Beach Brew

I’m going to San Francisco and New York in February. While I’m in SF it is SF Beer Week. I didn’t even plan that.

I’m in Melbourne for the Australian National Homebrewers conference and the National Homebrewing competition . Just arrived. Managed to get a breakfast beer in at the airport and one on the plane. Just dropping my bags off at the hotel. Now it’s time to head out to BeerDeuxe which is a beer bar near my hotel. Reports are good on the place. My thoughts later. After that it’s off to the Royston Hotel and probably the Mountain Goat brewery.

More soon…….

The two IPA I brewed two weeks ago were racked into other fermenters yesterday. I don’t know if you really need “secondary fermentation” as such. However, I like to do some dry hopping on these beers, I think the risk of oxidation problems are pretty low and I like to get the beer off of the yeast so I do it. I have no hard evidence to base it on but the beers I have not given a secondary fermentation too have not seemed to turn out as well. That could be due to bias. Maybe one day I will test it but I am happy with my results for now.

I have also started drinking my steam beer. Unfortunately I have over carbonated it. I did intend for it to have fairly high carbonation but I have gone a little over board with it. I am going to chill the whole batch down, open and reseal all of the bottles to see if I can reduce the carbonation a little. This is the one time I would like to be keging. Normally it doesn’t appeal to me but having greater control over carbonation would be nice.

The IPA will get bottled next weekend then I am going to start my quest to make a great pilsener.

Visited the Lobethal Bierhouse on Sunday with a couple of other brewers. We got in there around one as it was starting to ramp up for lunch. They could use some more bar space in there as there is only really two table for people who have just come in for a drink. They could use more room all round as it seemed like it was full for most of the time that we were there. There are tables outside also which would have been fine on this particular day but won’t be much fun come winter.

We started out with their pils. This beer wasn’t available last time I was up there. It was a reasonably drinkable beer but nothing to write home about. No real defects but didn’t really leave much of an impression either. More styled towards a German Pils and probably something they can serve the swill drinkers who can’t handle the flavours of the other beers.

Next up was the IPA. An excellent beer. This was another that I did not have last time I was up there. Plenty of malt in it and a good level of bitterness and hop flavour. I had a lot of beers yesterday so I wouldn’t want to try and reach back in my memory to guess what hops are being used in this. They are good though.

We moved onto the porter next. I do like a good robust porter but this one wasn’t quite there for me. It was well made but it was more of a sweet brown porter which I think was their intention. Could almost push towards a Southern English Brown but the OG is probably a little high for that. Still if you like a nice sweet porter then this ould be right up your alley.

Next was the APA. Another cracker of a beer. I think the grist on this is very similar to the IPA. The colour of them is almost indistinguishable. So it shares a good malt backbone. I don’t think these guys are scared of throwing a bit of malt at their beers. Once again the bitterness level balances the malt. As to be expected from an APA there is a truck load of fruity American hops in there that finish it off very nicely. Much darker and fuller bodied than something like Little Creatures Pale Ale. That is the way I prefer an APA so that suits me. This and the IPA were easily the beers of the day for me.

They also have a Heffe Weizen. I had this last time I was there and was not a big fan. Nothing wrong with it it was just a typical German style wheat. I’m not a huge fan of the style but if you were it may be a great beer. I don’t really attempt to judge beers when I am out drinking. I just try to enjoy them.

We did eat there too. Food was good. I had the steak sandwich that included a good slab of meat with some nice garnishes. The other guys had fish and chips and reported all was well with those.

Do yourself a favour and get up there for a beer.

Made it down to the Steam Exchange yesterday. Worked our way through their full range of beers.

It was a nice quiet day with the odd other person coming in and out. We just parked ourselves at the bar and slowly worked our way through the range. I snapped a few photos but didn’t grab anything I was really happy with. The one in this article could be better with some touching up but I don’t go in for that much manipulation in my photos.

All the beer was good. My [artner was particularly taken with the “Truffles”. This is a porter that has had vanilla added and been fortified with Wild Turkey Bourbon. You can smell and taste those flavours as soon as you go near it. It is not really my thing as it is pretty sweet and I’m a bit of a simple ingredients kind of guy but it was interesting. The porter it’s self was a nice beer made just the way I like it, nice and dry with a little coffee and chocolate flavours.

The stout I found a little sweet for my tastes. By the end of an imperial pint it was a bit too much for me but it was a good beer and could see it as a popular one in the cooler months. The “Summerfest” was a good English biter with a really nice finishing hop character. You could certainly get through a few of those on a warm summer day. This is certainly a session beer. The IPA was still tasting as good as it did last time I was down there but it didn’t look that flash. I’m not sure if the naturally condition in the keg. If they do that would explain the cloudy beer that I got. If not they would seem to have a problem with this one. It still tasted good but it takes something away when the beer is cloudy. The signature beer, steam ale, was on song. Tasting really good and fresh off the tap. Almost tasted like they had upped the finishing hops on it which is a pleasant surprise. That said it is about a year since I had it so I wouldn’t trust my judgment on that.

All in all it was a good day and I didn’t have to drive home. Their beer is now available in Adelaide too. It is on tap at the Duke of Brunswick and in bottles at a pub on the Parade at Norwood. I can’t remember the name of the pub in Norwood but I’m sure it is on their we site if you want to check it out.

http://www.steamexchange.com.au

Well last weeks brews are going along nicely. The primary fermentation is all but complete. Some time over the weekend I will transfer them into other fermenters and add some hops for dry hopping. I will add some more goldings to the English IPA and a combination of Simcoe and Amarillo. I will give it fourteen days in secondary with the dry hops and maybe even cc for a couple of days to drop out some yeast. I don’t think this makes a huge difference to the finished beer but I wouldn’t mind having it clean up a little faster.

On a more interesting not I’m off to a couple of micro breweries in the next couple of days. I have been to both before but at least one of them has a new beer on and they both make good beer. I haven’t visited either for a while so it should be good. Will also give me a chance to get some good photos, which is my most recent hobby addition.

Fist up is a visit to the Steam Exchange on Friday. It has been about a year since I went down to the Steam Exchange. Unfortunately their beer is not available in the city so I haven’t had their beer for around a year. Last time I was down there it was tasting great. I have been trying to convince a local pub to put their beer on. Unfortunately they got some of the beer bottled when they first started up. At the time the bottled product wasn’t at it’s peak so they are not excited about giving it a go. I wish they would go down and visit the brewery so they could have it fresh off tap.

Then on Saturday I’m off to the Lobethal Brew House with some of the other local brewers. I visited this place about six months ago. The beer was pretty good without being exceptional. I have heard they improved a fair bit since ast time I was there so I look forward to having another taste. They have also added two new beers since last I visited. They have added a pilsener which I hope isn’t the typical attempt at a pilsener that isn’t bitter enough or hoppy enough but I’m not holding out a lot of hope. Mostly micro pils is disappointing in my experience. They have also added a IPA that is supposed to be pretty good. I’m just trying to find a way to get there that doesn’t involve me driving.