Ersatz Pilsner Urquell

Classification: pale lager, pilsner, all-grain, Pilsner Urquell

Source: Tony Babinec (tony@spss.com) Issue #905, 6/18/92

Ingredients:

Use either Dave Miller's or Greg Noonan's grain bill...
Dave Miller's grain bill:

8--1/2 pounds, 2--row pilsner malt
1/2 pound, crystal malt (20 L.)
1/2 pound, cara-pils malt

Greg Noonan's grain bill:

8 pounds, 2--row pilsner malt
1 pound, light Munich malt
1/2 pound, cara-pils malt

Other ingredients:

4 ounces, Saaz hops (about 3% alpha)
Wyeast Bohemian lager #2124 or Munich lager #2308

Procedure:

Each recipe assumes 75% extract efficiency. Use the best German or Belgian pilsner malt you can find, rather than U.S. 2-row or U.S. 6-row malt. Likewise, use German or Belgian Munich malt if you can find it. In the recipes, the crystal malt and Munich malt impart some color, but otherwise will have slightly different flavoring properties.

Add hops following traditional German hop schedule: 2 ounces of Saaz 60 minutes before end of boil, 1 ounce 30 minutes before end of boil, and 1 ounce in last 10 minutes of boil. You could probably hop a bit more agressively than indicated. You might make a final aroma addition of another 0.5-1 ounce of Saaz right before end of boil. You also might consider dryhopping.

Water should be soft.

For starch conversion, aim at 153-4 degrees F for 90 minutes.

Pilsner Urquell cold-conditions for months, so you might try an extended lagering.