Barley, Water, Hops and finally Yeast

     Barley, Water, Hops and finally, Yeast. These are the only 4 things that for centuries could be used in German Beers. Why? do you ask. Well this is price that Bavaria made the other German states pay for it to join them in a unified Germany in 1871. Introduced in Bavaria in 1516, it was called the Reinheitsgebot ( the German beer purity law).
     The Reinheitsgebot made it illegal to use anything but Barley, Water and Hops (yeast not having been discovered yet, wasn't included till the 1800's). Brought in supposedly to stop competition for grains between bakers and brewers and to keep the cost of a loaf of bread affordable, it's actual effect was to remove the diversity and originality from the rest of Germany. Outside of Bavaria the Germans brewed much like their Belgium cousins, lots of adjuncts, wheats, sugars, fruits and spices. Belgium today brews over 1500 different types of Beer, many of them available only in the pub where they are brewed. Imagine where Germany would be today without 200 odd years of constrictions, instead of being dominated by Pilsners and Kolsch's, Abbey ales and Lambics may have evolved even further but we will never know.
     Interestingly enough the Reinheitsgebot was also introduced into Greece in the 1800's due to a Bavarian prince, the first Greek king.
     The Reinheitsgebot is still in force today but only for beers produced in Germany (imported beers can use anything also used in making food) having transitioned through the West German Biersteueergesetz (beer taxation law) to the Vorlaufiges Biergesetz, an expanded Reinheitsgebot to include different malts and sugars for top fermenting beers (ales and the like), and for yeast to be used in bottom fermenting beers (lagers etc).
     Many home brewers and breweries  like to boast that they follow the Reinheitsgebot and that because of this their beers are better than anything else, but I thinkpersonally it's more just a way to limit their creativity. Imagine if every beer had to be brewed by those rules, it would be a pretty boring old selection. Now thats not to say there isn't a place for Reinheitsgebot, it's just not for everyone.

Beer and Cider of the Week

Premiun Organic Cider 6.5% - Westons Brewery UK - mouth puckeringly terrible with sulphides overwhelming any apple taste .

Kamikaze Bitter 5% - Dent Brewery UK - the english barley and hops combine to give an overpowering honeycomb taste and fruit vinegar nose ( noticed after drinking was sold to us 6 months past best before )

Pale Ale 4.9% - Moo Brew  Tasmania - the cascade hops and malt combine to produce a nice middle of the road Pale Ale ( interesting bottle shape that they have patented )

News From Coopers

     After sending an email through to Coopers about their event staff ( see Canberra Craft Beer Festival post ) I received an explanation and an apology today which I am happy to accept.

     In other Coopers news, already the worlds largest home brew kit and equipment supplier they have now taken over Mr Beer in the USA. Mr Beer has over 14000 outlets in the US as well as its online store and is the biggest distributor in America.

     With SabMiller's takeover of Fosters, Coopers is now Australia's largest locally owned Brewery.

In the Brew Room this Week

     This week has seen us bottling the first of our Sweet Meads, using 500gms more honey than the Medium Mead this Sweet  Mead is living up to its name with a finishing gravity of 1.040 there's plenty of body and sweetness, and  with 14.5% alcohol quite a kicker.
     The Blueberry Melomel has been racked off the berries and is tasting pretty good with a great purple colour, another month and it will be time to bottle.
     The two Stouts are now conditioning in the fridge for a couple of weeks prior to bottling.

We are now on the hunt for fresh apple juice and are waiting to hear back from a couple of orchards, we are looking to make a cider with no sulphides or sugar just juice and yeast. We will keep you posted.

Also we have just put down a ginger beer kit and it is bubbling away nicely. We made a starter yeast for this and were amazed to see it go so hard after just 4 hours.

