Brewing Recipe for Pilsner Beer

by Dane Wilson | Last Updated: November 2, 2022

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So you want to make a pilsner. At home? Well, aren’t you adventurous? Pilsners, if you are unaware, have a reputation for being one of the hardest beers to brew. That is why the general pilsner recipe is labeled for intermediate homebrewers. Of course, no one is here to tell you not to give it a whirl, because this is your beer! Thus, to get you started off on the right foot, you are getting a brewing recipe for pilsner beer (a couple, actually) and some nifty tips to ensure your success.

Table of Contents

• What is a Pilsner?
• Why Are Pilsners Difficult to Make?
• Which Pilsner Recipe Should You Make?
• Choose Your Pilsner Recipe: German or Bohemian
  • German Pilsner Recipe
  • German Pilsner Directions
  • Preparing For Fermentation and Cool Conditioning
  • Bohemian Pilsner Recipe
  • Bohemian Pilsner Recipe Directions
  • Cooling The Wort
• Why Are Pilsners Boiled for 90 Minutes Instead of 60 Minutes?
• Where Find More Pilsner Recipes
• Ready, Set, Pils!

What is a Pilsner?

A pilsner is a type of lager that originates from the Czech Republic. There is some fascinating history surrounding the invention of pilsner beer, including the town of Pilsen having to do a mass beer dump because of spoilage. Yeah, 36 casks of beer went bye-bye because they tasted foul. And so Josef Groll, who was from Bavaria, stepped in to help create something new. He introduced Saaz hops, which ended up gifting the world with the delicious Pilsner style of beer.

Due to the introduction of the spicy Saaz, pilsner beers are a bit more bitter than the standard lager.

One last thing. There are two common types of pilsners: German and Bohemian. The difference here is the region in which the pilsner was born. Bohemian pilsners are the oldest generation of pils, and since it uses soft water, its flavor is different when compared to German pils.

Want to know more about pilsner beer? Here is the fascinating history:

Why Are Pilsners Difficult to Make?

Let’s be real for a minute. All beer types are challenging to make well. Even in fully automated breweries, where everything is watched and monitored intensely, batches of beer can still come out different. Beer is about variables; there is always something that could go wrong (or right). However, pilsners have a very specific set of parameters that make them what they are. If the final gravity is slightly off, or if there is even the faintest trace of haze, it may not meet specific standards.

Worse, you may end up with a beer that doesn’t taste good.

This can happen with any kind of beer, but pilsners, which use so few ingredients and zero adjuncts, make it much harder to hide those mistakes.

Which Pilsner Recipe Should You Make?

As mentioned earlier, there are two traditional pilsner types—German and Bohemian. However, there are many other pilsner variations out there these days. For starters, however, you should consider choosing either a German or Bohemian pilsner recipe.

Bohemian or Czech-style pilsners tend to be clear, golden in color, and crisp. The hop profile is low or medium, depending on the amount of Saaz hops included. Since Saaz hops are spicier than other noble hops, it adds to the overall bite of the pilsner. Otherwise, Bohemian pilsners are malty, with notes of biscuits and bread. The mouthfeel is full. Carbonation is low.

Meanwhile, German pilsners are known for being unfiltered and hazy. The pale yellow color speaks of the lemony, piney, and honey flavors. Bittered with Hallertau or Tettnang hops, German pilsners have a higher IBU than their Czech counterparts. Overall, German pilsners are drier, crispier, and lighter.

All that said, there are other kinds of pilsners to consider making once you have a German or Bohemian pilsner homebrew under your proverbial belt:

• European Pilsner – primarily those made in the Netherlands, such as Heineken
• American Imperial Pilsner
• Belgian Pilsner

Choose Your Pilsner Recipe: German or Bohemian

So what will it be? A crisp and refreshing Czech-style beer or the bite of a German pils? Regardless of which pilsner recipe you choose, you have a couple of things to keep in mind (which are included in the recipes below), including:

• Grain bill – 100% pilsner malt is your best bet, but if you want to go the fully traditional route for a Bohemian pilsner, select Moravian malt from the Czech Republic. If you are having trouble finding a pilsner malt, the better substitute is 6-row malt.
• Hops – Noble hops exclusively.
• Yeast – use lager yeast only.
• Water – you can use tap or you can make your own soft water by using a 50/50 mix of distilled and tap water.

