Finding the right place to ferment Pilsner

gosplan

Going to stick a Coopers Pilsner kit on to ferment.

This kit comes with larger yeast and I've read that means I need to be careful with my temperatures, especially in summer.

Finding a sub 18 degree room isn't that simple, especially when you've a newborn in the house and the heating is whacked on most of the time.

Where have people found that's good for them?

I have a decent shed with concrete walls that mightn't be too variant with temperatures. Also have a fridge in this shed - was considering turning it off and emptying it out and using it to store the FV - my thinking is the insulation in the fridge will keep it from excess cold in the night and vice versa.

Any suggestions?

Carawaystick

If you've a shed with concrete walls, you should be able to hold the temp around 12-15 degrees, unless we have a heat wave!
I brewed a lager last jan/feb and had a room with the radiator off to keep it cool, and then the shed to lager it

Only saw about the fridge now
Go with the turned off fridge for fermentation, and turn it on for lagering

You should be looking at 3 weeks fermentation- 3 weeks lagering and another fortnight to carbonate if you batch prime, while from looking at tales of slow carbonation with drops, it could take a month in the bottle.

You might do it faster, but plan for it taking its time

gosplan

Carawaystick wrote: »

If you've a shed with concrete walls, you should be able to hold the temp around 12-15 degrees, unless we have a heat wave!
I brewed a lager last jan/feb and had a room with the radiator off to keep it cool, and then the shed to lager it

Only saw about the fridge now
Go with the turned off fridge for fermentation, and turn it on for lagering

You should be looking at 3 weeks fermentation- 3 weeks lagering and another fortnight to carbonate if you batch prime, while from looking at tales of slow carbonation with drops, it could take a month in the bottle.

You might do it faster, but plan for it taking its time

Just checked the fridge there.

At it's weakest setting it runs at 11c.

So fridge off for fermentation. Then in for largering (need to find out about this).

Carawaystick

gosplan wrote: »

Just checked the fridge there.

At it's weakest setting it runs at 11c.

So fridge off for fermentation. Then in for largering (need to find out about this).

3weeks at ten degrees colder than fermentation temp
You can rack to secondary or just chill primary

gosplan

Carawaystick wrote: »

3weeks at ten degrees colder than fermentation temp
You can rack to secondary or just chill primary

Thanks for all the help with this.

So if I can measure the temp in the shed to be say a constant enough 15, then I can do secondary or place primary in the fridge for 3 weeks at 5?

Gonna have to bottle prime this too which I understand will take time.

Devi

I started a cooper pilsner back a few weeks ago. The room I left it in has a radiator off and a window slightly ajar with an average temp of 14-18c which was ok for this kit until the warm spell we just had recently (came out of nowhere), brought it up to 21c sometimes. I thought it was going to be ruined but I had a sample when bottling and although it had a slight eggy-vinergary smell (which is supposedly normal for this kit), had a pretty ok taste. So moral of the story is summer, (which ironically is the time you want to drink it) is a bad time for making larger without proper temp control, but the strain of yeast used by coopers in this kit is pretty forgiving, assuming a few weeks in the bottle is going to make it taste better.

tyler71

The best temperature to ferment Pilsner is 10deg so if you have a fridge then you're sorted - set it to 10deg for your fermentation and down to 5deg for the lagering. I wish I had a fridge in my shed! As it is I think I'll be waiting until it's colder to brew some lager, and then try to hide it from myself until the summer.

gosplan

As an aside, I have two Pilsner kits. One is Coopers with larger yeast. The other is the Muntons Gold 3kg Pilsner.

The first has larger yeast so the chilling cabinet matters there. The second doesn't specify yeast type but says ferment at 18-21. So I'm assuming that this is an ale yeast snd the result will be more of an amber ale then a pilsner and putting it in at 13-15c would mess it up?

So I'm going to stick the Muntons kit in the attic room upstairs (consistant 19-20c) where my similar brand IPA is doing well so far. I gather some would say get the correct yeast and don't waste the good Pilsner kit but the cool fridge/chiller will only fit one FV and it's going to be busy for a couple of months. Also I'm curious to see what a non-larger larger will be like.

Sound sensible??

tyler71

Sounds good- be interested to hear how you get on and a comparison between the two batches.

gosplan

Just put this on.

Initial grav reading of 1038. Is that low??

1.7kg kit with 1kg coopers BE2.

Devi

23lt is it? If so thats pretty normal for coopers kits + BE2, probably work out 4-4.2%. I usualy go to 21lt to give it a better kick or if doing 23lt use 1.5kg of LME.

Just checked my notes there, for the coopers pilsner + 1.5LME, for 23lt I got an OG of 1.047 and a FG of 1.010 so an avb of 4.8%ish.

gosplan

Devi wrote: »

23lt is it? If so thats pretty normal for coopers kits + BE2, probably work out 4-4.2%. I usualy go to 21lt to give it a better kick or if doing 23lt use 1.5kg of LME.

Just checked my notes there, for the coopers pilsner + 1.5LME, for 23lt I got an OG of 1.047 and a FG of 1.010 so an avb of 4.8%ish.

Argh, was going to put in another 500g of 50/50 spraymalt/body brew but didn't.

This is going up end up watery, isn't it?

Did your's come out good?

Devi

gosplan wrote: »

Argh, was going to put in another 500g of 50/50 spraymalt/body brew but didn't.

