Batch #1-15: Easy Pilsner

Style Simple Pilsner
Ingredients Easy Pilsner
Brewing Date: Friday, April 10, 2015
Primary Fermentation: Friday, April 10, 2015
Original Gravity: Oops… forgot to measure it.  🙁
Secondary Fermentation: n/a
Bottling Date: Saturday, April 18, 2015
Final Gravity: 1.014
Release Date: Friday, May 15, 2015
Alcohol by volume: estimate around 3.5% ABV
Final Release Name: Flying Ace Pilsner

A simple Pilsner recipe.  The first batch since November 2013 due to a semi-voluntary hiatus.

The name is in honor of the new Peanuts movie coming out in November of this year.

Summary:

Wed 8 Apr: While reviewing the ingredients, I noticed that I have an unhopped Breiss 3.3Lb Pilsen Malt. So I am going to use 2oz of Saaz Hops in the brewing process (1oz at start, 0,.5oz at 30 minutes, and 0.5oz at last 5 minutes of boil) for flavoring.

Thursday April 9 @ 8:00 PM: Created the yeast starter.

Friday April 10 @ 2:00 PM: Yeast starter looked good.  Brewing process went smoothly, except that I forgot to take a gravity reading before starting the fermentation. I guess forgetfulness is one of the penalties of taking such a long hiatus. The wort was sealed in the fermentation container by 5:30PM.

Saturday April 11 @ 9:30 AM: I checked the S-sharped airlock and am a little concerned that it is only bubbling at 20 second intervals. Good yeast starters have previously been generating bubbles at less than 5 second intervals in prior batches. I am hoping this will be at 5 second (or less) intervals by the 36 hour point.

Monday April 13 @ 10:00 AM: The bubble rate went up to strong bursts at 10 second intervals. This should  be fine.

Saturday April 18 @ 2:00 PM:  Bottling day. The wort has a fantastic aroma and taste. This is easily the clearest and lightest wort I have ever made. Yield: 1x 64oz, 1x 32oz, 3x 20oz, and 35x 12oz.

Saturday April 25 @ 5:00 PM: Sampled a bottle to check progress.  Carbonation is weak but definitely there.  The taste is good but very sweet. Obviously the yeast has a bit of work to do with the conditioning sugars.

Thursday May 21 @ 8:00 PM: The final product came out quite good.  The head on the beer is very thin, and completely dissipates in less than a minute.  The beer itself is very thin, slightly sweet and has a good balance in the hop aromas.  The overall taste is not far off from Yuengling, and this is a beer that is great for warmer weather.  This appeared to be a risky recipe from the beginning, but turned out well.  If I had to do it again, I would increase the amount of grains it used by 50-75%.  While the thin taste is good, it needs a tad bit more body for more liking.