festival new zealand pilsner

deanrobinson

did the festival new zealand pilsner a while back. thought it tasted very strange so threw it thinking something had gone wrong. done it again recently and had a taste when taking a gravity reading. tasted same. is this the taste as all my other brews have been fine. cheers

HBO_Staff

How long had it been bottled when you threw it away? We have made this before a and a few other lagers too, some of them do have a strange taste in the early stages, the best thing to do is to bottle them and put them out of the way and forget about them for a good few weeks minimum. Some of them really don't taste great after the first few weeks, but once left to condition in the bottles for 2 or 3 months they develop some great flavours, often a brew which you think may be be ruined just needs some more time and can develop into a fantastic beer or lager.

Also just bear in mind, when brewing try to keep the temperature as constant as you can within reason, and don't let it get too hot, once fermentation has competed bottle it within a few days so it is not sat on the dead yeast for an extended period of time

deanrobinson

i threw it on bottling day. actually kept about 5 bottles which are probably about 3 weeks old now. bottled the second batch a couple of days ago. will try one of the 5 bottles in a couple of weeks time then. thing is ive seen a couple of reviews of it on youtube and no one mentioned strange taste.. one of reviews was only two weeks in bottle. time will tell anyway. cheers

HBO_Staff

Leave it in the bottles for as long as you can, the difference it can make can be unbelievable. We made the Better Brew Export Lager which is a cheaper refill, and it looked like it was tasting not very good, but after 3 months in the bottles it was one of the best lagers we have made, they just sometimes need a while in the bottles to condition.

The Coopers European lager says to leave a minimum of 12 weeks once bottled for example

deanrobinson

well ive done this kit twice now so thats 80 pints ive thrown away. absolute dettol band aid taste on both batches. every other kit ive made been fine. never again for this one. terrible just terrible. very very very strange that both ruined kits tasted same like dettol

BUDFORCE

Sounds like one to avoid