Brewing I: Munich Helles

Seeping Grains:

• 1 lb Crystal 15L

Malt Extract/Additions:

• 8lbs German Pilsner
• 4oz Maltodextrin

Yeast:

• White Labs Yeast - WLP800 Pilsner Lager

Start with putting the seeping grains in a permeable bag and let it soak while you heat up the kettle to 170 Degrees.

Then remove the grains. Let the bag drain, we have to make sure we get all of the sugar.

Then the water is brought to a boil and we add the first round of hops. Go ahead and take a whiff... the first round of hops is boiled for an hour. This extracts the bitter flavor for the beer.

We waited for a while and then added the malt (the grain extract that is eventually converted into sugar by the yeast). If you add the malt right away it can caramelize the sugar and make the beer darker. Since this is supposed to be a lighter beer we waited until a half an hour into the brewing process to add the sugar.

Here are the other two packets of hops that we add. We add these 5 minutes and 1 minute before the boil is done. The short boil time ensures that flavor and aroma are extracted and the bitterness is kept to a minimum.

When the boil is over we use the wort chiller. An interesting contraption of rolled copper tubbing. Cold water circulates through and cools the wort at a far faster rate then the "ice bath" method.

The yeast. It even comes in a vial. It makes it look like we are doing ACTION SCIENCE instead of brewing beer.

We transfer the beer into a bucket and add the yeast and then wait for the magic to happen...