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victory prima pilsner

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I attempted to clone it a few times. I tried different yeasts, etc. No luck.

The last attempt was with Nothern Brewer only - for bittering and a 20 minute addition. Was good, but not a clone. I'll brew a bunch of them this winter and see if I can nail it.
 
There are only two conclusions to be drawn:
1. You got a stale Prima
2. You have no palate

... or 3, I like beer and not hops-water.

I have read often on this board about the silliness of the trend of american craft brewers to go big on hops to try to stand out only to forget about balance. I didn't really get it till I was able to come down here across the border and sample a wide variety of craft brews. This beer is 44ibu (beer advocate) but has low alcohol and pours very light and has little malt flavour. That is just terribly unbalanced.

But hey, if you like a sharp bitter drink with not much flavour besides hops then this is totally your brew!


Good call 944, it is a bad palate. :)


_
 
I wasn't getting that review either. I just recently bought some and thought, for a German Pils, it had more body/color and wasn't as bitter as I expected. I actually thought it was leaning towards a Czech Pils (although I've never had a non-skunked, fresh true Czech pils).
 
Yeah, the guy who says this beer has no body definitely isn't drinking the same Prima as I am.

Well that's good to hear. I'll give it another try some time. Maybe this one had been ruined - no telling how old it was or how much light it saw. It was nasty.
 
Well that's good to hear. I'll give it another try some time. Maybe this one had been ruined - no telling how old it was or how much light it saw. It was nasty.

This beer made me take the plunge and come up with a lagering setup. My local craft beer pub has it regularly on tap. IMHO one of the best lagers brewed in the US.
 
I brewed this recipe earlier this year and it was amazing, i like the clone more than the original. The only change i had was i used an undermodified pilsner malt and i fermented using wyeast2124. I cant wait till the weather cools down again so i can brew this one again.
 
I'm brewing another Pilsner this weekend, a Bohemian. I saw the correspondence with someone from Victory earlier in this thread and they stated a 13ºP (1.053) starting gravity and the ABV is 5.3 so you would think the FG would be around 1.0125. I went to my local bottle shop and picked up a few bottles of Prima Pils, degassed one and took a gravity reading...it was 1.006! That seems very low and would imply the ABV is 6.2% assuming a starting gravity of 1.053.

When doing research for brewing a Tripel or Golden Strong, I did the same thing with Golden Monkey. In BLAM, they list the OG at 1.085 which would give a FG of 1.0125 for a 9.5% ABV beer. When I tested the real FG, guess what it was? Yup, 1.006.

Take this info for what it's worth. I'm sticking with the 13ºP OG for now. Maybe through their decoction regimen, they have found over time how to keep a full body with low FG. That would save them on grain costs.
 
I'm brewing another Pilsner this weekend, a Bohemian. I saw the correspondence with someone from Victory earlier in this thread and they stated a 13ºP (1.053) starting gravity and the ABV is 5.3 so you would think the FG would be around 1.0125. I went to my local bottle shop and picked up a few bottles of Prima Pils, degassed one and took a gravity reading...it was 1.006! That seems very low and would imply the ABV is 6.2% assuming a starting gravity of 1.053.

When doing research for brewing a Tripel or Golden Strong, I did the same thing with Golden Monkey. In BLAM, they list the OG at 1.085 which would give a FG of 1.0125 for a 9.5% ABV beer. When I tested the real FG, guess what it was? Yup, 1.006.

Take this info for what it's worth. I'm sticking with the 13ºP OG for now. Maybe through their decoction regimen, they have found over time how to keep a full body with low FG. That would save them on grain costs.

I would say it is odd that both your readings came out at exactly the same number. Plus 1.006 is too low. Maybe you think you degassed it but there may still be CO2 in concentration that is helping the buoyancy of the hydrometer.

I would say that is would not be the best way of figuring out a commercial beers FG...
 
greetings brewers.
anyone out there who has tried to make this clone recipe have yeast recommendations?

i am leaning towards wyeast's 2001 or white labs 800 (pilsener urquell according to mrMalty)

anyone feel i should be using something else?

i have never used any of the lager yeasts since i didnt have the ability to lager until now.

.cheers.
 
just saw White Labs WLP815 Belgian Lager is out as a platinum strain.
think i am gonna go for it seeing as i can always try out one of the regularly available ones for a redux.
 
I've had good results using Wyeast Bohemian Lager (2124), I'm sure there are others that would work too. I'd be really intersted to try others and compare.
 
I brewed this today but pitched a liter starter of WLP029 Kolsch yeast instead of a lager strain.
 
I have never met anybody face-to-face who has enjoyed any Victory beers. I tried prima last week and everybody at the table thought it was terrible. Obviously there are many of you out there who do enjoy their beers though.
 
