Pilsners are among the most popular beers in the world and it’s actually super-easy to brew pilsners at home.
In this guide, I’ll share everything I know about brewing pilsners, so I’ll try to answer every question regarding the process of brewing this phenomenal beer style and share my favorite pilsner recipe!
I experimented with many beer styles, but for a good reason I chose Pilsner as my go-to style I brew the most these days.
I believe the reason why people love craft pilsners is that they are familiar with the lager taste, so when a craft brewer only tweaks a couple of things and makes it in small quantities so the quality doesn’t drop as it’s the case with big breweries, it becomes the favorite beer of many!
After experimenting with multiple Pilsner recipes, I figured out the right ingredients and the method based on the feedback.
Let’s start with some basics for those not so familiar with the style, and then let’s venture into brewing!
How would you describe a pilsner?
Pilsner is a light alcoholic, bright in color, bottom fermented beer with a crisp, refreshing taste with the noticeable addition of aroma, flavor, and bittering hops which provide complexity to it.
Pilsner is a lager, but not every lager is a pilsner.
There are many types of lagers such as:
- Bock – the strong, malty, dark lager
- Dunkel – the dark brown, smooth lager with notes of chocolate, caramel, and bread crust
- Märzen – the rich malty, crispy, less hoppy lager
- Vienna – amber-colored, bready, malty, and sweet lager
- Helles – very light, bright, and crisp lager without hops spiciness
and then there’s pilsner, the light, bright-colored lager with increased spiciness and aroma that comes from hops.
While it’s not common to sense floral and herbal aroma in most lagers, it’s pretty common for pilsners and this is what makes them a favorite style of many.
Choose your style
Czech Pilsner (Bohemian Pilsner)
Czech Pilsner is the original pilsner, it’s characterized by a light to medium body, a crisp and refreshing finish with a nice balance of hops.
The most recognizable hops in this style are Saaz.
German Pilsner
German Pilsner is similar to Czech Pilsner, but it’s known for being more bitter due to the higher amount of bittering hops.
For German Pilsners, you can use Hallertau and Tettnang for more distinctive characters, but Saaz fits in quite well too as long as you increase the bitterness.
American Pilsner
American Pilsner is different from Czech and German pilsners as it’s made from American hops which aren’t traditionally used for brewing of pilsners.
Thus, you’ll find more piney, citrusy and woody characteristics untypical for European pilsners and usually a slightly higher alcohol content.
What Ingredients Go in Pilsner?
To brew a European pilsner, you’ll only need pilsner malt, bottom-fermenting lager yeast, water and noble European hops such as Hallertau, Spalt, Tettnang, and Saaz. If you are brewing American Pilsner, feel free to experiment with American hops of your liking, but ideally, liberty hops should be used (they are derived from German Hallertauer Mittlefrüh hops, so naturally fit.)
Pilsner malt
Pilsner malt is the only essential malt required for brewing pilsners, so you don’t need anything else as the 100% pilsner malt recipe will work great.
Wheat malt (optional)
You can add wheat malt up to 5% of the total grid for enhanced head retention and mouthfeel. This is completely optional though because the difference will be minor and it isn’t a necessary factor in pilsners.
Some add wheat malt for named purposes, but the extra addition of hops will positively affect the head retention, so although I have experimented with wheat malt I concluded it’s not necessary.
Noble hops
Noble European hops are perfect for this style as Pilsner originates from Bohemia and Bavaria from which they later became popular across the rest of Europe, and finally in America.
These noble hops have a distinctive herbal and floral character which provide pilsners with the spiciness recognized for the style.
You can use: Hallertau, Spalt, Tettnang, and Saaz.
My favorite pilsner hops is Saaz followed by Hallertau, but there’s no way to go wrong with Tettnang and Spalt.
I recommend that you choose one hops kind only, brew a beer with it and then next time use some other noble hops from the list instead.
This way you’ll get a better understanding of the differences between these noble hops and eventually find the right hops for you, which can also be the mixture of either.
Bittering hops
While you can use any of the mentioned noble hops for bittering purposes as well, I don’t find it cost-effective and there’s a risk your pilsner could result in grassy off-flavors.
In my take, pilsner should be at least medium bitter which puts it somewhere between the 30-45 IBU range.
It can also be a bit lighter, but no lower than 25 IBU and it’s not ideal if it’s too bitter such as above 50 IBU.
Noble hops contain around 4% alpha acids which aren’t ideal for bittering purposes unless you are brewing a less bitter pilsner.
You’d need to add the extra amount of hops and perhaps boil them for longer just to extract the required IBU and it’s a known fact that a big amount of low alpha acid hops with long boiling times can extract bad grassy off-flavors.
If you instead use German bittering hops such as Northern Brewer or Magnum you’ll hit the IBU way easier with fewer hops as these hops varieties contain between 10% and 13% alpha acids.
