Tuesday 23 July 2013

Another Tasting Night...

Yet another night Spent at Pomeroys on Monday Night! This was a one I was looking forward to as well.
LIBERTY BREWING, Joseph Wood.


On the cards 9 Beers, and a Bonus Beer, which was still in the conditioning tanks.
Most ofthese were Hop Bombs, includingthe new one Sauvignon Bomb, an IPA Made exclusively with Nelson Sauvin Hops. Based off the Website, this was a simple Grain Bill of base plus Pale Crystal.
The few non Hop Bombs were Dark Stouts, and the Bonus Beer a california Steam Beer, made with one of the girls from Beer NZ.

Theres something else I'll say as well. He's a definite Fly by the seat of your pants kinda guy, if he wants to do something he'll do it, many collaborations etc. and confirmation there will be no Yeastie/Liberty Collab this year, a bit disappointing, but hey, they're all pretty busy doin their thing. Jo has a great sense of humour, and had plenty of stories about his mishaps and people he had met along the way, some beer was talked about as well.

Onto the beers:
Top Beer: had to be Citra!, at 9% and 99 IBU, it was always going to be the beer of the night. Overly Hoppedwith Citra, and funnily enough he actually revealed, its not a single hop brew, despite the misleading name. No Information was given on which hop it was... Something big and American no doubt.
Worst Beer: This is a hard one, as they were all actually very good, but if I had to choose, it'd be the Darkest Days Stout, it didn't quite hit the Creamy stout flavour for me, but still an awesome beer.
With only 9 beers on tap, it was a much shorter night at Pom's than normal, so pints were had.

All in all a good night, with some good beers, most of which I had tried already, including the Monster! Love that beer. I actually have a recipe of 2 for a couple of these beers, Scarlet and Monster, Not sure how accurate they are, but still worth a crack.

There will be no update for a couple of weeks from here, as I'm away on Holiday and there's not alot to talk about, but plenty going on behind the scenes.

Then it's onto Brewery Talk, Brew Rig building and NHC 2013, I'm still on the fence on what to make. I have a massive choice of recipes to choose from.

Oh and I'll be starting up a Brewtoad Page too! Posting my recipes for all who wish to try, as I believe in open source brewing, if people like drinking my beer, why shouldn't they be able to attempt to make it themselves...
Here is the Brewtoad Page: http://www.brewtoad.com/brewers/39840/recipes

Friday 19 July 2013

CHCH Homebrew Club Collaboration

Last weekend I took part in one of the most ambitious brew days ever, two big imperial style beers and a partigyle.
A total of 120 Litres of beer brewed in one day.
A big thanks to the guys who showed up at Oli's place and contributed gear and ingredients.
The recipes decided on were:

the CYBI iStout by 8wired: OG 1.102

A Belgian Stout, Loosely based on the iStout, with some lowering of the grain bill and Some Dark Candi sugar: OG 1.090 Plus belgian sugar later

And a bits and Pieces Partigyle, using some of the runnings from the Grains. OG 1.057
Early indication, of these were good, the yeast were US-05 for the iStouts.
3522 for the Belgian stout, and was split between 2 the other half used the New Mangrove Jacks Belgian Ale, and lastly, they tried out the Newcastle dark ale by mangrove jacks and the /US mangrove jacks yeast.
Will be interesting to see how these turn out.
we did the Beglian stout BIAB, and brewed up 40 odd litres of it, heres some pictures to show you.
Heavy lifting involved. of which I couldn't do any of.



Wednesday 3 July 2013

Dunedin and Emersons Brewery

Second weekend away, and the last one for awhile.
We went to dunedin, and watched the Crusaders vs Highlanders at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

afterthe game we were able to catch the Lions game, and got to try the new "Brewers Reserve" Oreti Red Red IPA. all I can say is Wow! Huge aroma, fat malty chewiness, without being cloying, with a high hop flavour, a tad light for a red ale, but I'll let them away with it.
Beer details:
OG 1.063
NZ Pale, Munich, CaraMunich, and Cara-Red
Hops were US Centennial, and a high Alpha NZ Hop (I'm not )
With a standard american Yeast I'm guessing 001.
Worth a try if you can get hold of it. But its Tap only.

If anone has any ideas on recipes, please let me know.

also had the good old Bookbinder, a good stalwart for the Ermersons guys, and I'd go as far to say it was their flagship beer these days. and at 3.7% It's a beer you can have more than one or two of. I've got a recipe designed to meet the need of the ABV and the general idea behind it. more to come on that soon. enough.

On a seaparate note, I'm still not brewing, but I hasve had another bottle or two of the Bad Wolf.  Great beer, now in its prime at 5-6 weeks bottled, bigger hop presence, but the presence wont last long, and smells distinctly of banana bread as well, clear when warm, so some chill haze, but im ok with the, Will re-make with Mosaic, as theres no Amarillo anywhere, mosaic seems a good hop. and readily available.
I'll also swap the yeast for 3522, and add a flameout addition. maybe remove the willamette dryhop.

Great beer, highly recommended recipe.