This is going up end up watery, isn't it?

Did your's come out good?

Maybe but it be it’s your first homebrew, don’t worry too much just enjoy the process. The pre-hoped kits such as coopers never really lived up to my expectations if truth be told.(in saying that I still do the odd one) Took me a few bad kit brews before I started to do partial extract brews, which was when I really started to enjoy homebrew beer and actually crave it over commercial beers. Id really like to get into all grain but don’t have the funds atm for equipment.

tteknulp

gosplan wrote: »

Just put this on.

Initial grav reading of 1038. Is that low??

1.7kg kit with 1kg coopers BE2.

Doesnt sound right ,if you reach 1010 thats 3.7%

Devi

tteknulp wrote: »

Doesnt sound right ,it you reach 1010 thats 3.7%

Mine went down to 1010 but that was all malt, the only kit I used with BE2 was a canadian blonde which went down to 1008 but yea anytime ive done a coopers per instructions it came out low abv.

Devi

gosplan wrote: »

Going to stick a Coopers Pilsner kit on to ferment.

This kit comes with larger yeast and I've read that means I need to be careful with my temperatures, especially in summer.

Finding a sub 18 degree room isn't that simple, especially when you've a newborn in the house and the heating is whacked on most of the time.

Where have people found that's good for them?

I have a decent shed with concrete walls that mightn't be too variant with temperatures. Also have a fridge in this shed - was considering turning it off and emptying it out and using it to store the FV - my thinking is the insulation in the fridge will keep it from excess cold in the night and vice versa.

Any suggestions?

Had a taste of the coopers pilsner and yea it was ok, very similar to commercial pilsner but there is still a bit of a funky taste/smell to it.

Its only two weeks in the bottle so I wasn’t expecting it to be drinkable. I’m going to try it again in another two see what it’s like. How is your fairing out?

gosplan

Great though haven't checked it yet. Have managed to keep temp at constant 13-15 for the last 10 days. Will rack to secondary and include hops soon.

gosplan

O.K.

Just checked this. It's now at 1012 after 9 days in cool enough storage. OG was 1038 so that's about 3.5%.

Main point is it tasted GOOD. And I'm a pretty judge of good pilsner tbh. Really nice bite and aftertaste to it - will keep this updated with secondary and largering notes. Serious potential for being an excellent pilsner from kit though.

Another point to note is that I just checked my Muntons 3kg pilsner kit which has been fermenting for one day less with the ale yeast that came with the kit.

So far the Coopers wins hands down and it's clear which is a real Pilsner and which isn't. The Muntons is nice and has potential too but loses the Pilsner competition.

Would be interesting to try Muntons with larger yeast.


One question: all my gravity readings for a week or two (IPA at end of primary and all the way through secondary, plus 2 pilsner kits) have all been around 1012-1014. Is this a coincidence?

Devi

gosplan wrote: »

O.K.

Just checked this. It's now at 1012 after 9 days in cool enough storage. OG was 1038 so that's about 3.5%.

Main point is it tasted GOOD. And I'm a pretty judge of good pilsner tbh. Really nice bite and aftertaste to it - will keep this updated with secondary and largering notes. Serious potential for being an excellent pilsner from kit though.

Another point to note is that I just checked my Muntons 3kg pilsner kit which has been fermenting for one day less with the ale yeast that came with the kit.

So far the Coopers wins hands down and it's clear which is a real Pilsner and which isn't. The Muntons is nice and has potential too but loses the Pilsner competition.

Would be interesting to try Muntons with larger yeast.


One question: all my gravity readings for a week or two (IPA at end of primary and all the way through secondary, plus 2 pilsner kits) have all been around 1012-1014. Is this a coincidence?

I’ve only done 3 coopers kits but one had a FG of 1.008 and the other two were 1.010. Are you definitely reading the hydrometer right? Liquid has a tendency to cling onto things and you have to read under the line its touching, here is a link to a diagram that explains it better than me. http://gillesenergies.webs.com/hydrometers.htm. Also don’t forget to adjust for temp (probably more applicable for OG) http://www.brewersfriend.com/hydrometer-temp/

gosplan

Devi wrote: »

I’ve only done 3 coopers kits but one had a FG of 1.008 and the other two were 1.010. Are you definitely reading the hydrometer right? Liquid has a tendency to cling onto things and you have to read under the line its touching, here is a link to a diagram that explains it better than me. http://gillesenergies.webs.com/hydrometers.htm. Also don’t forget to adjust for temp (probably more applicable for OG) http://www.brewersfriend.com/hydrometer-temp/

Think I might just have erred with the OG reading of the Coopers kit.

Though if it finishes at 1008, that's 4%.

They shouldn't be finished yet though so they might still fall to this.

Thanks for the tip about temp. Didn't know that.

Devi

gosplan wrote: »

Think I might just have erred with the OG reading of the Coopers kit.

Though if it finishes at 1008, that's 4%.

They shouldn't be finished yet though so they might still fall to this.

Thanks for the tip about temp. Didn't know that.

I always give it at least two weeks in primary, wouldn’t even look at a hydro reading until after that, maybe even longer if the room temp is low. 4% is about right for coopers @23lt, that’s why I used to go to 21lt. With the pilsner kit I went to 23lt because I used 1.5kg of LME which gave an OG of 1.047 and a FG of 1.010.