Brewferm, Pils Review

[Chris_1984]

Brewed this up last night; been wanting to try a Belgian kit for a while now.
This Brewferm Pils kit gives you the option of making either 12 or 20 litres; well, my PV only has gallons on it so bearing in mind that I wasn't going to brew 2.64 gallons precisely, I knocked it up to 3 gallons and added a wee bit extra as it was just under its SG (1042)

3oz soft brown sugar
8oz medium spraymalt
aprox. half tin of Lyles Golden Syrup

OG was roughly 1048 now. Yeast was activated in warm water then pitched at 20 degrees.
Very light colour in the sample jar so looking good.
PV lid was bulging within minutes; can already see a nice big old fermentation ring after 15 hours.

 

[BrewDan]

I made this kit nearly 2 years ago, it has 2 recepies, one which requires sugar, and the other requires no extra fermentables, but makes about half as much.

Sadly at that point I wasnt writing everything down. From memory I made it up just shy of 40 pints, and used candy sugar and the supplied yeast.

I think I bottled some and the rest I put in a king keg. The kegged version was never really that nice, I think the temps were too high and it had a bit of a tang so I tipped it eventually.

The bottles took an age to condition, probably around 6-8 months, by the time it had done, I had drank most of the bottles through samples. The last few were lovely.

I will be making this kit again, but next time making the smaller batch and adding no fermentables as I can imagine it will be lovely.


As I said it must be 18 months ago at least that this was made, I gave one bottle to someone and it is still sitting in their fridge, if its still there by August I will claim it back and provide an update!!

 

[Chris_1984]

Hey BrewDan,

Thanks for the info - think i'll have to make candy sugar at some point soon!
To be honest, I want to get this out of my PV and into secondary asap - purely so i can start my next brew!

 

[Chris_1984]

After 12 days in PV, i dropped this into secondary FV this evening with no fuss; noticeable banana aroma coming off of it. I was tempted to dryhop but resisted - want to see what it tastes like and whether or not it's worth doing again before I tweak too much!

 

[Chris_1984]

FINALLY got around to bottling the lager tonight; had a wee snifftee of it - it's been about 3 weeks since I dropped it from PV to FV but it tastes quite strong/syrupy. Even before I primed it, it was already clear.

Here's a pic of what got bottled about halfway:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79088431@N07/7646419682/in/photostream


Here's a pic of the hydrometer reading - i make it about 1.014. From what i've read, the longer you leave this lager, the stronger it gets so fingers crossed...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79088431@N07/7646416580/in/photostream

 

[dmr]

Hi All,

About a month ago i made a batch using this kit.
Very briefly: 20L with 1kg of dextrose. 12d for first fermentation (20C). Then I bottled my beer using dextrose for priming. Bottles were left for 7d in 20C.
Then finally put my bottles in cold room (7.5-10C).

Initial color was amber.
After first week tried first bottle. Can't say that color changed. Very nice taste, good head. The only problem is yeasty smell. I could not even smell hops.
After second week tried again. Color became lighter, but still not yellow as on label. Taste is good. But again yeasty smell. Not so much as last time, but still exist.

I understand that this might be just my impatience, as manual tells you need to wait for 6-8 weeks.

Did I do somethng wrong with my beer?

I would appreciate your help. Thanks.

 

[wilsoa1111]

i made this beer during my early days, follwed instructions w brewing sugar but does take an age to mature, but boy was it worth it! best plan is to get another kit on the go thats ready quick like a wheat or a stout- think the malt millers selling some intersting extract kits for wheats... bit pricy though when u add in the yeast and hop required
http://themaltmiller.co.uk/index.php?_a ... ductId=435

 

[dmr]

Hi All,

OK, after 3 weeks of my beer conditioning in cold room (7.5-10C) i tried one more bottle.

And i can say that taste significantly improved. Yeasty smell is almost gone. Instead of it there is nice smell of hop.
Color is still not yellow, more close to amber. But this is no issue to me.

So, just to reply to my original question - patience, patience and patience )))).

 

[Jabberwok]

I bought this kit and this is my first brew. Could you please explain what are differences between 12L and 20L recipes? Will 12L be stronger or not? And will 12L variation be carbonized enough, if it says not to add priming sugar? Thanks!

