August 6th, 2008
It’s a long time between March and August. Have moved house and kicked up a storm on the brewing front. Brewed a cracker of an APA using simcoe and tasmanian cascade, a dead loss of a rye stout that grew a nice infection, a post-exam celebration ale that turned out very nice despite (or because of) being brewed by committee, a very nice mash paddle maibock that is is patiently awaiting botting, an ESB style beer that has just finished fermenting and a scottish that is currently crushed grain only.
On the immediate agenda is likely to be another apa using galaxy and an oktoberfest. Then no more brewing for a little while as houses must move again.
In older news, the brown ale stayed mundane, the sparkling ale almost came good, the cream ale has improved outasite and I still never have enough time to make as much beer as I’d like to.
Cheers!
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March 24th, 2008
Brewed another classic american cream ale last weekend, second time for this recipe albeit with some minor changes. I really like what the corn and rice does for this particular beer so will probably make it a regular thing.
Kai’s CACA
OG 1.048
25 IBU
7 EBC
23L
3kg wey pils
900g wey vienna
500g flaked maize
500g flaked rice
100g acid malt
1tsp CaSO4
45g czech saaz plugs 3.3% 60 minutes
15g czech saaz plug 3.3% flameout
15g tassie saaz whole 7.3% flameout
nottingham
Efficiency 75%, currently down to 1.012. I’d like it to drop another couple of points but won’t be too stressed if it doesn’t.
Am currently mustering the motivation to bottle my sparking ale. Checking it to make sure it’s ok… very banana and pear, nice light body but some haze. It’s had a month cold-conditioning to mellow, and the poor brown ale has been sitting in secondary on the laundry floor for about that long. It has gone into the fridge now, will bottle it next week. Flat at room temp it currently has a slightly acrid flavour to it that is not appealing.
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March 10th, 2008
The sparkling ale is still in the fridge, the banana is diminished and the emphasis has turned to a pear schnapps flavour with mild alcohol. Still trying to find the time to bottle.
Brown ale has languished in secondary waiting for fridge space. Still smoky/meaty but the underlying balance is good and it would be better cold. Room temperature at the moment is probably still over 25°C; new year resolutions of treating beer better aren’t doing so well.
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February 14th, 2008
Of four batches on the go, two in production and two in consumption:
Aussie sparkling ale
Cold-conditioning in the fridge, waiting for the haze to drop before I bottle. Estery with banana and pear, crossing over into detectable alcohol notes. Not ideal but I’m hoping mild enough to be acceptable with a little bottle age.
Brow Nail
Like the sparkling, also copped a warmer fermentation temp. The Nottingham has thrown up a lot of sulphur compounds, right now it’s around ten days in primary and has progressed from H2Sy to meaty. I’ll rack it this weekend.. if i get around to it.
Quiet Ale #1: Hazed and Confused
Cloudy and slightly undercarbonated. Hop aroma mild with a slight grassy/vegetative edge. Quaffable but not stellar, with the cloudiness and lack of head (yet fizzy enough on the palate) is not one to share. Underlying balance is almost right though, so will brew the same recipe again with better fermentation management.
Lackwit
The one that was low on gravity and high on fermentation temp (higher so than the brown and aussie ales). However, so far it’s supporting the notion that belgian yeasts handle higher temperatures well. This one cleared nicely and the carbonation is good, but the head is poor like the quiet ale. The aroma is not the typical coriander and curacao, but it’s definitely yeast driven (I currently have trouble with phenolic descriptors). The styrian and simcoe late additions (more importantly, the simcoe) are not dominating; if I didn’t tell me that I put big american hops in here then I would never have noticed. Verdict is very pleasing and worth a repeat, next time with better efficiency.
Anyway, I think today’s lesson is to keep a better handle on the fermentation temperatures for the non-belgian ales. I’m probably going to drop a saison and quiet ale #2 next, so at least I’ll only have to work on managing the latter.
