Pilsner(a variation)

[Mu]

I made a Brewisen Pilsner <it’s a kit beer> a few months ago, and it tasted a little bland, it also had an aniseed taste to it? I was thinking this time for my 10L batch id make it using the following method.

(Half Batch) 2.64 gallons

-Half a tin of the malt extract
-500g dextrose, maltodextrin blend
2 cups olive tea <ill use this to bitter the brew a little more>

And ill prime with brown sugar (50g)

Method

-Boil 8l of water, add to carboy
-Boil 1 L of water with extract and sugar in it, cool it in a water and ice bath, add to cooled water in carboy.
-Boil 2 cups of dry olive leaves in 1L of water, drain and add to carboy.
-make a yeast starter and pitch.

[edit]

I will have a week in the primary <it’s a plastic brew bucket> and 2 weeks in the secondary <it’s a 3 gallon glass carboy>

[edit 2]

I started this today, the only difference was I added 116grams of olive leaf to 1.75L of water and boiled them. <I dried them first in the oven, they were 116g fresh>

Kind of a test to see how olive leaf affects a ferment, and how it contributes to taste, as I have thought about brewing a mead with olive leaf.

Mu.

 

[Mu]

In terms of fermentation the OG was 1.032 that was three days ago, I took a reading today and the SG is at 1.017 so it seems to be fermenting ok despite the Olive Leaf. So an Alcohol content of about 2% at the moment, I very much doubt it will get any higher than 4% which is good. Ill rack to the secondary next week, and it can sit there for a few weeks to age a little before I bottle. So far so good.

Mu.

 

[lostnbronx]

Mu,

Did you have a taste at all, just to see what the olive leaf has contributed so far? This is very interesting, and I'm eager to see what you end up with.

-David

 

[Mu]

A small taste, but nothing I want to comment on. Im racking on the coming Monday to the secondary to age it for a few weeks before bottling, so ill have a taste then to get a better idea.

Im hoping this will ferment pretty dry, so the bitters come through, im also hoping they wont be lost in the primary ferment, hence the taste on Monday, if it’s not bitter enough I may add a bit more tea.

The tea haven’t seemed to effect the ferment at all, I give it a swirl every now and again to keep the yeast in suspension and boy does it blow gas, not to mention it fermented to 2% pretty quickly. So it’s going pretty well so far.

Now just to get the carbonation right for my 375ml bottles (12oz) I think about 70g of brown sugar for 11L should do the trick.

Mu.

 

[Mu]

Well I got around to finishing this beer up today, and putting it in the bottles. I used 72grams of brown sugar in about 11L of beer.

I cooled some down and had a taste, it’s defiantly got a bitter taste to it that wasn’t in the straight pilsner. It’s not huge but it’s pleasant, it would probably benefit from a little more in the primary, or steeping some leaves in the secondary.

FG was 1.011 <yeah it’s high, but I have some un-fermentable sugars in there>

So give it a week or so and I might try a bottle, and ill give a more detailed tasting notes then. I wonder if it’s medicinal?

Mu

 

[Brewbear]

Well!!!!
How is it??? courious drunks want to know!

Cheers,
Brewbear

 

[Mu]

Not bad, it has an interesting bitter to it, defiantly not that of hops, it lingers a bit making you want another drink. I think it would be better to leave the leaf in there to steep during a secondary stage after about a week of fermentation.

I tried a beer with a lemon twist to it in New Zealand “Montieths” bad spelling but it was hellishly nice. So im thinking of a lemon twist beer….. Ill have to finish what I have here first however, oh well it’s a tough job but someone has to drink it.

Defiantly needs more of the olive leaf, but if I add more leaf id need more sugar to balance it out.

Mu

(im no taster :-\)