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Jeff Renner, a founding member of the Ann Arbor Brewers Guild, began a successful campaign in the 1990s to get Classic American Pilsner recognized as a style in homebrewing competitions. In 2015, the new BJCP Style Guidelines recategorized it as a Historic Beer and a Pre-Prohibition Lager. Renner first brewed “Your Father’s Mustache” when he began his own investigation into what is now called pre-Prohibition lager. We’ve scaled it for a 5-gallon (19-liter) batch.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 80%
OG: 1.050 (12.5° P)
FG: 1.010 (2.5° P)
IBUs: 35
ABV: 5.2%
MALT/GRAIN BILL
8 lb (3.6 kg) 6-row malt
2.25 lb (1.02 kg) flaked corn, separately mashed with a portion of the malt and boiled in a cereal mash, then added to main mash (see “Directions,” below)
HOPS SCHEDULE
1 oz (28 g) Mt. Hood [5% AA] at first wort (12 IBU)
0.75 oz (21 g) Cluster [7% AA] at 60 minutes (20 IBU)
0.5 oz (14 g) Mt. Hood [5% AA] at 10 minutes (3 IBU)
MASH DIRECTIONS
Schedule for 95-minute American Double Mash (times are listed in countdown format)
95 minutes: In a separate pot, mash in the flaked corn and one-third of the malt to hit 153°F (67°C).
80 minutes: Mash in the main mash 104°F (40°C).
75 minutes: Bring the cereal mash to a boil.
65 minutes: Cereal mash boiling.
60 minutes: Add boiling water and/or a burner with recirculation to ramp up the main mash to 144–146°F (62–63°C).
30 minutes: Add the cereal mash to the main mash and adjust temperature as needed to 158°F (70°C).
0 minutes: Ramp the temperature to 170°F (76°C).
Mash out, maintaining the wort temperature at 170°F (76°C).
YEAST & FERMENTATION
Any lager yeast will do. Renner prefers White Labs WLP833 German Bock, originally from the Ayinger Brewery in -Germany.
Ferment at 48–50°F (9–10°C) for about ten days until fermentation slows, then rack to a keg and drop the temperature to 32°F (0°C). “When I do it right, the remaining malt sugars perfectly carbonate the beer in the keg,” Renner says. He lagers for six weeks.