# 🍺 Top-down Brew: TZ Pils

Enter the recipe data
og: 1.052 m: pilsner malt, 94, 2, 80 m: carapils (dextrin) malt, 5, 12, 72 m: acid malt, 1, 2, 72 ibu: 35 h: Liberty, 80, 4.5, 60 h: Liberty, 20, 4.5, 0 y: lager

Suggestions for converting this recipe to steeped specialty grains plus malt extract:

- Delete the pilsner and acid malt lines.
- For liquid malt extract, add s: Liquid pilsner or extra light malt extract, 95, 5, 76
- For dry malt extract, add s: Dry pilsner or extra light malt extract, 95, 3.5, 96
- Set the mash efficiency variable to 55% for steeping.
- Another possibility is to brew this is to skip the carapils and use 100% pilsner malt extract.

Ingredient recommendations: Use European pilsner malt or the lightest malt extract that you can find. The hops should be from the noble hop family, like Halltertau or Tettnang. American hops bred from Hallertau are also good choices.

Target volume

Enter the desired volume at the end of the boil. The volume units can be either liters, gallons, or US barrels.

Measurement Units
Metric US US Barrels

Select the preferred unit of measurement for the inputs and outputs. Metric uses liters, grams, and kilograms. US uses gallons, ounces, and pounds. US Barrels (31 gallons = 1 barrel) is in barrels, pounds, and ounces.

Mash Efficiency

Enter the anticipated mash efficiency percentage. If this is not known, try the following values based on the sparge method: Steeping (50%), No-sparge or brew-in-a-bag (65 to 75%), Batch sparge (80%), or Continuous (fly) sparge (85 to 90%).

← Click here when the data entry is done.

## Results

*** Waiting for results ***

## Notes

This beer is named in honor of my friend Tzvetelin, who is from Bulgaria. His beer preference is for light continental European lager beers. One version of TZ Pils that we brewed together won a first place award in the 2013 Peach State Brew Off.

This recipe is based upon Charlie Papazian's Dream Export Lager (1991, The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing, p. 316-317). This beer style is most similar to a 2A International pale lager. However, this is 100% malt, with slightly higher gravity and more bitter than the 2A style. It's a bit like an American pale ale in regards to hop character.

A key for success is to use a European pilsner malt, like Weyermann's pilsner malt. For hops, my efforts have typically used Liberty as a single variety. Classic noble hops like Saaz and Hallertau or American hops in this family (Mount Hood, Crystal, Tradition, Sterling) would also be fine choices. The hop addition timing could be staggered, if desired, like 60, 15, and 0 minutes. A large addition at flameout is for convenience. The yeast used in the award-winning version was Fermentis S23 Saflager. S23 is not super-clean, but it is similar to some commercial lager beers like Rolling Rock. Feel free to use your favorite lager yeast.

The acid malt is for lowering pH. Feel free to skip this adjustment depending on your water characteristics and treatment. The minerals added to our tap water, which is low in calcium, are 1 teaspoon calcium sulfate and 0.5 teaspoon magnesium sulfate per five gallon batch.

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