Batch 16

Ordinary pilsner, but hey, who doesn’t love pilsner?

Pilsner has got be the most beloved style, or maybe pale lager, but either way, the style pilsner is so easy to love and enjoy at every moment. So, why not brew one myself? Maybe it’s more surprising that it took me 15 batches until I actually made one!

So anyway, crispy pilsner is really hard to say no to and the fact is that, it’s not uncommon to hear Swedish people saying “just give me a pilsner” like it’s the same thing as asking for “just a beer”. Pilsner is more specific than just asking for a beer, but as long as it works for them I won’t cause any revolutions. Pilsner is very tasty but can be percieved as boring because how common it is, but I don’t really mind because to me, a tasteful, crispy and smooth pilsner is always enjoyable.

Alright, enough about my love for pilsner. This years summer is soon behind us but I’ve decided that I aim to have one lager and one pale ale always in stock and when I’m not brewing those two, I’d like to brew a more special style like trappist, stout/porter, wheat, saison etc but keep it to a smaller batch size of 12 liters. Doing 23 liters of everything will be too much since I want to brew as often as I can but I can’t allow it to get out of hand either. This is of course only wishful thinking so we’ll have to see what happens in the future.

Not only was this my first pilser, it was also the first time using a yeast starter! I’ve used liquid yeast before but this is good for two reasons: one, I don’t have to buy multiple packages and hopefully save some money and two, I make sure that the yeast I’ll use in the batch is hungry, healthy and awake which is most important. With so many other things when brewing beer you can do stuff different ways and that’s true for starters as well. I’ll only cover the way I chose and that’s by using a stirrer plate, which I built myself! It wasn’t as hard as it looked and it works great. The idea is to make a small beer with extract, just a few liters depending on how big and strong of batch you decide to do and then you add the yeast like you normally would. The thing with the stirrer is that it keeps spinning a magnet in the bottom to create whirlpool which sucks in air and make the fermentation go faster (I don’t know if the motion itself adds any value but could be the case) and thus creating more active yeast which is then later enough for your big batch. The whole point is also that this is a fast process and should only take 2-3 days, maybe even shorter.

I actually enjoy this prepping step and even if it’s more job to be done for every batch, I think it makes the whole experience more fun. So after the starter is done, I put into a fridge for cold crashing to make all the yeast go to the bottom and when I use it on the brew day I just remove the “beer” and then put the yeast into the batch. I’ve to note that this is not necessary, you can throw everything in the big batch but then you’re diluting your real batch with (in my case) 1-3 liters of “shit beer” which I’m not particularly interested in, so in the drain it goes!

The starter did wonders, after only 4 hours I noticed activity in the airlock which is super fast compared to previous batches. This was the main reason why I wanted to stay away from liquid yeast, because of the lag face or not starting at all, but this method solves this problem so I’ll stay with liquid from now on. There’s a lot more varieties to choose from so even better if I want to keep experimenting and try new stuff.

I think this is becoming the longest post since I started brewing so lets get to a close. The pilsner turned out great, I’m really happy about how crisp and malty it is, which is unusual now days since everything should be as hoppy as ever and taste like fruit juice. The brewing experience was good, nothing to really add except even if I dropped brewhouse efficiency, I measured what I calculated with which is the most important thing (how many times have I said this?) so I had 23 liters in the fermenter and OG what I expected. I’m also of course super happy with how clear it is, that it’s possible to see through the beer. The taste doesn’t necessarily become better, but you drink with your eyes and this definitely adds value to crisp pilsner. How come the most common and boring beer style was the most exciting and fun to brew?