Well, it turns out that we’ve been a bit busy here in the Brewhouse. We’ve had colds, coughs ,toothaches and more. But I have finally managed to find some time to tell you about Derek, the first Pilsner.
In the beginning, as you are aware, there was the Blackrock kit. Then there was the Czech Pilsner kit improver, and the light liquid malt. There was some boiling, some stirring, and finally, some Saflager yeast – a cold temperature yeast, fermenting at about 9-15°C.
We popped young Derek out on the back porch for a few weeks, making good use of The Basin winter.
After some confusion about the fermentation period, which was easily solved by a quick call to the good chaps at The Brewers’ Den, we kept a close watch on the gravity, and waited.
Saturday was the third day that the gravity had stayed on 1015. We made good use of the Hardman’s afternoon nap, and got bottling.
There’s not a great deal to say about the bottling – we had some pre-cleaned bottles that I sanitized, then Kymbo added a little sugar to each one for the secondary ferment. Then we filled them with amber goodness.
The estimated alcohol/volume ratio will be about 5.25%. The pilsner was looking very appealing when I did the final gravity check – clear and golden, with a hint of bubbles. The taste was delightful, quite smooth and mild, with a nice bitterness on the middle of the tongue. We’re looking forward to this one.
It should be ready for a first trial at the start of July, but is bound to keep on improving for a while after that. We’ll be trying to keep a bottle alive for Crumpet’s return from the north.
Pictures can be found in the brew’s flickr set, here.

today is the day

Today, after we’ve been to visit our friendly mountain butcher, and taken the Hardman up to see the steam-powered train, we’ll be sanitising some bottles, and filling them with tasty tasty beer. The Pilsner is ready to go, oh yes.

Will post more later, hopefully with photos.

almost there

After a bit of a scare last week, when I was told that my Pilsner should take 3 months to ferment, rather than the 2-3 weeks my progress was suggesting. Luckily, the good folks at The Brewers’ Den set me straight – Pilsners can take 3 months to brew, but not when they’re based on a kit, as mine is.

So we’ve been watching the gravity, started at 50, was down to 20 a week ago, then 16 on Sunday, 15 on Monday (missed yesterday due to…. life). We’re waiting for it to settle somehwere between 12 and 15, so any time now it will slow right down, and we’ll be bottling.

Just as a note: I’ve been tasting the stuff we take off for testing gravity, and its already tasting pretty nice. I can’t wait for this one to be bottled up, and to see its sparkly shiney face in the fridge.

Norman Pilsner bubbles on

I checked our Pilsner last night. It was sitting at about 14-15degrees, and bubbling away, about once every 3 seconds.

That’s enough to keep me happy at the moment, I think.

Brew 2 – Norman Pilsner

Well, Brew 1, the Cascade Imperial Voyage (an Alan Ale), was started before the blog began – it’s sitting in bottles, waiting for another week before we taste it.

Brew 2 is for K. It’s a pilsner, built on New Zealand’s BlackRock Czech Pilsner kit. We introduced 1kg of Light Liquid Malt and a magical Czech Pilsner Kit from our local brew-shop. The Czech Pilsner Kit contains a few different malts and sugars, and some hops, which were all simmered in hot water for 30minutes. There was also a second sachet of hops, which were added for the last 2 minutes of simmering.

We threw the kit, the liquid malt and the strained, Czech-improved water into our fermenter, and filled to 22 litres. This set our temperature to about 23dgrees. We added 11 grams of Saflager German yeast, and gently stirred it in. The kit is sitting out on the back porch at the moment, with a bit of muslin over the airlock, to stop too much dust getting into it.

Specific gravity is currently 1050.

I’m not 100% that this one will turn out okay – the yeast we have is rated best for 9-15degrees, and it’s potentially a little warmer that that at the moment – perhaps we should have waitied another month for winter to really set in. But still, we can always start another when this one is done, and the weather my be more accomodating.

Cheers, from The Basin Brewhouse.