Wednesday, 17 June 2026

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1897 Fremlin Pilsener

A Fremlin's Lager label featuring a coat of arms and an elephant.
Now here’s a really unusual beer. A Pilsener brewed by a regional brewery that didn’t have a specialist Lager plant.

Rather oddly, they seem to have dropped Pilsener during WW I. A time when some other breweries started to experiment with Lager brewing when continental supplies were cut off.

It’s a pretty authentic stab at the style. OK, it uses pale malt rather than lager malt, but I’ll let them off that. Especially as they went to the trouble of a double decoction mash. Not totally sure how they achieved that in a standard UK brew house.

It looks like they had three rests, at 95º F, 135º F and 165º F. Achieving those temperatures through two boils of half the mash. Looks pretty authentic to me.

Unfortunately, I have no idea of the fermentation temperature. As Fremlin couldn’t be arsed to record that. Though, given that they used Carlsberg yeast, I’m guessing that it was pretty cool.

I’m pretty sure that the hops were Bohemian as the name of the grower was Veleke. That’s what I’ve guessed, anyway. They were pretty fresh, coming from the 1896 harvest. 

1897 Fremlin Pilsener
pale malt 8.75 lb 79.55%
flaked maize 2.25 lb 20.45%
Saaz 155 min 1.00 oz
Saaz 60 min 1.00 oz
Saaz 30 min 1.00 oz
OG 1047
FG 1010
ABV 4.89
Apparent attenuation 78.72%
IBU 30
SRM 4
Mash at double decoction
Sparge at 170º F
Boil time 155 minutes
pitching temp 53º F
Yeast Wyeast 2042 Danish lager

action barrels temp. mash temp
dough in 9 cold  
mash in 3.5 210º F 95º F
boil 6.25   135º F
boil 6.25   165º F
sparge 5 170º F  
sparge 6 170º F  
sparge 6 170º F  

 

 

 

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