House Bo Pils - 16.May.2010

[simple one]

Clicked it straight away and skipped to the end to see the money shot! How similar to Pilsner Urquell is it?

[bosium]

It turned fuller and sweeter, and in my opinion a lot nicer (truly). It had a lovely grainy sweetness to it from the good quality pils malt with a bit of nuttiness from the munich and melanoidin and a great creamy white head on it. In my opinion the best beer I've ever brewed by some way and I wish I'd made 10 gallons of it. Very drinkable too as it finished dry enough.

I sent a bottle to Mysterio, who seemed to like it too.

[simple one]

You've sold me. I'll keep my eye on your tread for any improvements.... just worked out that the next lager I will be brewing will be in 2011!

[bosium]

Great. I know I said I'd up the munich and down the saaz in the thread but in retrospect I'd probably leave well alone and instead mash a little warmer and use the grain and hops bill I listed in this thread. Will be getting one on in the next few weeks as I can't wait to drink it again!

[lancsSteve]

Sounds awesome - think I'll have to try one of them as I'm loving my kolsch at the moment which i made with the pale marris otter and spalt hops and it's really nice and light and clear. My rauchbier fermented properly as a lager in temp controlled fridge so now all set to have a punt at a czech type lager - may try the brewlabs pilsen yeast. (what yeast did you use).

Re: break material, I've just switched from using a hop strainer which had pretty large holes in it (let seeds through and a lot of break material) to using a flexible tap connector instead which left ALL the break behind and wort was as clear as. EASY to use - get 1/2" flexible tap connector (£2 ish):

cut off one end. Use bradawl or knife to cut out the inner rubber tube through the metal mesh Wash out the bits of rubber crud then bend a little bit of metal (copper or stainless steel) to clip the open end you cut off and you have an amazing hop/crud strainer.