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From: http://byo.com/mead/item/747-helles-style-profile Start your mash with a 15-minute rest at 100° F (38° C). Start with a thick mash. Next, go to the proteolytic conversion temperature of 122° F (50° C). Keep the mash at this stage for about 30 minutes, then raise the mash temperature to 146° F (63° C). As you go up in temperature, you should also thin out the mash by infusing it with hot water. Use direct heat if you need to, but stir the mash constantly to avoid hot spots. Leave the mash at 146° F (63° C) for about 15 minutes. Next use hot-water infusion or direct heat to reach the alpha saccharification temperature of about 156° F (69° C). This rest, too, should take about 15 minutes. Then use more hot-water infusion or direct heat to reach the mash-out temperature of exactly 170° F (77° C), and start sparging. The sparge should last about 90 minutes. Boil your Helles wort for about 90 minutes and add bittering hops 15 to 30 minutes into the boil and flavor hops about 20 minutes before the end of the boil. Add the final dose of hops a few minutes after the end of the boil. Heat-exchange your wort to at least 50-59 °F (10-15 °C), aerate the wort and pitch the yeast. The best fermentation temperature is within a narrow band around 48 °F (9 °C). Primary fermentation might last as long as two weeks. When it's finished, rack the beer into a clean conditioning vessel. By this time, the brew should approach its terminal gravity of about 2.5–3° P (SG 1.010–1.012). Now pull the temperature down gradually, by 2° F (1° C) a day. This may take another week to 10 days. Don't drop temperature quickly because this could shock the yeast into dormancy and prevent all subsequent lagering activity. Now you can rack the brew again for lagering. The lagering temperature for Helles should never be higher than 37° F (3° C). The lower the temperature, the better will be the beer. Helles is usually lagered between four weeks to three months at about 28° F (-2° C). Do not skip this maturation, because this greatly benefits the beer. While in the cooler, the Helles develops its mellow smoothness. The yeast also absorbs suspended oxygen, which improves the brew's shelf life. If you are careful at the final transfer into a keg or into bottles, you will not pick up much sediment, because the beer has cleared well during the long lagering period. Also, if you use a priming agent rather than CO2 to condition your Helles, you should not filter it, because you need live yeast cells to metabolize the priming agent. It is always best to prime a delicate Helles with light dried malt extract (DME) instead of cane or corn sugar to avoid any cidery notes. After priming and bottling or kegging your Helles, let it rest at about 40° F (4° C) for about a month. After this final aging period has ended, chill your Helles to serving temperature and serve cold.