Re: Wilko's Delicate Pilsner

[chrispurvis]

Brewed to 23l mate. My maths is telling me it should be just over 4% when fully conditioned altough im drinking it early. :/

Ive got another lager in FV with an extra 500g light spray malt and brewed short to 21l. So hopefully that'll be a lil stronger. So dont mind having a few weaker beers for week nights.

 

[redhousebrewing]

Could any1 reccomend a good lager yeast which is easily available from lhbs?

S-23 worked well for me and is widely available.
Stuart

 

[Szabster]

I'm actually thinking about buying this kit and "pimp it up" in a way to make it similar tasting to oriental beers. I've read about people using some rice extracts one way or another or even rice syrup (which cannot be found even in the chinese shops around here...) So yeah, this kit is definitely on the list :)

 

[chrispurvis]

S-23 worked well for me and is widely available.
Stuart

Cheers bud. Ill get some on pay day. When the weather cools ill get it going.

 

[Jonathan]

Thought I'd share my experience of this kit. This was my first ever brew but thought I might as well just dive in and play around with it!

Based on reviews on this forum, I brewed it with:
- 1kg Brewing Sugar
- 500g Light DME
- Saflager S-23

I topped it up to 20 litres, giving a starting gravity of 1.045.

I fermented it at around 16-18*C by leaving it in a water bath in the garage (this was during fairly hot weather in June).

It had 13 days of fermenting, then I racked it off into a second FV and gave it another 9 days. It got down to a gravity of 1.004.

I then used 140g of brewing sugar to batch prime, and bottled it up. The priming sugar took the gravity to 1.008, so I calculate the total strength as 5.9% ABV.

I wasn't too excited when I first tried one after a week or so, but after a couple of weeks it was good. After a month it is very good. It certainly tastes Pilsner-like. The only thing I've noticed is that it needs to be well chilled, I just tried one that was more like room temperature and that didn't really hit the spot in the same way.

I decided I'd better give it a name, and since it seemed like quite a German style of beer I went with Ubel Kanninchen, which means Evil Rabbit. We have a pet rabbit which is more vicious than you would believe, to the point we can't let the kids near it. If anyone wants a rabbit, let me know. Anyway there's a photo of the label I designed on the bottle below.

I think if I give this another go, I'd try and ferment it a bit cooler - reading comments on the S-23 this seems to be the key to a cleaner taste. Overall though I'm well happy with it :-D

 

[pms67]

Looks good

 

[Slid]

My first effort on this kit was to do 2 cans with 1 kg demerrara sugar. That went well and is long gone - it came out similar to the 2 can Golden Ale kit - pretty good.

Just put on a repeat of the 2 can brew with some seasonal blackberries. Used both yeast sachets and it's gone off great - thankful for the krausen collar as have brewed this to about 27L, including the blackberry stuff in a hop bag.

Incidentally, I did a 1 can brew with DME and TBH I think that a high fermentation temp did it no favours. So not able to comment really on a 1 can brew.

 

[Slid]

Had a proper taste of this on Saturday July 5th and am pleased with the result. As these kits were being sold at £7.50 in the recent sale, they were a good way to get decent pale ale at a decent price, with not much effort. Made to 27L (6 gallons) with a kilo of demerara sugar. :-D

This has all gone now, of course, because it went down brilliantly and it was done as a "two-some" weekend with a Wilko Golden Ale. I added some finishing hops to both, but, TBH, the effect was not particularly noticable to my tastes. Didn't do it any harm, though.

3 Sept - I repeated the 2xCans plus 1kg demerrara sugar and added the remains of the blackberries from a wine kit enhancement I had on the previous week. This was an attempt at a "blushing blonde" - it's a centuries old style made reference to on the Coopers site under "Ale Recipes".

Looks coppery in colour now and am looking forward to racking tomorrow to leave on 2FV for a further week. Looks a bit cloudy.

Anyway - I added a bit of wine from the above effort to a rather lame 1 can Wilko lager brew, with a slightly ugh aftertaste, mainly due to high fermentation temps, and the end result was strangely good.

So - have high hopes for this second effort. The first was - solid and better than you can buy without your eyes watering. Good pale ale and pretty strong.

 

[BigMick]

Bought two cans of Wilko's Light Pilsner this morning. I'm going for the 2 can approach and will add brewing sugar. Hoping to get it up to around 5 - 5.5%, so how much sugar will I need to add if I'm doing 23l?

 

[Slid]

Bought two cans of Wilko's Light Pilsner this morning. I'm going for the 2 can approach and will add brewing sugar. Hoping to get it up to around 5 - 5.5%, so how much sugar will I need to add if I'm doing 23l?

