Effin Bohemian Pilsner - 02 November 2008

[dallse]

Now that looks almost good enough to drink

Puts Morrissey and his mate Fox to shame

I'm gagging ... fantastic job with the photos aleman. Hope it tastes as good as it looks.

[jdt199]

Wow, That lager looks amazing already, Aleman! I will be intersted on following the progress of this, keep us updated wontya? A wider angle shot of your fermenting equiptment would be nice also allthough that lovely creamy yeast head is amazing. How long will you leave it in primary at 10 deg C? Also how are you keeping it at 10 deg C< I noticed you mentioned cooling coils. What are they, where do you get them and how do they work?

I only ask becaue I would like to do a lager someday (a bit ahead of myself as I have only just started drinking my second kit brew and have never done an AG yet). I am as your namesake suggests a real aleman myself but I have a lot of mates who are only really lager drinkers and I would love to do something I could show off to them. I would have thought, given your alias you would be mainly an ale drinker yourself.

[Aleman]

A wider angle shot of your fermenting equiptment would be nice also allthough that lovely creamy yeast head is amazing.

I will try and oblige - The construction Details are Here

How long will you leave it in primary at 10 deg C? Also how are you keeping it at 10 deg C< I noticed you mentioned cooling coils. What are they, where do you get them and how do they work?

I find that a good lager fermentation takes about 1 day for every 4 Degrees of Gravity . . . this was a 1.047 beer so should complete in about 12 Days. The cooling coils are from a beer chiller and are 4.5m Long coils of stainless, that sit in the wort. I have a bar chiller that pumps Ice water round the coils when the temperature gets above my set point . . . and a heater that warms it up when its too low.

I only ask becaue I would like to do a lager someday (a bit ahead of myself as I have only just started drinking my second kit brew and have never done an AG yet). I am as your namesake suggests a real aleman myself but I have a lot of mates who are only really lager drinkers and I would love to do something I could show off to them. I would have thought, given your alias you would be mainly an ale drinker yourself.

Lagers are really easy to do . . . although you can make it very complex . . . the real problem is that with the Pils style there really is nowhere to hide if you screw something up (Same can be said of the golden ales as well really). The trick is constant cool temperature, and pitching sufficient yeast . . . get those two right and you will produce something drinkable . . . and probably quite nice as well.

[Aleman]

Well a quick update after 7 Days of fermentation at around 10C

It looks to be finishing, so the temperature controller has been set to 15C (+/- 1C Ish) for a diacetyl rest. . . . . It has fermented quicker than expected (12 Days) but that could be down to the amount of yeast (125g) that was pitched.

[jdt199]

Lookin good Aleman. Will you leave it a 15 deg for quite a while now then before lagering? Do you find your chilling method manages to distribute the temperature thoughout the whole liquid ok?

[Aleman]

It will get two days at 15-16C, and then I will drop it down a couple of degrees a day until its at the lagering temps of around 2C . . . . then I'll rack it into a secondary fermenter, and it will get stored away for a few weeks.

The cooling coils in the FV have been the most effective method of controlling the temperature of fermentation for me . . . What I should have done is to mount the coils horizontally which would have been more effective . . but still it is effective enough

[Aleman]

9 Days into fermentation and the Gravity is 6.13% Brix (~1.010) I'd say that was done, so today I've started to turn down the temperature from its current 15C (Diacetyl Rest) to ultimately 2C, which will take place over the next couple of days. After a week at 2C It will be racked into a 60L FV for lagering, and a Corny, which will also be laagered . . . but will be used for Quality control, just to see how the main batch is clearing. . . . etc

[Gurgeh]

I've read and re-read this thread - thanks Aleman!

doing my first lager tomorrow...

[Aleman]

Happy new year! Following a rebuild on the Kegereezer (TM) The 3 full sized cornii were transferred to ultra low temperature lagering today. They are going to sit at -2ºC for a week or so to really help drop the sediment. Initial taste samples are showing a very bitter beer, but that could well be the result of the high yeast load in the small corny, once the beer has cleared I'll be able to do a definitive taste analysis. At the moment I'm getting an marmalady cooked oranges taste, which could well be from the Pacific Gem hops . . . if that is the case I'll be dropping them from this beer in future, and using just the NZ Saaz . . . Its not objectionable just not in style really

[Aleman]

I thought I would take the opportunity to post a more or less final update on this beer.

I have been sampling the 9L corny of this, which has had no lagering aside from that provided by the fridge with the big blue roof, to check on progress. and here is the "Feck Test" ( . . . you should have patented that one Vossy . . . ) although I guess I am just posing with getting three 'Vossies' in the one image



It's still not crystal clear, there is a slight yeast haze, but with lagering I am sure that will pass . . . the other three cornii are in the Kegereezer (TM) as I type and have been there for a week at -1.5ºC, I may give them another week or so before I bring the temperature back up to 8-10ºC for dispense . . . it depends on how long I can make this mini corny last Taste wise, its clean, with no hint of that orangey taste I was worried about earlier, definitely bitter, perhaps too bitter, which could indicate that I have removed too much diacetyl which is needed to balance the high hop rate in a boh pils, although that could fade with lagering . . . I suspect that I need to bottle some of this otherwise even with three kegs very few people are going to get to sample it

Time for another beer I think

Winner

[Bionicmunky]

I've just spat beer all over my puter 'Feck test' - '3 Vossies' cracker!

[adm]

Veeeeeeeerrrrrrryyy nice.

[Barley Water]

Very nice operation there. I have a question concerning Pilsners in general. Here in North Texas, we have moderately hard water which has both temporary as well as permanent hardness. Since I don't have (and am frankly too lazy to bother with) an RO system, I have always assumed that I could probably not do a decent Bohemian pilsner since the hops would come off as too harsh for the style. I am thinking about attempting a German pilsner however and my question is, do you think that my water is acceptable for a German pilsner or will the hardness mess up my attempts there as well? As an aside, I have been very sucessful making a CAP so I am hoping that maybe a German pilsner is possible.

[Aleman]

I think the Germans are masters of water treatment, and either use deionised water to 'dilute' their hardness, and / or Slaked Lime to reduce alkalinity . . . coupled with the use of an acid rest or saurmalz, I'm fairly sure they can handle most water compositions.

For a Southern German Pilsner there should be no reason why you cannot get away with your water profile . . . you will of course need to drop the hop rate probably to a maximum of 0.5 BU/GU), and aim for a big malty beer say up at the 1.052 mark (around 5.4%abv), with Pilsner malt, Munich or Vienna, Carapils, and a decoction of two to build the melanoidins. Hops to around 25BU with Hallertau / Tettnang / Saaz.