Hot, Quick and Thick

Pitched a sachet of S-33 into my CACA yesterday, it was fermenting but awfully slowly. Was at 1.021. Today was a 1.017 and has a healthier krausen again so I think it might turn out ok.

Racked my bitter to secondary yesterday, tonight it is starting to taste a little better.

Intended to bottle my lager yesterday (and today) but did not. Unfortunately, having taken it out of the fridge yesterday coupled with a very warm day today raised the temperature of the cube to 30°C+. Not the nicest thing to do to a beer, I think it will be ok but it’s gone a little hazy again.

Onk Valley Pils is chugging away merrily, I think it is below 1.020 at the moment and I have raised the ferment temp to 15°C or so. I am hoping I can give it a short lagering then have it ready by christmas, along with the bitter and the CACA. I am not ruling out getting my ass into gear for another ordinary bitter with the Landlord yeast in the coming week, too. That’d be a nice xmas quaffer and different to my usual short-notice beer style of hefeweizen.

One spanner in the works over the last week was the death of my laptop. I think the hard drive is intact, but for the moment I am without brewing software and recipe archice. I don’t particularly need the latter, and for the former I have been meaning to do a few brews with hand calculations anyway. Starting with a koelsch next week, I think. Nonetheless, donations to the “buy kai a macbook pro” fund will be gladly accepted.

After stalling at 1.020, pitching S-33 and subsequent revival of the fermentation, the bitter has stopped again at 1.016. If a couple days of rousing does not revive the ferment, I will bottle to PET with a bare-ass minimum of priming sugar, probably 3g/L. Impression of flavour currently says it is rounding out and is almost ready, but that odd smokiness is still present.

The classic American cream ale is slowly ticking over, only at 1.040 (OG 1.053), but tasting very promising. At this stage I can taste the US northern brewer, the corn and even the rice. Side by side with the bitter fermenter the colour difference is marked.

My extract lager is coming up promising, if hop driven. Will be a wonderful example of a premium australian lager.

Sampled a bottle of my american amber again earlier tonight, I like the flavours in it, but it’s a little too ‘busy’. Malt and hops are both big, and currently they’re not settled into a harmonious relationship. It made me desire a malty beer without the hops, so I opened a bock. And then another.

The bock is not yet fully carbonated, but any residual sugar is drowned behind the huge malt flavour, and currently I suspect also obscures any excessive bitterness. It is clear as a bell and very tasty despite being undercarbed and underconditioned.

I also sampled a Knappstein lager and think it is an excellent beer. The aroma was fairly subdued, with a little kiwi fruit, but the flavour was big with white grape and green banana from the Nelson Sauvin hops. Overall it has some very interesting notes that would quite readily attract any good home brewer, but retains the quaffability and approachability needed to entice the average punter.

008 took a few days to fire up, but was ready today and tasting ok so in it went. OG 1.052, 21 litres. 60% efficiency… abysmal. I expect a final gravity of around 1.010 and an ABV of 5.5%. I was going to dilute it down a little but decided I could not be bothered.

Sampling my amber ale right now, still too young of course but mighty promising. 5% caraaroma and 10% melanoidin has left it with a thick creamy head even with 500g sucrose added to the boil (5kg grain bill), and considering it’s less than a fortnight in the botle.

Tomorrow is Onk Valley Pils brew day, I was going to do a double batch but decided i have too much beer on hand as it is.