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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.