Pilsner kit water experiment

[sevorg]

Hi all, I thought I'd post my Pilsner water experiment here to share the results as it progresses. Basically I have two Brupak's Beers of the World Czech Pilsner kits that I was originally going to combine to make a 20 ltr brew. I've now decided to brew one with my normal hard tap water and one with boiled soft water from the dehumidifier. Apart from the water, everything else will be under identical conditions to see if I (and the others who help to drink it) can tell the difference.

I've modified my brew fridge to include two low power fans to circulate the air and maintain a closer temperature between top and bottom as there are now two fermenters inside. I'll try and post some photos of this later. The kits come with a lager yeast and recommend fermenting between 12 & 15C. The yeast sachets states suitable for 20 ltrs so at 10 ltrs it should be getting a good start.

Both kits were made precisely as the instructions, one with soft (effectively distilled) water and one with Thames finest (295 mg/ltr CaCO3) very hard. Both brews measured at 1047. Pitched the starters at 8.30 am 11-May at a wort temp of 13C. The first signs of yeast activity were this morning, about 24 hrs after pitching and by mid afternoon there was about 1/2" of froth on top.

 

[sevorg]

First stab at some pics...

#1 Brew fridge with two, 10 ltr brews
#2 Fermenter activity at 24 hrs
#3 Fermenter activity at 30 hrs
#4 Detail of fan modification

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Great set up but the bend on that shelf would worry me.

 

[sevorg]

Great set up but the bend on that shelf would worry me.

Agreed, it does look bad in the pic. I normally only use the one at the bottom for 5 or 6 gallons. I'm going to have to do something now...

 

[sevorg]

Time for an update.
Date________Hard water._____Soft water
11 March ___1047 @ 20C ____1047 @ 18C (yeast pitched)
18 March ___1022 @ 11C ____1022 @ 11C
23 March ___1017 @ 11C ____1018 @ 11C
29 March - moved from fermenting fridge to garage as it was the same temperature and I needed the fermenting fridge to be making some ale as in danger of running low in a few weeks time!
29 March ___1014 @ 13C ____1015 @ 13C
6 May ______1012 @ 15C ____1012 @ 15C bottled with 75g of Youngs brewing sugar per 10ltre batch and placed in brew fridge at 20C
8 May - stored in garage at 15C
10 May - cleared remarkable quickly with a good deposit of yeast on the bottom of the bottle.
16 May - can't wait any longer, chilled a bottle of "soft" down to drinking temperature to test.

The results... this is a relatively dark lager, for no particular reason I was expecting (or possibly hoping) this was going to turn out like Pilsner Urquell. It isn't. It is, in my opinion, indistinguishable from Budweiser Budvar. Carbonation is just right, similar to commercial bottled pils, and the sediment stayed put to the very end of the pour, only leaving a very small volume of liquid in the bottle. This is seriously good beer if you enjoy proper Budweiser. The yeast supplied with the kit was Brewferm dried lager yeast and although I have no experience of other lager yeast to compare this to I think it is very good and would use it again. It is also inexpensive.

17 May as the soft water version was so good I've just had a sniff of the hard water variant. Again, same comments as for the soft version. It may have a slightly more hoppy taste but, if so, it's really marginal. I need to get a few people together to taste back-to-back to get a proper opinion, but neither is anything but highly drinkable and I would probably not bother with water treatment with kits based on my initial tasting. I hope this is of interest and I will post results when I get some more scientific testing done.

 

[rodabod]

Is the mouthfeel the same? It's one thing I notice with beers when they are made with soft water. You notice the same difference when drinking bottled water compared to London tap water.

 

[Slid]

Very interesting. I recall reading that both distilled and hard water were less suitable for brewing, so would be intrigued if there were no actual taste difference. At the very least, they should be flawed in different ways, surely?

Really liked the look of the brew fridge setup. No half measures there!

 

[wheazy_joe]

Isn't this a 20litre kit? Am I correct in assuming that, if you brewed to 10 litres, you didn't add any sugar?

 

[Slid]

Isn't this a 20litre kit? Am I correct in assuming that, if you brewed to 10 litres, you didn't add any sugar?

They are marketed as 10L, I believe, Joe. As with any one can kit, it is always possible to add sugar and brew it out to twice the length.

Sadly, it never seems to double the quality, though :razz:

 

[wheazy_joe]

Sounds like a good lager, think I will give it a go.

 

[glynb]

There's a small write up in Home brew beer by greg hughes that says that when brewing lagers, it's best to use a large proportion of distilled or de-ionised water to help maintain the correct pH levels and avoid "off" flavours.

 

[wheazy_joe]

Sevorg where did you buy the Brupak kits from, can't seem to find them anywhere....

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Here - http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Brupaks_Beer_Kit.html

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