Dark Red & Hoppy

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/dark-red-hoppy-390883/

I was sent this beer recently, and left it to condition for awhile, poured it out like this:

Heres the note i took, what a Nice beer, KiwiRevo is doing some Very interesting things with brewing, and I'm very impressed.
Definitely Dark red and hoppy:

appearance: Dark red/Brown colour Very much a colour I'd expect from an Imperial amber, although slightly hazy, I'm assuming this is the hops causing this. (there were quite a few)

aroma: huge aroma of american hops. I could smell this all day.

Flavour: low carbed. Not sure if this was supposed to be the case. big amber flavour, caramels are very in there with the flavour, lingering bitterness, and really smooth considering the high late hopping. I see what you mean with the late hopping giving that smoother bitterness.

Overall: If this was on handpump I could drink more than 1 although the alcohol content might be a bit high. very nice beer, advice for next time, would be more carbonation, to make those hops smack you in the face. and the other thing I'd do, although some peiople may in fact beg to differ would be that the alcohol content may be slightly too high, but very warming none the less.

Handpump this with a sparkler it'll be awesome. Pour it into a Drink bottle with a hose on the end with a sparkler attached for a makeshift hand pump.

Back to it!

Well, after a mere week off work and 2 keyholes in my shoulder, I'm back at work tomorrow!
The weeks gone by so quick and given, they didn't find anywhere near as much as they said, its good news for me all round. I'm out of the sling and moving around.
Back to work tomorrow on light duties, still no beer though..... as there's still be bit of pain and aching coming from the area, understandable, but I definitely feel better than I thought I would after a week.

Once I get the all clear from the surgeon in a Week, It'll be home for a beer tasting... hopefully. that'll be 3 weeks no booze. and it's been easier than I thought it would be.. but I'm looking forward to trying this Bad Wolf Belgian IPA, its been teasing me all week sitting pon the shelf. lol.

Well see you next week, and Hopefully, I'll have a bottle of Manawa Brews WC IPA in my fridge ready to drink and enjoy. certainly sounds like a ripper of a beer already. I'll post tasting notes up here once I've had it too, give u an idea of what I think etc.

Success!

Well I'm out of hospital. just an overnighter. Surgery was a success, in more ways than one. They didn't have to do as much work as they anticipated, no tears just smoothing of some tendons and removal of the inflamed tissue inside the shoulder. much better than being stuck in a sling. less work, means less pain. which means a faster recovery!! So I'm pretty happy about that.

I have 2 holes from keyhole surgery, I'm allowed to lightly move it and "pendulum" my shoulder.

All in all, I'll be back brewing pretty soon. I'll be doing a couple of collaboration brews with mr fraser and one with mr finney, probably a lager for one and the other I'm thinking Zombie Dust.

I'll be getting some hop stocks before they run out. Extra Amarillo some more citra as well. possibly also mosaic and simcoe not sure how much i need to work it out.

Got a swap planned with www.manawabrew.wordpress.com an IPA for Baylands Brewery West Coast IPA home-brew Competition. I'm sending up my two-face and my apple stout which is 6 months old now. So I'm looking forward to trying that

Bad Wolf - Belgian IPA

Morning all, Just bottled this beer, it's my last one for awhile because of my shoulder.

Its inspired by New Belgium Belgo IPA, and smells amazing, the aroma is huge, probably the biggest one sofar.
I did some more water adjustments..... 12g of Calcium Sulphate.
OG was 1.062 FG is 1.015/6
good colour, getting relatively clear on this by now. 119g of Bottling sugar. batch primed.
Taste test in about 3 weeks or so, when I'm drinking again., although I'll get somethoughts from the mrs. its a beer I think she'll love.

I'e officially named it Bad wolf, from Doctor Who, the geeky ones will understand the reference.

Heres the recipe Thread i got my idea from.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/new-belgium-belgo-269744/

Current Gravity

Success!
Its fermented so vigorously in the first 36 hours, and no doubt a little more after bubbling stopped, its at 1.018, I'll be bottling the day before surgery. and then it'll sit for 3-4 weeks, as I'm actually having a dry 4 weeks, I want this shoulder sorted, so 4 weeks without a beer is necessary in my eyes. It'll be good as well to take a break from Brewing for 4 weeks. and I've managed to finish on a high, which is even better for me. I'm feeling a tad less paranoid.

the brew needs to clear and be dry-hopped as yet. So it'll be racked over after the weekend and dryhopped from there. :)
Dryhopping will be 20g Amarillo
15g Cascade NZ
and 15g Willamette
Taste test currently say to me this is going to be utterly awesome!! Exciting stuff.
So, this will be my last post until a taste test of the Belgian IPA. Happy brewing, and I'll see you in a few weeks.

