Pilsner Urquell

[ghosthef]

I made a pilsner and overshot my OG...ended up with 1.079. I made a yeast starter but didn't measure up much...basically a few teaspoons of extract and water and she was off.

Anyways...it has been 3 weeks at 52 degrees as my gravity is only at 1.020.

There is still airlock activity and noticeable signs of yeast activity on top...just let it set another few weeks?


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[shtoive87]

Yep. Let it go until it's done. I'm guessing you might have underpitched? How much yeast did you use?


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[Braufessor]

you could maybe give it an extra degree each day up to 55.

 

[Wolfbrau]

1.079? PU is like a 1.054 beer. What happened?!?

 

[Yooper]

Since it's at 1.020, it's close to done. I'd start the diacetyl rest now, bringing it up to 65ish, and letting it finish up. Hopefully you can coax a few more gravity points out of it by doing it while the yeast is still active, as well as clean up diacetyl. You may have a ton of diacetyl from the severe underpitching, so it'd be best to do it while you still have a bit of krausen.

 

[ghosthef]

Thanks all...my first pilsner. I had scaled the recipe using my normal efficiency and experience a big jump.


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[zacster]

Definitely do a D-rest now. It'll lower the gravity, and you'll otherwise have Diacetyl in your beer.

 

[ghosthef]

Pulled it yesterday and was pleasantly surprised to see an increase in surface activity. Thanks again all!


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[BrewerBrad82]

+1 to pulling it out and letting it rise. That will encourage the yeast to consume a bit more sugars, as well as let them devour any diacetyl they may have produced early in the fermentation cycle. If you went from 1.079 to 1.020, you are already at 74.7% attenuation and 7.7% ABV, which is pretty good. Depending on the yeast strain you may not get a whole lot more fermentation, you may only drop another point or two. Sounds like you have an Imperial Urquell on your hands! Provided the diacetyl is absorbed and there are no hot fusel tastes, this one should be a great candidate for extended aging.

 

[ghosthef]

Yeah...I was already going to lager it for at least 3 months....


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[ghosthef]

Good news...the gravity has continued to drop...and I'm no detecting any popcorn butter smell or taste...so lager time!

Again,...thanks all for the help and education!


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[thegreatmaibockaddict]

Maibock!

 

[midlantic]

Good news...the gravity has continued to drop...and I'm no detecting any popcorn butter smell or taste...so lager time!

Again,...thanks all for the help and education!

Just for the record, Pilsner U is intentionally brewed to have a bit of diacetyl in it. There are brewers out there that want it in their beers, and this is one of those examples.

Whether you want it or not is your call, of course, but it shouldn't be universally considered a bad thing and a considerable number of people accept it or even want it.

 

[user 141939]

Good news...the gravity has continued to drop...and I'm no detecting any popcorn butter smell or taste...so lager time!



Again,...thanks all for the help and education!



Just for the record, Pilsner U is intentionally brewed to have a bit of diacetyl in it. There are brewers out there that want it in their beers, and this is one of those examples.



Whether you want it or not is your call, of course, but it shouldn't be universally considered a bad thing and a considerable number of people accept it or even want it.

I think these types of pilsners are allowed to have small amounts of diacetyl, but pilsner U does not. At least as far as I would say. I haf recently gone through the BCJP course using pilsner u for that style and tasted none. In addition the audio of Gordon Strong judging it he mentioned that there was no diacetyl present. He did say that maybe they had cleaned it up over the years which suggests maybe it used to have some.


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[midlantic]

I think these types of pilsners are allowed to have small amounts of diacetyl, but pilsner U does not. At least as far as I would say. I haf recently gone through the BCJP course using pilsner u for that style and tasted none. In addition the audio of Gordon Strong judging it he mentioned that there was no diacetyl present. He did say that maybe they had cleaned it up over the years which suggests maybe it used to have some.

This thread suggests that the Pilsner U that you get closer to the brewery has a noticeable amount of diacetyl than what's available now in the US.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/pilsner-urquell-different-in-us.167447/

Whether that's intentional or a side effect of something else going on, I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the result of a greater acceptance of it overseas than in the US, but it's certainly possible it just has to do with something else they're doing to ship it to the states.

At any rate, it's certainly OK if someone wants a bit of diacetyl in that version of pilsner, or not have it as the case may be.

 

[user 141939]

Interesting thread. And I am certainly no expert. I just recently had done that with bjcp stuff and it reminded me of it.

i had not even had pilsner u before that. What a great beer that is. And they sell it in those boxed now which must help the light problems what with the clear bottles and all


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[Hujo]

Pilsner Urquell comes in lots of varieties, some as strong as yours, with varying degrees of diacetyl. The export version is cleaner and not as strong as the local beers.


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[ghosthef]

Lagering in two 5 gallon batches...still. Decided to hit one with Nelson Sauvin dry hopping...figure another 2-3 weeks and I'll keg them up.


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