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A Hoppy Pilsner Ale


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Well there's an oxy-moron if I've ever heard one! [lol]

 

Today I threw down a modded brew of a recipe I posed a little while back in this thread. . . Anyone For a Knappstein Enterprise Lager?

 

As stated, I modded the recipe posed in that thread to this. . .

 

Thomas Coopers Pilsner 1.7kg

Briess CBW Pilsen Liquid Malt Extract 750gms

Light Dry Malt Powder 250gms

Dried Wheat Malt Powder 250gms

Saaz hops 15gms @ 30mins

Nelson Sauvin hops 30gms @ 30mins

Nelson Sauvin hops 10gms @ 5mins

SafAle US-05 yeast pitched @ 18\xb0C.

+ dry hopping Nelson Sauvin hops 15gms towards the end of primary ferment.

 

If the time interval for adding the hops looks a little off, it's because I screwed up & had to adjust boiling times! [pinched]

 

I had combined the two powder malt additions with 3 litres of water & brought it to the boil. While I was doing that, I was measuring out my hop additives. I just happened to have the Nelson Sauvin 30gms in my hand at the time my timer went off, & casually went about adding it into the malt cook about 30mins ahead of when I originally planned to! [pinched]

 

Less than a minute after stirring it all in I realised what I had done. This portion was meant to be the main flavouring hop of the brew. I was meant to place 15gms of Saaz hops in at this point, not the Nelson Sauvin. [crying]

 

So thinking quickly, I realised the schedule I had planned was no longer viable & promptly threw the Saaz hops 15gms in & reduced the bittering timeframe from 40mins to 25-30mins, then threw the additional Nelson Sauvin 10gms @ 5 mins as I originally planned.

 

It's a VERY different brew from anything I've ever done, & despite being a little annoyed at my carelessness with the hop introduction timing, I still have a good feeling about the brew.

 

For those not familiar with the Thomas Coopers Pilsner kit tin, it showed a very prominent spicy Saaz hop aroma & like the IPA version I threw down last weekend, I was very impressed with the bold characteristics of the kit tin.

 

The brew smelled very unique when putting it down, so I am looking forward to the end result.

 

I'll post more info as the brew progresses.

 

Beer.

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I just happened to have the Nelson Sauvin 30gms in my hand at the time my timer went off' date=' & casually went about adding it into the malt cook about 30mins ahead of when I originally planned to! [pinched']

 

Mate that Nelson Sauvin is going to give you a wack [devil].

I need to get around to using some Saaz, I'm led to believe it's a good hop for late additions. I've got some southern Saaz (don't all my hops come from Bushy Park) that I will combine with some Stella. Stella on the longer boil, all extract, and Saaz to finish it off.

 

Rest easy 'cause time in the bottle will let the Nelson settle a little.

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Hiya Nelson.

 

At this point in time I'm almost totally opposite in my outlook with how I'm experimenting with hops for bittering, & hops for flavouring/aroma.

 

I'm actually deliberately looking at low Alpha hops to use for bittering, & higher Alpha hops for my flavouring & aroma. Admittedly, I'm still primarily adding my hops to pre-hopped kit tin brews at this point, so high Alpha hops aren't really warranted.

 

In defense of that point though, most of the Noble class hops are low Alpha & not particularly high in oils. That leads me to believe they are more suited to bittering than flavouring & aroma.

 

It's just a theory, but one I am following.

 

Beer.

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Hiya AdamH.

 

I've read a few times that high alpha hops can lead to a harsh bitterness. . .

 

John Palmer has a good little segment on his "How to Brew" website. Even though it is contrary to what I'm doing at the moment in regard to bittering, it certainly makes a lot of sense.

 

I'll probably be found out once I move over to full extract brewing, but for now I am just following a bittering time of 40mins that Muddy seems to follow. I noted that he mentioned it in a number of his posts early on when I joined the forum. So I decided to give that a go. So far, that cook time for bittering is giving me results I like.

 

So as the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" [rightful]

 

Beer.

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Hiya guys.

 

I was just having a bit of a read of the Little Creatures website about the hop harvesting from earlier this year & other bits & pieces there, when I came across some Q & A's their brewers & staff did as part of a live Facebook session with interested home brewers etc.

 

For our discussion this seemed relative. . .

 

Q: What's a good hop to start with for bittering a citrusy pale ale?

 

A: Best to avoid the ultra high alpha hops but anything less than 6 or 7 should be right for a nice and mellow bitterness. If you can, try Cluster or Tassie Cascade hops to start with.

 

The rest of what they documented from the session can be found HERE.

 

2012 Hop Harvest Info

(Slide 2 will send a few of the hop-heads on this forum into somewhat of a euphoric frenzy!) [lol]

 

Enjoy.

 

Beer.

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  • 5 weeks later...

For those interested, just an update on this brew...

 

I will admit when I bottled this brew I was very concerned about the bitterness it would display. I tasted some of it part way through bottling & it seemed quite bitter. I put this down to my screw up with the Nelson Sauvin hop 30gm addition being thrown in about 10-15mins earlier into the cook than I had planned.

 

I can safely say that weeks on after it was bottled, this brew has become a lovely tasting beer with a good bitterness. The offensive bitterness I tasted during the bottling stage has gone.

 

Everything said, I would probably boil the Nelson Sauvin 30gm addition for 20mins instead of the 30mins I did (by mistake) in this brew.

 

For something I thought I may end up tipping down the sink due to potentially excessive bitterness, I can honestly say this is the best tasting brew I have ever made outside K&K brewing.

 

I'm that wrapped with it at even this early stage, that I now plan to put it through a lager style brew in difference to the ale style brew I did in this case, to see how much more refined I can make it.

 

Stoked. [biggrin]

 

Anthony.

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Good work Lusty. It's awesome when a beer turns out well' date=' and even better when one you thought you'd stuffed up turns out [biggrin']

 

As Hannibal says "I love it when a plan comes together"

 

Not enough that you have one of my legs, you have to steal my quotes as well? Hahaha! [lol] [lol]

 

Just kidding! [tongue]

 

Yeah, I'm really happy with it. I'm going to use it as my control brew for a while & tinker with things about it's makeup to make it an even better beer. My other FV will be used for different beers each week, & occasionally I might double up on this brew.

 

By the way, how did your "Galaxy bittering hop" brew turn out that you mentioned earlier in this thread?

 

Anthony.

 

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By the way' date=' how did your "Galaxy bittering hop" brew turn out that you mentioned earlier in this thread?[/quote']

 

It's really good. The aroma and flavour are perfect! The bitterness is a bit low though, which I'm attributing to using flowers that had been opened (but sealed in a bag) for a few months. But, there was no harshness, so the 40mins gets a bit tick!

 

Because I attempted to make "mid-strength" beer the beer itself seems a bit too watery for my liking. But my mates loved it.

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