The hardest part of this brew day was getting 22 liters of cold tap water to a boil on the gas stove top. It took me 90 min to get to a 60 min boil followed by a 20 min chill... easy peasy.

LME is WAY easier to work with than DME. I swear DME is dehydrated super glue. As an AG guy, I forgot how easy (and still enjoyable) an extract brew can be. Mr Beer brewers need not fear a step up to this either. It isn't complicated at all. A bigger pot is needed and an immersion chiller helps a ton... but isn't necessary.

Helles (extract)
Munich Helles

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (G): 5.0
Total Grain (lb): 7.438
Total Hops (oz): 1.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.055 (°P): 13.6
Final Gravity (FG): 1.014 (°P): 3.6
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.40 %
Colour (SRM): 5.2 (EBC): 10.2
Bitterness (IBU): 17.0 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 78
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
6.188 lb LME NB Pilsen Malt (83.19%)
1.000 lb Dry Malt Extract - Light (13.44%)
0.250 lb Melanoidin (3.36%)

Hop Bill
----------------
1.00 oz Tettnanger Pellet (4.8% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.2 oz/Gal)

Misc Bill
----------------

Single step Infusion at 152°F for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 50°F with Wyeast 2007 - Pilsen Lager

Notes
----------------
Came in low with the OG. Added extra LME directly into the active fermentation. Ended up with 6 lbs 3 oz added to the wort instead of the intended 6lbs even.
Pitched a 1.5 liter flask of Wyeast 2007 with double the Wyeast nutrient added to the boil and 10 min areation with the pump/filter/air stone.

Recipe Generated with BrewMate

Imagine not having to wait that long to boil, would have been even easier. Did you add the bulk of extract late in the boil? Sometimes a quick simple batch can do the trick.

oh God yeah. and don't dump it too fast unless you like stirring a softball for about 20 minutes to mix it in fully. ugh


preach on! for basic recipes like this (or a wheat or pale ale) it is almost like cheating it is so easy! and in a few weeks you will certainly be able to attest to that.

speaking of, how long are you planning on lagering it? gonna keg it or bottle? I have been looking at doing a helles myself, and there are all kinds of approaches to this, so I am curious as to what your approach is going to be... if you don't mind sharing

dont remind be about DME. I did 4# of it yesterday....gosh was that a pain. looks good pudge!!

It shouldn't take long. I'll give it a couple weeks in the fermenter, keg it up and drop it into the kegerator to lager for another 2-3 weeks... or until I need to hook the gas to another keg. Longer would probably be better, but I think I remember Jamil saying you won't see much improvement beyond 5-6 weeks so why wait?

I love a Helles and have made a few. It is tempting to over do it, but a Helles is basically Pilsner and bittering hops. I'm still toying with the idea of a little Hallertau dry hopping, but a little sure can go a long way in a delicate beer. Probably should just leave it alone.

is JZ's quoted time 5-6 weeks from brew day? or 5-6 weeks lagering? and unlike a pale or an ipa, I totally agree that once it hits that sweet spot, it can only go downhill!

I absolutely L-O-V-E Augustiner's helles, and whenever I can get a ferm chamber, I am going to try my own. until then, I have a tweaked idea that involves mostls pils, but then a dash of munich and vienna...fermented with a kolsch yeast. although I have ready that a "cali common" yeast still can make a lager in the low 60s...ever experience that yeast? is it magic, or are people just hyping it because they can't properly lager their beer?

oh, and if you dry hop it, you can give sam adams a run for their money with their alpine spring experiment (which I enjoy actually). but then you are definitely straying from tradition

You can actually make a pretty good lager with Wyeast 2124/Saflager W-34/70 in the low 60s. Northern Brewer did an episode of Brewing TV comparing results of it and US-05, with a bonus of the Cali Common yeast.

interesting! I also saw that WLP080 is a cream ale BLEND that supposedly mixes ale and lager strains that can produce a lager-esque beer fermented in the upper 60s. pretty cool stuff if it works.

Not bad.
I was actually thinking of something like this also. Instead of the usual 90min mash/sparge with the Pilsner malt, getting some Pilsen LME/DME.

Then you can also avoid the Pilsner 90min boil thing.


Thanks for the post!

^^^^
that's a pretty smart way of looking at this too!