Festival New Zealand Pilsner

[Rotation]

As promised in another thread here starts my blow by blow account of my attempt to make a Festival New Zealand Pilsner under pressure. Given my limited knowledge of the Noble Art of Brewing it should be a long road of hit and miss occurrences. The up side of this is that in no way can I be held responsible as I don`t know what I`m doing really. The taste of the beer at the end will be subjective to say the least as I have no idea what Festival New Zealand Pilsner is supposed to taste like. Anyway onwards and upwards.

Firstly the kit. Well what can I say? It comes in a nice box which is not that easy to open but does stop the contents from falling out.

Nice not easy to open box contents:

1.5Kg Foil Sachets of Pilsner LME (contains barley) X 2.
350g Packet of Dextrose X 1.
100g Foil Packet of Antipodean Pilsner Hop Pellets X 1.
10g Packet of California Lager Beer Yeast X 1.
150g Packet of Priming Sugar X 1.
Instructions X 1.

 

[Rotation]

Ok sorry for the delay but its been a bad week! Anyway started the brew on Thursday last week.
The initial phase of this impending disaster started well with the sterilisation of all equipment. Then the chaos began....... Anyone notice the flaw in the procedure?

 

[Rotation]

Yes exactly!

 

[Rotation]

Now equipped with a beer I continued into my attempt to gain the fame that I richly deserve?

Anyway water treated, malt extract placed in boiling (and I do mean boiling) water. Ever tried to pick up a foil packet of LEM that`s been in boiling water? Ok so now add 3ltrs boiling water (hurty pain yet again) but then add the Dextrose and stir.

After this it became easy!!!!! I now transferred my wort to my FV:

 

[Rotation]

Now 23ltr of liquid love later I tackle the White Labs Lager yeast. They need help in explaining how to use this tricky little yeast. I did though get quite excited whilst manipulating the squishy bag of sex craved little hairy beasties, there was something quite stimulating about squeezing the squishy bag.

Anyway porno scenario all set I left it to start fermenting. Starting SG 1.048, pitching temp 19.4C and 14psi. AAAAAAAhhhhhhhhgggggg I forgot to put the ispindle in! Ah! well such is life.

The new child is now born and I would like to bet that my expectations on my success rates are far, far higher than yours.

 

[Rotation]

Progress report: (Friday) It would appear that I got something right at last. Temp is spot on 20C and pressure increased from 14psi to 19psi so those fat little hairy yeasty thingies in there must be doing something whatever that something is? I`ve reduced the pressure down to 15psi and set the spunding valve accordingly.

There`s hopes for me yet. You never know, one day I may become a big ruffy tuffy AG brewer again?

The thing is, I know that I`m getting there it`s just that I don`t know where I`m going, so in actual fact I may already be there but don`t know it?

 

[Rotation]

Progress Report: (Saturday) Well that WLP925 doesn`t hang around. Day 2 and SG is already down to 1.023?. Think I`ll leave it to get down to 1.015 before dry hopping but that depends on when I can get a new chubby to transfer it into when I dry hop.

 

[Rotation]

Not sure if that WLP925 knows that its a lager yeast and that lager yeasts are supposed to bottom ferment?

 

[Twostage]

Ok sorry for the delay but its been a bad week! Anyway started the brew on Thursday last week.
The initial phase of this impending disaster started well with the sterilisation of all equipment. Then the chaos began....... Anyone notice the flaw in the procedure?

I was going to say that you're brewing in the kitchen and that is off limits (it is for me).

 

[Twostage]

Not sure if that WLP925 knows that its a lager yeast and that lager yeasts are supposed to bottom ferment?

I think there's always a krausen regardless, certainly is when I use mangrove jack california lager and saflager 34/70.

 

[Rotation]

I was going to say that you're brewing in the kitchen and that is off limits (it is for me).

Well @Twostage my life is as simple as it gets because I`m simple. I cook food in my kitchen (I love food), I make bread in my kitchen (I love bread) so then it comes naturally to make beer in my kitchen (I love beer).

I am after all only making a beer kit and not grain brewing which I will be doing shortly but you must promise not to tell my wife that!

It also has everything I need like power, heat, water and me in it so its a natural harmony.

 

[Rotation]

I think there's always a krausen regardless, certainly is when I use mangrove jack california lager and saflager 34/70.

I have saflager 34/70 kicking around but as I`m pressure brewing my New Zealand Pilsner I decided to try the WLP925 pressure lager yeast.

 

[Twostage]

Well @Twostage my life is as simple as it gets because I`m simple. I cook food in my kitchen (I love food), I make bread in my kitchen (I love bread) so then it comes naturally to make beer in my kitchen (I love beer).

I am after all only making a beer kit and not grain brewing which I will be doing shortly but you must promise not to tell my wife that!

It also has everything I need like power, heat, water and me in it so its a natural harmony.

Ah, forgot the kit angle. I might be able to get away with that too. I've got a kit waiting to get brewed, daughter's BF has a mate that likes hazy IPAs and when he helped me with an AG brew he was a bit overwhelmed by the attention to detail required. So I got a hazy IPA kit for our next session. Funny that I could just go to the shed and do an AG but I'll have to follow instructions for the kit as I haven't done one for years.

 

[Rotation]

I could go AG again, but since my return to brewing the advance in the quality of the kits and the equipment available is unbelievable. Tom Caxton was all the rage when I started homebrewing and to be honest if it was any dearer than 10p a pint to brew they would not have sold one kit! Cheap, brain damaging evil tasting homebrew.

I will return to AG I think at sometime in the future but at present there are too many kits I want to try before I do.

At present I`m working my way through the Festival kits and the results are awesome to be honest.

 

[Rotation]

By the way........... kit brewing starts with opening the box. Throw the instructions away and go with your gut feelings?

 

[Twostage]

By the way........... kit brewing starts with opening the box. Throw the instructions away and go with your gut feelings?

True.

On the day I might just hand everything across to daughter's BF and tell him to get on with it.

 

[scottydog.]

By the way........... kit brewing starts with opening the box. Throw the instructions away and go with your gut feelings?