The Great Kiwi Beer Festival

hi everyone, I'm a little bit hung over today, after an epic day of beer drinking and generally talking beer. What a great day for it, the sun was shining, I had friends with me, we'd just had a big brekkie to help soak up some of the brews we were about to consume. so many beers, the likes of epic Brewing, Garage Project, Liberty and 8 Wired, plenty of beers I'd never heard of like Deep Creek brewing in auckland, small company, and well a little bit disappointing beer wise. I had a big range of stuff from, IIPA's to Double barrel Aged Porters and everything in between, theres one thing I didnt't do, which was international brews, I stuck to the home grown stuff. So Beer of the day for me, goes to 2 different companies, because they are completely different 1: Garage Project Day of the Dead Bourbon Barrel Aged Porter. this beer was epic, pours out black, andsmells like bourbon, good brown head, and very very rich, taste is a good smash of bourbon along with a good malt backbone, and just bitter enough to compliment the style. and 2: Because Jo Wood is amazing with the hops he chooses Liberty's Citra IPA, WOW i don't know what joseph does with those hops, but its clear and pours a pale orange colour, smells fruity....very very fruity. we described it yesterday as passionfruit in a glass, and it tasted that way too. I have citra in my freezer, and as such I'll be giving something a go soon. Most disappointing were Cassel & Sons IPa, which didn't fit the style quite right, and deep brewings NZ Pale Ale, which to be honest just tasted like yellow water... So I kind of feel sorry for them, because theres such an array of ingredients, and I just feel like they were either doing it on the cheap or they just threw it together. Lastly, I tried EPIC's new Mosaic IPA. which is a pretty good beer, I'm pretty sure they use the same recipe as the Zythos IPa, but with Mosaic Hops (obviously). Mosaic seems like a pretty damn good substitute for Amaillo, It's very similer, and after drinking Angry Peaches from Garage Project, Which is all amarillo hops, its very hard to pick a difference in hops flavour, there are subtle differences though. Well, I'm gonig to take a nap then go See Die Hard 5, because I'm hung... See you later.

"CODE BROWN" Saison

Well, I decided to change the name of this beer. So I've called it "COde brown" I'll let you decide what that means... Onto the tasting notes: This is a great beer, and whiles it still very young and quite boozy. Theres a great character to this, and probably if aged long enough would become a great beer. It pours a great clear brown colour, with a reddish hue to it, when held to the light. Head Retention, is amazing, it just sits and sits and sits, with the carafaSpecial II Dehusked. theres only 50 grams, but it makes this nice and creamy, and finishes that dark character off. Its very creamy, considering it finished at 1.008 off white head and a little hop kick to it. and iut finishes with a chocolate roast dryness. I almost get a vanilla hint as well, from the dark malts too, just the slightest. Its only 2 weeks old, so as it ages i expect it to improve. On a different note, the Red IIPa has been named Red Skull IIPA. I'll be racking tomorrow to secondary, with the first dryhop. right so that all for now :) See you in a week or so. for a Red Skull Update on gravity and hopping.

IIPA: Holy Grain!

Picture of the IIPA going into the fermenter, an 11 Lt batch. The Day went smoothly, which I dont think is too hard for a Partial mash brew. It was 1.073 going into ther fermenter, with a Predicted 1.016-1.018 to finish. It's going to sit in ther fermenter to 10 days before dryhop #1 which is 15g Zythos, 10g centennial and 10g Cascade, followed 5 days later by 8g cascade 15g centennial, 10g zythos and I've at the last minute thrown 10g citra in this part as well. Hopefully that'll ad some extra zing into it. i might even make this a 7 day dry hop, #1 is 5 days followed by a 5-7 day dryhops#2. Its a little too dark, came out quite a copper colour, which I believe is the Amber LME doing that. Mashed nice and low at 65 deg C. Plenty of hops Thrown into the Boil, totalling 118 IBU based on Brew Pal for Iphone. i tried using Pantyhose as hop bags to keep the trub out of the brew, I still got a good amount, as I ran out of pantyhose... so I had to throw them straight into the kettle. Recipe is as follows: 0.7kg Pale malt 0.25kg Melanoiden 0.125kg Pale Crystal 0.2kg Carapils Late additions at 15mins Amber LME-1.5kg & 0.3kg Dextrose. Hops were Columbus for Bittering, and Centennial, Zythos and cascade in the boild and dryhop. adding citra in there in the second dry hop too. I'll let you decide on the schedule, 75 Min Boil. first addition at 60. 10 days fermentation, followed by 5 day dryhop #1 & 5-7 Day Dryhop #2 righto, see you next time, and don't forget if you have any questions, feel free to ask any questions etc.

Saison #2

Hi everyone who paying attention. I just bottled my Dark Saison (The racist frenchman). Came out at 1.008 and carbed to 2.4 volumes of CO2. smell is upfront yeast with a hoppy Background, taste is the Saaz and NS Hops I think? using a New Labelling technicque using round stickers on the caps. It came out less dark than I would have epxected, red/brown at this stage, but Pictures to following in 3 weeks for first taste test, then 4-6 weeks for drinking fun. back in the house too so thats good, and I'm moving everything around to put it back how it was.... tune in next week. Catch ya later.

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.