American Amber Ale... or not

A few months back I brewed up a wetpak APA, but added significantly more crystal to the mix, and a moderate proportion of cascade about ten minutes before flame-out. At first, this was a delightfully hoppy ale that, if not for the colour and (comparitively) lower hop presence, I would have rated it as a good example of an APA - despite the reasonable amount of kettle-caramelisation present in the background. However, now that the hop presence has worn down, I am finding myself with a superbly malty, caramel brew far more reminiscent of a Southern English Brown. While this isn't exactly what I was trying to achieve - by a long shot - it is still a wonderful brew that I will be trying to replicate again for next winters drinking.

Hic,
TSD

General Update

It seems like Rocktober was a little quiet on the brewing front for me - a total of zero (0) brews put down during the entire month... I didn't even get to Oktoberfest! ! ! My brothers "house warming" didn't exactly go ahead either, so I have been left with a glut of beer to consume - what a predicament! The hopburst is very cloudy, presumably from the massive amount hop polyphenols that would be present within such a hop-heavy brew, but the taste is absolutley divine. My American Amber Ale (Wetpak with additives) is probably one of the best I have tried to date, and I can't wait to give it a shot as an all-grain effort.

Speaking of which, the brewery is still coming along slowly. Looks like I will be purchasing a much better pump (self-priming, at that!) through the guys at the Country Brewer, but will likely have to wait until near Christmas before I have the funds for it - so I will have to resort to the old weight-lifting brew days for another few months at least. At any rate, the stand is still sitting at Girraween waiting for me to find the time to drop in and help weld it up. Bloody work getting in the way of my hobbies again - will have to find a way to fix that problem once and for all. Until then, it's time for another beer!

Cheers,
TSD

Bottling the pLambic

After two and a half years of fermentation, the portion of pLambic I had set aside on cherries finally found its way into bottles yesterday. I have to say at this stage I am a little dissapointed at the taste. The lambic "funk" is there, with a slight sourness (although not enough for my liking) and some sherry-like quality, and the colour is an astoundingly deep cherry red. Unfortunatley, the colour is about the limit of what the fruit added to this. The cherry flavour is extremely subdued and, in hindsight I really should have thrown a handful of oak chips into the secondary (tertiary?) with the fruit, but I will chalk all of this up to a learning experience... a long, two and a half year learning experience...

Cheers (I think),
TSD

Hopburst APA

Things have been a little quiet on the brewing front these last few weeks but, after realising that the APA I brewed for my brothers up-coming house-warming will likely be consumed prior to the event, I thought a hastily prepared replacement might be in order. Don't ask me why, but I decided upon an APA brewed using a method I had only heard about recently.. the HopBurst.

Essentially, a HopBurst is a brew whereby the hop additions are added in 5 minute lots and boiled for a time not exceeding 30 minutes. Generally, two or three different hop types are used to add complexity to the rather up-front hop flavour and aroma. I decided upon a blend of 2/5 cascade, 2/5 willamette and 1/5 Nelson Sauvin. The downside to this is that you don't get the full efficiency out of your hop isomerisation, therefore you need to use alot more hops in the mix. 210 grams were required for a single 22 litre batch!

I must say it was refreshing to only have to boil the wort for thirty minutes instead of the usual hour and a half treatment, and the aroma coming off this baby was fantastic. Despite all this I was still trying to withhold peals of "I can't believe I am doing this" laughter as I dropped addition after addition of hops into the kettle. Once the batch had cooled and settled sufficiently, I carefully poured the contents of the kettle into the fermenter, trying rather unsuccesfully to leave behind as much of the spent hops as possible. I do say unsuccessfully due to the fact that, prior to pitching the yeast (US-56), there was about an inch of hop powder settling on the bottom of the fermenter.

I could not take an accurate gravity reading due to the above mentioned hop particulate, and the sample tasted quite bitter, but not as offensive as I would have imagined. Either way, it looks like my brothers mates are in for a crash course in hop-appreciation come house-warming time.

Quack,
TSD

On a side note: This gives me a great idea on a Nelson Sauvin Pilsner I have been toying with. Instead of using different bittering and flavour additions and, considering NS's high A.A.%, I might just use a single large NS addition at 20 minutes...

Wet Paks

I really should state straight up that I used to work for the Country Brewer - I did so for three years - so I guess in a way my opinion about their products could be slightly biased. That being said, I sincerely believe they are a classic example of a hard working small Aussie business that has taken on the "big guns" of the homebrew industry and come out on top. At any rate, whether or not you think I am here to advertise, or to simply share my opinion, feel free to read on...