Paddy's Hop Harvest Festival

     Held in the Markets Hotel at Flemington ( also the home of Paddy's Brewery ), the Hop Harvest Festival showcased many of the Craft Breweries of NSW. With brewers ranging from HopDog and Illawara on the south coast; through to Sydney's Redoak, Lord Nelson, Ekim, Happy Goblin and 4 Pines brewing; west to Mudgee Brewing and north to Black Duck brewing in Port Macquarie.

     As you would expect from a Hop harvest festival, Pale Ales, IPAs and Bitters dominated the day with special mention going to Black Ducks Indian Runner IPA and Ekim's Berserka Ale. Both are malt driven and not overloaded with bitterness but with plenty of hop freshness and aroma. We managed to be the first punters to try 4 Pines new release Hop Harvest Lager which is so well balanced you don't notice the 50 IBU that goes with it.

     Paddy's offers 6 of it's own beers of which we tried the Ginger Beer ( great taste and spice), the seasonal Belgium Dubel 6.4% ( more alcohol with some esters ) and the double White Wheat ( packed full of citrusy taste )

     In a great contrast to the Canberra festival not only were the beers poured by the brewers themselves but it cost them nothing to attend and show off their beers and the $3 a midi or $2 a pony went straight to the brewers themselves allowing them to take something away for their efforts on the day

St Peters Brewery from the inside

     Located in, funnily enough, St Peters; Matt Donelan ( formally of Harbour Beer company ) has been running St Peters Brewery and servicing the local pubs and clubs since 2000. With his offsider Gerard Meares ( of Pinchgut Brewing fame ) the boys offer 3 draft and 3 bottled beers. The beer that started it all, Blonde Premium ( Australias FIRST Blonde beer), E'ville Pilsner and Thunderbolt Ale on tap and Green Star Lager ( a bottled version of Blonde ),Cinnamon Girl (a spiced ale ) and Killagh Stout ( a fabulous oatmeal Stout ).

      Matt started out with a passion for beer, and for many years was a member of the Eastern Suburbs Homebrewing Club. Matt was able to translate that passion into a successful business by offering services to other breweries, including consulting, relief brewing, installations and product development. All of this effort provided a network of mates and acquaintances to bring about his ultimate goal of providing the local area with great Artisan Beer through a wholesale only microbrewery. By being wholesale only, Matt has given up the face to face selling and branding of his product and relied on good old customer service and the beers themselves to do the selling. "If they run out of beer in the afternoon they get a full one the next day, not next week "

    
     With his engineering background Matt has been able to assemble a brewery unlike any we have seen before, yes there are the standard conical fermenters but then there is also the re purposed syrup and dairy tanks which are now the hot liquor tank and Ale fermenters, the home made keg cleaner and the brilliant 4 head bottle filler ( really need quick hands for this one ). This brewery looks and feels organic with pieces being found, scrounged, traded for or made, to the point that Matt never knows what he may run across on his travels that will then find its way into service.
     Matt has a firm belief in keeping things local and being as enviro-freindly as possible. To this end, distribution is kept local ( you wont find his beers outside of inner west Sydney ). All spent grain is combined with another local breweries and goes to stock feed. These combine to keep what is known as the "beer miles" to as low a level as possible. Hating cardboard boxes with a passion Matt vowed never to use them and instead uses a system of returnable crates when distributing his bottled beer.

    
     Keeping busy is not a problem Matt and Gerard face, generally making 6 - 8 batches a week not only of their own beer but also contract brewing, making for a pretty steady turnover and lots of manual labour. The boys are currently developing a new beer for the Great Australian Beer Spectacular being held in Melbourne on May 11th - 13th, called Christmas Tree. In the ultimate act of recycling Matt is using last years christmas tree to create a Pine infused Ale, something definately worth trying if you are in melbourne or a week later at the Local Taphouse in Sydney
     Visit Matt and Gerrard at http://www.stpetersbrewerysydney.com.au/
                                        or http://pinchgutbrewing.com.au/

Our thanks to Matt and Gerard for taking the time to meet with us and run us through St Peters Brewing

Beer and Cider of the Week

Imported Beer - Saison Dupont from Belgium

Highly carbonated, packed with esters with a good hop finish

Local Beer - Three Sheets Pale Ale  from the Lord nelson brewery in Sydney

A good standard Pale Ale, balanced malt taste with low hops. This is much better draft than bottled.

