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Charlie's Gouden-Plenty Pils

5 gallons, partial mash; OG = 1.052; FG = 1.012; 15 IBUs

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs. German pilsner (or lager) malt
• 0.5 lb. carapils malt
• 0.5 lb. malted wheat
• 3 lbs. unhopped extra-light malt syrup
• 1.5 oz. Hallertauer hops (4% alpha acid) for 30 min. (6 AAUs)
• 0.5 oz. dried licorice root
• 1 qt. slurry of liquid German or Bohemian lager yeast (I use Wyeast 2007)
• 7/8 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step:

Crack malted grains. Heat 7 qt. water to 135° F, mix in malt. Hold at 123° F for 30 min. Apply heat to raise mash temperature to 150° F. Hold at 150° F for 45 min. Add heat, raising temperature to 159° F. Hold 15 min. Sparge with 11 qt. of water at 170° F. You should collect about 3 gal. of run-off.

Add the dry malt to the kettle and bring to a boil. Boil 15 min., then add the Hallertauer hops. Boil 30 min. more, add the licorice, and remove from heat. Cover and steep for 30 min. before beginning to chill. Pour into your fermenter (straining out the licorice, if you can) along with enough pre-boiled and chilled water to make up 5.25 gal. When cooled to 65° F, pitch yeast.

Ferment cold (45° to 50° F) for two weeks, then rack to your secondary. Lager cold (35° to 40° F maximum) for six weeks, then warm to 65° F for 24 hours. Prime with corn sugar, bottle, age warm for two days, then store cold for six more weeks.

All-grain:

All-grain brewers can get a lighter, crisper beer by increasing the pilsner malt to 7.5 lbs. (delete the dry malt). Mash in about 3 gal., sparge with 4 gal., and time your boil and hop schedule to reduce volume to 5.25 gal.

Extract:

All-extract brewers can increase the dry malt to 5 lbs., delete the pilsner malt, but steep the carapils and wheat in the brewing water as it warms to 170° F, then remove and discard.

Hops:

Use any German-type hop you like, but stay subtle. You want to emphasize the licorice as a fine aroma and flavor, and much more than 15 IBUs will overwhelm that.

Licorice:

I use real, dried, shredded licorice root, available from Brewer’s Garden (ask your homebrew shop). You can also find "brewer’s licorice," which is a condensed, processed toffee-like stick that you break and/or shave to use. Dissolve it in the boil. Use as little as one-quarter of a stick, if that’s all you can find.

Yeast:

In the first few pilsners I made, I tried four or five different liquid yeasts from three different suppliers. I keep going back to Wyeast 2007 as the easiest to use and the most reliable, although Wyeast 2278 is also reliable, if a little more sulfury in the nose. The 2007, if worked up to a good-sized slurry, is a very clean yeast in terms of aroma, which is perfect for this recipe.

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