Not very sure what the correct name should be. Is it Pilsener? Pilsner? Seems that everyone is having their own opinion which is the correct spelling. I was told by some of the Australian brewers that the correct name should be Pilsener. But it seems that the Americans don’t agree. They claim the correct spelling should be Pilsener. But who really cares? As long as it tastes great, I am all for it.
For my Pilsener, it has been in the bottle for 2 weeks and in the fermenter for 3 weeks. I opened it this morning and have taken a few photos of it. Please take a look below.
Very nice looking head. I would have expected more of a finer foam (head) from the beer but it seems that the Cooper’s Kits usually have such bigger bubbles. Not too sure why, but at least it is not as bad as my first brew, the Australian Pale Ale. Those bubbles look like they have been blown from a machine. However, it is surprising that that Australian Pale Ale managed to retain the head longer than this Pilsener I made. Perhaps it is the glass that I am using? One of the best thing is that the fizz (head retention) stays for a long time in this beer. Again, it could have something to do with the glass I am using.
The actual beer! The colour looks (dark) golden and very clear. You can’t really see it from this picture but if you put it in front of a light, you can see that it is very clear without any sediment or cloudiness. However, I expected a much lighter colour beer, considering that I am using the Pilsener malt which had a very low colouring rating but it turned out darker. Perhaps it is due to the Cooper’s Pilsenser Kit. The colour from the goo in the can looked dark indeed. Well, at least it is not as dark as the Morgan’s Blue Mountain Lager which I had brewed previously. That really was dark. More amber than anything you would expect from the word golden. However, it is true that extract or kit beers will always be darker than those brews done from all-grains methods.
Now for the taste! First of all, it was a lot spicier than I had expected. But the spiciness was not over-powering, at least not to my taste but some people would find it really spicy if they seldom drink such “spicy” beers. Perhaps I had added a little too much Saaz hops into the brew. When I was brewing this beer about a month back, I actually could smell the Saaz hops more than the malt flavours. So….what to do, it has already happened. For the aftertaste, I think it will really go down well with my friends. Although I can feel the dryness of the beer, the aftertaste is not too tart nor spicy (one would say this is not a good point) and it is actually quite delicious. I am sure that my friends would be asking for more after the first sip as I feel that it is easy to drink. Perhaps I should have used less malt and a little dextrose to lighten the beer but still maintain the alcohol. The body was a bit too strong for a Pilsener.