then transfer remaining beer to second keg. Seal kegs, purge their headspaces and force carbonate to 2.6 volumes of CO2. (Option: You can choose not to dilute the beer going to the second keg and have about 1.9 gallons (7.3 L) of strong beer or “malt liquor.”)
The Schizlitz
(1970’s-style American Pilsner)
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.045 FG = 1.006
IBU = 13 SRM = 4 ABV = 5.0%
This is a beer formulated with some information I received about how Schlitz was brewed back in 1975. I simplified this formulation by using flaked maize and specifiying that the beer be fermented at working strength, rather than using high gravity brewing.
Ingredients
- 4.0 lbs. (1.8 kg) 2-row pale malt
- 2 lb. 10 oz. (1.2 kg) 6-row pale malt
- 2 lb. 14 oz. (1.3 kg) flaked maize
- 1/4 tsp calcium chloride (90 mins)
- 1 tsp. Irish moss (15 mins)
- 1.75 AAU Cluster hops (60 mins)
- (0.55 oz./16 g of 7% alpha acids)
- 1.75 AAU US Fuggles hops (60 mins)
- (1.1 oz./32 g of 7% alpha acids)
- Wyeast 2035 (American Lager) yeast
- (3 qt./~3 L yeast starter)
- 1 cup corn sugar (for priming)
Step by Step
In kettle, mash in to 113 °F (45 °C) with 3.5 gallons (13 L) of water. Immediately begin heating mash to 145 °F (63 °C). Stir mash while heating. Rest for 15 minutes at 145 °F (63 °C), then heat mash to 154 °F (68 °C) and rest for 30 minutes (or until iodine test shows negative). Heat to 167 °F (75 °C) and transfer to lauter tun. Let mash sit for 5 minutes, then recirculate for 20 minutes (or until clear).
Sparge with 170 °F (77 °C ) water and collect roughly 5 gallons (19 L) of wort, add 1.5 gallons (5.7 L) of water and 1/4 tsp. of calcium chloride and bring to a boil. Boil for 90 minutes, adding all hops with 60 minutes left in boil. Add Irish moss with 15 minutes left.
Cool wort to 55 °F (13 °C), transfer to fermenter, aerate thoroughly and pitch yeast. Let ferment at 55 °F (13 °C) until fermentation slows, then allow temperature to rise to 60 °F (16 °C). After three days (or after sampling the beer and detecting no diacetyl), separate beer from yeast, cool beer to 40 °F (4.4 °C) and begin lagering. Allow to lager for 6 weeks, then keg and force carbonate to 2.6 volumes of CO2.
The Schizlitz
(1970’s-style American Pilsner)
(5 gallons/19 L, countertop partial mash)
OG = 1.045 FG = 1.006
IBU = 13 SRM = 4 ABV = 5.0%
Ingredients
- 1 lb. 2 oz. (0.51 kg) 6-row pale malt
- 1 lb. 11 oz. (0.77 kg) 2-row pale malt
- 1 lb. 3 oz. (0.54 kg) flaked maize
- 3.0 lbs. (1.4) Briess light liquid malt extract
- 14 oz. (0.4 kg) corn sugar
- 1 tsp. Irish moss (15 mins)
- 1.75 AAU Cluster hops (60 mins)
- (0.55 oz./16 g of 7% alpha acids)
- 1.75 AAU US Fuggles hops (60 mins)
- (1.1 oz./32 g of 7% alpha acids)
- Wyeast 2035 (American Lager) yeast
- (3 qt./~3 L yeast starter)
- 1 cup corn sugar (for priming)
Step by Step
Heat 5.5 qts. (5.2 L) of water to 164 °F (73 °C) and pour into a 2-gallon (7.6-L) beverage cooler. Place crushed grains and flaked maize in a large steeping bag and submerge in cooler water. Open bag and poke around with a spoon to ensure grains and water are thoroughly mixed. Let partial mash rest, starting at 153 °F (67 °C), for 45 minutes. While the partial mash is resting, heat 1.0 gallon (3.8 L) of water to a boil in your brewpot and heat 5.5 qts. (5.2 L) of water to 180 °F (82 °C) in a large soup pot.
