North Hampshire Brewers

Scott · Old Hand Joined: 28 Jan 2009 Posts: 203 Location: Woking

I've gone for my 5th attempt at a Pilsner Urquell type of beer and so far so good. The only thing that I'm worried about is that the bitterness is going to be a bit on the low side and that there will be a sweetness in the taste of the beer.

On brew day I was attempting to get 22l with about 43 IBU's, but ended up coming out with 26l. By the calculation in beersmith, it says that it would now be about 36 IBU's. This works out to be a BU/OG ratio of about 0.70 when I was aiming for 0.81. I don't know if this is a big thing. On tasting it yesterday, I definitely can taste a sweetness to it, but I suppose that it is only down to 1.030 and I might have to wait until it gets to about 1.015 to try it again.

What I was thinking about, as I have seen a few recipes do, is dry hop. Now, I don't think that this beer is traditionally dry hopped, but was thinking about doing it to take away some of the possible sweetness and after trying the Chineham pale ale, I just want to give it a go.

What I need to know is whether to do it or not and how much and when? I'm going to bottle, so can't stick it into a keg.

Phil · Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 1:53 pm Post subject:

I'd stick 20 g of saaz in the fermenter now and leave it another two weeks.

/Phil.

Scott · Old Hand Joined: 28 Jan 2009 Posts: 203 Location: Woking

Thanks Phil, but I actually piss farted around during the week and never got around to dry hopping it. I checked the gravity on Wednesday and it has got down to 1.012, so I think it has just about finished. The bitterness is showing through a lot more now as well. It just needs to condition for a while.

I definitely want to give it a go, so may have to do a pale ale or IPA next. I have all of those Fuggles and EKG from Michaels order, so I think a dry hopped IPA is on the cards.