The first time I brewed a 30 IBU pilsner and I used Hallertau as the only hop in the recipe, and it turned out pretty decent without any off-flavors.
Later, I used the trick with Northern brewer hops to brew a stronger 40 IBU pilsner.
Best yeast for pilsner
You’ll need a bottom-fermenting lager yeast that will take up to 3 weeks for fermentation to finish in a cold place close to 46.4°F (8°C).
Moreover, I understand that it can sometimes be difficult to find the exact yeast in local stores or web stores you read about in blog articles.
Thus, use any lager yeast about which you hear positive reviews from other homebrewers if you can’t find what I am about to recommend.
1. Bavarian Lager M76 (My favorite)
This is my favorite yeast for pilsners which produces the least amount of sulfur and creates a perfect balance between malt and hops flavors. I feel like it does everything I am looking for, the malty character is present, but the hops influence is nicely pulled out.
I can’t emphasize how much the lack of sulfur production means to me, it makes the whole process easier and faster too.
2. Bohemian Lager M84
This is the Czech lager-style strain that produces a bit more sulfur content than M76 but creates a smooth beer and adds a minor hay aroma at the top of a fine balance between malt and hops. In my opinion, this isn’t the best yeast for pilsner as it doesn’t make that perfect foundation from the malt which hops can exploit, so I obviously stick to my favorite M76, but this is an option if you can’t find other yeast strains on the list.
It might be that I am more keen on true German Pilsners than Bohemian Pilsners though, so take my critique with a piece of salt.
3. Fermentis W34/70
W34/70 yeast strain produces extraordinarily good beers, as it’s not only known for its clean flavors but also for super-clean beer due to high flocculation and high attenuation which leads to a very dry beer.
Overall, Fermentis is among my favorite yeasts for homebrewing, and I don’t see how you can go wrong with it.
Such yeast strains have everything you’d want in your pilsner.
4. Wyeast 2001
Wyeast 2001 is known as Pilsner Urquell yeast, so you can already guess that it’s a popular choice for homebrewers.
I haven’t ever used it, as I stick to a few proven-to-work yeast strains and don’t change what works for me.
However, I have heard many positive reviews about this yeast strain and that it produces a dry, nicely balanced pilsner with subtle malt character and powerful mouthfeel.
5. WLP800
WLP800 should produce a crisp and clean beer ending on a dry side with a malty finish.
Again, this is a popular bohemian yeast strain ideal for brewing pilsners according to many homebrewers and professional brewers.
Once I get the opportunity to try it, I surely will.
At what temperature do you mash pilsner malt?
Mash in at 152.6°F (67°C) to convert the scratches into fermentable sugars but leave a small percentage into a residual sugar after fermentation. If you mash at 145.4°F (63°C), you’ll have a drier beer as more sugar will be fermented and this is not ideal as this minor sweetness that comes from residual sugars and hops bitterness gives pilsner that magical flavor it’s known for.
It’s important to anchor around the temperature I gave you, but it’s fine if you lose it from time to time as long as you are keeping it as accurate as you can.
Brewing at home doesn’t allow us to always be accurate as it’s the case with professional equipment in breweries.
How long to mash pilsner malt?
Pilsner malt isn’t any more special than other malts when it comes to mashing, so a standard 60 minutes mash time is sufficient.
How long to boil Pilsner?
Pilsner must be boiled for at least 90 minutes because it’s made from pilsner malt which naturally contains lots of Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) which can cause off-flavors in the finished beer.
DMS can create off-flavors that resemble rotten onion, cooked corn, or cabbage, so these weird vegetables resembling off-flavors aren’t something you’ll want in your pilsner.
Now, 90 minutes of boiling will evaporate at least a third of DMS, while 120 boils are likely going to evaporate the rest.
You don’t need to boil for longer than 90 minutes as the small amount of Dimethyl sulfide won’t negatively impact the beer.
Ps* remember to keep the lid off during boiling, so the evaporation can take place properly.
To brew a pilsner, you’ll start with the same approach as if you were to brew any other beer style.
Adding hops
Bittering addition
Boiling is achieved at 212°F (100°C), so once the wort reached this point, wait 30 minutes and then add bittering hops. Bittering hops should be in for 60 minutes only!
This way you’ll hit the required 90 minutes of boiling for purposes of evaporation Dimethyl sulfide and bittering hops will do their work in 60 minutes.
Flavor addition
By the last 15 minutes, add the second addition of flavor hops. (Meaning at this point bittering hops have been in the wort for 45 minutes and have 15 more to go along with the new addition of flavor hops).
Aroma addition
When the boiling is done, turn the fire off and cool the temperature to 190.4°F (88°C) before adding the final addition of aroma hops.
This is the way I’d do it because if you add the last addition of aroma hops straight after turning the heat off, the wort is still at a similar temperature as it didn’t have time to cool off, meaning the heat will thermally induce isomers of alpha acids, so you’ll increase the IBU instead of aroma only.