Imported Cider - Black Rat premium cider from Moles brewery in Wiltshire UK

This Cider is terrible, they have overdosed it with sulphites - it's the only thing you smell and dominates the taste and so tart it leaves your mouth puckered. 

In the Brew Room this Week

     Its been quite hectic these least 2 weeks, what with Easter, beer festivals and brewing up the Stouts, so now it's time to catch up. The two Stouts, Siberian Crude and the Oatmeal have both finished their primary fermentation and been moved into a pair of 19L kegs that have been partially modified to allow us to brew in them
      The Siberian Crude being an Imperial Stout is sitting at about 8.5% with some coffee notes in the background and a nice warmth to it ( this will need at least 4 - 6 months before even thinking about drinking it ) and the Oatmeal Stout is sitting at about 3.5% with big coffee and dark chocolate notes.
     The American Pale Ale has been bottled and we are looking forward to trying that in a week or so.

     Keg modifications - the up take tube inside has been cut down by about 4cm (doing this means you don't pick up as much sediment from the bottom) as we plan to keg condition (same as bottle conditioning, prime the beer with sugar transfer to the keg and seal it up the yeast will use up the sugar and the resultant pressure from the CO2 will carbonate the beer )our beers. This has the added benefit of not needing to force carbonate (connecting a CO2 bottle and ramping the pressure right up, then rolling the keg around to  get it mixed in) the beer. This is sort of what the CAMRA  ( Campaign for Real Ale ) guys in Brittan are doing, although they go further by using wooden casks and gravity (we will use CO2 to get the beer out of the kegs).
     The second modification is simply to use a short length of hose on the gas in line and add an air lock to it, this means the beer can ferment and vent the gas as normal. Then after the ferment prime and seal.

http://www.camra.org.uk/

Canberra Craft Beer Festival wrap up

     Held in the courtyard of the Mercure hotel, the Canberra Craft Beer Festival showcased 14 breweries, 13 from Australia and 1 from New Zealand. At the morning briefing it was announced that there had been 750 tickets presold and walk-ins could take that up to 1500 the day looked like it was going to be a success. With an interesting mix of vendors from the very small, such as Tilse's with their Apple Truck Cider from the Hunter Valley, through to the ultra big boys Matilda Bay with their new IGP (Itchy Green Pants) ale and Coopers with not only their 62 lager, but also promoting Sapporo ( Japan ) and Mythos ( Greece ). New Zealand was represented by Monteiths with a couple of ciders and a Summer Ale that had finished it's season and was no longer available.

  
     The day had a number of optional side events to go to, namely a Beer and Food matching (Schwartz Porter with a Porter Pie ), a Beer and Cheese matching (a range of James Squire beers and cheeses including a smoked cheddar and blue vein ) and a Cider and food matching (Sydney Cider and Scallops ).

 
      With the day moving steadily along we were glad to have booked a room overnight and that we could check in before the event started, this gave us somewhere to retreat to and collapse for awhile before continuing. It was interesting to note the difference in the vendors between those that brewed and those that were there merely to sell. We were called "Beer Wankers" by the women at the Coopers tent for asking detailed questions about their beers ( I found this quite unbelievable considering Coopers is the biggest supplier of the home brew market.). But with the people at Tilse's, Dalgetys, Stone and Wood, and Matilda Bay they were more than happy to talk not only about their beers, but also give us tips on how to better our homebrews.

