8Wired & Stuck Fermentations

I'll start with the annoying news, the fermentation on my Smoked Porter is Stuck!. I'm real pissed about that, sitting at 1.028 no idea why, I've pitched US-05 into the brew to try and get it moving and sitting it at 24 degrees. So watch this space. the better news is I spent last night at Pomeroys again, for an 8Wired Tasting session. these nights are great and to be honest, they nearly reached the long record of time set by Yeastie Boys at the last tasting. I love 8Wired beers. Last night was no different, although Soren had some new and experimental brews on show, imperial IPA with smoked malt, sour beers and imperial ambers etc. the beers just got bigger and bigger. That's probably why I'm struggling a little bit today, lol. Beer of the night: FRESH Hopwired. This is Hopwired, with freshly picked Wet hops as a Flameout addition. they are literally picked that day, and he explained that 5 times as many wet hops are added than dry palletised hops, due to the water content in the flowers. Worst beer: Sour beer, I'm just not a fan of sour beers. Strongest Beer: 8wired's Bumaye Imperial Stout. 16%!!!!! Wow, so much flavour, lots of sugars, lots of alcohol. I don't really know what else to say! Soren is a very good brewer and knows Hops and what goes well together. I asked him about my smoked porter, which is similar in Grist to his big smoke, and he told me his first smoked porter stopped at 1.026, which is pretty much where I am, he said he got it finished at 1.020. All I want it to get it down, and get somewhere reasonable, 1.022 would even be acceptable. I had such high hopes, and Twisted hop were going to get a bottle, may not if it doesn't turn out. I'll be checking it tomorrow morning, give it enough time to do something. Next Tasting: apparently Garage project, they are doing a degustation menu at Pomeroys, around June sometime. Next Update: Sometime after Easter, to tell you how my porter turned out. Oh and surgery wise, I'm still waiting for ACC approval. sounds like its still at least a month away. Which means I might get another couple of brews in, fingers crossed, cos I'd like to get my Citra used, pretty soon for the Three Floyds Zombie Dust Clone

CASE SWAP-CHCH #1

I meant to say, We did a Case Swap of Beers between a few of us at the Christchurch Brew Club. I offered my "CODE BROWN" Saison, and first reviews of it seem to be good, notes of a little astringency though. I will be entering this into the Twisted Hop Brew comp, coming up in a month, an extra month will add more smoothness to it. 1 Case Swap Beer drunk, Zane's Epic Clone, ridiculously close to the real thing, and Zane is a real top brewer, which helps, he won golds etc. in the NHC a couple of years back. Other Case Swap beers are a couple of Ordinary Bitters, a Schwarzbier, and Belgian Amber. Next Post: more information on the Smoked Porter, and plans for my next brew, if I get a chance.

Smoke-Screen Porter

Morning Everyone, I've had issues getting on the site to update this thing, girlfriend is busy working etc. so just a quick one today. I brewed on the weekend an 11 litre batch of Smoked Porter, I've duely named Smoke-screen Porter. It had an OG of 1.060, and I'm hoping it'll finish around 1.015ish, it seems to have stopped bubbling after 3 days in the fermenter, hopefully this means its done, small concerns about being stuck. Anyways, it went nice and smooth, apart from a yeast change, I wanted to use my 1028 Wyeast, but it turns out its gone off, so I've had to chuck it, shame really, cos it would have been perfect for the beer, bring out the smoked malt. So I've used S-04 to get things running. This is infact and All Grain batch, using BIAB with a small Sparge step. I used craftbrewing.co.nz for most of the ingredients, apart from the smoked malt, which is from brewshop. Recipe is as follows: 1kg maris otter 1kg weyermann smoked 0.5kg brown malt 0.2kg crystal medium (75L) 0.15 Torrified Wheat 0.15kg Pale Chocolate (30 mins) and 50 g of Black Patent (15 mins) Added the darker malts at the time specified, for the 60 min mash, to keep the roastiness down a bit. 8g Columbus at 60 12g Willamette at 30 11g Willamette @1 Whirlpool for 15 mins, then cool to pitching temp, poured through a Sieve to remove alot of the crap in the kettle, as i used a new bag, which turned ou to not be the best plan, as the holes seem to be much coarser, I've notice a good amount of Trub in the fermenter, should be fine. As easter is coming up, It'll sit for 2.5 weeks, and will be bottled mid week after the easter holiday. Still waiting for information on Shoudler Surgery, so I have no idea how much more brewing I'll be doing.

IIPA Tasting

I finally got to taste my recent IIPA: Heres a photo to start with: Its ultimately a red ale, and its come out very malty, chances are that's from the Amber Liquid Malt Extract, its definitely hoppy, but almost needs more hops later in the boil, and dry hop, a beer I could do again, but not for awhile though. I think using Light LMe or actual malt might be a good plan, i mashed at 65-66 degrees, which has probably helped, but not enough to remove that huge malt backbone, it tastes more like an Imperial red ale. Anyways: It pours a pale red colour, with a good solid head to it, that laces the glass, and the head actually stay for the full 330ml bottle poured glass. Taste is good, very creamy, at 1.018, probably needs a bit more sugar to thin it out and dry it out. The hops are definitely present, but i find it needs more for the malt that there. its very hoppy you can feel your teeth fizzing, but you can't taste that fizzing, and the hops are almost a bit muddled, which is a shame, I think the plan if I do it again, is to change the amber lme to pale malt or light LME, which would probably brighten the hops up a bit. with the hops Columbus for bittering, with zythos, centennial cascade,in the boil, amarillo in the dry hop as well. I'd change it to, columbus for bittering, I'd remove the cascade, and stick with a two hop combo for it, not sure what two hops yet, but I'm sure when I do it I'll figure it out. If anyone has any suggestions, I'll give it a shot. I'll see what the guys at the brew meet think, when I give them a taste test on Friday. On a separate note, I want to do a series of single hop Beers after my surgery, to highlight the hops, So, I'm trying to pinpoint the Epic Zythos and Mosaic malt grist, I've actually e mailed epic for an idea of the hop schedule, that'll be a good starting point for hops. Anyways, next update will be my next brew. a Smoked Porter.