I would suggest a series of other (non-Pilsener) European lager beers: Munich Helles (especially into the direction of Augustiner Edelstoff with and w/o decoction) or for the more malty taste Vienna Lagers. Other idea: a dark Wheat Bock (with a tiny roast flavor).
I like Lutra yeast a lot for lager styles. I typically ferment with at the lower end of the scale for pseudo lagers though. I haven't used it in the high end of the temp range at all
I love that. In Germany it's more difficult to get good Liquid Yeast, so more infos and ideas on dry yeast would be great. Also topics like starters with dry yeast, mixing yeasts etc.. Keep it up, great vids.
@@TheApartmentBrewer For some reason there seems to be some hate towards dry yeast -- probably some brewers still living in 2013. Cellar Science German, Lallemand Verdant IPA, Omega Lutra, Lallemand Koln, and Lallemand Munich Classic are some of my fav's.
The New Zealand Pilsner is really a ale brewed with a lager yeast, great to see this style take off, hope there are more with a variety of hops. W34/70 is my favorite yeast, a lot of people say "It's not a lager because it hasn't gone through the lagering process" meaning storing it for a long time, this is untrue, the main difference between a lager and a ale is the type of yeast, ale yeast is top fermenting and will produce flavors, lager yeast is a bottom fermenting yeast and produces a clean taste, add gelatin finings to a keg with a floating dip tube and you have Lager, not a pseudo lager which is a beer made with ale yeast that you can taste the fruit notes of an ale yeast. Big breweries use huge fermentation tanks which are actually pressurized by the weight of the beer, there is some formula where one metre of beer in a huge fermenter = so many PSI or something, mid spring down here in the State of Victoria, mainland Australia, still like winter here though, I've been doing the pressurized lagers since January this year and I'm hooked, so with summer coming in around 6 weeks time I'll be doing more.
Possibly a video on yeast harvesting and starters for the noobs. I had to search on forums endlessly for a great tutorial. A video on water chemistry is a must, especially when it comes to pH levels. Possibly a video on recipe construction? Beersmith is a lifesaver. Big fan of the vids!
Glad you're enjoying the channel! I'm actually planning on making a recipe design video soon, but the others you mentioned I've got some videos on, they're just a bit older.
I brewed a NZ Pilz w/Lutra Kveik. Intentionally fermented at 90°f to promote fruity esters. Wow!! Picked up tropical & pineapple flavor & aroma. Used Bravo & Motueka Hops but not alot. Turned out great
I had one of these for the first time this past weekend. Blew my mind. I actually have a Czech pils on the 9th day of fermentation and now I wish I had made this instead
Popped cap off bottle several days ago. Very good w/an awesome nose & pineapple tropical notes. Beer was pretty young so had a bit of a bite on the after taste. Popped the top on another after another week & after taste was gone yet retained the wonderful tropical island aroma & taste. I'm so happy with this beer. It's entered in a local Homebrew Competition in 2 weeks. Hoping it continues to improve. Expecting great things from this amazing beer!! Definitely brew this laid back brew again. Named it Buffets Tropical Breeze in honor of The Mayor Of Margaritaville Himself Jimmy Buffett
Thanks, Steve, good series! I have steered clear of lagers due to the long conditioning time so your tips will come in handy. Ref. 19:50 into the video, I really need to source some of those auto-refilling Pilsner glasses 😏
This series was awesome! A czech lager series or saison series would be really neat to see you work through. Looking foward to seeing what fall/winter beers you have in store for us!
Saison series would be cool, there's a million different things you can do with those, but I also like the Czech lager idea. Lots of underbrewed beers from there!
I enjoy a good NZ Pilsner I like to use Riwaka and Motueka hop combination, even a tiny little bit of Nelson Sav works with these 2 hops as well as a extra. I use Riwaka for bittering and 0min and Motueka in the middle and 100% European style Pilsner malt.
@@TheApartmentBrewer Riwaka hops are a favourite with NZ brewing/home brewing and can cost more then imported hops. They are one of my favourite hops, they can blend well with other hops as well, and work well in Ale's.
I didn't realize AB didn't still own Northern Brewer, that's great to hear. Around the time AB took over I had decided to take time away from brewing for unrelated reasons. I do remember how angry so many people were at the time. Northern Brewer had built up such a great reputation from their store and especially from the original BrewingTV with Michael Dawson, Jake Keeler and Chip Walton. I loved those episodes and must have seen each one 3 or 4 times. Now that I'm getting back into home brewing I've found that NB seems to have the best price on 55lb sacks of grain since they give free shipping on orders over $49. I feel much better knowing my money wasn't going to AB. :D
As a Missouri girl, and family who had worked at AB from the early original days, why the AB hate? Definitely not the old family company it used to be anymore, but I’m curious not arguing the point.