    
     Dalgetys brewing has come up with a couple of very interesting sidebars to their brewery, they are running a brewery tour where by they pick you up from Canberra, take you through Kosciuszko brewing, the Snowy Mountains Brewery, the Wildbrumby Schnapps Distillery and finishing at Dagetys for a tour and lunch. They are also offering a brew your own beer package where you and your mates come down and help to brew the batch, Dalgetys will ferment it then you come back down to bottle and label it and take it all home. Sounds like a good one to do if you have a party coming up.

    
     For a Craft Beer event there was a lot of Ciders available- at least 8 or 9 out of the 45 or so beverages available, (advertised as over 80 ) and this just backs up what we are seeing happening in the market place. With the alco pop tax hitting the premixes, the big companies are now starting to move in on the cider market ( different tax system ) and in doing so are pushing the genuine small cider producer into smaller market share.

    
     Some down sides to the event, vendors could not sell their Beers or Ciders or even take orders for later delivery, this seriously limits their taking for the day especially when you add on the $500 stall fee and the fact they only got back 50c for each tasting ticket they redeemed (entry price was $30 each with 10 tasting tickets, extra tickets $1 each). Not much money there for the brewers, yes they get exposure, but at a hefty price. Schwartz Brewing, the promoters of this event did a good job, and got good numbers through the gate even though we saw absolutely no promotion of the event in Canberra itself, in the guidebooks to Canberra or even in the businesses from Canberra that put their names on the program.

 
      Lastly a little gossip from the Schwartz boys, it seems that 2 of their 1000L upstairs fermenting tanks at the Maquarie Hotel managed to fall over costing them 2 full batches, glad we didn't have to clean that up.

     All in all a great day.

Paddy's Hop Harvest Festival

What makes it LOW Carb

     Low Carb Beer, is it just an advertising gimmick to get more ladies to drink beer?  are they using it to tell people they can drink more for the same kilojoule cost? does it actually even exist? Unfortunately we have to answer yes to all three of these questions. Shall I explain, bear in mind I have nothing against Low Card Beer.

      The first two can be can be summed up in 2 words Increased Sales. Lets face facts, beer drinkers are predominantly men nothing new there but like the NRL and AFL, beer companies have just recently discovered there's a whole other sex out there that are not naturally inclined to like their products and this has them scrambling to grab as much of this emerging market as they can. This is why we are seeing pink beers, brewery's owned, run and marketed by and to women and the real reason behind the emergence of Low Carb Beer.
     Lets not forget the section of the population that are actively dieting, watching their figure or have been fooled by advertising into thinking they can drink Low Carb Beer because it has less kilojoules than regular Beer. Unfortunately this is only partly true, while yes they have less carbs they generally have the same or higher percentage of alcohol and this is where they kilojoules are coming from. This also leads to people drinking more as they  think 1 full strength beer = 2 or more Low Carb Beers.
     Now here's the figures, Low Carb Beer has between 1 -2gm of carbs per 100ml, normal Beer has 3- 3.5gm carbs per 100ml soft drinks average 10gm carbs per 100ml. This answers our third question, yes they exist but are they better for you, you will need to decide that for yourself. As for me if I was going to choose on a health basis it would be full strength beer in moderate amounts.

     So how do they make Low Carb beer, well there are several options the brewer can use and to understand these we need to go Beer nerd for a minute. It's all to do with the mash temperatures but it starts with malting the grain, barley or wheat kernels are soaked in water and allowed to start to germinate, before the plant breaks out of the kernel it is heated up and the germination is halted. At this stage the kernel has turned all the food available to it inside itself into starches. The malt is then roasted to different degrees, a light roast lots of fermentable sugars, a dark roast less fermentable sugars and lots of unfermentable sugars.
     We then use this malt in our brews,we place the malt into the mash (really just soaking the malt in hot water for anything up  to 90mins) and if we mash low 60 - 63*c we get mostly fermentable sugars and if we mash high 67 - 70*c we get mostly unfermentable sugars. Now as it suggests fermentable sugars are eaten by the yeasts and turned into alcohol, therefore the more you turn into alcohol the less there remains in the Beer as carbs, and its the same the other way round. Most brewers strive for a balance as those unfermented sugars are generally what gives a beer its body or fullness. So a Low Carb Beer is one that will have fermented all the way out and generally be a bit thinner in mouth feel / body than full strength. Some brewery's have been known to add fungus derived enzymes to the mash to convert any left over starches into fermentable sugars to help get rid of those carbs.

