Success and questions

I checked my newest batch (Octoberfest) and it has turned out wonderfully. Well carbonated, holds head, pretty tasty. It only did a primary for 2 wks and I bottled it 8 days ago. I suspect it will get better with time. Nice clean fresh taste. Took a couple to the chili party yesterday to let people sample and everyone seemed to like it, or at least they said they did. This was my second ever attempt at making beer, so I am quite happy with it. It was an extract kit. While my first beer was pretty disastrous (if you remember the black licorice flavored weiss), I managed to avoid the same mistakes this time around. I did make a rookie mistake while pouring yesterday. Didn't leave the last oz. in the bottle and wound up with a glass full of yeast flakes. Still tasted fine and didn't kill me yet! Most of them settled anyway. Sat. morn was a gorgeous day so I decided to brew a Pilsner kit I had waiting. I is an all malt pilsner, so the box says anyway. The instructions were for a half hour boil adding hop pellets at 20 min. and leaf hops at final 1 minute. Box directions are not the best I'm told, so I did what I have read in books and elsewhere and did a 60 min boil. I like a stronger bitter to pilsner and this recipe only called for hops later in the boil. Aren't the hops added at start of boil for bittering, last 20 minutes for aroma, and final few for flavor? So I thought anyway and decided to split the pellet hops in half and add .5 oz at boil start and .5 oz at last 20 min. with the leaf bag at last minute. Think this was a mistake? I also used

2 pkgs of muntons dry yeast mixed with 2/3 cup boiled but cooled to room temp water for pitching. I aerated by shaking after pitching yeast instead of before, not sure who's right on this one, but the beer seemed to start fine. Woke up next morning and thought my freezer was broken and knocking, but it was the airlock banging away. By that (Sun.) evening movement had all but ceased and this am it has ceased. Should this be? The other two beers I made went on for at least a week.

This is what is in the wort:

2 lbs Muntons Light DME 3.3 lb can Light Malt Extract 1 oz Cascade hop pellet 1 oz Cascade leaf hops

Pitched yeast at 75F, stirred for a couple of minutes and shook on lap for a solid 5 minutes. I'm looking into some sort of stirrer I can do with a portable drill.

thanks for any help or suggestions. Ziggy

Just gotta say that at that temp. and with that yeast, you ain't making a pilsner, no matter what the kit calls itself. But you should get a tasty brew out of it, anyway.

---------->Denny

HI Denny, So is pilsner a lager then and not an ale? Ziggy

In article , dadand1 says on alt.beer.home-brewing...

I'm still new but let me take a stab. Yes, pilsner's are lagers, which means you would need a lager yeast and much cooler temperatures (35-55). And I don't know how much of a big deal it is, but for style it falls short of an American Pilsner. You didn't say if it was Classic American, Bohemian, or Northern German. For a Classic American, you should have a minimum OG of 1.044. I calculate yours at 1.043 . Promash gives you an estimated SRM of 9.5 on color. This style calls for 3-6. You should have a IBU between 25-40 for this style. You didn't say what it was, but using 5.5 as your alpha % your kit comes in at around 16.1. Calculating the hops, using your actual procedure, comes in at 21.3. I ran this through Promash. Take all of this with a grain of salt though. I could be wrong and others will surely correct me .

Breakdown of all 3 Pilsners with yours

American Bohemian N. German Yours OG 1.044-1.06 1.044-1.056 1.044-1.050 1.043 SRM 3-6 3-5 2-4 9 IBU 25-40 35-45 25-45 16.1

lol, I'm a rookie with a kit soooo.... It's a True Blue kit called All Malt Pilsner. I'm finding out these kits are pretty much a collection of ingredients that will make a drinkable beer regardless of what they are called. I don't mind right now as I am making a beer that tastes pretty good.

For a Classic American, you should have a

I did not measure OG as it never comes out as listed in the kit, by a bunch! So I have started to trust the literature adn go from there. I do need to learn to calculate this stuff though. So, it says OG 1.042-1.044 FG 1.010-1.012 IBU 11.5 The change in your calculations for IBU I assume is because I added half the hops at start of boil? Thus the higher IBU number. I am learning, but have a long way to go. Thanks for your help. ziggy

That's correct...there are _many_ kits out there that call themselves pilsner without even being in the ballpark. I think it's because new brewers can relate to the name. In truth, brewing a decent lager is much more labor and equipment intensive than brewing ales, but kit makers don't want to scare off new brewers. So they call their kits "pilsners" when they taste nothing like any pilsner the new brewer's ever had...then we get questions about "what's wrong with my beer" when there really isn't anything wrong at all! Just a case of misguided expectations!

----------->Denny

In article , dadand1 says on alt.beer.home-brewing...

Not because you halved it but because you lengthened the boil. You said their instructions were for a 30 minute boil but you boiled for

60 minutes. For instance, you boil 1 oz of your Cascade pellets at 5.5% alpha for 30 minutes full boil, you come up with 25 IBU . However, if you boil .5 oz of the same Cascade for 60 minutes adding the other .5 oz with 20 minutes to go , you come up with 26.1, a slightly more bitter beer.

Then of course you added the leaf with 1 minute to go. The leaf probably didn't add any flavoring . It should have added only aroma.

Again, if I am wrong, Dennis, please correct me. I'm 3 months and 6 batches new. I figure if I try to explain something, someone can correct me so I'll learn as well.