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Edel Helles


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Batch Size (gallons)3.5
Efficiency80%
Recipe typeAll Grain
Style1D. Munich Helles
Original Gravity1.050
Final Gravity1.012
ABV4.99% (basic)   /   4.98% (advanced)       [what's this?]
IBU16
Color4.6 SRM
Boil Time90 min

YeastWhite Labs WLP833 (German Bock Lager)

Fermentables
NameAmtPctSRM
Pilsner (Weyermann)6 lbs85.7%1.7
Munich Malt, Light (Weyermann) 12 oz10.7%5.5
Melanoidin (Weyermann) 2.4 oz2.1%27
Acidulated (Weyermann) 1.6 oz1.4%1.8

Hops
NameAmtTimeAlphaIBU
Saaz (Boil).9 oz604%15
Saaz (Boil).1 oz104%1

DirectionsUse distilled or RO water treated with 0.1 grams per liter of CaCl2 and 0.1 grams per liter of CaSO4

Mash at 2 quarts per pound of grain.

Decoction mash with following temperature rests:

131 F for 15 minutes
145 F for 30 minutes
158 F for 45 minutes

You can directly heat from step to step or use boiling water infusions if you don't want to decoct. I feel that a step mash is necessary for this style and you won't get the same beer with a single infusion. If you are unable to step mash at all, do a single infusion at 152 F.

For this beer, you should minimize the amount of kettle trub that makes its way into the fermenter.

Fermentation
notes
Pitch 1.5 L decanted stir plate starter at 48 F

Ferment at 50 F for 10 days. I suggest using a fermenter with a small amount of headspace and attaching a blowoff tube in order to remove the brown krausen during fermentation.

Raise to 68 F for 7 days

Cool to 30 F, fine with gelatin, keg.

Tasting
notes
Mouthwatering, medium-bodied light lager that tastes like liquid bread. Extremely refreshing.

You have a few options as far as recipe variations go to fine-tune the malt and hop flavor to your taste:

1. Upping the light munich malt to 15-20% and reducing the melanoidin malt to 1%

2. Using a 50/50 mix of light (6L) munich and dark (10L) munich at a total of about 10-15% of the grain bill, with the melanoidin malt knocked down to 1%

3. Replacing the munich and melanoidin malt with vienna malt at 20-25% of the grain bill

4. Increasing the aroma hop addition to as much as 0.1 oz per post-boil gallon of wort. I think you can also substitute any noble hop variety you like and get good results; I simply have a soft spot for Czech saaz in general.

As a last piece of advice, depending on what your brewing water looks like I would use a water calculator to try and predict what your mash pH will be, then increasing or decreasing the amount of acidulated malt in order to reach a pH of 5.2 to 5.4.





Recipe Awards
Award Winning Recipe! 2015 Boston Homebrew Competition - 1st Place, Light Lager




This all grain Munich Helles homebrew recipe was submitted by davy_g.