    Now I ask myself, is it really worth it. Well as home brewers we can produce Low Carb Beers but I don't think they are as nice as normal beers but for the big brewery's it obviously is, Low Carb Beers outstrip all other beers in sales growth and unfortunately that's all they care about.

Go on brew your own

cheers and beers

Unnatural Selection PTIII

     WingWalker - American Belgium style wheat beer (confused yet) 4.6% light and lemony / citrusy with a mild wheat taste, a nice example but there's much better local ones.

Choc Hops Chocolate Stout 5% by Mildura Brewery - has a chocolate aroma with a coffee aftertaste and a nice bitterness from the roasted malts.

Rekorderlig - Apple cinnamon and vanilla winter cider 4% tastes of ripe cherries and apples with a light hint of cinnamon and vanilla this has a great balance and we will be getting more.

# 9 not quite a pale ale by Magic Hat 5.1% - a nice hop taste balanced with the malts and a restrained bitterness worth a second go.

Brew Day Siberian Crude

                                               Russian Imperial Stout

This Stout gets its Imperial designation from its popularity with the Russian monarchy though most of the 18th century and seems to be coming back into fashion with many craft breweries.

Style Guidelines   
Flavour : Always roasty may have caramel and hops too
Aroma : Roasty malt / coffee / bitter chocolate / may have hop aroma
Balance : Toward the sweeter end with matched bittering
Pair with : Strong rich foods, steaks / chocolate / oysters
Gravity : 1.080 -1.120 plus
Alcohol : 7 - 12%
Attenuation / body : medium to full
Colour : 35 plus* SRM / Black
Bitterness : 50 - 80 IBU

 The day has finally come to brew the big one, Siberian Crude the Russian Imperial Oatmeal Stout and we have gone back to an old tradition of brewing where by you use the same mash and grains to make more than one beer. Go back a few centuries when people lived on estates under a lord or liege they could not afford to be wasteful an so came upon the idea of making 2 or 3 beers from the 1 mash. The first runnings would be a very thick rich beer usually put away for 10 or more years waiting for a significant event, the second beer would be a medium strength beer reserved for the family while the third beer would be thin and weak (what they would call a small beer), this would be for the staff to have with their meals.

     So with the history out of the way and the new mash tun ready to go we decided it was time for Siberian Crude to be brewed. Unsure of the limits of our new mash tun in went 9kgs of assorted grains and 30L of water (we had planned for 36L but there was no more room) this was stirred every 20min and a little hot water added every now and then to keep the temp up. After 90mins it was time to drain off the wort, and we collected 20L of  thick rich wort. We refilled the mash tun gave it a stir and left it for another 25mins (batch sparging for the beer nerds)and then drained off another 22L of a thinner lighter wort to another boiler.

     The first runnings were boiled for 90min and the second for 60min, both got Target (12gm each) and Bramling Cross (25 and 22gms respectively) hops with 60min to go and then East Kent Golding  (51gms and 41gms respectively) with 20min to go. After the boil we collected 13.5L from Siberian Crude and 17L from the Oatmeal Stout, this gave us 47IBU at a specific gravity (SG) of 1.090 for Siberian Crude  and 52IBU at 1.037 for the Oatmeal Stout. This was also the first brew that we decided to make up a starter batch for, adding the vial of yeast WLP 004 to 700ml of water and 3 teaspoons of castor sugar (dried malt would have been better but I didn't have any) and leaving it to sit for a day to grow and multiply.