Techniques and Observations

New Post new topic.... sort of:
Hop Steeping/ The Hop Percolator method:
This worked out really well, this gave me a good aroma from less hops. I kept trub out of the fermenter, and gained an additional half litre or so in the fermenter, all be it, there was no wort with this.
The bad things about this process is possibly hops flavour, especially in an IPA there should be a good teeth scraping flavour almost. (I'm not sure how else to describe it) the Aroma out of the "Percolator" was very very grassy, but has cleaned up quite nicely. NZ Hops can have this effect, but I can't taste anything like that. This is something I'd like to try with the Epic Pale ale recipe listed here, to see what the differences are:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/can-you-brew-recipe-epic-pale-ale-194085/
Cold Steeping Method:
This was probably the pick of the processes used, and considering there was noboil in this particular process its worked out surprisingly well. I have no idea whether this is actually supposed to be  boiled or not. I assume it should be, based on the sanitation situation. Something I'd try again. Not sure I'd do it for a Porter though, as you want much more of that malt flavour in there.

Lastly;
Yeast Changes:
This was an unintended experiement, but what an interesting experiment it was.
US-05 vs WLP090, two different yeasts sure, both intended to be neutral style yeasts. but this is Liquid vs dry. and i'll say now that the dry won.
Now I used the dry in the smal black Batch and the Liquid in the main batch.
Liquid: This is a high Flocc yeast, and while its very clean fermenting and rapid as well, it definitely stripped some of the hop juice from the final brew, because of the high floccuation of the yeast. This also finished at 1.014 and tastes relatively dry.
Dry: I didn't check the gravity, but it did taste slightly maltier/ sweeter, it tasted better, and it the yeast swishes around a bit more than the WLP090, but it retains the hopps much better. more flavour, same aroma.
I'll be conducting more experiements soon, with 3 different west coast style strains.
US-05
BRY-97, Danstar west Coast
and a new one from Mangrove Jack, if I can get my hands on it.

surgery in a week or two, will update as time goes on, i.e. Belgian IPA.

NZ IPA and black IPA

Tasting night tonight: I tasted the two experiemental brews as posted a wee while ago.

So I'll startwith the main brew, which is the NZ IPA, I've named the brew Two Face IPa, as I've run the experiments etc.

Two Fale Pale IPA:

Appearance: Pours a Golden copper colour, with white/off white head, it's a tad Hazy, which I think is chill Haze coupled with the wheat I used in the brew.

Aroma: this is the fun part, The Aroma is definitely there., this hop steeping thing has some power behind it in regards to the aroma. nice hoppy spicyness from the motueka and lingering end with the cascade.

Flavour: this is where the beer falls a bit flat, mind the pun. The aroma from the steep is there, but its lacking in flavour contribution from this addition. Although I'll elaborate more shortly. good Malt backbone, and good head retention.

Overall: Good solid brew, hardly a winner in most books. shame its not clearer and hoppier as I'd hoped.

Now the black

Two Face Black IPA:

Appearance: Crystal Clear dark brown, with ruby high lights, good head retention.

Aroma: againthe hop aroma is there, and funnily enough there a slight coffee aroma, (at this point, I should point out that the Dark Malt addition, I actually forgot to boil the wort from the cold steep). 

Flavour:  this again is where it gets a bit more fun. yeast is the difference between these two brews, along with the hops flavour. This is a very good beer, malty backbone, with a caramel hit, followed by a stronger hoppier flavour to follow. good bitterness.

Overall: good solid beer, not quite a mdeal winner as such, but definitely better than the pale version.

New Post time, so I can figure out what I'm saying.

Belgian IPA

hi everyone, got this brewed up on the weekend, and ran short on volume, because of the high amount of hops, definitely got through some of my stock.

initial fermentation started after 6 hours or so, and went strongly until this morning, thats about 36 hours, now its stopped bubbling, as I've had some fermentation issues recently, I am quite paranoid and concerned about finishing too early, it went gangbusters, so I'm really hoping it's done something and will slowly continue to do so, I'm not touching it until 1 week and I'll then check it, if its ok I'll be dryhopping, If not, then I'm not sure I'm tempted to chuck 3711 at it, I'm pretty sure that'll  chew through it, but I don't want to eat all of it, if its within cooey I'm not touching it, and I'll just up the dryhop I guess.

this is my last brew before surgery, and if it doesn't finish, the break won't come too soon, with my Plan B Clone not finishing either, and a ninfection happening as it didnt finish then when I chucked more yeast at it, the yeast didn't take, it oxidised and from there an infection happened, I think some bugs got in, as I transferred it to another bucket. namely a larger one, which didn't help inthe slightest.

Fingers crossed for this one, I almost feel like I should have just chucked US-05 at it, get myself another IPA, but americanised.

surgery is happening on 21 May and it'll be around 3 weeks in a sling, before moving begins and rehab starts, then I think I'll be able to makje some small brews.