First Timer's Recipe Attempt

Sorry I can't help with any advice, but you will get plenty of input from others more experienced.

Welcome to Brewers Friend!
 
Caveat: I'm not a lager brewer.

The recipe looks fine to me, but the Mash pH needs to be lowered. More knowledgeable lager brewers will chime in, but I'm thinking you need to be in the crisp 5.3ish range.

Good luck. Keep us posted!
 
That's looking like a cream ale style recipe to me not that I've brewed many. That's a fair bit of adjuncts they should lighten the beers body for you a bit.my advice if your going the crisp light pilsner style is step mash start really low like 61-2c for 40mins then step to 70c to finish conversion for another 20-30mins depending on how rushed you are.

As Craig pointed put that ph will be too high for this brew keep that down to around 5.3 ish.
With the water I like to favour the crispness with gypsum.

Recipe looks good to me I'm not sure enough about the adjuncts but I hear Budweiser uses a bit of corn in their beers so if that's where your headed with this seeing as its American Lager your probably right on track good luck.
 
The grist and hops can make several styles of beer. The trick will be in the process. A warning: American Lagers are very difficult styles to brew.
 
Thanks everyone, I'll aim to get the pH down to a more suitable level and focus on the crisp end of the mashing schedule.
Would anyone have any advice on reducing the pH naturally, would Acidulated Malt have an adverse affect of the taste of the beer or would it just help get the pH down?
 
Acidulated malt is the Reinheitsgebot-compliant way to reduce mash pH. No, it won't have an adverse effect. It's Pilsner malt that has been sprayed with a natural lactic acid solution.
 
I use acidulated malt, I prefer using it over adding lactic acid.
 
Look around it seems Acidulated Malt should be limited to 5% of the total grist with some sources saying 1% will have an affect of 0.1 to the pH.
If that's the case and I need to get my mash down from 5.9 to 5.3, would I really need 6% Acidulated. That seems a lot to add with no adverse affect to taste.

I'd be interested to know what difference people heave seen between Acidulated over Lactic, if any.
 
Bumpy Bear Brewery said:
Look around it seems Acidulated Malt should be limited to 5% of the total grist with some sources saying 1% will have an affect of 0.1 to the pH.
If that's the case and I need to get my mash down from 5.9 to 5.3, would I really need 6% Acidulated. That seems a lot to add with no adverse affect to taste.

I'd be interested to know what difference people heave seen between Acidulated over Lactic, if any.
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I use both, there's little difference in the outcome. I use little because there's no difference I can detect. If you're concerned about the 5% "boundary", consider using a different acid. You can use food grade phosphoric acid, for example, or even hydrochloric if you're comfortable handling it.
 
Thanks Nosybear.
I'll probably opt for a little of the acidulated topped off with phosphoric to get my pH.
Thanks everyone, I'll let you know how it turns out in the new year.
 
The water calculator on this site is very helpful, also if you add acidulated to your recipe it will reflect the adjusted pH.
For instance, if you have for instance an amount of 88% lactic acid to affect pH the water calculator will tell you what precentage acidulated malt to use. Then just play around with adding acidulated, and reducing base malt until you get the desired pH.
Good luck with it, let us know how it goes.
 
Craigerrr said:
I use acidulated malt, I prefer using it over adding lactic acid.
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@Craigerrr, why to you prefer acidulated malt over lactic acid? When I started treating my water, I couldn't find a good recommendation of one over the other. So, I flipped a coin and went with lactic acid.
 
Measuring out my water the day before I wondered if the lactic would still be there 24 to 30 hours later. A few times I forgot to add it, just simplifies it for me being part of the grain bill. No scientific reason, I'm not that smart!
 
There is phosphoric acid too I've just started using 90% so a little goes a long way.
Took me three years to work through my 500ml bottle of lactic 88.
Will be interesting to see if there is a taste difference in the lighter styles.
 
Trialben said:
There is phosphoric acid too I've just started using 90% so a little goes a long way.
Took me three years to work through my 500ml bottle of lactic 88.
Will be interesting to see if there is a taste difference in the lighter styles.
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Shouldn't be at the concentration we're using.
 
Maybe I missed it but where's your water's starting place WRT Ph ?

Here's a good podcast to help you understand the balancing act for the 3 legged stool we call brewing. Welcome to the forum, good luck and Nosy is right. American Lager is a tough one and your water is key.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/brew-strong-brewing-water-qa/

Unless you're really playing around with If your water or unfiddled with, you can brew a decent blonde ale, doing a lager will be a challenge.
 
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