How NOT to Succeed in Business

I was in a homebrew store recently, one that changed hands only a short time ago ( no names ), when 2 blokes walked in and asked about kegs.

From memory this is how the conversation went -

Customer : Hi we're after some kegs.
Owner : Sorry we don't sell kegs  -  hang on, here they are ( pointing to plastic fermenters ).
Customer : Aren't they fermenters? We're after kegs, you know the things you put beer in.
Owner : Yes sorry over here ( pointing to distillers ), they are double skinned and rated to ....
Customer : Aren't they distillers? We're after kegs the things you gas up.
Owner : Sorry we don't have them.
Owner ( to spouse ) : Do we sell kegs?

This was where I walked out.

This was a real exchange, the shop involved is a " My Keg On Legs " distributor, and the owners have been selling home brew products for years in another shop.

Glad it's not my shop.

A Slimming Beer ?

From the Sunday Telegragh 10th June 2012

Forget the bulging beer gut - drinking the amber ale can actually make you stronger, slimmer and healthier.

It even has the ability to improve muscular performance and prevent diabetes, according to a new study.

Researches have found beer may contain a vitamin which can fight obesity and improve muscle strength.

The "miracle molecule", which has been found in milk, is also believed to be in beer and could lengthen lifespan.

The catch is, the molecule called nicotinamidemriboside, is extremely small, difficult to find and expensive to synthesise.

Head of Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Switzerland Johan Auwerx said mice on a high-fat diet that were fed NR gained significantly less weight.

Angry Man Pale Ale

Out of the Murray's Craft Brewing stables comes Murray's Angry Man Pale Ale.

A blend of UK and USA style Pale Ale's, Angry Man has the malt taste of the UK and the big hop profile of the US, a very fine balance indeed.

With the malt taste coming from ( I think ) marris otter malt as well as biscuit and caramel malts, the profile is slightly on the sweet side; while the bitterness comes from NZ Motueka ( used in most of Murray's Ales ) and Pacifica Hops. I would say the bitterness sits around the 40 - 45 IBU.

Angry Man is bottle conditioned and is best out of a glass.

Some History - First there was Nirvana Pale Ale, then they rejinked the recipe - increased the alcohol content, increased the hops and some months later they rebadged it Angry Man Pale Ale.

No matter it's still a good drop.

Spiced Pumpkin Ale Brew Day

With Halloween not too far away it was time to do our test batch of Spiced Pumpkin Ale. We decided to use a mix of pumpkin, some canned American and some fresh Jap pumpkin.The jap pumpkin was roasted to bring out some of the sweeter caramel type flavours.

The pumpkin went into the mash with our grains for a 90 minute soak at about 66c, as we were looking for a little more body in this beer. Now I'm not going to blame the pumpkin for the stuck sparge that happened next, but I'm sure it was the bloody pumpkin that did it. Not happy Jan. So a quick change to a batch sparge, mix it all up, give it 20 minutes - and all was well.

The boil got a nice whack of Citra Hops as well as the same secret spice mix that goes into the wife's pumpkin pies.

A quick chill down and taste test gave us quite a surprise, most recipes for Pumpkin Ale say you can leave out the pumpkin as you cannot taste it - but then it's not really a Pumpkin Ale, is it?  The taste profile was very distinct - first you got the malt and hops, then the pumpkin and last of all the spices. I think this is going to be a really good brew.

After the boil, the beer got a dose of pectinese and into the fridge for the night.  The next day we racked it off the trub and mixed in the yeast slurry, and back into the fridge it went to stay at 20c.

Now we wait.....

TrainWorks Winter Beer Festival - Thirlmere

 

 

 

 

Brewers and beer lovers will make tracks to Thirlmere on August 25 for greater Sydney’s first ever winter themed beer event – the inaugural Trainworks Winter Beer Festival, a celebration of great beer and the craftsmanship, artistry and passion that goes into its creation. 

 

The Trainworks Winter Beer Festival will unite some of the state’s best boutique beers and hearty winter fare at the stunning Trainworks site in Thirlmere, located about 90km southwest of Sydney, an easy one hour drive from the CBD.  