 

[dmr]

I bought this kit and this is my first brew. Could you please explain what are differences between 12L and 20L recipes? Will 12L be stronger or not? And will 12L variation be carbonized enough, if it says not to add priming sugar? Thanks!

Hi Jabberwok, unfortunately i am not so experienced in homebrew. But from my point of view having 12L instead of 20L may result in more quality beer.

As far as I understand all this process: Beer kit is just a can of hopped malt extract, which contains basic sugars and "other stuff". Sugars will be processed by yeasts into alcohol, "other stuff" will not be processed by yeasts and will give your beer taste, body, flavour and so on.

When you make 20L batch you have to use additional sugar to have your beer of necessary gravity (however it is recommended not to use table sugar).
After fermentation you will get beer with certain value of alcohol, but without full body.

In case of 12L batch you need to add nothing. This will result probably in the same gravity beer. But after fermentation you will get less alcohol but more body.

That is how do I understand this process. And you need to decide what do you expect from your beer.

But I have one concern regarding 12L batches - hops. I personally do not like strongly hopped beer. And level of hops in 12L batch will be significantly bigger that in 20L batch (just a guess).
But from the other side I can't predict how hopped will be your 12L batch. It may be fine for you.

I hope you will find this info useful.

 

[GJB]

Made this today.

Due to a small shopping error - only bought 680g of Golden Syrup when I needed 1kg to make up to the 20L. Used brewing sugar for the rest plus another 100g for good luck. Got above the advised SG of 1.042 up to 1.045. If it gets down to 1.010, should be a nice 5% after bottling.

It's only been in the FV for about 4 hours and already it is bubbling away. As with all the Brewferm stuff so far - it already smells good.

Going to give this 10 days before touching it as I'm off on a charity bike ride from Leicester to Paris.

Post an update when I get back.

 

[aamcle]

Made up to 12litre, lagered at -1°C it's pleasant enough but rather lacking in body. It's got quite haze but then I didn't use the right finings to drop proteins.

I don't think I'll make this again.

Conclusion it is OK but nothing special.

Atb. Aamcle

 

[GJB]

Made this today.

Due to a small shopping error - only bought 680g of Golden Syrup when I needed 1kg to make up to the 20L. Used brewing sugar for the rest plus another 100g for good luck. Got above the advised SG of 1.042 up to 1.045. If it gets down to 1.010, should be a nice 5% after bottling.

It's only been in the FV for about 4 hours and already it is bubbling away. As with all the Brewferm stuff so far - it already smells good.

Going to give this 10 days before touching it as I'm off on a charity bike ride from Leicester to Paris.

Post an update when I get back.

Update: Tried one tonight. It is a nice drink, but there is one problem. I popped the top off, poured into my lucky Leffe glass (don't ask - every beer has to be tried in this glass) and the bottle kept "producing" bubbles. And I do mean "kept". I had to get a bowl to put the rest of the bottle in while I drank the rest.

It's a good drink, well carbonated (LOL) but a little sweet so I would guess that I over primed.

It's also the only beer so far that caused a bottle explosion. I have a cupboard in my en-suite that stays at 22 degrees. The beer was in there and at about 4am this Wednesday there was a loud pop followed by the sound of liquid running somewhere. Yes - the beer flowed into the gap between the cupboard floor and the wall and for a while, the beer smell emanating was not great and caused wife aggro. Had to pull the base of the cupboard up and Dettol it!

It is now safely in the garage. I may not be allowed my beer inside again!

 

[rui]

you were fermenting it at wich temperature???lager temp or ale temp???


:

 

[jphil123]

I tried this kit with a proper lager yeast (Saflager W34/70) and fermented at 12*C for 18 days. I choose to go half way in between the 12 litre and 20 litre options, by adding 500g of DME and 16 litres. After 7 days, I added 13 grams of Saaz in a muslin bag. Fermentation took 18 days (at a pretty steady 12*C) and stopped at 1.010 (because of the DME, I guess). Primed with 92g of dextrose.

I keep this in the cold room (at 12*C) to bottle condition (as I used lager yeast, my thinking is that room temperature is too high for the remaining yeast to stay active). Thusfar winter has been very mild, but I'm hoping temperatures to drop to more normal levels, so this batch can lager at an even colder temperature. And then, crack open a crisp lager by the time spring comes!

