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