It was a few weeks ago now that I was gifted this bottle of aged Pachyderm Pils from Mr Seeber, one half of The Brothers Brew.
A delightful beer, in a delightful bottle, with a delightful label. This beer was all good.
A lovely yellow complexion, great head, and some wonderfully fruity tones, ideal for this wonderful spring weather.
Derek Pilsner #1 has landed. We took the advice of Rob the Father from Mothers’ Group, and left Derek to bottle condition in the cupboard for a few more weeks.
The result is pretty exciting. We have bubbles, frothy head, and very clear beer. Still darker than I was expecting, not a wonderful pale gold. But at least it is clear.
Pictures available here.
Brother Bookboy swung by last night after work for some sausage meat meat balls in a tomato sauce. He’s counting the days until he gets to see his beloveds again, so we thought we’d try to take at least one small thing off his mind for the night. Dinner was great – I’m a big fan of Bill’s sausages, and anything that finishes with Parmesan is a winner in Kymbo’s book.
Anywho, the beer. It was time to open the first bottle of Derek Pilsner #1….
Whoops.
Derek was beautifully clear, a light golden colour. But that is where the beauty stopped. There was a noticable lack of carbonation, and a rather unpleasant taste on the outer edges of the palate. Thumbs down, all agreed.
But all is not lost. Today we had the combined first birthday for the remnants of our mothers group. Among the group was the Welcome Stranger, Rob. He is another relatively new homebrewer, and happened to bring over a few bottles of his plonk. We started with his Irish Stout, which was heavy and chocolatey – a delightful winters drink. After the Irishi Stout had warmed our cockles, Rob opened his Accidental Amber Pilsner. Another lovely beer, an unusually dark shade for a Pilsner, but wonderfully flavoursome and bubbly. We explained our sad sad Pilsner to Rob, and discovered that he had used the same recipe as we had (with the exception of his Amber Malt), and the only difference was that his Pilsner had been in the bottle for an extra few weeks. So we’ll be leaving Derek in the cupboard for another few weeks, and maybe have another crack at it around the time of the Australian Sheep and Wool Show.
No photos yet, we were a little too distressed last night to bother with the camera.
This weekend, we are having a little get together with a couple of our new friends from the Mothers’ Group. We’ve decided to take a route similar to the Jolly Rogerers, and have a ‘combined birthday’ for the Hardman, the Biter, and the Crushenator.
We’ll be marking this special occaision at The Basin Brewhouse, and we’ll be taking our first taste of Derek Pilsner #1.
I’m sure the Hardman will look back on his first First Birthday party with a wry smile, and a cold beer one day.
Tonight we opened the first bottle of our first brew.
Built upon the Cascade Imperial Voyage Pale Ale kit. We added 1kilo of light malt (dry) and about 200g of dextrose.
Start with a specific gravity of 1048, ending on 1012, giving us about 5.4% alcohol/volume.
The beer is faily light in colour, and a little opaque. There was not a great deal of carbonation; minial head that didn’t last past the first inch drunk.
The flavour is not too bad. It’s still quite bitter, but this bottle is only 14 days old, and I’m confident that it’ll soften up nicely. The bitterness reminds us of a cheaper ‘bitter’ beer brewed in Richmond. Luckily, the whole flavour is a bit heavier than that.
Not the best, but definately not the worst – I’ve paid for worse beer before.
See some pictures here in my flickr set
Oh, and if you can tell me the how and why of what happened, leave me a note in the comments, I’d love to hear form you.
Cheers…