Awesome work, Steve! I used your soft czech water profile on a czech amber lager that is my best brew to date. Thank you kindly sir. I found that my NZ Pilz using said profile was a little thin in the mouthfeel and I feel like I should use 2 oz. of motueka dry hop in stead of 1 oz. Thanks again 🍻
Glad you enjoyed it so much!! My favorite of the whole bunch would have to be the Italian pilsner. I really loved the Czech pils I did too but the Italian pilsner blew my mind
Could it be that this attenuated more than expected due to mashing at temperatures favouring alpha amylase creating some long chain dextrins then fermenting on the warmer side with an early dry hop which could add enzymes that promote hop creep during active fermentation. Dry hopping post fermentation at below the yeasts active range or mashing at beta amylase temperatures and adjusting the recipe could get you to your target OG. Another option is to just under bitter at 60 to increase perceived sweetness.
I do too! The one time I used it I really loved it. I'm not limited to ordering only from NB though so it may make an appearance again once I brew more pale lager styles
What pils was your favorite in this series? I have never made a pils style, but I picked up 10 lbs of pils malt and a pils lager yeast earlier today...unfortunately not barke pils...so I have the canvas for the pilsner work, and I've never lagered, but I have a fermentation fridge and some time to brew in a couple of weeks. By then my Rye Pale will be done.
I think my favorite was either the Italian Pilsner or the Czech Pilsner. Both were very different but delicious beers. Barke is totally not necessary for this - you can use regular pilsner malts with great results as well. Enjoy the process! Lagering isn't quite what it used to be, but if you watched the series, you know that! Cheers!
Porter series.....stout series.....sour series... Oddball but a kveik smash series....so many commercial strains out now. You could also get some non commercial strains sent over from viewers...
Just curious as to why are you adding sodium bicarbonate and acidulated malt? Surely they basically cancel each other out at a certain percentage?? Great video by the way, even though you had a few technical issues.
I mentioned it a few times, but it wasn't overwhelmingly apparent. The total oil content of motueka is a bit low compared to other hops though, so I would probably have gotten more if I used more than 1 ounce dry hopping
@@TheApartmentBrewer sorry if I missed that, my kids like to be noisy. I made a Mexican lager using Motueka in dry hop and didn’t get anything on nose.
Welcome! I may have forgotten to mention it in this video, but I start from 8 gallons of distilled water, so 0 ppm across the board. The water profile I give here is what is calculated after my salt additions.
@@TheApartmentBrewer because it is always a pleasure to start the week with a cup of coffee in hand and a new brew tutorial from you! Enjoying it every time.
Great end to the Pilsner series! How do you feel about NZ Pilsners compared to German in regards to drinkability over a long period of time? For me personally NZ Pils get too...hoppy almost?
Thanks for watching! I think you can very easily overhop any pilsner to be honest, but to me the character you get out of NZ hops is a bit more tolerable when overdone in a pilsner vs the German ones, but that's just my opinion.
Oh man, my New Zealand Pilsner is probably the best beer I've made yet, Pacific Jade hops are absolutely wonderful. Also a SMaSH with Maris Otter + Pacific Jade is magic Edit: ooooh, I also used Motueka in my NZP, Motueka and PJ are a great combo
I wonder if some of your brew day equipment issues was a driver of the higher attenuation. Though the resulting beer confirms something I learned a while back...you do not need fancy or expensive brew day equipment to make great beer (hot stick in a kettle, anybody?). There are much more important aspects...fermentation, yeast health, packaging, ingredients, etc. I enjoyed the series, and I don't brew or drink pale lagers.
Glad you enjoyed the series! Yeah I'm starting to think it may be a temperature probe calibration thing. I've always believed if you can master the fundamentals of brewing it doesn't matter what your equipment is, you'll still make great beer. Cheers!
Thank you for a great series! I look forward to other series you have lined up. I have a quick brewing question regarding your pilsner brewing method, or brewing in general, what is the temp of the wort when you put in your gelatin finings? I have put in my gelatin finings around 60-65 degrees before and my beer doesn't come out quite as clear as yours. I read somewhere it is best to put in the finings 2-3 days before kegging and below 50 degrees. Please enlightening me.
What I do with a pretty good success rate is to keg the beer, get it down to about 38 F or colder and then inject the gelatin mixture in once the beer is cold. I use a floating dip tube so I don't suck up the sediment at the bottom and it clears up pretty consistently. It will take a really long time to work if the beer hasn't been cold already for a few days.
