Brewday 26 Nov '09 - Bohemian Pilsner w/ pics

[mysterio]

Great result Kev. I don't think lack of specialist equipment should stop anyone curious about lager brewing from having a go. My first lager was a partial mash fermented in a porch were I knew the ambient temperature was going to be 10C(ish) for about a week or two. Turned out great.

As for this one, the lag time was about 24 H, and we're now down to about 1.040 at 9C. So if we discount the initial 24H, it's progressing at about 10 points per couple of days, seems about right.

[mysterio]

Racked this into kegs with gelatin today. Sample tastes good. A bit of a toffeeish aroma plus the Saaz earthiness. Nice balance between the malt sweetness and hops. Still a bit green but should be good in a couple of weeks.

[mysterio]

I hope people are taking advantage of this weather. Perfect for lagering, I've got my kegs just sitting out in the wild

So I drew off another half pint of this. I commented on bosium's thread that I was experiencing the same kind of green saaz hop, ripe fruit character in my lager. Strangely this has vanished in this sample.

I think it has something to do with the fact the cornie draws from the bottom of the keg. Whenever I use finings, they pull out more than just yeast, they pull out a lot of hop character and bitterness too. Usually the first pint is yeasty finings gunk, then the next sample is clear but intensely bitter. So I think the effect of the finings pulling down hop matter, combined with the lagering was giving me that intensely fruity sample.

The beer tastes really clean now, except for a little bit of grain husk tannins (barely perceptible). The smell is thick with toffee and earthy hops. I think I can smell diacetyl too but it may be the malts. Theres a hint of diacetyl in the flavour which is fine by me. Again the melanoidin, bready malts are too the fore. There are similarities to pilsner urquell. Going to enjoy this one when it's carbed up

[WishboneBrewery]

When you use Gelatine as finings how do you go about it, I've got some gelatine sheets but it says not to let them near Boiling water due to it denaturing the stuff??? Catch 22!! Hows this work?! Taa

[bosium]

I hope people are taking advantage of this weather. Perfect for lagering, I've got my kegs just sitting out in the wild

Oi! Weren't you chastising me for suggesting this the other day? What about temp swings etc?
My outside is about -1 or so, so pretty stable, so might give this a go. My keg is carbed, so that should lower the freezing point a bit.

I'd be most worried about moving the keg and stirring up the sediment at the bottom of the keg. I haven't fined mine but there is a bit of fluffy protein break in the keg.

[mysterio]

Oh I thought you were talking about fermenting outside, not lagering

The average temperature seems to be about 0 C here and I need fridge space so its perfect.

PDTNC, I use the granular Dr Ouetker stuff. I just put a pyrex jug with 200ml of water in the microwave, boil it in there, take it out and cover it and let it cool down for 10 minutes, then stir in half a sachet (2 tsp). When it's dissolved and well combined, and it's been sitting for 10-15 mins or so, add to the keg before racking. Then I'll seal the keg and roll it around.

The beer is clear at 0c at the mo

[WishboneBrewery]

Ahh, I see I had a certain level of dumbness just then.
I dare say the granular stuff would be better than the sheets.
Cheers

[bosium]

Not to hijack or anything, but I'll have a good litre or so of 2001 Urquell yeast in a few weeks as well as 1kg pils malt and 170g leftover Tettnang. I was thinking of buying a few kilo's of munich and making a dunkel (use the pils to enhance the diastatic power of the munich, and to use it up) - do you think the urquell strain would make a good dunkel?

Seems to have pretty high attenuation, so maybe if I mash quite warm? It seems to be a pretty clean strain.

[mysterio]

I think it would make a great dunkel. The differences between the lager yeasts are much less pronounced than the ale yeasts. The standard advice is to pick one strain and stick with it through thick and thin so you learn its foibles, optimum pitching rate, temps etc.

Dunkel should be dry not big and chewy like a bock or even an Oktoberfest, the kilning of the Munich malt will naturally produce a less fermentable wort so I would mash it low.

I personally think the British Munich malt is a bit dark to do a 100% Munich dunkel, I would tend to go 50/50 pils malt plus some Carafa for colour... just my opinion though. Dont be afraid to pitch a boatload of yeast and ferment cool.

I was going to brew a Helles today but couldn't be arsed..

[mysterio]

Racked into a baby cornie keg to drink with Christmas dinner

[arturobandini]

Good commentary here. Very useful for when I do my Cascade lager next year though just planning to lager on my balcony so will probably be more miss than hit.

Like the Whiskey glass too Mysterio, have one of them myself. Off topic here but have you had any Johnnie Walke Blue Lable? Umming and arring about getting a 1l bottle for Christmas. I've had it twice in a bar in Johannesburg and I remember it being superb but I was so p1ssed at the time.

[mysterio]

Weird I should read this post just after I replied to your post on JW Blue on another thread! I posted my thoughts there.

I think there are diminishing returns after £30 personally, do you really get three times the pleasure spending three to four times as much? It's a good whisky to be sure but most of the pleasure is psychological I think! I say buy a good £30 - 50 bottle and spend the rest on brewing gadgets.

[bosium]

Johnny Blue? Bit rich for my blood. I actually just treated myself to a bottle of Macallan 15yr old, my personal favourite.

I tapped out a half-pint of my pils last night - the fruit character is definitely subsiding but it's still here, and a slight alcohol taste. Mine is around 5.3% abv so it prob needs a bit longer than yours before properly smooth.

My kegs are set outside in the snow and ice, the pilsner is slightly cloudy at -2. Hopefully I can lager that chill haze away without the need for finings - will keep lagering it for a few weeks before transferring to a serving keg. If it's still hazy then, I'll probably add some polyclar to the serving keg.

[mysterio]

Careful with those half pints Bosium... there will be none left by new year at this rate

I took a couple of half pints last night to 'check the carbonation'

Also be careful with polyclar.. I would not add that to the serving keg unless you want plastic dust in your glass

[bosium]

I would not add that to the serving keg unless you want plastic dust in your glass

Hmm, good point. I've never used polyclar before, I'm a bit of a finings virgin having only used isinglass once. I don't really know what else to do - perhaps I could draw off some beer, mix in the PC and then inject it into the gas-in port of the keg? Do I need to roll the keg around to mix it, do you think? I thought that would undo all the lagering by mixing everything back up again.

I'm hoping that a few weeks below zero will clear the beer naturally..