Homebrew Beer Blog

The generic American lager I made a while back is now pretty clean. It’s a little fruity, but I used Maris Otter, rather than Pils malt, so it probably wouldn't have that clean crispness anyway. The test batches too seem fairly clean, but a still a little fruity now that they have fermented out. I had these all lined up in wine glasses and couldn't really get much of anything. I'll have to try again now that they should be pretty well conditioned and I can taste it for defects.

Here's the score the best I can tell.

1. Every beer that used at least the most current bag of Durst Pils malt had AE.
2. Changing levels of O2 didn't seem to make any difference. From just shaking, to hitting with pure O2 until fermentation began.
3. Levels of nutrients haven't seem to make much difference, although, I've yet to get results from a starter w/ no nutrients. That's coming up next.
4. Starter temps seem to make no difference. I've done starters as cool as 50-degrees.
5. Pitching rates don't seem to really matter.
6. Fermentation temps don't seem to matter. I'm already doing it at 48, and warming it at the start and fermentation temp didn't make it stronger or go away.
7. Starter Method - I've done both stir plate and simple starters.
8. Yeast selection doesn't seem to matter. I've got EA with WLP 833, 830 838, and 515. Not certain on 838, but I think so. I've repeated EA with 830 and 833 tons of times.

Could this really have anything to do with my base malt? That MO lager was clean. I went back, and my last good lagers before that were last spring, an extract batch, and a CAP. I had some batches before that with EA also. Not sure I can explain that CAP. My notes say it used Durst, but I'm not 100% that I used it, or just formulated the recipe for it. It did use the cake from that extract batch, so maybe all that yeast helped. Anyway, I'm into a bag of Dingemans Pilsner malt. There's no date on the bag, but I'll assume it's fairly fresh since it was special ordered for me.

So, next up... a double batch German Pils with Belgian Pils malt. I'm also planning to do a split starter on this one, one on the stir plate, the other I'll do a 4L simple starter at 50-degrees made up from from extract. This simple starter will have no nutrients. The batch itself will also have no nutrients. This should test the malt, starter nutrients/excess nutrients, and the canned starter wort I've been using.