     Unfortunately the day was not without some dramas, heating the mash water we found that the tap seal was leaking so we had to start again, and after the boil finished for Siberian Crude the gas bottle ran out and a quick dash to my sisters was required to get another one so the Oatmeal Stout could be boiled. With 2 boils happening on the one day, this was a big day starting at 930am and finishing at 5pm I could not of done it without my wife so thank you very much.

    Full recipe and guide on the recipe page.

    Style guidelines courtesy  of Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher

Anyone interested in Cider

Canberra Craft Beer Festival

Canberra Craft Beer Festival starts this saturday the 14th and continues on sunday at the Mercure Canberra Hotel from 11am to 6pm tickets are available at the door don't miss it there is over 80 beers and ciders to try should be a good weekend.

http://www.canberrabeerfest.com/index.html

4 Pines Brewing Manly

     Located in Manly, 4 Pines Brewing overlooks the ferry terminal and gives you a great view over that part of the harbour. Created in 2008 4 Pines Brewing takes its name from the 4 pine trees that were removed from Manlys foreshore for a gun emplacement during WW2. 4 Pines are dedicated to bring you the best in craft beer and food to match, to this end all their beers are brewed on site and the turn over is such that freshness is garanteed.
     The dinning area ranges from the outdoor balcony with its great views all the way back to the dimmest darkest back corner which is where we found ourselves friday nite, even at 5pm the place was packed and everyone was enjoying themselves with the music helping to build the atmosphere and at a volume that was right for conversation - 4 Pines has really brought it all together, right down to the walls being covered in beer info.
     Now to the Beers, 4 Pines offers 5 standard beers 2 specials and a Cider with a tasting sheet to help you recognise what your drinking.

The standard beers are:

Hefeweizen - 5.2%   17 IBU   Nicknamed the "Hefe" this german wheat beer is cloudy and full clove and banana scents and uses Southern Cross and NZ Hallitau hops. We found that the bottle conditioned beers had a better aroma than the draught.

Kolsch - 4.7%   22 IBU  It starts light and citrusy, moves through with a hint of crystal malts and finishes very clean this is a very easy drinking beer and uses Southern Cross and B Saaz hops.

Pale Ale - 5.1%   35 IBU It was hard to get past the piney / grapefruit taste of the hops, to get to the malt that should have been there underneath. A nice moderate bitterness and an otherwise pretty standard Pale Ale. Uses Citra,Cascade and Amarillo hops.

ESB - 5.6%   40 IBU With a malty slightly cloying taste, we found that the bitterness was lacking, tasting a lot less bitter than the Pale Ale. Uses Target, East Kent, Fuggles and Willamette hops.

Stout - 5.1% 40 IBU Starts with a coffee nose it goes through to a smoky bacony aroma and taste we found it very thin with little body. Uses Target and Fuggles.

The specials were:

Choc Orange 4.4%   33 IBU Very mild orange taste in this light bodied stout, so overcarbonated it just foamed in the mouth.

Russian Imperial Stout 8%  72 IBU A very bitter stout with a nice mouth warmth from the alcohol and a strong coffee aftertaste, we found it hard to drink.

Cider - 4.4%  Tart with a nice balanced low sweetness and a great apple taste.

Steves pick - Hefeweizen     Wifes pick  - Cider

The tasting paddle comes with all 5 of 4 Pines standard beers for $15, all 8 cost $25.50
The 5 standard beers cost $20 for a 6 pack and growlers cost $35filled with the bottle,and then $20 refills
The food is definately worth going back for, although you are paying Manly prices with 2 fish and chips and 2 schooners costing $53. (public holiday surcharge included)

Brewery tours are not available as a service but if you drop in when its not to busy a staff member may be able to take you through the brewery.