With those considerations out of the way, here are your two pilsner recipes:

German Pilsner Recipe

Love the bitterness of hops? Awesome. You are going to adore this German pils recipe. Best of all, it is simple to follow, so long as you know the ins and outs of all-grain brewing. Gather up your equipment, making sure everything has been cleaned, sanitized, and prepped before you begin. Aside from your typical equipment list (below), you will need a temperature-controlled space to make this work, as the standard lager ferments around 40-50°F (4-10°C).

You will need:

• Mash tun
• 7.5+ gallon brew kettle
• 30 quart sparging pot
• Thermometer
• Hydrometer
• Plastic pitcher
• Wort chiller
• 6 gallon fermentation chamber

Next, gather these ingredients:

• 10 lbs pilsner malt
• 6.4 oz caramel malt or Carapils malt
• 1.4 oz Hallertauer or Tettnang hops, boiled for 90 minutes
• 1.0 oz Hallertauer or Tettnang hops, boiled for 15 minutes
• Half ounce of Tettnang or Hallertau hops at flame out (0 minutes left to the boil)
• Czech pilsner yeast, such as Wyeast 2278

German Pilsner Directions

Unlike Czech-style pilsner recipes, the kind of water you use with German pilsners is not as important. You can use regular tap water. Just make sure that it does not have too much of any mineral. It may be wise to check your water with a pH and hardness strip before brewing up your pils. The less surprises, the better.

With that aside, follow these steps:

1. Crush your grains with a grain mill then mash as you usually would at 149°F (65°C) for 90 minutes. During this time, a couple of things happen, including saccharification, which is where the enzymes in grains become active. Keep the temperature even this whole time. Stir when necessary.
2. Lauter and sparge your grains. You will need your sparging water to be around 169°F (75°C).
3. With the lautering and sparging complete, you can now continue on with brewing the wort. Boil the wort for about 90 minutes.
4. Add the first batch of hops at the beginning of the 90-minute boil.
5. Add the second batch when there is 15 minutes remaining to the boil.
6. The last bit of hops is included during the flame out process, when you remove the wort from the heat to let it rest.
7. If you have a wort chiller, go ahead and put your wort in there for the time being. It will need to reach around 70°F (21°C) before you can stick the wort in a cleaned and sanitized fermentor. Use a sanitized racking cane and hydrometer to get the gravity reading and make a note of it. The reading should be around 1.048.

Preparing For Fermentation and Cool Conditioning

Just a small note before continuing on with the directions: all lagers must be conditioned after primary fermentation in the cold. Some lagers are exposed to near freezing temperatures for weeks before it is ready for consumption.

• Cover the fermentor and seal with the airlock and stopper.
• Once the wort has reached 50°F (10°C), agitate the contents in the fermentor vigorously for about 5-10 minutes. Afterwards, add in the lager yeast.
• Maintain the temperature in the refrigerator or cooled location at 48°F (8°C) for 3-4 weeks.
• With primary fermentation complete, you will need to set up a secondary fermentor. Raise the room temperature slightly (60°F or 15°C) for a 12-hour diacetyl rest.
• Set the refrigerator to around 35°F (1.6°C) and lager the beer there for 6-8 weeks. If you can go a few degrees cooler, that is fine.
• Check the final gravity. It should be between 1.013 and 1.017.
• Once lagering is finished, bottle your beer. Be sure to use priming sugar to instill the right amount of carbonation.

Bohemian Pilsner Recipe

This recipe, which is based on a traditional Czech-style pilsner brew, utilizes the brew-in-a-bag method. Therefore, if you have never tried brewing in a bag, you may want to attempt a simpler recipe before making a Bohemian pilsner. It is also recommended that you have a temperature-controlled cooler or refrigerator, since you are going to need to cold condition your pilsner.

Use the same equipment you would for extract brewing, along with a few extras:

• 3-5 gallon pot
• 7.5+ gallon kettle
• Extra-large mesh grain bag
• 6 gallon plastic bucket
• 6 gallon fermentation vessel/chamber
• Stopper and airlock combo
• Nylon bags for adding hops
• Hydrometer
• Thermometer
• Racking cane
• Bottling supplies

You will need the following ingredients:

• 7 pounds crushed pilsner malt
• 8 gallons of water (50/50 tap and distilled water)
• 1.5 pounds dry malt extract (extra light variety)
• 1.5 oz Saaz hops, boiled for 90 minutes
• An ounce of Saaz hops, boiled for 20 minutes
• 1.5 oz Saaz hops, boiled for 5 minutes
• 1.0 oz Saaz hops, for the flame out (0 minutes)
• Two packages (11.5 g) of dry lager yeast, such as Saflager S-23