If you are impatient you can add aroma hops after turning the heat off, but expect that such a decision will impact the beer.
Cooling and pitching yeast
Ideally, you should cool the wort to the pitching temperature and then pitch yeast.
The pitching temperature falls in the higher end of the fermentation range of the bottom-fermenting yeast strain.
With the M76 yeast I use for brewing pilsners, I cool it to 53.6°F (12°C) and then pitch yeast.
The temperature will later drop a bit and remain at 50°F (10°C) in the fridge until the fermentation is complete.
How long to ferment pilsner?
Fermentation is the crucial stage of fermenting pilsners as it will make or break the beer.
While fermentation of ales can finish as quickly as 3 days, fermentation of pilsners will take up to 3 weeks.
Moreover, it’s important to keep the temperature between 46.4°F-53.6°F (8-12 °C) with most yeast strains used for making pilsners.
Bottom fermenting yeast always takes longer to work than the yeast used for ales, so it’s important to give it enough time to do its magic.
You can take gravity readings to be sure when the fermentation is complete, but it will usually take 2-3 weeks.
I love to give at least 3 weeks and sometimes a few days over just to be sure when I brew pilsners.
These extra days can be useful if you notice unusual alcohol off-flavors as you can perform the diacetyl rest by increasing the temperature by a few degrees when the fermentation is near its end for a few days just for these harsh flavors to disappear.
However, if you didn’t taste these alcoholic off-flavors after taking a sample, you don’t need to perform the diacetyl rest, so you can go straight to bottling.
These off-flavors don’t always happen as the yeast and ingredients used play a big role. In my case, I more often don’t have this problem than I do.
Priming pilsner
It’s priming time which means Pilsner is almost complete and you’ll be able to enjoy it soon!
Take the fermenter out of the fridge or fermenting chamber, prepare the bottling equipment and priming sugar solution and let’s do it.
You’ll bottle your pilsner while it’s already pretty cold due to the low temperature required for fermentation.
This means there will be plenty of Co2 already in the beer as gas contracts under low temperatures and doesn’t escape easily. This will be an important factor to calculate when you use priming calculators, as you’ll only need to add some extra sugar for the yeast to eat to achieve the desired Co2 volume.
Fortunately, priming calculators like the one you can find on this website (I created it with a help of a friend), takes the temperature and existing Co2 into consideration, so you’ll have accurate information on the amount of priming sugar needed.
Pilsner should be carbonated anywhere between 2.3 to 2.7 Co2 volumes, but in my opinion, you should at least go for 2.5 Co2 volumes.
Pilsners should be crystal clear, bitter, and sparky on the tongue, so Co2 is really important and you must not undercabonate it!
After priming and bottling leave the bottles at room temperature for 7-10 days.
There’s no point in priming bottles at lagering temperatures as it would take ages for yeast to eat those sugars.
How long to lager a pilsner?
As you’ll notice if you take a sample of your pilsner after fermentation, pilsner will taste quite good already.
There won’t be enough bubbles as Co2 levels will be moderately low, but the beer will be crisp and have a relatively matured flavor to it.
This shouldn’t surprise you because after being in primary for at least 3 weeks, beer will both ferment and condition to a degree.
So, after priming you won’t need to age it for too long before your pilsner is ready.
However, it’s still recommended to keep pilsners in the fridge to lager for 1-3 weeks after the Co2 has been built up.
Lagering is done at temperatures no greater than 41°F (5°C) and no lower than 33.8°F (1°C).
At this temperature, the pilsner will achieve its peak after a couple of weeks and you’ll be surprised how good it is.
If you are impatient, you can drink pilsner straight after it’s been carbonated and spent at least a few hours in the fridge to get to the serving temperature of 46.4°F (8°C).
The aging will impact the flavor, but the point of lagering is to clean it which can impact the taste as the sediment drops. If your pilsner is already pretty clean, this may not be completely necessary or you might only need a week of lagering.
Pilsner recipe to try
- Volume: 23 L (5 gallon)
- IBU: 29.5
- SRM: 3
- OG: 1.049
- FG: 1.008-1.012
- ABV: 4.9%-5.2%
| Amount | Ingredient | %/IBU |
|---|---|---|
| 4.8 kg | Pilsner Malt | 100% |
| 25 g | Northern Brewer, 10.0%, 60 min | 27 IBU |
| 18 g | Hallertauer Mittelfrüher or Saaz, 4.40%, 10 min | 2.5 IBU |
| 18 g | Hallertauer Mittelfrüher or Saaz, 4.40%, 0 min | 0 IBU |
| 1 packet | Bavarian M76 or W-34/70 yeast |
As you can see, it’s really not complex, if you want to you can experiment with other yeast strains and hops, but having pilsner malt as the base is all you need from grains.
Moreover, you can increase the amount of bittering hops to add more spiciness to your pilsner as this amount will make a light-medium pilsner, while many people like it closer to 40 IBU from my experience.