Thursday, October 11, 2012

Home brew review - Mangrove Jack's Pilsner Supreme

Back by popular demand...

Home brew review - Mangrove Jack's Pilsner Supreme!

Ingredients;
1.7kg tin Mangrove Jack's Pilsner

Coopers Brew Enhancer I (dextrose/maltodextrin) 1kg
Saaz Finishing Hops 12g
Whitelabs Liquid Czech Budejovice Lager Yeast WLP802

For the uninitiated, pilsner is a beer originating from Pilsen in the Czech Republic, invented in the 19th century as a revolutionary beer which was characterised by its lightness, bitterness and aroma, utilising techniques new to the art of beer making.

Pilsners are defined by their hoppiness, which translates into drinker happiness! Yay! Light and bitter, but aromatic from the characteristic saaz hops, a noble hop variety, pilsners are a favourite the world over. The original Czech beer is Budejovice, which was utterly bastardised by the yanks in producing the vomitous Budweiser, a pigswill imitation of the original but with absolutely nothing in common as far as i can tell. I'd rather drink straight from the Yarra. Come to think of it, where is my VB?

This was bettered, arguably, by the first Pilsner, the famous Pilsner Urquell, first produced in 1842, from Pilsen. This was both the original Pilsner, and the first pale lager beer. In an amazing fact, 9 out of 10 beers produced and consumed in the world are derived from the original Pilsen beer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilsner_Urquell).

Having tried to be true to the original by adding the appropriate finishing hops and similar yeast, there is seemingly little excuse for the beer not to resemble the original. The result is that while it is distinctly a pilsner, to me it is not quite there. Sounds like an excuse to get a Pilsner Urquell and do a taste test! I will post an update following the test.

Interestingly, the beer is cloudy, which was unexpected, however i do not do secondary fermentation, which is used to produce a clearer beer and arguably better taste. This may have also contributed to the eventual flavour of the beer. After the earlier success making the excellent Mangrove Jack's Bavarian Wheat, i had high expectations. It appears a little less hoppy than expected, although this may be partly due to the yeast used, which is different to that used in Pilsner Urquell. A repeat of this beer might involve more infusion of the Saaz hops in preparing the malt from the kit to increase the bitterness of the beer.

The beer ultimately comes up short of the hop profile of Pilsner Urquell. Still, it's about 20 lightyears better than Bud.

Final rating: 4/5 stars.

Burp!

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