I have never met anybody face-to-face who has enjoyed any Victory beers. I tried prima last week and everybody at the table thought it was terrible. Obviously there are many of you out there who do enjoy their beers though.

Someone must like it they're expanding to a new 50 million dollar brewery.

Edit: there are a few beers that I get from there that I am like WTF??? smoked porter is one of them. I've also had a two cases that obviously had an infection or skunked..
 
Someone must like it they're expanding to a new 50 million dollar brewery.

Edit: there are a few beers that I get from there that I am like WTF??? smoked porter is one of them. I've also had a two cases that obviously had an infection or skunked..

I agree. Somebody is buying all their beer I just don't know who it is.
 
This was highly recommended by my local beer store but I was disappointed. It was thin and fizzy.
 
Well I love it. As soon as my temp controller gets here I'll be taking a shot at it using the new Mangrove Bohemian Lager, 3% Melanoid instead of decoction and like hops.
 
This is the real deal...

Victory Prima Pils - Clone
Victory Brewing Company
Directions given by Victory’s Bill Covaleski

Targets:
O.G. 1.054
F.G. 1.011
IBU 52
SRM 3
ABV 5.5%

Batch Size: 15 gallon

Malt:
27 lbs German Pilsner
0.5 lbs Acid Malt

Boil: 90 min

Hops (Leaf):

Sladek 45 min 3.5 oz

Spalt Select 30 min 2.0 oz
Tettnanger 30 min 2.0 oz

Tettnanger 15 min 1.0 oz
Czech Saaz 15 min 2.0 oz

Spalt Select 10 min 1.0 oz
Czech Saaz 10 min 1.0 oz

Sladek 05 min 1.0 oz
Sladek 05 min 1.0 oz [should this be 1 min?]

Yeast: Not identified

Process:

Dough in @ 122 F (8.25 gallon watter assuming 1.2 qts/lb)
Protein Rest 20 min (pH should be 4.2-5.3)
Increase mash temp to 149 F (add 6.08 gallons at 210, or 11.97 gallons at 180)
Sacc Rest 60 min
Recirculation through 155 degree water.
Sparge at 170 F until 18 gal
Boil 90 min (add hops per schedule)
Chill to 60 Degrees
Ferment at 52-55 degreees
Lager for 4 weeks 34-38 Degrees F
 
i'm a bit confused.

so, a sacc rest at 149 for 60. What does "recirc thru 155 degree water" mean? are you bringing the mash up to 155? if so, for how long?

sacc rest at 149 for 60 seems like it would make a beer finish lower than 1.013. Target seems strange because website says it's 5.3%. Unless they are watering post-ferment.
 
This is the real deal...

Victory Prima Pils - Clone
Victory Brewing Company
Directions given by Victory’s Bill Covaleski

Targets:
O.G. 1.054
F.G. 1.011
IBU 52
SRM 3
ABV 5.5%

Batch Size: 15 gallon

Malt:
27 lbs German Pilsner
0.5 lbs Acid Malt

Boil: 90 min

Hops (Leaf):

Sladek 45 min 3.5 oz

Spalt Select 30 min 2.0 oz
Tettnanger 30 min 2.0 oz

Tettnanger 15 min 1.0 oz
Czech Saaz 15 min 2.0 oz

Spalt Select 10 min 1.0 oz
Czech Saaz 10 min 1.0 oz

Sladek 05 min 1.0 oz
Sladek 05 min 1.0 oz [should this be 1 min?]

Yeast: Not identified

Process:

Dough in @ 122 F (8.25 gallon watter assuming 1.2 qts/lb)
Protein Rest 20 min (pH should be 4.2-5.3)
Increase mash temp to 149 F (add 6.08 gallons at 210, or 11.97 gallons at 180)
Sacc Rest 60 min
Recirculation through 155 degree water.
Sparge at 170 F until 18 gal
Boil 90 min (add hops per schedule)
Chill to 60 Degrees
Ferment at 52-55 degreees
Lager for 4 weeks 34-38 Degrees F



How can this be turned into an Extract recipe?
 
How can this be turned into an Extract recipe?

buy 5 gallons of prima pils, put in your kettle, boil for 1 minute, cool down, put in storage vessel and carbonate.


On the serious side, this recipe has a lot of things with it that are going to come out way different when trying to go to extract. The best you could do is use pilsner extract which I could almost guarantee you it is not 100% pilsner and then steep aciduated malt or adjust with acid if you can.

the rest would be the same.

Big differences are that you are not going to do a multi step mash to break down the proteins in an extract and who knows what they mashed their grains at or what grains they used.
 
Brewed 10 gal batch and FG .006. Great taste before lagering. It's going to be tough to wait 3 more weeks.
 
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