Italian Pilsner final review

Yes this was dinner last night. After tearing down fence and resetting it I had clocked in excess of 10 miles of walking so a couple of Italian pilsners were in order along with my home grown steak.

It has been over a month now since I kegged the Italian Lager I wrote about earlier. Thus the update. I moved this from the fermenter to the keg on April 7th. It sat in the fermenter for 14 days prior to kegging to let the yeast do its magic of converting sugar to alcohol and start dropping out of the beer.

For that first post on how the process works see this link.

Now after aging for another month in my kegerator at 34 degrees its time for the final review.

(The pictures do not do the initial head of this beer justice. The head was to the brim of the glass, it just took me too long to get the pictures set up. )

I of course did take several draws out over the two weeks. In the last week it has improved in flavor and of course carbonation. Aging mellows out the various flavors. Setting for a month at 34 degrees also settles out the yeast, tannins and proteins making the beer clear.

This Italian Pilsner has a nice fine bubbles white foamy head, the head does stick around for a decent amount of time as it settles it leaves some lacing on the glass.

Aroma - Floral and spicy form the Perle hops, not overly aromatic. The Eraclea malt lends malty sweet honey aroma and the Metolios malt a toasty graham cracker aroma.

Mouth feel, this is a crisp beer with a somewhat sweet and definitely spicy mouth feel

Flavor, the perle hops lends a spicy yet floral flavor, with a definite lean towards the spicy vs floral. The floral is just the right hint of floral flavor.

The malts lean towards a sweeter flavor with hints of toasty graham cracker and honey flavor.

Over all this is a good beer to quench your thirst after a hard day of outside work. The flavors work well together along with the carbonation level to make it enjoyable.

Improvements: I’d probably add another 1/4 to 1/2 oz of Perle to spice it up just a little more, but thats just me.

Unfortunately this beer has a chill haze - this does not affect flavor but its not clear like a pilsner should be, which is disappointing. Eventually this may drop out but since it does not affect the flavor and only the presentation I’m not going to fret over it.

It is definitely a keeper to brew again. Its a good thirst quecher, not heavy , not too light. Its a crispy beer with a good balance between malty sweet and hoppines. This is one I will brew again.

I currently also have a Kolsch on tap. It is a horse race between these two as to which is the better beer between friends and family. Some like the Kolsch - some like the Italian. The Kolsch is a slightly less spicy beer and a little smoother - not like the spicy bite of the Italian. Today I am kegging my latest a New Zealand IPA. This is a hoppy beer with 7 oz of hops. Its a hoppy in your face beer, while it is hoppy it is not a bitter beer that makes you pucker. Most of the hops are late additions and dry hops so only 1 oz of bittering and the rest are flavor hops. Its an explosion of flavor that at first seems overwhelming, it offers a tropical fruit, lime, floral and peppercorn flavor all in one sip. Its too much to take in one sip, you have to ponder it. While the first sip is eh o boy this is too hoppy once you let the flavors do their work on your palette it soon beats all the beers I have on tap to be a favorite.

Thank you for reading my ramblings on beer brewing, I hope it tempts you into trying new beers, new experiences when you go out. Their are many craft brews today well worth considering for a try.