March 2, 2010 - Munich Helles

So I really liked a Stoudt's Gold that I bought as part of a mixed case last time I visited my folks in Pennsylvania. This beer is a Munich Helles style lager and is the opposite of a Pilsner, it is malt accented and hops only help balance the malt. It is a somewhat sweet (from pilsner malt) malty light lager. Since I enjoyed the decoction process the week before, I decided to see if I could find some undermodified pilsner malt for a batch. While picking up Dredhop entries in Ft Collins, I found that they had a sack of undermodified bohemian pilsner malt.

February 20, 2010 - Munich Dunkel

On February 20th I brewed a Munich Dunkel using a decoction mash and 100% Munich Malt. This is the first decoction mash I've done since diving into the BJCP study cycle that has caused me to delve much deeper into brewing books.

This recipe consisted of 23lbs of grain, 78% Munich 10l and 22% Munich 25l. I dove into a decoction mash hoping to both maximize the extract from munich malt and get the 'beguiling maltiness" described in Greg Noonan's "New Brewing Lager Beer".