Holy WOW! This is a darn good brew! Back in June I made this Helles lager, and I’ve been very happy with it.

I intended to make this a traditional Munich style Helles Lager, but I substituted honey malt for the melanoidin malt as the original recipe called for. I was very happy I did! The honey malt added a nice malt sweetness and aroma to the beer, without changing the desired color.

Helles Lager

Brew date: 06/01/2013
Racked to secondary: 07/06/2013
Bottle date: 08/25/2013
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 5.75 gallons (fermentor volume)
Original Gravity: 1.051
Final Gravity: 1.015
ABV: 4.66%

Fermentables:

10 lb – German – Pilsner (90.9%)
0.75 lb – German – Munich Light (6.8%)
0.25 lb – Canadian – Honey Malt (2.3%)

Hops:

1 oz – Hallertau Hersbrucker pellet hops, AA: 4.3% (60 min)

Yeast:

White Labs WLP860 Munich Helles Yeast

Directions

Mash at 154F for 60 minutes. Collect about 8 gallons of wort, boil for a total of 90 minutes. Cool and pitch yeast and ferment at optimum temperature. For the last week of lagering, increase temperature to 60F for a diacetyl rest.

Taste Notes

This beer’s light body and mellow aroma make it a very drinkable, highly enjoyable brew — almost sessionable. The hops offer just enough bitterness to balance the slightly sweet flavors of the malt, but the kicker is the yeast. The WLP860 was a great choice for this brew, as it attenuated fully, and had a light/clean flavor.

Next time I want to see about improving the head retention of the beer. I might add 0.5 lb of Carapils or mash at a slightly higher temperature — just mess around with it slightly. Nevertheless, I will definitely make this again!