Sydney Craft Beer and Cider Fair

MEDIA RELEASE

SYDNEY CRAFT BEER AND CIDER FAIR

Presented by The Oak Barrel

The Oak Barrel Liquor Store (CBD) will be launching the Sydney Craft Beer and Cider Fair on Saturday the 26^th May 2012. This will be an annual indoor event showcasing international & Australian craft beer and cider.

The fair will host over 20 stallholders each showcasing a variety of brands with over 80 craft beers and ciders on tasting, offering customers the chance to taste and connect with the various brewers, brand ambassadors and other passionate aficionados.

For the inaugural event there will be an emphasis on local craft producers. While we still have a way to go to catch up to our Kiwi cousins and the Yanks there has been an revolution in local craft production over the previous couple of years and we aim to highlight the great stuff being done in our own backyard

                 “Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer.

                   Oh, I grant you the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not

                  go nearly as well with pizza.”  Dave Berry

The Oak Barrel

The Oak Barrel is one of Australia’s oldest independent bottle shops. Since being founded in 1956, the Oak Barrel has prided itself on exceeding customer expectations through providing the largest selection of boutique and hard to find wine, craft beer and spirits, particularly Malt Whisky. As well we provide education and excellence in customer service.

Over the past three years, The Oak Barrel has held successful Whisky & Boutique Wine Fairs and we will continue with these events.  Our next focus is on craft beer & cider and this years event will set the standard for  Sydney.   

Fast Facts:

Date :  Saturday 26^th May

Time  : Midday to 4pm

Location  : Oak Barrel , 152 Elizabeth Street, Sydney 2000(CBD)

Tickets   : Advance $25 members or $35 non members

                  Door        $35 members or $45 non members

Licensed Event  : Must be over 18 years – Responsible service of alcohol

Web Site  : http://craftbeerandcider.com

For more information contact :

ian@oakbarrel.com.au or call 02 9264 3022 Ext 1

(members means members of the Oak Barrel bottle shop see their web site for details)

In the Brew Room this Week

     It's been fairly quite this week, nothings needed moving or bottling so I have been concentrating on converting a 55L esky we no longer use into a mash tun. This involved changing out the drain plug for a tap, drilling a hole for the thermometer thermocouple and making up the drainage pipes.

    
     After sourcing copper pipe and fitting from the local hardware it was easy to measure up and cut to size, so we have 4 lengths running the full length of the esky. All the pipes have cuts in the base to allow the wort to drain through and keep the grain in place (they are upside down for the photo). The grain itself will act as the filter providing we don't crush it too fine.

     We have also picked up 2 19L kegs, we wil be using these to brew in in the fridge as it will allow us to have up to 4 batches either brewing or lagering. All of this work is leading up to being able to brew our Russian Imperial Stout "Siberian Crude" over the easter weekend.

Unnatural Selection part 2

4 Pines Hefeweizen - a great balance of hop bitterness, aroma and flavour as well as the wheat.
very drinkable.

Macs Hop Rocker Pilsner - using NZ Cascade and Nelson Sauvin hops you get a mild Cascade aroma with big bitterness once is enough for us.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Cheers and Beers



Unnatural Selection

     We dropped into Dan Murphys the other day looking for a commercial Mead to see what was out and about, after picking up 2 we decided to raid the beer aisle and this is what we came out with.

     Starting with the Mead, there were 2 brands both made in the vineyard district in South Australia, the 1st is Daringa Mead, a spiced Mead, so spiced in fact you could taste no honey at all. With an overpowering aroma of cinnamon and a strong taste of stewed apples and cloves you could be forgiven for thinking you were drinking the filling out of an apple pie. With this spice combo it would be great in winter warmed up but in summer over ice as they recomend it doesn't work for me.

    
     The other Mead is by Maxwell and they put out 3, a Honey Mead, a Spiced Mead and a Forified Mead. We just got the Honey Mead and the report on that will have to wait until it's opened. As for the Fortified Mead the only reason to fortify is doing it cheaply, honey is very capable of reaching 20% alc it just takes more so thats one I am refusing to buy.

