ajk170

Recipes 

I've been working on a Pilsner for a few weeks now and I am not sure if I'm going to get what I think a pilsner should be. First the color is much more amber - I thought a pils should be golden.

I should say that I used the Brew House extract. For those that are unfamilur, this is a kit that the wort is already made- all I do is pitch the yeast and call it a day. It's a little more expensive than your more expensive kits but it's been a good entry to brewing beer.

So, my point is this pils looks a lot like the Honey blonde Ale (same type kit) that I brewed a few months ago. I should say that that came out really good too!

So, my SG was 1.06 and when I switched to the secondary it was at ~1.02
Plus, I dry hopped ~2 oz of hopps - I have to check my notes because it escapes me as to what type. The yeast was nottingham and I've tried to keep it cool using a wet towel and fan and the best I've been able to do is get it around 67-68 degrees.

Now I get one bubble ~every two-three minutes but the COLOR seems to be way off- very amber. I had thoguth it should be more yellow to golden.
I think it will be good regardless- but could this end up being more like a maibock?

Cheers!

FlyGuy

Recipes 

I have never done the Pilsner kit, but generally those Brewhouse Kits are outstanding. Next best thing to making your all grain batch.

Don't be too quick to judge your batch in the fermenter. It always looks dark until you get it in the glass.

Hope it turns out!

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ajk170

Recipes 

Well, I'm getting ready to bottle and this pils has been in the secondary for about 6 weeks so I'm hoping that this turns out well. I dry-hopped using 2 oz Cascades pellets without a bag and as a result, I have a two inch sludge at the bottom of the secondary. What's really odd is I canted the fermentor by about 15 degrees and the slucge hasn't moved like I thought it would!! It's looking like cement! I'm hoping it stays like that when I rack tomorrow so not to have that same sludge ending up in my bottle bucket! I have finings - if I use these, do I add to the bottle bucket or to the secondary?

If I had more patience, I'd let this sit for a few more monthsand see how clear I can get this stuff to drop out - but as it is, I'm happy to bottle and savor!

I guess I'm gonna have to let it sit for the next month to let it get to the point that I can open up the first one! I can't wait to see what I got!

Jholloway77

Recipes 

I just poured a pilsner kit into the fermenter this week, except my og was about 1.50, not 1.060. This is more in line with the info on the website (The brew house).
Under the advanced section it says that if you only add half the water it will turn out more like a malbock than a pilsner - a dubbel if you add none. Did you add only 4 liters and not the 8 recommended?

ajk170

Recipes 

For this one I only used ~4 liters of Deer park water. That's probably why mine has more of an amber color rather than a lighter color. Plus, I added extra hops during the secondary. When I move it to the bottle bucket tonight, I'll take my last reading to see what the gravity is at now. I'm hoping the extra time, hops and nottingham produced something good! I'm excited to try this as it sits now!

ajk170

Recipes 

I finally bottled this last night and I should say that it tastes GREAT! I'm amazed that I made this thing myself!

The final color is like everyone said, this thing looked pretty dark in the carboy but it was a golden color as I bottled. So my lesson learned there is not to judge the color while in the carboys!

Since I don't really know what a pils or a maibocks characteristics are (without looking them up) I'm not sure how close this is to fitting onto one of those descriptions. I can say that it had good hop smell, a golden color with a slight malty/sweet note at the beginning and a large hop taste with a slight bitter/hoppy finish that lingered (the hops smell and larger taste is probably due to the dry-hopping). I guess that describes hundreds of beers- so it's right there with'em! So, I guess could have bought this but it tastes better knowing that I made it!

My latest question is over the priming sugar - I think I did not use enough to prime the 5 gallons that I had- I just learned that I only used ~ 4.5 ounces rather than 5 ounces (one oz per gallon) that is normally recommended (I used a conversion calculator- I should of done that prior to priming). Any thoughts out there as to what kind of affect will this have on the end product? My guess is an under-carbonated beer. Maybe, if given long enough, they will carbonate out but that assumes the yeast that's left doesn't give out. Although, I did use ~ 15 grams of a nottingham/cooper mix for five gallons (I think that's a little more than needed for 5 gallons, but I maybe wrong). So, if that is a little more yeast than what was really needed, then maybe there will be enough yeast to make it through a long haul!

I guess only time will tell if this was too little primer or if anyone has a suggestion as to something that I can still do at this point, then I'm willing to try. I use the flip-top bottles so re-opening these isn't an issue.

The upside to this, now I'll never forget that 2 tablespoons = 1 oz and use 1 oz per gallon of beer! Live and learn!

ajk170

Recipes 

Yup- I used ~4 liters in the primary but I then used ~ .5 liters for the priming sugar. What method did you use?

My FG was 1.01 - I started this on 17 Aug using 11g Nottingham and ~4 gram Coopers and moved it to the secondary on 27 Aug and dry-hopped with ~ 2 oz Cascade pellets and let it sit till 6 OCT. I'm sure the extra time made all the difference. Probably be even better had I let it sit longer!