Next brew: Pilsner

[FriedPiggy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close FriedPiggy]

Nice catch Jigsaw, however, I knew what Toxyyc was saying. To be honest the thing that is messing my head up with all-grain is the number of hops and yeast varieties.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

Nice catch Jigsaw, however, I knew what Toxyyc was saying. To be honest the thing that is messing my head up with all-grain is the number of hops and yeast varieties.

±90% of all the beer I ever made was fermented with Safale US-05 ... It's the go-to dry yeast for most international homebrewers. The hops is more of a personal taste type thing ... that's why its good to do SMaSH brews as a new brewer ... that way you can pickup what each hops brings to the party

[Beachless Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beachless]

EDIT: Oh yeah, and another thing. This new malt produces one hell of a hot break. Previously I had tiny, tiny foamups when boil was reached. With these though I had to turn off the urn for a minute to let the foam settle or it was going to boil over. I had to stir the crap out of the wort for about 2 minutes to just settle the foam. It was both scary and awesome to have my first massive hot break on my 20th or so batch.

Keep a spray bottle around with some water in it. Works well if you spray the foam during the hot break to make it collapse back down.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Hmm, gotta remember that, thanks man. I just stirred the foam. I found that when I exposed the boiling wort under the foam whilst softly blowing on it from the top, the foam drops down pretty well. A spray bottle will be much nicer to use!

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

As an update to this brew - I'm really proud of this one. It's one of my first "proper" beers I've made, trying to stick to a style and I think I got quite close from the wort colour/taste. It's busy fermenting at the lowest I've ever fermented something (11°C) and it's producing a slow, steady blub-blub in the airlock. I have a GREAT feeling about this one, and I can't wait!

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Good news ! The only issue I have with pilsners is that the keg empties quite quickly ! Double brewday coming up this weekend, pilsner (tettnanger) and apa (mosaic, amarillo, citra, centennial)

[camsaway Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close camsaway]

Go Toxxyc!

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

So today is day 8 since pitching. It's still fermenting along speed. As is my custom, I tapped off a tiny bit into a shot glass over the weekend and my my, I have to say, this is one hell of a nice beer. I can't wait for it to finish up!

I started it at 12°C when pitching the yeast and worked it down to 9.5°C over the first two days of it's fermentation when it got going, which is where it's been sitting since. It's got a really thick and creamy krauzen on top that hasn't even started to settle yet (well, when I checked yesterday). The smell is pretty nice. I was expecting more of a stink like I heard people say lager yeasts produce, but this one is pretty clean. Even the sample I tapped off was totally milky with yeast, and it didn't taste off or weird at all. Just nicely bitter, with a proper hint of Saaz. I love it.

As a PS, I think it might have been a mistake to use Admiral for the 60 min boil. Yes, it's what I had on hand, but there's still some of that resinous citrus flavour that I didn't expect would come through that strong. Pilsner is a more sensitive and gentle beer than I remembered, and if I knew that beforehand I might have used a different hop for the bittering addition. It's not bad at all, but maybe on the next one I'll change that.

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

sounds great ! green bullet is exceptionally clean and works real well for pilsners, just a pity i'm out and brewcraft in the only importer. in my opinion, nailing a pilsner is feather in your "ability cap". it's a simple beer from an ingredient perspective, but mistakes glare at you

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

In my opinion, nailing a pilsner is feather in your "ability cap". it's a simple beer from an ingredient perspective, but mistakes glare at you

This is exactly what I found as well. It really is simple, but I can already see tons of issues in this beer. Don't get me wrong, it's good so far. In fact, I think it's the most "commercial-tasting" beer I've made yet, which is great in my books, but there are still issues. The colour, for example. It does look a bit on the light side to me. The Pilsners I've had to date were all a slightly darker than the one I've got now, even though my colour is absolutely spot on on the Brewers Friend estimation.

Guess we'll see how this one turns out. I can't wait, actually.

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

you should flip your thoughts, compare commercial beer to your own, it's a better yardstick. A 100% pilsner grist is the lightest you'll find, by adding some cara you can increase the ebc to suit but introduce some sweetness (not bad) i absolutely love caras from caslte malting, pairs well with the pilsen.

[BackOffMyBrew Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BackOffMyBrew]

This is exactly what I found as well. It really is simple, but I can already see tons of issues in this beer. Don't get me wrong, it's good so far. In fact, I think it's the most "commercial-tasting" beer I've made yet, which is great in my books, but there are still issues. The colour, for example. It does look a bit on the light side to me. The Pilsners I've had to date were all a slightly darker than the one I've got now, even though my colour is absolutely spot on on the Brewers Friend estimation.

Guess we'll see how this one turns out. I can't wait, actually.

Keen to see the end result, as mine and a Cerveza are in their fermentation as I type.

mmmm, Toxxyc - the name is familiar, you frequent or used to frequent AVForums??

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

you should flip your thoughts, compare commercial beer to your own, it's a better yardstick. A 100% pilsner grist is the lightest you'll find, by adding some cara you can increase the ebc to suit but introduce some sweetness (not bad) i absolutely love caras from caslte malting, pairs well with the pilsen.

Yeah I don't know where this malt came from, or what the brand is, because it isn't stated on the order sheet I used to order this malt, but it's a good malt. I like it. I got a nice efficiency and it's not too dark. According to the calculator though my colour is on the money, along with my ABV (although it's barely making the minimum) and IBUs (which are also just-just scraping in the minimum).

Keen to see the end result, as mine and a Cerveza are in their fermentation as I type.

mmmm, Toxxyc - the name is familiar, you frequent or used to frequent AVForums??

Yep, I frequent a few forums around the world on various topics. I like all kinds of crap, to the dismay of my wife.

[BackOffMyBrew Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BackOffMyBrew]

Yep, I frequent a few forums around the world on various topics. I like all kinds of crap, to the dismay of my wife.

I thought so

BWS here (formerly) from Avforums.co.za

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Plenty of people around from all over. You left AVF?