500g will get you right in the middle of the target, Mick.

 

[Slid]

3 Sept - I repeated the 2xCans plus 1kg demerrara sugar and added the remains of the blackberries from a wine kit enhancement I had on the previous week. This was an attempt at a "blushing blonde" - it's a centuries old style made reference to on the Coopers site under "Ale Recipes".

Looks coppery in colour now and am looking forward to racking tomorrow (racked on 12 Sept) to leave on 2FV for a further week. Looks a bit cloudy.

Bottled this today and it looked and tasted just great. A faint copper, rather than red, colouring from the berries and very clear. Put it into 500ml bottles as it came down to about 1008 in the end.

 

[pms67]

Bottled this today and it looked and tasted just great. A faint copper, rather than red, colouring from the berries and very clear. Put it into 500ml bottles as it came down to about 1008 in the end.

Sounds good mate,I was looking at that recipe on Coopers website and sounds nice.
I have a tin of Pilsner in my shed and was going to double it up with the Coopers Draught I bought by mistake(thought I was buying the international one !) and add some Cascade pellets but like you say on another post,so many brews to do,so little time :hmm:

 

[BigMick]

500g will get you right in the middle of the target, Mick.

Already done it, but with 750g. OG was 1050 so could be a bit stronger than intended. Oh well I'm sure I will cope.

 

[Slid]

Incidentally, I did a 1 can brew with DME and TBH I think that a high fermentation temp did it no favours. So not able to comment really on a 1 can brew.

Just read on another thread that over carbonating can give beer a strong afterbite and this certainly sound like the problem. It was masked a bit by extra sweetness (e.g. from a stout) so maybe its an acidic taste from too much CO2. Only one bottle of this left now, so may try venting some gas out at room temps and seeing what turns out a bit later.

 

[pms67]

Hi,brewed this tonight with a can of Coopers Draught, 200g of dextrose,50g of dried elder flowers from a Festival kit and am going to dry hop with 40g of Cascade pellets,threw in the 2 packets of yeast.
Brewed to 22litre and Og was 1048
Fingers crossed :pray:

 

[Scaff]

I've started one of these last Thursday.

Used coopers no2 enhancer instead of sugar, all 23ltrs is bubbling away in a cupboard



Scaff

 

[Slid]

Hi,brewed this tonight with a can of Coopers Draught, 200g of dextrose,50g of dried elder flowers from a Festival kit and am going to dry hop with 40g of Cascade pellets,threw in the 2 packets of yeast.
Brewed to 22litre and Og was 1048
Fingers crossed :pray:

Very sound idea. Should turn out to be a hoppy pale ale. :

Good time to put a brew on at the moment, temps pretty much as good as it gets, unless you have a brewing fridge. Not cold enough (for SWMBO) to put the heating on and not so warm to be outside the best temp range.

So Bacchus should be with you at least.

 

[pms67]

Very sound idea. Should turn out to be a hoppy pale ale. :

Good time to put a brew on at the moment, temps pretty much as good as it gets, unless you have a brewing fridge. Not cold enough (for SWMBO) to put the heating on and not so warm to be outside the best temp range.

So Bacchus should be with you at least.

Cheers,hope so
My brewing laboratory (my shed) has an oil filled rad in case temps dip during the night whilst my fv has a very expensive heating system installed (£7.50 aquarium heater)
What could go wrong :whistle:

 

[Slid]

Cheers,hope so
My brewing laboratory (my shed) has an oil filled rad in case temps dip during the night whilst my fv has a very expensive heating system installed (£7.50 aquarium heater)
What could go wrong :whistle:

It's a lot easier to warm a brew up than to cool it down, thanks to the 2nd law of thermodynamics (real b!tch, that one).

Looking at the weather forecast, that aquarium heater is coming into its own out there in the lab. With a towel or two (or more insulation if it gets actually cool) around the FV, an aquarium heater will probably be enough to make a real difference. Just don't set the temp above what you actually want. It only has two settings - ON and OFF.

 

[pms67]

It's a lot easier to warm a brew up than to cool it down, thanks to the 2nd law of thermodynamics (real b!tch, that one).

Looking at the weather forecast, that aquarium heater is coming into its own out there in the lab. With a towel or two (or more insulation if it gets actually cool) around the FV, an aquarium heater will probably be enough to make a real difference. Just don't set the temp above what you actually want. It only has two settings - ON and OFF.

Yeah too true mate
I have wrapped round my fv some emergency foil blankets that the RAC gave SWMBO last year in case the car broke down:party:
I have set the high tech heating instrument to 20 degrees.
I assume it will only switch on at night as temp dips.
Now,I just need to put some blankets in the car.....just in case ....;-)