BeerBorg

I'm once again at that point of thinking about brewing a lot of stuff. Along with the other things on my mind right now, I'm planning to do an IPL.

My current thought is that I'm going to take the process/schedule from the RCE IPA I did with bucknut (Hop Miser) and combine that with the recipe for my Santa Cruz Summer Ale that uses Nelson Sauvin.

What I have in mind at the moment is using some Pilsner LME from MoreBeer combined with Magnum FWH and then a Nelson Sauving + a hop-to-be-named-later in a hopstand to get the flavor and aroma bursts that our IPA had. I'm going to shoot for the same IBUs as I liked the profile and think the Pilsner base will let them shine through even more. That will give me a baseline.

So two questions:
1) Recommendations on a really clean lager yeast?
2) Anybody else thinking of brewing an IPL this year?

Ron....although it was not a lager, my Bodhi IPA clone had about 11.5 pounds pilsner and 1.5 pounds vienna along with about 12 ounces of hops. And your thought process that the Pilsner base will let the hops shine through is absolutely correct. The hops will definitely be front and center for you. In mine, the hops are not covered up by anything. The Vienna was just enough to give it a little color and a little malt backbone, but it's not much. Now that you bring up the IPL thought, I may just re-brew mine and swap out the ale yeast for lager yeast and see what happens.

I'm really not able to lager so I'm the wrong person to ask about yeast but, I have thought of doing an IPL with a German Kolsch yeast. I did an RCE a while back and did a Pilsner that used the Kolsch yeast and it was impossible to tell the difference to my taste buds.
However, a huge portion of the lager yeasts are pretty clean to begin with so you can likely work with a number of options.

I am...

Did one last year with W-34/70, came out pretty good but was fruitier than I wanted... Looking for cleaner, drier, crisper... (took a bronze in the 2013 NYS Fair though!)

Was thinking about trying one of the following this year...

Not listed in any particular order... Have tried the 2007 with good results but leaning toward the 82 or the 2247 this time...



Danish Lager Yeast
Wyeast 2042 - Rich, yet crisp and dry. Soft, light profile which accentuates hop characteristics. Flocculation is low, apparent attenuation is 73-77%.
Recommended Temperature Range 46-56 °F (8-13 °C)

European Lager Yeast II
Wyeast 2247 - Clean dry flavor profile often used in aggressively hopped pilsner. Clean, very mild flavor, slight sulfur production, dry finish. Flocculation low, apparent attenuation 73-77%.
Recommended Temperature Range 46-56 °F (8-18 °C)

Pilsen Lager Yeast
Wyeast 2007 - Specific for pilsner style beers. Ferments dry, crisp, clean and light. Medium flocculation. Apparent attenuation from 71-75%. It is worth mentioning that this yeast strain is reportedly used quite a bit in St. Louis, if you know what I mean.
Recommended Temperature Range 48-56 °F (9-13 °C)

Czech Budejovice Lager Yeast
White Labs WLP802 - Pilsner lager yeast from Southern Czech Republic. Produces dry and crisp lagers, with low diacetyl production. Attenuation: 75-80; Flocculation: Medium.
Recommended Temperature Range 50-55 °F (10-13 °C)

I've never made a true lager IPL, but I can tell you that everything I've ever made with MoreBeer Pils extract and Kolsch yeast has been delicious. My "lager" temps bottom out around 55 here (winter in basement temps). At those temps, I can't get a lager yeast to be cleaner then a Kolsch yeast.

That's an interesting thought Paul. I do plan on doing a Kolsch again soon so I could harvest that yeast and hold it until I try this IPL. I have the ability to lager and have done a few, I just don't have the experience with lager yeasts like I do with ale yeasts.

Chris, I thought about using some wheat or something like munich as well to do what you said - provide a bit of a backbone. But I think I'm going to try the Pilsner LME 100% and see what that gives me. I should note that MoreBeer does call out that there is some "added Carapils" in the LME so that may be enough. I'll guess we'll see. Guess I should go put together the recipe and see what I come up with so I have this ready to go should time present itself to brew it.

BigPapaG wrote:It is worth mentioning that this yeast strain is reportedly used quite a bit in St. Louis, if you know what I mean.

Thanks for the notes. I'll look into them.

mashani, I know you're a big fan of the Pilsner LME which is why I'm going to give it a shot. Sounds like you like the Kolsch strain as well so that's another good vote for harvesting mine after the kolsch is brewed. (FYI, I am going to use the MoreBeer Kolsch malt for the next one to see how I like it).

I don't have access to my older records now but I think I actually used the Wyeast 1007 for my Pilsner. If I were to do an IPL (and I have thought about this for a while now) I would try this one first. I think you can actually go below 55 with no problems though I kept mine between 58-63 and it was extremely clean.

I've done a couple lagers; for both I used Fermentis Saflager W 34-70 dry yeast. I had the temp set at 50 F in the chamber. Worked like a charm. Produced a nice crisp and clear lager. You can read the newspaper through the glass.

I brew one, Verrückte Deutsche RyePA, it is a bit different I also use rye in it.
Budvar Lager, Wyeast Labs 2000

will post the recipe it you are interested.

Thanks haerbob3. I have my recipe pretty locked up, yeast excepted. Looks like I have a lot of choices.

I made a couple of Pilsners with Wyeast 2124 and I thought it was clean. I used only Saaz hops and straight Pilsen LME. And I felt it really highlighted the difference between Pilsner malts and your standard 2 row.

Here is Wyeast's description:

This Carlsberg type yeast is the most widely used lager strain in the world. This strain produces a distinct malty profile with some ester character and a crisp finish. A versatile strain, that is great to use with lagers or Pilsners for fermentations in the 45-55°F (8-12°C) range. It may also be used for Common beer production with fermentations at 65-68°F (18-20°C). A thorough diacetyl rest is recommended after fermentation is complete.

Edit: I used the Narziss fermentation method recommended in Brewing Classic Styles and no diacetyl rest was required.

I went by MoreBeer on Wed and the ingredients for this one just stared me in the face....so I picked them up and have everything I need to make this happen. I'm going to do a 3G test batch and see what happens with it. If I like it, I will scale it up.

I'm also going to use the dip stick screen that I got from bucknut on this one so I can keg-hop it. I've been trying to figure out the best method for dry hopping this since I plan to lager it a while and I decided that keg-hopping will eliminate any questions/issues that I might have.

Depending on what I have going on tomorrow, I just may knock this out then since I'm using the Pilsner LME so my day will be shorter.

I'll post updates and the recipe used in a new thread in Advanced Brewing when I do.

Cheers all.

haerbob3 wrote:I brew one, Verrückte Deutsche RyePA, it is a bit different I also use rye in it.
Budvar Lager, Wyeast Labs 2000

will post the recipe it you are interested.

Always interested HaerBob, if I am not imposing on Kealias thread or anything?

So, are you going to share the recipe, or are you keeping it a secret?