By Eric Buist
I love lagers, like love love lagers. When we first brought in our Francin Barley, I couldn’t believe the luck we stumbled upon! Here’s a Czech barley variety that is the perfect American lager malt, just sitting here in the malthouse! I got to play with this malt that was bred for flavor, bred to make great Czech Lagers.
With 2 harvests of Francin Barley and many many batches of both a Pilsner and a Bohemian malt, we have dialed in what I truly believe is one of the best American malts for making great tasting Pilsners - Francin Bohemian. This malt performs great on the brewing side and creates a full flavored beer all on its own.
The following recipe is really simple, but will give you something you can hang our hat on.
Washington Pilsner
5 Gallon Batch
Malt
10lbs (100%) Francin Bohemian
Hops
60 Minute - 2oz Saaz - 16.2 IBU
15 Minute - 2oz Saaz - 8 IBU
5 Minute - 1.00oz Saaz - 1.6 IBU
Yeast
Imperial Yeast - Deiter (G03) or another German Lager Yeast
Mash at 152 for 75 minutes, boil for 60 minutes.
Ferment at 50º for 2 weeks, raise to 62º for 4 days, gradually bring down to 35º for 3 weeks of lagering.
This beer should end up at 1.012 hitting 5.2%.
What does your lager recipe look like? Any tweaks you would do?
Head to the SVM Store to get your hands on some fresh Francin Bohemian Malt!