Recirculate about 2 qts. (~2 L) of wort, then run off first wort and add to boiling water in brewpot. Add the 180 °F (82 °C) water to the cooler until liquid level is the same as before. Stir grains, let rest 5 minutes, then recirculate and run off wort as before.
Add corn sugar and bring wort to a boil. Once hot break forms, add hops and boil for 60 minutes. Add Irish moss with 15 minutes left in boil. After boil, stir in liquid malt extract and let steep for 15 minutes before cooling wort.
Cool brewpot in sink or with immersion chiller. Transfer wort to fermenter and top up to 5 gallons (19 L) with cold water. Aerate wort, pitch yeast and follow fermenting and lagering instructions in all-grain recipe.
Doughboy Draught
(Late WWI American Pilsner)
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.032 FG = 1.006
IBU = 20 SRM = 4 ABV = 3.4%
American Pilsners were bigger and hoppier in the past, right? Well, not always. In 1917 — near the end of World War I — Congress passed the Food and Fuel Control Act (also known as the Lever Act), which gave President Wilson the power to set prices on and direct the distribution of food and coal. Wilson shut distilleries, limited the amount of coal breweries could use and capped the alcohol percentage in beer to 2.75% by weight (about 3.4% by volume). Here is a classic American Pilsner an American infantryman (or doughboy) might have drank during training, before being shipped off to the trenches in Europe.
Ingredients
- 3.0 lbs. (1.4 kg) 6-row pale malt
- 2 lb. 2 oz. (0.96 kg) 2-row pale malt
- 1 lb. 12 oz. (0.79 kg) flaked maize
- 5.0 AAU Cluster hops (60 mins)
- (0.71 oz./20 g of 7% alpha acids)
- 0.25 oz. (7.1 g) Saaz hops (10 mins)
- 1/2 tsp calcium chloride (75 mins)
- 1 tsp Irish moss (15 mins)
- Wyeast 2007 (Pilsen Lager) or White Labs WLP 840 (North American Lager) yeast (2 qt./~2 L yeast starter)
- 5.5 oz. (142 g) corn sugar (for priming)
Step by Step
Use 3.0 gallons (11 L) of mash water. Step mash grains and flaked maize with a 10-minute rest at 122 °F (50 °C), a 10-minute rest at 144 °F (62 °C) and a 40-minute rest at 156 °F (69 °C). Heat mash to 168 °F (76 °C) for mashout. Recircu-late and runoff wort. Sparge with 170 °F (77 °C) water and collect about 3.5 gallons (13 L) of wort. Add 2.75 gallons (10 L) of water and bring to a boil. Add calcium chloride and boil for 75 minutes, adding hops and Irish moss at times indicated in recipe list. Cool wort, aerate and pitch yeast sediment from starter.
Ferment beer at 56 °F (13 °C). Lager for 4 weeks at 40 °F (4.4 °C). Bottle with corn sugar or keg and force carbonate to 2.8 volumes of CO2.
Doughboy Draught
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.032 FG = 1.006
IBU = 20 SRM = 4 ABV = 3.4%
Ingredients
- 13 oz. (0.37 kg) 2-row pale malt
- 1.25 lbs. (0.57 kg) 6-row pale malt
- 14 oz. (0.40 kg) corn sugar
- 1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) Briess light dried malt extract
- 1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) Briess light liquid malt extract
- 5.0 AAU Cluster hops (60 mins)
- (0.71 oz./20 g of 7% alpha acids)
- 0.25 oz. (7.1 g) Saaz hops (10 mins)
- Wyeast 2007 (Pilsen Lager) or White Labs WLP 840 (North American Lager) yeast (2 qt./~2 L yeast starter)
- 5.5 oz. (142 g) corn sugar (for priming)
Step by Step
Steep grains at 150 °F (66 °C). Add dried extract and sugar and boil for 60 minutes, adding hops at times indicated. Add liquid extract at end of boil and let steep for 15 minutes. Follow remaining instructions from recipe above.