Bohemian Pilsner Recipe Directions

Once you have gathered your ingredients and cleaned and sanitized your equipment, do the following:

1. Line your 7.5 gallon kettle with the extra large mesh bag. Fill the kettle with about 2.5 gallons of water. Bring the temperature to about 157°F (69.4°C). Remove the kettle from the heat.
2. Mash your pilsner malts slowly. Use the full 7 pounds. Stir the grains within the bag gently for about 2-3 minutes. Break apart any balls that clump together.
3. Check the temperature. It should be around 148°F (64.4°C).
4. Put a lid over the mash to let it sit for about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally. Meanwhile, heat another 3 gallons of water to 190°F (87°C).
5. Mash out after 60 minutes. Pour the 190°F (87°C) water into the mash. Stir to bring the mash temperature to around 170°F (76°C).
6. Slowly lift the grain bag out of the water, letting the wort drain out of the grains. You will need to hold the bag over the kettle for about 5-10 minutes.
7. Add enough water to the wort to reach 6.5 gallons then pour in the 1.5 pounds of extra light DME.
8. Increase the heat, bring the wort to a boil. Once the boiling begins, set a timer for 90 minutes. Add in your first 1.5 oz of Saaz hops.
9. When 20 minutes are left to the boil, add in the second batch of hops.
10. With 5 minutes left, add in the third batch.
11. Once the 90 minutes are up, immediately remove the wort from the heat and drop in the ounce of Saaz hops allotted for flame out. Keep in mind that, once the wort is below 180°F (82°C), you need to limit open air and sanitize everything that touches it.

Cooling The Wort

You have completed the first half of brewing a Bohemian pilsner. Now comes the hardest portion of making a lager.

1. After you have removed your wort from the heat, it has to be cooled. There are a couple of ways to do this: ice bath or wort chiller. Drop the temperature of the wort all the way to 70°F (21°C).
2. Transfer the wort to the fermentation chamber or carboy. Put in a refrigerating unit set to 48°F (8°C). If you don’t have a refrigerator, you can still attempt to do this in a cool basement.
3. Use a sanitized racking cane and hydrometer to get the gravity reading and make a note of it. The reading should be around 1.054.
4. Cover the fermentor and seal with the airlock and stopper.
5. Once the wort has reached 50°F (10°C), agitate the contents in the fermentor vigorously for about 5-10 minutes. Afterwards, add in the lager yeast.
6. Maintain the temperature in the refrigerator or cooled location at 48°F (8°C) for 3-4 weeks.
7. With primary fermentation complete, you will need to set up a secondary fermentor. Raise the room temperature slightly for a 12-hour diacetyl rest.
8. Set the refrigerator to around 35°F (1.6°C) and lager the beer there for 4-6 weeks.
9. Check the final gravity. It should be between 1.013 and 1.017.
10. Once lagering is finished, bottle your beer. Be sure to use priming sugar to instill the right amount of carbonation.

Why Are Pilsners Boiled for 90 Minutes Instead of 60 Minutes?

For those advanced homebrewers who have tried their hand at several recipes, you may have knitted your brows when you saw the 90-minute boil for both recipes. Here is the reason why: Pilsner malts need a longer time to boil, because they produce far more dimethyl sulfide (DM) than other types of grains. If you do not let your pilsner malts boil off the DM, you are going to get vegetable soup or boiled corn flavors in your beer. If it sounds unpleasant, that’s because it is.

Therefore, if you find any other pilsner recipes online that say boil for 60 minutes, just tack on the extra 30 minutes to be safe.

Where Find More Pilsner Recipes

Tried and loved the pilsner recipes up above and want more? Instead of roaming the internet for more information, here is a short list of places where you can find a couple of winning options:

• Beer & Brewing: They have a long collection of pilsner recipes, including enhanced German pils, Golden Zinger Pilsner, Breakside Liquid Sunshine, and more.
• American Homebrewers Association: An excellent database of pilsner recipes, among others. The recommended recipe is Big Brew 2013, a classic American pilsner. Unfortunately, some recipes are a membership exclusive.
• Brewer’s Friend: Another huge database that is cataloged in an easy to read forum style.
• Small Batch Brew Co.: Although the pilsner recipes are limited, they do have a selection of easy homebrew recipes to sample.

Ready, Set, Pils!

You came out looking for a pilsner recipe to make at home. Hopefully, you have found what you were looking for and more. Pilsners are a challenging beer to brew, because you have to do everything by the book. However, if you follow the steps and maintain the lager temperature, you will end up with a delicious brew that you can make again and again. Which pilsner recipe are you going to try making first?