What this is
A Valley Brewers Club style session beer. The club nominated BJCP 5C and supplied the ingredient list; the mash schedule, hop timings, water and fermentation plan were worked up from there, and both of us then brewed it — Owen’s batch in Auckland, this one at home.
Around 5.2–6.0% depending on how the day went, from a grist that is 94% Pilsner malt.
The point of a style session
The value is in everyone brewing the same beer and tasting the results together, so the interesting variable is not the recipe but the execution. Two brewers, two systems, two cities, one ingredient list.
Owen’s version was the standout beer on the night at Style Session #2, and the judging singled out the hop character — the Hallertau Mittelfrüh came through more clearly than in other members’ versions.
Where the two brews differed
Only three things, and none of them by design.
The mash. This version stepped up and held 20 minutes at 70°C; Owen ran a single infusion at 63°C for 45 minutes. His is the more conventional choice for a crisp lager and it showed in the finish — 1.004 against 1.007.
The Carahell. The club spec was Weyermann; Owen’s Auckland brewstore only had Bestmalz, so his batch used that at the same 0.3 kg.
Efficiency. Owen came in at 1.045 against a 1.052 target, then attenuated further, so both landed around 5.2–5.4% by different routes.
Everything else — the 50 g of Hallertau Mittelfrüh across three charges, two packets of W34/70, 9°C fermentation — was identical.
Brewing it
Ferment cold and pitch properly. Two packets is a genuine double pitch and it is what a 1.052 lager at 9°C needs; underpitching here shows up as sulphur and a long, sluggish ferment.
A 75 to 90 minute boil, because a grist this Pilsner-heavy throws DMS and there is no hop or malt character to cover it.
Give it a proper cold conditioning period. Both brews were noted as still clearing at packaging, and this style is unforgiving of haze — there is nothing else going on in the glass.