Wilkinsons Pilsner

[THE_Liam]

Saw Wilkinsons were doing an offer on their own brand range, £10 with a free kilo of brewing sugar so I thought I'd give it a bash and picked up a Pilsner and a Cerveza :thumb:

This is cheap and cheerful brew so it's just the can, the kilo of sugar and the kit yeast, brewed slightly short to 21 litres to make up for the kit only being a 1.5 kilo can. Mixed in the malt in my FV with boiling water and then ran the cold water into it from the tap of another FV from a height after treating the water with half a crushed campden tab, gradually mixing in the sugar as I went because I find it hard to dissolve in one go usually. Pitched the yeast at 20 degrees and dropped in an immersion heater set to 18-20 degrees to keep it steady. Now just the anxious wait for fermentation to kick in :pray:

Just gonna leave it there for a week, forgot to take a gravity reading so it'll be one of those mystery brews :drunk:

 

[LeedsBrewer]

yeah i saw they were on offer but wasn't sure how good the quality would be. For that price you can't really complain though. Let us know how it turns out. I cant decide between the coopers stout or the st peters ruby red for my next batch.

 

[THE_Liam]

Heard good things about Coopers Stout, it's on my list. Done 2 Coopers kits and both were great :thumb:

Like I say, at that price I thought it was worth a go :)

 

[Steve]

I was tempted by the pilsner but decided to go for the stout and cerveza. For the money (technically £10 minus the cost of a bag of granulated sugar replaced by the free brewers) i can see them being ok. Keep us updated :thumb:

Edit: getting my coopers stout going tomorrow so ill post that in the brewday section

 

[THE_Liam]

I've just ordered a mini keg as well, don't massively trust them from the reviews I've read so I've just ordered one to try it, and a cheap one like this is probably the best to try it out with. If it's any good I'll order a few more :)

Oh, and let me know how you get on with the stout :

 

[THE_Liam]

May have a problem...

If I smell the gas bubbling out of the airlock (bubbling like a good 'un and it's got a huge head of foam and a thick krausen) it smells weird, like a sickly, sweet, sour smell. It's at a constant 20 degrees and was pitched at that, and I was scrupulously clean, so I can't understand it being too warm and turning sour or having an infection. Any ideas?

 

[Randalicous]

That all sounds pretty normal to me...

Don't think there is too much to worry about :thumb:

Steve

 

[THE_Liam]

Is that definitely normal dude? Just gone in the spare room and the whole room has filled with the smell, never had this with any other brew, really sickly smell :sick:

 

[THE_Liam]

Smells even worse today...

 

[rosspaulmclachlan]

How did the Wilko pilsner turn out? I've got one on, 3rd day in the bin and mine smells rank too- I've never brewed a lager before so maybe it's normal, but none of my ales have ever smelt so dank and yeasty before.

 

[Ian...]

I think lagers are known for smelling 'eggy'. I did a coopers pilsner a while back and it did stink a bit but it didn't fill the room. A farty sulpher-like smell which was still present in the bottle. Very strong when I took the lid off the FV (I never bother with airlocks for beer) It took a few weeks to disappear but it never flavoured the beer. The result was OK but hard to carbonate. Can't say I'll rush to do another one.

 

[mattrickl06]

My Coopers Cerveza smelled fine, the Coopers European lager smells like a dogs dinner being quickly released through the dogs bottom.

 

[Andy.H]

I've done two of the Wilko Pilsners now... first one was kegged, second one bottled. They've both turned out reasonable, the bottled ones being fizzier obviously. But they're perfectly acceptable for a tenner a pop.

 

[bottler]

My Coopers Cerveza smelled fine, the Coopers European lager smells like a dogs dinner being quickly released through the dogs bottom.

I have a coopers stout on the go now and smells great, and my next brew will be the european as i bought both at the same time. If the european smells like any of my two dogs "used" dinners the wife will kill me

 

[tazuk]

i did try one in one word **** you get wot you pay for if you going to buy a kit go for a 2 can kit aka 3kgs kit ie :thumb: woodford kit etc