Post
by Barley Water » Mon Dec 20, 2010 3:22 pm
Just a brewing tip from Texas. When making any beer from primarily pilsner malt, it is a very good idea to boil the work for 1 1/2 hours with no lid on the copper (you should never use a lid anyway for that matter). The reason for this is that pils malt is very high in the precursior for DMS (usually shows up as a canned corn type taste, if you ever get a beer with a lot in it you will know it). I don't know the chemistry involved but the stuff is volatile and boiling the wort drives it off. Anyhow, when making pilsner, helles or kolsch, the beers have a very delicate flavor and any type of issue is going to show up in the glass. Every year during our big contest over here, I help judge and always run into a few beers with this problem and frankly it ruins them. Because of that, I know that this problem is not just an isolated thing (like hot side aeration for instance, an urban myth), it's best to take precautions to avoid it. Hopefully the original poster will not run into this issue with his beer but it is something to think about.
Drinking:Saison (in bottles), Belgian Dubbel (in bottles), Oud Bruin (in bottles), Olde Ale (in bottles),
Abbey Triple (in bottles), Munich Helles, Best Bitter (TT Landlord clone), English IPA
Conditioning: Traditional bock bier, CAP
Fermenting: Munich Dunkel
Next up: Bitter (London Pride like), ESB
So many beers to make, so little time (and cold storage space)