I have previously posted on my current lack of an all grain brewery, and subsequent need to revert back to brewinig extract beers. I don't want anyone to think that by saying "revert back", I am implying that these extract beers are in any way inferior. In fact, I have won several awards at homebrew competitions up to state and national level with beers I have brewed from extracts, and even using tinned pre-bittered concentrates as a base. Those who state that beers made this way are inferior are either kidding themselves, trying to justify their existence (and time spent making all-grain beer), or are just downright ignorant!

Being sans-beer-frame, I have taken to brewing the Country Brewer WetPaks again and I have to say I am loving them! They take a little more time than the average kit (one hour boil), but the extra time and effort are really worth it. These beers have more flavour, more body, and more aroma than any pre-bittered concentrates and just seem to taste... fresher. I currently have on tap both an American Pale Ale and an Oak Ale from the WetPak range and can't get enough of either.

The range seems to be expanding at a reasonable rate too. They started off with five classic styles - Pilsner, Lager, Bitter (English-style... certainly not a V.B. clone), Porter and an American Pale Ale. Since its conception, the range has seen the addition of a Hefe-style wheat beer and an Oak Ale. Although the oak Ale has only been on the shelf a few months, I have already made three of the suckers... it is simply that good.

Now many purists will tell you that oak has no place in a beer and, theoretically, they are correct. Even though historically beer was stored in oak barrels, the inside of these casks were apparently coated in pitch to mitigate any chance of oxidation. However, one thing I learnt from Beavis (one of the directors of the Country Brewer) during my time there was a "why not" attitude when it came to brewing. This is evidenced clearly in the Oak Ale Wetpak. I know of no other brand of homebrew kit that has introduced the addition of oak chips to the brewing process, but it has come off as a great success. The oak is quite dominant, but not overpowering, and it sits on a base that I would consider to be remeniscent of a British pale ale. In fact, this would have been a great brew in and of itself, but the addition of the oak truly sets it apart.

So if any of you who currently brew all-grain find yourselves, as I have, without the equipment necessary to do the job properly, don't run your taps dry... get a WetPak in the boiler and enjoy.

Cheers,
TSD

Honeyed Dim-Wit

I have written previously about my love for both Belgian-style ales and the use of honey as an adjunct (or even as the sole source of fermentable sugars. Mmmm... mead). Yesterday, I drank the last glass from a thoroughly enjoyable keg of Honey-Wit. For those of you who don't know, wit beers are typically produced using 50% pilsner grain and 50% raw wheat for the mash. It is a dry, easy drinking style with a tart, spicy finish and a pale, opaque appearance that many people would call white - hence the moniker; "wit". Probably the most famous commercial wits would be Hoegaarden Wit and Celis White - although you don't seem to find many Celis White bottles on the shelf of the local bottlo.

At any rate, my latest wit proved to be another of those classic "flavour evolution" brews - meaning that the taste changed dramatically over the months it was on tap. It started as you would imagine many wits would - spicy and slightly phenolic with a fairly strong sense of both citrus and coriander. Vanilla undertones almost - but not quite - masked a nice tartness in the finish. The marvellous spicy aroma was mostly derived from the coriander and raw wheat, and the colour was a lovely opaque straw. Over the months the cloudiness dissipated and the beer became as bright as any lager. The flavour became somewhat subdued as well, with the aftertaste created by the honey becoming quite dominant. The other dominant flavour that persisted right up to the final glass was the phenolic spiciness, although by this stage any flavour from the orange and coriander had gone the way of the dodo.

All in all I was quite pleased with this brew, and would be happy to try it again someday – but with all the batches I have running through the back of my mind, I am certain it will be a long time before this one sees the inside of the boiler again.

One point to note:- I split this batch into two seperate fermenters, one of which travelled the forty kilometer trip to my fathers house after brew day. While mine turned out quite well, my fathers ended up infected. Now he did describe it to me over the phone as being "cloudy white - almost like Baileys [Irish Cream]"; to which I naturally answered "It's a wit... it's supposed to be cloudy and white." Taking my advice, he chilled and carbonated it and awaited my eventual arrival at his house for a Sunday BBQ. When I got there he poured me a pony-sized serve and smugly handed it over. There within the glass was something I had never seen before. The bottom half was a highly effervescent, crystal clear water-coloured liquid. Floating above this was a thick, creamy like substance that, from a distance looked like a good head, but close up resembled curdled milk. A tentative sip (of the clear liquid underneath) revealed a taste somewhat similar to lemonade - I didn't even try to taste the curdled-milk-head. Needless to say, his half of the batch became lawn-food.