     Hoppy Hefe by Mad Brewers who are Malt Shovel who are Lion Nathan. When you dig a bit you see it's a big player trying to look like a craft brewer nuff said.   This is a german styled hefewiezen mixed with an american wheat beer dominated by Motueka and Citra hops, this gives it a great hop aroma and a delicious fruit flavour with just a hint of the wheat underneath. It has a restrained level of bittering and is just a bit cloying, this is a close rival to Murrays Punch and Judy.

     The rest of the beers will be here soon after opening.

Cheers and Beers

Brew Day - American Pale Ale

     The American Pale Ale style is what has defined the craft beer scene  in America since the 80's, with the balance of pure malt and the caramelly crystal malt flavours infused with the fresh piney, citrusy notes of American hops such as Amarillo and Cascade.

STYLE GUIDELINES

Flavour : fresh hops plus a nutty maltiness with hints of raisins and / or caramel
Aroma : malty, fruity with American (Cascade or similar ) hops in the foreground
Balance : medium body, crisp bitter finish
Seasonality : year round
Pair with : classic with a burger and chips

Starting Gravity : 1.044 - 1.060
Alcohol : 4.5 - 5.5%
Body : medium
Colour : dark gold to dark amber
Bitterness : 28 - 40 IBU medium to high

      Now that we have our style guidelines we can look at our recipe and adjust it to match if need be, we start with a base of pale malt (87%) add some pale crystal malt (9.5%) for colour and caramel / raisin notes and some rolled oats (3.5%) for mouth feel and body. Oat malt would be better to use but finding it is a bit of a task and rolled oats are fairly similar.
     Our alcohol and body are going to be set by our mashing temps, keeping them down at about 61 - 63*c will give us a very dry beer with high alcohol and conversly keeping them at 67 - 70*c will give us a beer with massive body and lower alcohol. We aim for 63 - 65*c for most of the mash then up it at the very end to 70*c to ensure we have full conversion of the sugars.
     Bitterness is not transfered from the person brewing it  but from the Alpha Acids ( AA) in the hops. We have used 15gm of Amarillo and 15gm of Hallertau. (yes I know Hallertau are not American )

The calculation is

hop quantity in gm x Alpha acid% x utilisation% x correction factor (0.55) = predicted IBU

Utilisation is a factor of boil time verses wort gravity
Correction factor brings it into IBU's

So for the Amarillo  15 x 8.9 x 14% x 0.55 = 10.28 IBU
for the Hallertau       15 x 4.7 x 14% x 0.55=  5.43 IBU

for a total of 15.71 IBU

So this means theres not enough bitterness in this recipe and if entered into a comp probably would not do to well, but for us it will do, overly bitter beers just arn't our thing.

    Now to the brew day itself, I was on my own for the day which for the most part is ok it's just sitting around watching a temperature gauge and hoping that the rain wont reach to far under the carport as the mash was under way and everything was to hot to move. All went well until it was time to sparge out the brew in a bag, holding 10kg plus of wet dripping grain while trying to fix the strainer underneath is no easy task I can tell you (I suppose with hindsight I could of put the bag down on a tray but I just didn't think of it)
     With that messy sticky task done it was time to boil and once boiling away, time to sanitise the brewers, get the cooling system ready ( bilge pump, cooling coil, esky and battery) go out for ice and lunch then back again for the rest of the boil. I don't know what the neighbours thought with steam rising up for most of the morning and that unmistakable smell of malt and hops. With the boil done and the brew cooling down the clean up started and room made in the fridge it was time to wait again, glad I had my book to read. Once cool it was an easy task to transfer to the fermenter and pitch the yeast, after that it was chuck it in the fridge and clean up, all up from go to woe 6hrs that makes for a full day but the results should be worth it.

Thanks to Tasting Beer for the Style Guidelines and Radical Brewing for the IBU calculations both by Randy Mosher