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February 3rd, 2008
OG 1.046
22 IBU
42 EBC
92% JW trad ale
5% TF medium crystal
3% TF choc
Goldings bittering
0.5g/L Goldings @ flameout
Nottingham
…the intended recipe. Looks like efficiency has taken a little jump to around 80%, so I may add a couple litres of water to the fermenter. Clearest wort into the kettle that I’ve ever had, normally I get a little haze but today the runnings were crystal clear.
Beer also nearly turned into an american brown till I reminded myself that I actually wanted something nice and malty for a change.
Sparkling ale is sitting at 1.016 and still trickling away. Contemplating what to brew next, saison is at the top of the list.
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February 1st, 2008
OG 1.060
25 IBU
50% JW trad ale
40% Galaxy
10% wheat malt
Goldings bittering
0.5g/L Southern Cross @ flameout
Coopers ale yeast
Fermenting slightly warm (low-mid 20’s). Ironing out the kinks in my new brewers, just bought a bigger pot for collecting first runnings, need to shorten some hoses and buy some hose clamps as well as a shifter and some multigrips. Efficiency was satifactory, around 70%. Whee!
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January 27th, 2008
Blog? Hey? WhaT? Wow!
Okay, so..
that wheat with WB-06 turned out kinda iffy. Clove, bread and tart. I’m bailing on this yeast and brewing my next one with good old Wyeast 3068.
Just bottled a witbier, all grain but terrible efficiency so bolstered with a little dry malt extract. Also brewed it with no spice additions and Styrian Goldings & Simcoe on late hopping. That plus a rather warm ferment (high 20’s) makes for a rather interesting beer. Will sample the first bottle next weekend.
Also working on a house beer of sorts, dubbed “quiet ale”. Hopped with Glacier and Goldings, pilsner vienna and wheat malts for the grist, starting gravity of around 1.048 and 28 IBUs. First batch has been subtitled “hazed and confused” because I didn’t have the fridge space to cold condition over christmas and it’s murkier than a duckpond full of ducks.
Brewing an Aussie ale tomorrow, for the Australia day public holiday. Aussie Aussie Aussie!
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November 25th, 2007
Moved to a cube today. Veritable pea-souper at the moment, will throw it in to CC and take the american cream ale out in anticipation of bottling it soon.
Palate is not very appealing at the moment. Same as the aborted weizenbock I brewed with WB-06, I’m having trouble deciding whether it is sour and clovey or so clovey it tastes sour.
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November 19th, 2007
OG 1.045
15 IBU
1.2kg JW wheat malt
1.2kg Weyermann pils
100g acidulated malt
1.7kg wheat LME
15g Tasmanian Hallertau (6.2%) bittering
15g Tasmanian Hallertau flameout
WB-06 dried wheat yeast
Was originally going to be US Tettnang for bittering and Glacier on the finish, but I didn’t feel like opening more new packets. Smooth enough brewday yesterday, though hopefully my last clattering around with small pots on the stovetop. Couldn’t be bothered taking an OG after topping up the fermenter, less than 24 hours in it’s actively fermenting and reading around 1.035.
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November 12th, 2007
There’s nothing wrong with inventing styles, is there?
Aussie Rye Ale
OG 1.048
FG 1.010
24 IBU
23L
1kg TF rye malt
500g JW trad ale
200g JW caramalt
1.7kg LME
500g DME
15g Southern Cross bittering
20g Southern Cross @ flameout
Coopers ale yeast
I brewed this several weeks ago and am drinking it now. Still some lingering diacetyl in bottle, a consistent and frustrating problem whenever I use Coopers yeast.
Same as the last time I used rye malt (Cluster in the Rye), it’s a little worty, quite spicy, slick (maybe still partially due to the diacetyl, I think) and seems overbittered.
I’m going to brew this one again as an all-grain beer and dropping the crystal and the IBU’s to the high teens.
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