Brew #5: Czech Pilsner

This recipe is modeled after Pilsner Urquell, arguably my favorite beer of all time. This is also the beer that I got into a kegging system. Instead of cleaning 56+ 12 oz bottles, I only cleaned one keg. Simple. Also, force carbonation, well, this was new. It took awhile to get that keg set to 7lbs pressure for the 45degrees Fahrenheit that the beer fridge could manage in the garage in Texas heat.

This brew was worth any previous ones and worth getting any number wrong. This brew was the stuff of legend. I drew a glass and would down it before I realized I had done so, leaving a craving that I wanted more. This is what the art of brewing - even homebrewing - is striving for. A beer so fresh, so tasty, so good, so absolutely amazing that you find you can't have enough. I drank most of this beer.

I saved one bottle. One bottle in my pantry. One bottle of a non-filtered homebrew being stored at room temperature with live yeast. 6 months later, I heard the sounds of glass breaking. I checked the windows in the house. None broken. Strange. My kitchen really smells like beer. Strange.

Four days later, I finally opened my pantry to find the exploded bottle of my Czech Pilsner. What a mess!

Lesson: Homebrewed beer must be enjoyed or stored cold!