One Ale, One Lager same mash

I might skip the carapils. Kind of redundant with a pound of C-40.

 

Yeah, I know.. crystal police.

Knock the crystal back a bit.. maybe half a pound in there. Would benefit both beers I think.

Simple is sometimes the best bet.

 

Are you using 2 different fermentors? recipe looks pretty basic. Nothing negative to say about it at all in my opinion. I'm sure you will keep your mash temp in the low 150's which will be typical. when are your hops added? Not that it will make a big difference, just curious.

 

Not going to be very pilsner like but I'm sure they'll be tasty beers, I don't really see any major issues with your plan.

 

I was thinking of trying something very similar to this (maybe different hops tho, as I only have a few ounces of citra left). However, I will have two separate freezers each with their own controllers to keep fermentation temps in the desired range for each yeast. I would make starters as appropriate too.

I will probably just do a smash (because I like smashes). While I don't have a problem with your grist, I have found that pure base malt actually doesn't need crystal malt to be delicious and have plenty of body and head if you do it right. However, if you wish to add crystal, don't think for a minute that I'm against it. I appreciate the simplicity of smash beers more than most, methinks.

Fair chance super-galena will be the hops because I need to open a pound of them that I haven't tried yet.

Main reason for (probably) starting to do lagers is that I can't seem to keep both freezers full of fermenting ales at all times (because I haven't found enough time to brew). Thus I can afford to brew something that takes considerably longer than an ale to ferment. Lagering is no problem because one of the two freezers would be devoted to lagers.

 

Considering the proportions he originally proposed, I agree with you 100%. Generally though, I sometimes like to use a combo of carapils and lower mid range (40 - 50) crystal malt in some recipes (admittedly, not the ones the OP is mentioning.....rather when I'm looking to increase the body to sweetness ratio in IPA's and DIPA's). Vinnie from Russian River seems to do that with his published pliny clone recipe too, as it calls for 4% crystal 45 and 4% carapils.

 

If I'm reading you correctly, you plan on fermenting a lager in a conventional fridge? I see this being a possible major problem as a normal fridge may not have the range (mid 50s) you desire. Also, toward the end of fermentation you'll want to raise the temp to mid 60s for a diacetyl rest which I'm pretty sure is out of a fridge's range. I would test my fridge first with a bucket of water before committing a precious brew to an unknown process.

 

Seems fair enough. It'll be fine with crystal or carapils, or even with munich (me luv um munich!)

 

I would use Hallertau,Spalt,or Sazz for your main brew. The ale you could Dry hop with Citra and Cascade and get the flavor you want.

 

The first thing that comes to mind for me is that you can do two separate boils. I'm not sure you mentioned it, but it sounds like it will just split the batch after the boil? Two separate boils will let you steep your crystals and specialty grains for the ale, while still pulling something very desirable aside for the lager.

 

How about doing a 100% pilsner mash, running off the wort and then steeping the crystal in the APA kettle before the boil?

 

The lager grain-bill wouldn't be too far off from a Cal Common. You could use the Cal lager yeast and ferment it out on the warmer side.