Did you put the gelatin finings in the keg? The pils looks very clear! Going to try a variation of your Italian pils recipe. I have a Spike primary but want to know if it was kosher to put the finings in the keg.
Hey Steve. Question on carbonating with the spike system. I know you have the carb stone too, so wondering if you carbonate your beers in the unitank before transferring to a keg for conditioning? I was planning on making this beer, adding the dry hops when i initiative my diacetyl rest, and through the cold crash/carbonation period and then racking the carbonated beer into a keg and lagering for a few weeks to clear up. Any downsides to that process?
Sorry for the delay on this one, I unfortunately haven't actually tried carbonating in the unitank but it is certainly possible using the carb stone. Only potential issue I can think of here is if you carbonate the beer before adding the dry hops it can get messy. Just dont cut the diacetyl rest too short in case you get some hop creep.
I just dumped my second brew ever. I opened the fermenter to bottles and got slapped I. The face with a smell that I can only describe as olives or vinegar. It tasted like that too. I’m not sure what I did wrong? There did t appear to be any infection. I’m positive it was sealed; so no oxygen. I didn’t do a yeast starter, but I used half a pack of liquid yeast for a gallon test batch.
I'm sorry to hear that! If it smells and tastes like vinegar more than likely that is an acetobacter. Vinegar is not a common off flavor to get and if its from acetobacter it means two things happened: infection and oxygen exposure. I would really analyze your setup to see if there's a spot where oxygen is coming in and if there is a spot thats not getting cleaned or sanitized.
For your OG and fermentation temperature you may have over pitched. I never use more than one packet when my OG is < 1.060. Try a little lower temp and one packet. It wont be done as fast but I suspect your FG will be closer to your target. This will also afford you the opportunity to dry hop later in the fermentation process and hopefully keep a bit more aroma.
Interesting to see that even with someone w your skill set can have technical difficulties (broken element & pH meter). Did not appear to be an issue, you just went to plan B w/o any swearing or gnashing of teeth. Hmmm "Gnash Mash" might be a nice label for a brew...
I always pitch 2 packets of 34/70 whenever I use it for a lager, but in every case I'd rather overpitch than underpitch. Overpitching isn't really a thing on the homebrew scale, but underpitching certainly is!
That depends a lot on what extract you choose vs what grains you would choose. Many people make just as good of extract beers as all grain, all grain just gives you a little more flexibility with the final beer
I don't think so, although I haven't tested it again after kegging. I doubt serious hop creep would come out of a 1 oz dry hop that was given a D-rest after though, but good thinking!
Looking to do one of these except I'll replace Pacific-Jade with Nelson (due to availability). As I can only bottle and not keg, how do I go about the dry hopping and, if needed, diacetyl rest? I have not dry-hopped during primary fermentation before as usually, the hops need to go in 'x' days before I will bottle. Here, would I put them in for 5 days, and then remove them?V
You can still do everything in the fermenter, bottling vs kegging shouldn't be an issue here, and in my opinion dry hopping in primary is the easiest way to do it, so it's a great place to start if you've never tried before. Go ahead and do your dry hop for 5 or so days (if you have a bucket or something similar, I suggest using a hop bag), quickly remove the bag when they're done, be sure not to leave the fermenter open for more than a few seconds. Then let it rest for a few more days and then bottle as usual
hey man, need help. I brewed a pumpkin just over three weeks ago. i started with a gravity of 1.074. i pitched two packs of Wyeast. with nutrient. fermentation kicked off great and i let it go for about two weeks after it slowed down checked gravity at 1.054. thought it’d be much lower by then. i bumped up the temp to around 72-74F and left it for another week and a half. during that time i noticed it still bubbled maybe once every minute. just checked again and i’m only down to 1.038 at three and a half weeks. i’m fermenting in a SS conical. Should i let it go for more time? should I try adding more yeast? how long can i leave it in the fermenter. it tastes good it’s just to sweet and i don’t want to dump it. Any help would be appreciated Thanks Mike
Thats odd, if it tastes good you're probably going to be fine over time, but if you want to it might not be a bad idea to pitch some fresh yeast. You may have pitched old yeast.
I remove the PRV, apply 2-3 PSI of CO2 pressure and then add the gelatin solution via syringe through the PRV hole, then purge a few times for good measure
@@TheApartmentBrewer Fermentis reccomend not oxygenating the wort with a dry pitch. So give that a go. It won't produce any noticable sulphur if you keep your pitching rate the same. Should definetley attenuate a little less too.