White Flag French Saison-Nelson Sauvin

Well, its finally time to go back into our house,after a full re-paint etc. Which is great, because I get to sit on the deck with a pint in my hand again.

Anyways, I did a taste test of my fully carbed French Saison as above. (The Non-Dark One) I found plenty of Flavour from the yeast, 3711, not too much in the way of Nelsons Sauvin coming through, which is probably good becuae I've heard it tends to dominate, it reminds me very much of 8wired Sauvin Saison, and its dry, but with plenty of body at 1.008FG. I found no lacing in the head or retention, and I'm not entirely sure why. which kinda sucks, if i ever do it again, ill chuck from carapils in there for that, head is fluffy while its there though. a little undercarbedfor a saison i think. second thing is I racked my Brown Saison over to secondary, as there was so much trub, I couldnt get anything out of the bottom tap... currently at 1.008. Taste suggests a subdued yeast character, with a hop character, spicy from the saaz, which should make life interesting, almost pale ale ish with a yeasty hint. So given thats how it tasted, I went and dryhopped with 14g NS for a week. Pictures and so on to come, Its almost red in colour, which I'd say will darken up in the bottle... See you next week, and stay tuned.

Yeastie Boys Tasting

Well, last night was a good night. I went along to the Yeastie Boys Tastingat Pomeroys, it started at 7 and we left at just after 11pm. Stu and Sam, who run the company are good guys, theywere easy to talk to, and some good to great beers were had. Alot of the beer Drank last night couldn't be found it shops, which was a bit of a treat really. 11 Beers, most of them different, but some of which, as Yeastie Boys put it, was "spooning" with Liberty, namely the Yakima Raven, Motueka Raven and Neva Raven. Favourite beer of the night: Probably Pot Kettle Black, not a Black IPA, but a Hoppy Porter. Very Clean very hoppy, and had such a nice darkmalt grist to it. Very Smooth indeed. Most ineresting Beer: X Rex-100% Peated Smoked Malt. Most people last night weren't fans, they said it semlled and tasted like a hospital. Bandaids and quite medicinal. For me, as a man who enjoys a whiskey occasionally, I liked it, as it was designed to be essentially a "whiskey Beer" for me i got smoky malt aroma and it just remined of whiskey from an oak barrel, taste was similar to me. It's definitely a Sipper, not a beer to drink in large Quantites at 11% lol. Worst Beer: Gunnamatta Tea Leaf IPA, not my style of beer, no hops, just earl Grey Blue Flower tea leafs throughout the boil etc. nice aroma, and because I don't drink tea or coffee, it wasn't really for me, seems a popular beer, which I understand as its similar to an IPA as the tea Leaf offers a similar sort of profile. and to top it all off, I was wearing my New Crusaders Shirt. and I haven't had a hair cut for a couple of months, so I look a bit Zac guildford-ish. As I walked out, they stopped me with the words "We'd like to welcome our Special Guest Zac Guildford, the cursaders won't have you, but Pomeroys will." Sorry Zac. Oh quick update, Black Saison is more "brown" and last check it was sitting at 1.010 dead on, which is good, probably a bit sweet for a Saison, but I'm hoping it'll sit pretty close to that to keep some of that dark malt profile. the Crusade Continues...

6 Months :-)

Well it's been 6 months since I made my first Extract beer, which was a non-kit with hops and yeast., I saved a bottle of it to try and learn a bit more about what happens in the aging process. Heres a Picture:

Its from www.howtobrew.com, john palmers Cinncinnati Pale ale recipe, switched around as at the time the LHBS didn't have Light LME, so i used Amber LME and Light DME, with nugget and cascade hops. As a first beer it was very nice, and really kicked off my quest you now see here. Anyways, onto the taste test of a6 month old beer.... Taste=OLD. theres a big difference in taste from when I first tasted it,theres absolutely no Hop aroma, theres a bittering taste, which has mellowed with time, and Its quite hard to detect the late additions (20 & 10 cascade 14g each. I think its fair to say that I won't age my beers like this, unless I think it needs it, or the recipe recommends it. On a separate note, I tried my Blonde ale again last night as well. Based on this recipe: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/busty-brunette-blonde-ska-true-blonde-clone-321035/index2.html which has actually got better with age, I think the fact I used actual grains helps alot. And considering I didn't like it first time up, after 5 months, its one damn tasty beer. Such a shame theres none left. Oh and last note: I accidentally dropped a few White flag Nelson Saison, and one cap popped, So clearly I had to drink it... what a hard life. taste is good lots of 3711 esters, so I've taken a 6 pack to the motel and put them in the fridge to see what its like cold and carbed etc. Picture to follow.

