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.

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.