 

The Trainworks site will be transformed into a beer lovers’ paradise as the exhibited locos and diesel engines give wide berth for a family-friendly celebration of great beer, good food and live entertainment. A designated kid’s area and an exciting line up of live music and beer-related entertainment make the single day festival great value. 

 

Beer Diva Kirrily Waldhorn, ambassador for the Trainworks Winter Beer Festival, says the event will be a celebration of the versatility of beer as the ultimate Australian beverage – regardless of season.  

 

“There are a number of fantastic beer events on the calendar every year, but I can’t think of another one that occurs during winter, and that celebrates beer’s excellence as a partner to hearty winter fare. Beer, whilst often regarded as a perfect summer refresher, equally shines as a winter warmer,” says Ms Waldhorn. 

 

“With the popularity of craft beer surging in NSW, beer drinkers are embracing good beer with new-found fervor. This creates a wonderful opportunity to showcase beer’s ability to match any occasion and flourish at any time of the year.”

 

With its modern, expansive facility and rich heritage, Trainworks creates the perfect setting to launch NSW’s first Winter Beer Festival. Trainworks’ historical relics of engineering and craftsmanship reflect the history and heritage of beer whilst also acknowledging the innovation and modernity that breweries are bringing to beer today. 

 

Bookings are now open for breweries to reserve exhibitor space and explore sponsorship packages. 

 

Trainworks Winter Beer Festival Ticket Details:

• Saturday 25th August 2012, 10am - 5pm

• Adult entry only - $25.00 

• Minors 13-17yrs entry only - $25.00 (must be accompanied by an adult)

• Children 12 and under - free (must be accompanied by an adult)

• Adult tasting ticket - $35.00 includes entry, tasting glass, program and 5 tasting tokens

• Adult entry & transport ticket return – from Sydney $49, from Campbelltown $47

• Adult tasting & transport ticket return – from Sydney $59, from Campbelltown $57

• Minors 13-17yrs entry & transport ticket – from  Sydney $44, from Campbelltown $42

• Children 12 and under entry & transport ticket – from Sydney $24, from Campbelltown $23

Little Creatures to be sold off - so what

It's doing the rounds at the moment - Little Creatures, makers of the Little Creatures beers, Pip Squeak Ciders and more, is going to be bought out by Lion, makers of Tooheys and XXXX and several others, who is owned by Kirin who make not only beers, but soft drinks and pharmaceuticals, run restaurant's and agribio businesses - actually it's probably shorter to list but longer to find out, what they don't run or own.

Anyway, the purpose of this is to say that this should have come as no surprise, Lion / Kirin which ever name you want to use already owned a fair sized stake in Little Creatures, hence their ability to distribute their products so easily and widely.

Just like Malt Shovel (James Squire) is owned by Lion and Matilda Bay is owned by Fosters, any craft brewer making decent beer and decent money / market share will come to the attention of the big 2.

You just need to ask, do they still make good beer. If in doubt find another craft brewer.

Personally these beers, James Squire, Matilda Bay, Little Creatures are my fall back beers - if I'm stuck somewhere where I can't get a "craft beer" (read micro brewery, not mega brewery) are my fall back beers and will be until they go the way of the rest of Lion's and Fosters stables, bland tasteless junk.

The Best invention since Sliced Bread - BrewMate

For those of you that have been struggling to formulate new recipes or just wont to know what the result will be with any combination of grains;  ie : colour, specific gravity, bitterness, even down to the amount of water needed to sparge out - well, here's the program for you, and it's absolutely free.

http://www.brewmate.net/

Brewmate lets you build a recipe from the ground up, by using the drop down menus you can quickly and easily add different grains, hops and yeasts. All come with their relative data - like their potential extract values for grains, alpha acid levels for hops and fermentation temps for the yeasts.

