So I bottled my All Grain Orange Pale ale Last night: Went nice and smoothly, although the little bottling wand got jammed a couple of times,with some "debris".
Picture is a sample before it sent into the bottle, this was cold crashed for 36 hours to try help get some stuff to drop and and create that clearer beer.
Used all US Cascade Hops with S-04 as the yeast.

I gotta say, it smells really good, a good dose of Orange, withthat Cascade nose backing it up.
FG was 1.014, so it should have a good malty backbone to it.
After a shaky ferments with temperatures (which is why I'm doing Saisons ATM). Taste test will follow in 2-3 weeks after conditioning.

See you in 2013, Merry christmas.
The Beer Crusader

Partial Mash Saison - NZ Styles

So, Last night....
I had some fun with this one, as it was a 30 degree day, no trouble getting up to temperature.

Waving the White Flag Saison:
2.5kg Light DME
the Special Malts below I put into a grain bag, heated 11 litres to 69 deg c, and threw them in crushed from www.brewshop.co.nz , who have always done a pretty good crush for me., these are then left for 25 mins at 69.

0.5kg Wheat Malt
0.5kg Rye Malt
0.5kg Caramalt (Crystal 10L)
0.25kg Vienna Malt
After 25 Mins these are removed and Squeezed, and 5 litres of 80 degree water poured over them, to help removed remaining sugars from the malts.
Then  bring to a Boil for 60 Mins.
at the 60 Mins Mark add 10g Nelson Sauvin 11.1% AAU
then as follows: 10g nelson Sauvin @ 10min
15g Nelson Sauvin @ 5 Mins
15g Nelson Sauvin @ Flameout.
at the 20 mins mark i put in my Wort Chiller to sanitise it. Saves me wasting Sanitiser (It's not cheap)
Once its at 24-25 deg c, it can be transferred into the Fermenter, and the yeast Starter Pitched.
This morning it was bubbliung at 25, its good at this temp and will be ramped over a few days to aroun 28 degrees.
Once it has been finished, I'll take pictures from bottling and from first taste.

tonight is Bottling Night for my Orange and Coriander Pale Ale. Its in Cold Crash at the moment.

Post #1

Maybe I should start with the words "Dear Diary", but somehow Idon't think that's right.

Anyways, I thought I'd put up my first Blog post and show:
1. a Little bit about me
and
2. what I did last night...

So, I'm a born and Bred Christchurch Guy, who started his homebrew Obsession 6 months ago. I really found something enjoyable too, and it's not just about drinking the beer you made, it's about flavours, and different experiments etc. I mean I always loved Science, when I was at school.
I have a wonderful Girlfriend who puts up with this, albeit she gets to drink the spoils, which she certainly doesn't complain about, she gives good feddback and would be the most honest Critic, for improvements to be made.
We have Leo the Staffy, who seems to like mopping up the spills etc.


SO, onto what this blog is all about.....BEER!

I've been doing this hobby for about 6 months, and have just started doing All Grain, allbeit with some hiccups along the way.
I entered one Beer into NHC2012 in association with SOBA NZ, and scored 27/50 for my American Pale Ale, which was only a Partial Mash, and for those who don't know what that means, its a mix of Specialty Grain/malts and malt Exteact, which is the maltedsugar already removed and either dried or turned to a syrup style liquid.
That's my first Post, and next Up will be the information on the Brew I made last night...