Quack,

TSD

The pLambic Attempt

For many years now I have been fascinated with the sensory explosions associated with Belgian beers. My first experience was with a bottle of Chimay Blue (the small bottle - not the reserve). I was so enraptured by the experience that I promptly set out to try as many different Belgian beers I could find. At the time, finding a Belgian beer in Australia was like trying to find a piece of hay in a stack of needles, but I did meet with limited success. Eventually, I stumbled upon a bottle of Bellevue Kriek, and found what remained my favourite indulgence for many years to come.

Finally, in March 2004, I made my first solo all-grain mash and, throwing all caution (and plenty of advice) to the wind I brewed up a pseudo-Lambic. After following some advice regarding gelatinising the raw wheat prior to mashing, I found I had absolutley no problems with the sparge. I did not have any really old hops on hand that did not smell like a Dutchmans crotch, so I settled for 120 grams of reasonably brown fuggles pellets. After inputing the aging factors, ProMash calculated an IBU of approximately 3, so I knew this wasn't going to be an issue. After a 90 minute boil, this was innoculated with a Wyeast Lambic Blend starter.

After three weeks of primary fermentation, it was racked into a 45 litre stainless cider keg to complete the long secondary. I was able to taste the batch as it aged and was fairly impressed with the flavour evolution as the months turned to years.
Finally, after nearly two and a half years in secondary, I decided it was time to complete the brew. I racked approximately 12 litres to a small glass carbouy on top of some blackberry juice concentrate (100%... none of this Ribena crap), and 20 litres onto roughly 4 kilograms of cherries and a litre of cherry juice concentrate. Both of these were innoculated with some EC-1118 yeast. I am still not sure if this was a mistake, but I didn't want to take the risk of unviable yeast and, since the 1118 is a fairly neutral beast, I thought it would not effect the flavour profile already present in the batch. The remainder of the brew was racked into two 12 litre kegs, one for dispensing and the other to blend with the kriek prior to bottling.

The straight pLambic that I tapped has all the hallmarks of a classic Lambic, albeit a tad subdued for my liking. I really think the Wyeast blend did a good job for what it is, but next time I may just get the seperate cultures and innoculate each at the correct stage. That being said however, I realise that both enteric bacteria and the kloekera strain of yeast play a fairly important part early in the fermentation, but I haven't been able to find a reliable source for these cultures anywhere - let alone locally. However, I don't believe the Wyeast blend contains these critters at any rate.

Either way, I am impressed with how this batch has turned out thus far and am keen to give it a go again. Hmm... maybe a stainless solero with oakchips - four 50 litre kegs should do the trick.

Hic,
TSD

Aussie Homebrew Competitions

Like many others out there, I brew my beers with only one person in mind. If I like the beer then, to me at least, it is a success. That being said however, it is sometimes nice to get favourable feedback about your creations from others; particularly those who either know a fair amount about the way beer should taste, or are in the industry themselves. Hence regular entries in regional, or even national, brewing competitions are a must if you really want to improve your brewing.

Almost every competition I have entered has mailed the results and tasting notes to me afterwards - even if I did not take a place. These notes are invaluable in two ways. Firstly they give you a good idea of what people "in-the-know" think of your beer, and how it stands up to style. Secondly, a well presented tasting sheet filled in by a concientious judge will give you an indication of what you may be doing wrong through the brewing process, and how, in the judges eyes, you could improve your methods or recipe structure.

I have watched with great anticipation, bordering on national pride, as more Australian-based brewing competitions have either started up or gotten enough advertising/coverage to be noticed by the homebrewing community. While some such as the Castle Hill and Luddenham shows will always be on a small scale due their minimal size and mostly local interest, many have grown considerably over the years. One such show is the "Bathurst Homebrew Competition", which became known in the homebrew industry (at least while I was a part of it) as the unofficial Nationals due to the fact that more prestige was given to the category winners of Bathurst than any other competition in Australia due to both the sheer number of entries and the stiff competition between competitors.

That being said, it is always wise to support the small regionals, as the more people notice that homebrew is no longer reminiscent of the foul tasting concoctions their grandfathers coughed up, the more the hobby will grow - and that can never be a bad thing.

For a list of upcoming Australian Homebrew Competitions, click here

Cheers,
TSD

A tasting at the Redoak

Last weekend I managed to get myself - wife and kid in tow - down to the Redoak on Clarence Street, Sydney for a few hours. Their selection of craftbrews is exceptional, with a multitude of different styles to chose from, but I found myself particularly impressed with the three described below.

