Finney's Bohemian Pilsner - "What the Ella"

[Paul Finney]

23L recipe

5.4kg Gladfield Pils malt

340g Gladfield Gladiator

200g Gladfield Auroura

Mashed at 67 degrees, efficiency 70%

Boiled for 90mins, and hop burst towards the end mainly because Ella is such a high AA (13.5%)

Hops, all Ella, went in at:

@25mins - 30g

@10mins - 30g

@0mins - 40g - Whirlpooled for 10mins then started cooling

Tried to cool as much as I could, but it is warm! So got down to 17 degrees before pitching 2 rehydrated Mangrove Jack Bohemian Pils yeasts. It was 10.5 degrees by morning, and at time of pitching it was cooling at 0.5 of a degree every half hour.

It took two days to start showing positive signs of fermentation and it is only day 3 when I am writing this! It is sat at 11 degrees and I will keep it there for 2 weeks then steadily increase the temp to help with attenuation.

OG was spot on at 1.056

[Ross]

Appearance: Deep golden colour – Looks good.

Head: Was there at the start but it didn’t hang around long.

Aroma: Spicy aroma with light malt coming through. Smells like there could be a fault in there but it is so faint I can’t put my finger on it.

Flavour: Initial hit with the malt flavours, Then the bitterness comes through and slightly lingers. Medium mouth feel and good carbonation.

Over all: A nice beer that I am enjoying drinking in the sun. Would go back for another after finishing the bottle.

[Paul Finney]

I have my Judges notes here. Oh, and FYI - final gravity was 1.016 from memory

Judge #5 - 26

Aroma - 6 - Good aroma, fine malt and faint hops

Appearance - 2 - Good colour and clarity

Flavour - 11 - Little bit of DMS flavour, overall good flavour

Mouthfeel - 2 - DMS

Overall impression - 5 - Good colour and clarity, could be a bit cleaner

Judge #6 - 21

Aroma - 5 - Tangerine and grape aromas with an underlying sweet malt nose. A touch of DMS

Appearance - 2 - Faint haze with coarse-ish carbonation. Film of head

flavour - 6 - fine mouthfeel and that DMS comes through. Quite prominent bitterness with orange peel and light caramel. Lengthy finish, not enormously well balanced.

Mouthfeel - 3 - fine carbonation with some astringency

Overall Impression - 3 - A bit unbalanced and then corn at the finish. 

Judge #4 - 25

Aroma - 5 - Slight DMS, solvent

Appearance - 2 - Low head, golden

Flavour - 10 - Good bitterness

Mouthfeel - 3 - thin

Overall impression - 5 - DMS, low malt

[Crusader-Rob]

Nice Solid beer. 

Aroma: Pilsner/ Bitter bite on the aroma. smell is good, almost a weird spice?

Appearance: Clarity is perfect, brillianty clear, golden colour, really nice looking beer.

Flavour:Good spiced flavour I get the eElla flavour coming through. firm bitterness ,and aroma comes through in the flavour. Spiced flavour of some sort, could be the dms a little bit.. i do get a light dms flavour coming through but for me it doesn't take away from the overall beer

Overall: Good beer, Kegged beer seemsthe way forward no crap in the bottom. the carbonation is probably on the lower end that may be the bottling from the keg.

[Stewy]

Forgot to make notes on this Finney but I really enjoyed this Pilsner.

[oliver]

Bottle: PF on the lid.
Aroma: peach, nectarine, musty

Appearance: pale golden colour, thin fluffy head, some lacing around the glass, great clarity

Flavour: Grainy malt character, lots of peach, solid bitterness (little lingering), some malt sweetness up front, dry finish, plenty of hop flavour.

Body: med-full body, under carbed (but enjoyable)
Overall: great beer, possibly a tad too bitter for me, some plastic/musty/phenolic notes, very enjoyable.

Assuming the peach comes from the hop, great fruitbowl type character, will have to try it one day :)

[Paul Fraser]

Poured a nice golden colour. Awesome clarity with a thin white head.
Aroma of some kind of fruit (stone/ tropical) and a light spice. Slight solvent with a deep sniff.
Flavour is light malt balanced with the hop fruitiness. Bitterness lingers a bit. There may be DMS but it is very slight for my palate
Med body, slightly under carbed but still ok.
A few wee changes and this could be great. I personally think the bitterness lingers about a tad too much. Bringing the 25min addition later might help. I think this is my first time trying Ella. I think it suits this style well. Good beer Finney. Cheers

[Paul Finney]

Yeah, the bitterness is too much. It is better than my last pils though which was even more over the top! 

Overall i quite like the beer, and the hop. Just wish it was a bit less bitter and it would be really nice drinking. 

Still, my Pilsners are getting better! It certainly benefited from that little bit of Auroura

[Paul Fraser]

Did you do any water adjustments?

[Paul Finney]

Not for this one

[Julie Fitzjohn]

Hi Paul

I tried this weeks ago and my computer ate the reply like six times. not sure why it was jinxed.  but here I go again. 

appearance - clean beer, bit under carbed which i think was cos i left it too long

aroma - i sniffed really hard for the DMS but don't have well enough developed detectors. some spicy hops, more malt than i expected

flavour - i was surprised by the malt flavours. i suspect this is because I have only drunk a few commercial pilsners and i wonder if they aren't bohemian.  i thought the ella worked well.  it had a nice taste that married well with the pilsner style

overall - i didn't realise a pilsner could be so malty so it has been a pleasant educational experience for me. i liked the ella. enjoyable. thanks 

[Paul Finney]

The extra malt flavours could be because of the melanoidin malt. I may back it down to 100g, or 150g if i did it again. Ella seems to be a nice hop