Festa Czech Pils Part Trois

Well, well, well...lagering season is in full swingtop - in the basement floor mode at least - as well as my lagering fridge. I just pulled another Czech Pils from six of the 341 mL Steam Whistle crown capped bottles I set aside to lager until July. Yep, July lol. I can't resist it after I tried one the other day. It's amazing ... So clean, clear and crisp - even with the "low end" stock Fermentis S23 that came with it. It's been in the bottle since Dec. 4th. I'm going to try and leave the last three until July. Meanwhile, in the carboy I've got another identical batch ready to keg. Two other fermenters have Czech Pils - one with a slower starting Fermentis 34/70 yeast and the second with the 34/70 and an added 500g of light DME. Just experiments, but I don't know if I can improve on the bottled CP. I do still have a smackpack of Wyeast liquid Bohemian Lager yeast to try, as well as an experiment with a vial of White Labs liquid lager yeast. Mini kegging in two new US 2.5 gallon cornies will also be implemented. Hopefully, in a couple weeks cooking will resume on the back deck. That lack of snow in January was replaced with a ton of February snow. Too much to even get at the deck.And I need to find out what concoction gave me the bottle of nectar I pulled out from my stash the other day. Seems as though my late summer wetting of my basement caused a frantic shuffling of bottles and this one got mixed up. Will I ever reach Beer Nirvana?

Festa Czech Pils Part Deux

Hmmmm.... I'm into ending January now in the middle of the lagering season. Perfect time fir cooking beers on the back deck while it's lobster season as well. A great complement...however not a lot cooking as there's not much snow to pack around my brew pot - I don't have an immersion chiller and it's too cold for the kiddie pool still. So I decided to overhaul my kegs first and save the cooking for March. In the meanwhile, I've stockpiled about 14 of the Festa Czech Pils kits (yes, they're that good) and am currently lagering one on the basement floor at around 11C. My lagering fridge stinks of fish at the moment so I'll use the floor until I deodorize it. A smackpack of Wyeast Pils awaits but because the Fermentis Saflager S23 has been producing great results, I'm holding off. Maybe the next one with my new starter container...BTW, I switched to the regular bucket instead of one of my Fast Ferments as they're bolted to the wall in my upstairs pantry and the temperature's at wine and ale levels. The fermentation fridge is also too short for the FastFerments. Both kegging and bottling the Czech Pils produce excellent results; my friends really like the beer and my partner in crime likes this flavour out of anything I've produced. With extract and partial grain, I will aspire to this level.I will have plenty of opportunity to experiment with this large larder of lager this winter and spring. Continue to be tuned and stay tuned.

Festa Czech Pils

Wow! While in between on the cooking, I picked up a couple seasonal Czech Pils from Magnotta's Festa Brew lineup. This stuff is awesome and as good as most microbrews or Euro Pils on the market. Straight up by the book and it's a great session beer. I'm going to try some true lagering in my FastFerments as well as some liquid smackpak over the winter. Right now, it's so good it's got my cooking on hold as I stockpiled at least ten of these to bottle and keg. Three weeks in the Grolsch bottles made this beer come alive. Next on deck is a corny keg, followed by a carboy that doesn't know which way to swing - Grolsch swing tops or corny. Stand by!