1. India Pale Ale:- This was not available over the bar, given away on the night in 50mL sample tasters prior to its impending release. In my opinion it is a premier example of a British-style IPA, with plenty of hop character - but not enough to be "in-your-face" - and it had a slight residual sweetness to offset the strong hop bitterness. A very easy-drinking IPA, but if you are a fan of the over-the-top Imperial IPA's, you may be dissapointed. Personally, I loved it.
2. Honey Ale:- Being a mead fan, I love tinkering around with the addition of honey to my brews. To date however, I have found it exceedingly difficult to retain a large amount of honey flavour once fermentation has run the gammut, and I had all but given up on it. This particular brew blew me away with its astoundingly strong and fresh honey flavour, and has made me even more determined to brew something similar. Another easy-drinking brew that, despite the large honey flavour, is in no way cloying.
3. Redoak Reserve:- What trip to any microbrewery would be complete without a taste of their signature brew. The Redoak Reserve is a masterpiece of brewing. Malty, and with a thick mouthfeel, this brew lacks any of the cloying sweetness one usually associates with such a high gravity beer - in fact it remains quite dry, with a massive hit of flavour from the chocolate and crystal malts. The dryness is actually so significant that I am inclined to believe some dehusked specialty grains such as carafa-special may be employed. Hops were fairly low, if I recall correctly, or it may simply be that such an obvious forefront of malt subdued any hop character it may have possessed. However, this lack of hop flavour in no way detracted from what was a delightful, warming indulgence.

I had the opportunity to meet with Dave Hollyoak, the owner and brewer, and we chatted briefly about his beers and processes. It turns out we share a love of Belgian style ales and I was treated to a twelve month old bottle of his St Nicholas Tripel-style ale. Once again he not only hit the mark, but exceeded it in terms of flavour and quality.

Now The Redoak is not an inexpensive night out, but nontheless it remained virtually yuppy free for the part of the evening I was there. The prices are within the range of what I would call "average" for such high quality craft brewed beverages, with the exception of the Redoak Reserve which hits the hip pocket at a staggering $15 for 50mL - but damn is it worth it! For a good night of sampling a reasonable range, expect to fork out roughly $100 - $120. For a really good night you could pay upwards of $160, but in the end we don't treat ourselves to such an indulgence every week, so drink up!

Cheers,
TSD

P.S.- Redoak hold a special four course "beergustation" menu once a month, where each course is served with beers specially selected due to their compatibility with the food on offer (or perhaps more accurately, the food is matched to the beers). During the course of the evening the staff will talk you through the history of the beers, and David himself apparently attends to discuss the brewing methods used to create them. These dinners cost about $60, but unfortunately do not come with a glass of the Reserve. I would personally recommend coughing up an extra $30 for a double shot of the Reserve - served in a cognac-style glass - and savour the changes in flavour as the beer warms up in your hand. Apparently, if you don't give the beer at least a half-hour to fully warm up, you might miss some fairly awesome changes in profile. I only got a regular serve (50mL) and couldn't resist downing the lot in the span of only fifteen minutes - I will know better next time.

BeerTools Pro - and a simple amber ale

To the right is a screen capture of the BeerTools Pro software. I have been using BeerTools online as a recipe calculator for many years, and indeed I have crafted many an enjoyable brew using this resource. BeerTools Pro is in beta testing at the moment, and even though I have been unable to test it thoroughly - due to afore mentioned temporary lack of proper equipment - I have watched it unfold with great anticipation. Each beta release has revealed more and more of what awaits us, and I have to say that finally there will be a true competitor to ProMash. Due for release in October.

The recipe is a simple amber ale that I plan to use as my maiden brew, once the system is up and running. I have other recipes that I am hanging to brew, but I think a simple batch for the maiden is a safer bet.

Cheers,
TSD

Building the Brewery

Well after roughly eighteen months of reverting back to extract brewing, the brewery is finally reaching completion. Not that it should have taken this long, but work tends to get in the way of enjoyment. The eighteen metres of galvanised tubing I purchased way back when ended up being short by about ten metres (I think I actually planned on a two tier system initially, so I really should have expected that).
I will be purchasing the pump once I get some more overtime. The pump I will use is a March 809L. I saw a few others that I know would be a lot better, but unfortunately the budget is blowing out as it is, so the $1200 series 335 will have to wait!
I managed to get some brass 1/2" ball valves for the plumbing - eight in total - for about $7.50 each at Reece Plumbing, Wetherill Park. I purchased my copper coil at the same place, also for a bargain, at $121.00 for eighteen metres. This will be used to make 2 x 9 metre counterflow chillers (One of these will go to someone else). I am contemplating the use of that thin black irrigation tubing for the outer shell... but for the sake of a measley $20 difference, I may just use 18mm garden hose instead.
Either way, I am going to have to wait until I have the frame in place before I go ahead with any further plumbing plans. Getting very impatient, though...

Pics coming...
TSD