I'm also toying with the idea to put this into the fridge for a number of weeks to properly lager it. Am I right in assuming the priming sugars first need to have been fermented in the bottles before doing so? Anyone an idea?

 

[jphil123]

I tried this kit with a proper lager yeast (Saflager W34/70) and fermented at 12*C for 18 days. I choose to go half way in between the 12 litre and 20 litre options, by adding 500g of DME and 16 litres. After 7 days, I added 13 grams of Saaz in a muslin bag. Fermentation took 18 days (at a pretty steady 12*C) and stopped at 1.010 (because of the DME, I guess). Primed with 92g of dextrose.

I keep this in the cold room (at 12*C) to bottle condition (as I used lager yeast, my thinking is that room temperature is too high for the remaining yeast to stay active). Thusfar winter has been very mild, but I'm hoping temperatures to drop to more normal levels, so this batch can lager at an even colder temperature. And then, crack open a crisp lager by the time spring comes!

I'm also toying with the idea to put this into the fridge for a number of weeks to properly lager it. Am I right in assuming the priming sugars first need to have been fermented in the bottles before doing so? Anyone an idea?

One week later: beer is carbonated nicely now, taste is clean and crisp, but still too young. Straight out of the fridge it is nice, but when it gets a little warmer it get the homebrew twang. But hey, it is way too young to drink, so will leave it in the fridge for about 2 months and see what happens.

Should I brew this another time, I think to add more hops to the dry hopping; 30-50g more likely. 13g is just too little to be noticeable. I do recommend to dry hop on this kit though.

 

[jphil123]

As spring has started according to the Meteorological reckoning (Astronomical it is still 3 weeks away), I decided to open another bottle of my Brewferm Pils.

It has bottle conditioned for about 6 weeks now, mostly at around 15*c. Carbonation is good, and it is pretty clear by now. The amount of Saaz I used for dry hopping (just 12.5g) is only fairly slightly noticeable in the aroma. The taste is crisp and dry, with low bitterness. It is a refreshing beer, but not much more to say than that, really. Body is fairly thin, length is fairly short. Also has a hint of a little unripe banana, but nothing disturbing. Still, I definitely prefer it over say Heineken, Fosters, Carling, Peroni, etc.

On the other hand, it completely fails to excite me. The BlackRock Pilsener Blonde I brewed two weeks later tastes better already. As that was a cheaper kit and brewed to 23L (with the same yeast and temp), that would be my preferred choice next winter (unless the Coopers European Lager I brewed two weeks after that turns out better).

 

[jphil123]

With the caveat of the not entirely fair comparison, I thought it may be useful to share the final comparison tasting between the Brewferm Pils, BlackRock Pilsner Blonde and Coopers European Lager (see my entries elsewhere for full info). After 6 months, the Blackrock is no longer in the lead, the Coopers is by now the richest tasting beer. Nothing wrong with the Blackrock, just tasting a little more plain. There is also nothing wrong with the Brewferm, it is certainly drinkable, but just very neutral. Not sure if I would brew this again, as it is not the cheapest, but if I would I would definitely try enhancing it with hops.

 

[danbriant]

I just put this kit on yesterday as I really fancied a short batch of lager and my prayers got answered with this kit.



I bumped the water to 3 gallons then added a bit extra sugar to get an SG of around 1048.

So I expect this to be around 4.5-5% when done if it gets to 1010



The thing went off like a rocket after only a few hours! The fermenting smell through airlock smells lovely!

 

[Robin54]

With the caveat of the not entirely fair comparison, I thought it may be useful to share the final comparison tasting between the Brewferm Pils, BlackRock Pilsner Blonde and Coopers European Lager (see my entries elsewhere for full info). After 6 months, the Blackrock is no longer in the lead, the Coopers is by now the richest tasting beer. Nothing wrong with the Blackrock, just tasting a little more plain. There is also nothing wrong with the Brewferm, it is certainly drinkable, but just very neutral. Not sure if I would brew this again, as it is not the cheapest, but if I would I would definitely try enhancing it with hops.

Execllent comprehensive review...
which is more informative than...
Yeh, I made one of these
Thank you