Imperial Apple Stout Picture

Heres a photo of my Graf. Its pretty dark. Nice Brown Head

Dark Saison

Experiment time......
A Dark Saison: I've named it the Racist Frenchman, cos it's black and it's using French Style Yeast. Previous Saisons 3711 collected, and dumped into a sanitised fermenter, I didn't clean or harvest it.

Recipe as follows:
Racist Frenchman:
12 Litres Water
3kg Light LME (Black Rock)
0.5kg Wheat DME
0.5kg Rye Malt- 25 mins
0.25kg Vienna-25mins
0.2kg Carapils-25mins
0.2kg Pale Chocolate-20mins
0.05 (50g) CarafaII-15 Mins
Steep grains for 25 mins @ 68.5 Degrees
Run 3 Litres of 80 degree water as a sparge. 60 Min Boil
bring to boil and add to hop bag, 14g Nelson Sauvin/10g Saaz @ 60
Add 45g Saaz @ 10mins
45g Saaz @ Flameout
and Cool down to ferment temperature. top up water was about 7 litres to get volume of 21 litres.
Got OG of 1.064 which is good, nice high efficiency on Partial mash :)
dumped the wort onto the 3711 yeast.
within 4 hours it was bubbling away nicely, nice and dark, will be around the same darkness as my graf. nice little experiment, It's under no temp control, so it'll be interesting to see what it doesn, as its warm in chch at the moment. I'm going to taste after 2 weeks to see how it is, if its not at my tastes, I'm going to dryhop it with Sauvin, to help bring some nice flavou into it. should be ok,
inspiration goes to the mad fermentationist on this, he added raisins, which i thought about, but a) didn't buy them and b) couldn't be bothered.
it'll be in primary for 2-3weeks and probably racked to secondary, even though, I'm not allowed in the house for a month. theres alot of crap in the bottom, so it'll need to be done.

Oh and my Last Saison, ended at 1.009 from 1.062, this ones 1.064 and I'm expecting it to finish about the same, probably 1.008

So I'll see you in a 2-3 weeks after my taste test, let you know how its going. and I'm going to draw up some plan while I'm at the motel to show you the ideas plans and experiments for 2013 and beyond.

WATCH THIS SPACE.

Tastings

Happy New Year Everybody!

I'm back at work, and back into brewing for a very short period... EQC are doing some work on our house, so we have to move out for a month.

Anyways... I took my Orange Pale Ale camping over the new year, and it was good. I don't think alot would of changed had I left the ORange and coriander out of the recipe. its still cloudy, i think thats from the coriander and the hweat malt. but hey its beer looks good tastes good.

Taste Wise, theres a slight alcohol heat to it, from the high temperatures, and as S-04 doesn't handle that quiote as well as US-05, theres a good hoppy cascade bite to it, and plenty of cascade aroma. theres a background hint of citrus, which is the roange coming through and i cannot taste the coriander in the slightest!, seems almost a waste of money for the coriander?

Don't know if I'd re-brew the recipe as it is now, but I do like the malt bill. some other hops, maybe pacifica and some zythos, which give the orange citrus tinge, might be better suited?

Onto, the second tasting of a recent brew:
My Dark Graf, Which I've aptly named Imperial Apple Stout at 7.5%, its got a clear tang to it, and the mrs. is not a fan.  Vey much a sipping beer, good head, nice and dark, should be darker, but I'm ok with where it came out at. Is only a month or so old, and needs more aging, to smooth out the apple taste a bit, its almost that dry winetaste, but with a nice rounded body to it, could be rounder (That's cos I used a Kit stout instead of doing grains etc.) The CHCH Home brew Club will get a taste at the Fruit Beer Competition, and while I wouldn't consider this a fruit beer style wise, its got fruit in it so it counts.

Bottled my Saison Last night too! Will take some small 330ml bottle to the motel and try in a couple of weeks. was a bit murky, partially because I didn't fine it, or cold crash it at all. and I didn't dry hop it either, tasted good as is.