With loads of variables you can tailor BrewMate to your system, changing mash temps and times, boil duration, even loss during boil. There is also a mash timer and a boil timer with pop up alarms to tell you when to make additions, along with a brew day sheet containing water amounts and temps and expected losses and...too much info to list here.

There is an "add notes" section which allows you to put additional info on the end of the recipe but wont be included in the actual recipe make up.

All your recipes can be saved in BrewMate and even uploaded to the site if you wish to. Currently there are over 500 recipes you can download, all of which have been added by BrewMate users.

The BrewMate pages are all fully printable and take a lot of the headaches out of crafting beers.

I highly recommend it.

Is it the Beer or the food and exercise

From The Telegragh UK 13 January 2011

Moderate drinking of ale and lager can cut the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure and even help people lose weight, doctors say.

The Spanish researchers suggest combining beer with exercise and a healthy Mediterranean diet high in fish, fruit and vegetables and olive oil.

Beer contains folic acid, vitamins, iron and calcium and has the same health benefits already attributed to moderate wine drinking, researchers found.

And they blamed fatty foods like chips, a lack of exercise and binge drinking for beer bellies in Britain.

Dr Ramon Estruch, the lead researcher, said: “Moderate beer consumption is associated with nutritional and health benefits.

“It does not necessarily mean weight gain since it has no fat and calorie content is low.”
He contrasted the culture of drinking small glasses of beer with tapas in Spain to binge drinking in Britain.
He said: “Beer drinkers here do not resemble Britons, who drink large quantities, almost without moving from one spot, while eating chips and sausages.”
The joint study was carried out by Barcelona University, the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona and the Carlos III Institute of Health in Madrid.
Dr Estruch and Dr Rosa Lamuela tested 1,249 men and women over 57 years old.
They found that those who regularly drank moderate amounts of beer were less likely to suffer from diabetes and high blood pressure and had a lower body fat content.
Those with a Mediterranean diet who drank up to a pint of beer a day “not only did not put on weight, but in some cases even lost weight.”
Beer provides a 'protective' effect on the cardiovascular system and has a relatively low alcohol content compared to other drinks, they concluded.

The Brew Room

It's either drought or floods - last week not much happened, this week it's all systems go. To start with the plain mead has been racked off it's sediment and is tasting quite good, this will probably happen every week to 10 days now till it's clear.

The Hoptastic has been bottled and is now spending it's week in the house while it bottle conditions.

The Pale Ale with Citra hops has been bottled and is now spending it's week in the house while it bottle conditions.

The Pale Ale with our home grown Cascade hops has been kegged and is now spending it's week in the house while it keg conditions - a first for us, we still need to sort out taps and cooling and stuff but we have time for that.

To top it all off we are gearing up to put down an All Grain Pumpkin Ale, should be quite interesting.

What's YOUR Brew Campbelltown's new Brew shop

Located on Queen St Campbelltown in Sydney's south west, What's YOUR Brew is run by Michael and Irene Guest. With a work history which includes time at Tooheys and a smaller brewing supply store in Tahmoor, alongside countless years as a homebrewer, this seems like the natural step forward for them.

Bringing a fresh look to the store has helped to liven up the image, making it more inviting, and the small dogs that sleep on the counter are very kitsch. Alongside this Michael and Irene have introduced some new product lines including glassware and cigars with more to come.

The store range includes Muntons, Morgans, Coopers and Mangrove Jacks in the canned kits and the full EZY Brew 15L range as well as canned malts. Alongside these there is the full Copper Tun range of inclusions and cleaners, as well as fresh hops and yeasts.

What's YOUR Brew also stocks the full range of Spirit essences, along with Edwards and Essencia with the best seller being the Smoky Malt, as well as the other ingredients needed for making fine spirits.

With plans to hook up with the local brew clubs in order to better tailor stock lines we look forward to seeing  What's YOUR Brew grow and expand in the local market.

          ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Formerly Macarthur Brewing Supplies, Manfred has retired and sold the business.

Dundee IPA

Dundee Brewing's India Pale Ale has been on the shelves in Australia for a few months now and is receiving some mixed reviews.

I believe this to be one of the better IPA's available at the moment. With the high bitterness ( 60 IBU ) coming from Columbus hops, being balanced nicely by the apparent sweetness from the malt and the smooth dry finish.

A blend of 2 row pale malt, crystal and caramel malts combine to offset and enhance the hops.

With the majority of the bitterness coming from the Columbus hops added early in the boil, Chinook and Willamette were added late for aroma. Golding and more Chinook were dry hopped to make for a big hop experience.

With 6.3% alcohol this is no session beer, but pair it with a burger or something spicy and you've got a pretty good combo.

Some quick notes about style guidelines, at 60 IBU this beer sits at the high end of both the English and American IPA's, what some don't like is that the malts balance too well the bitterness. By this I mean that the bitterness is not overwhelming or mouth puckering - who wants to drink that? Also the guidelines allow for caramel and malt to be tasted and appreciated.

In the end style guidelines are just that, GUIDELINES not hard and fast rules

The Brew Room

It's been fairly quiet in the brew room this week.

The Wildberry Shiraz road test took it's next step, being racked off to another fermenter.

We are also gearing up to road test Joe's Ancient Orange Mead, a recipe I was put on to by a work mate.

In other news, I have just received some Saaz and Hallarteu hop rhizomes. So with the Cascade I already have we are starting to get a good variety going.

The Brew Shop

Located in Sydney's southern suburbs at Peakhurst, The Brew Shop started trading in the late 60's and has become the mecca for homebrewers and occasionally a life (batch ) saver for some of our craft breweries. The Brew Shop is run by brothers Colin and Dave, with Colin's son Mark and former head brewer at the Lord Nelson, Damien.

Working in conjunction with ES Brewing, The Brew Shop stocks everything you could ever think of needing for anything to do with brewing and distilling. From the tiny o-ring for a kegs poppet valve up to dual tap kegerators. It's not just equipment either, one wall is full of extracts and kits while another is full of essences.

While The Brew Shop look after the retail side of things, selling not only through the store but also online and over the phone, ES Brewing look after the importing of hops and malts, the manufacturing and exporting of wort kits and extracts, and the wholesale supply to brew stores Australia wide.

The most popular items being bought at the moment are the Coopers kit and kilo cans, along with ES Brewing 3kg extract can range and the 4.5L Ezi Brew versions of craft beers. Also very popular at the moment ( possibly the fastest growing sector of the homebrew market ) is distilling spirits, and The Brew Shop has everything you need for that as well.

$75 gets you a homebrew starter kit which includes everything you need ( fermenter and beer kit and odds and ends ) to make your first beer - bar the bottles.

With so much of his time taken up by the shop Colin doesn't get a lot of time to brew anymore and when he does he is more than likely to be working on development batches.  Currently they are working on a gluten free beer using sorghum but it's not going so well. They are finding it hard to replicate the malt taste that goes with a good beer.

The Brew Shop and ES Brewing both support the local home brew club, hosting the meeting on the last Friday of every month and often donating prizes for the competitions.

The Brew Room this Week

It seems once again we have a lot on the go, alongside the 3 Pale Ales and Blueberry Melomel we have started the, for wont of a better name "Road Test," on Island Mist's Wildberry Shiraz and a sweet Mead using orange blossom honey.

All 3 Pale Ales have been racked off the primary fermenter and have been dry hopped, one with more citra, one with our home grown cascades and the Hoptastic with it's ....it's a secret.

The Blueberry Melomel has been bottled and has started it's ageing, 6 months is a long time to wait but it will be worth it.

We opened a bottle of our first Mead this week, "Mr Dalliard's Great Distraction" a medium mead bottled at the end of January, coming in at 12.3% there was quite a harsh alcohol taste at bottling, which is almost completely gone leaving just the taste of the honey. I can't wait to try it after 6 months.

Each "Road Test" will be published after we have tasted the end result and will contain such things as length of time for each step, brewing times, how easy it is to brew, equipment needed, cost and the really important parts, the taste and is it worth it.