Beach Brew

Just finished judging at ANHC/AABC. Going to head off on a micro brewery tour this afternoon. Not even sure where we are going. I will just follow along and drink the beer.

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…….

Not finding the tome to brew as much as I should. Have been busy with a few other things. I do have two brews lagering so it’s not all bad. I only like to do two at a time as that is all I have complete temperature control for.

I am currently drinking an experimental pale ale that has turned out very nice. Fairly plain malt bill, bittered with Magnum. I then added some NZ Saaz B at ten minutes and Hallertau at five and one. Has come out as a very nice and easy drinking beer. It is very approachable whilst still having some interesting flavour. The other beer I have on at the moment is my Foreign Extra stout. I make this beer every winter and it is one of my favorites. I use a significant amount of dark brown sugar in it which I think gives it a great flavor. The hops are not really detectable and are just there to provide bitterness and balance. If I have some of this beer left I may enter some competitions with it.

In progress I have two lagers at the moment. The first is a Schwarz beer. This recipe is very similar to the one that took gold at SABSOSA a couple of years ago. Had to make a change to the yeast though as Wyeast discontinued the North American lager yeast. I also made a Bohemian style Pilsener. Used German pils malt and a little German carrapils. Was bittered with Magnum and has lots of Czech Saaz in the finish. Both these beers have been made with Wyeast 2001, Urquell lager. Should produce a good result for both beers. Unfortunately I did not have time to do a decoction when making the pilsener.

Both of these beers are currently being lagered at 4C. This is as low as I can get with my setup. Though with the winter weather the way it is they may be getting cooler. I am planning to bottle both batches next weekend. Given the extended lagering they will probably need a reasonable amount of time to bottle condition so probably won’t get to drink for another four weeks. In time to be coming out of winter.

Next up is an American pale and something else I have not decided on yet.

Want to do a couple more brews in the next week or so. It’s time to do a couple of lagers again. I have only made a few good lagers so I’m going to go back to those recipes and work it form there.

The first will be a pils. I have been wanting to do a pils for a while but haven’t gotten around to it and haven’t had the beer stocks high enough to allow for lager brewing time. It will be a very simple recipe. Malt will just be German pils malt and possibly a little carrapils for some extra body. If I can do a single brew day I will do a double or triple decoction. If I don’t have the time for that it will have to be single infusion. I did a single infusion last time and it came out very well. Last time I made it with NZ SaazB hops so it wasn’t quite authentic. This time I may use the to bitter, but will probably use Magnum, and will use Czech Saaz for late additions.

The second beer will be a Schwarz. Will stick pretty close to the recipe I made in the past. A very simple recipe with pils malt and caraffa. I don’t remember which hops were used but it will be something neutral with possibly a little Hallertau as a late addition. No decoctions or similar for this. Just a very simple beer.

Now to find the time between everything else.

The public holiday has passed and a double brew day was done. Followed by a pleasant trip to the pub. I brewed the stout I had planned to and a pale/blonde ale. I took a lot of photos on the day too. I did this to try out and test my 50mm f1.8 lens.

The stout was essentially the same recipe as the previous attempt. Added a little more brown sugar this time as I really like the flavor it gives the beer. I will also use brown sugar to prime when I bottle. The only other real change was I replaced some black malt with some Caraffa Special 2. I didn’t realise I was out of black. I think it may be good for the recipe anyway.

The blonde ale was a bit of an experiment. The idea is a nice easy drinking summer beer. It was made with Wyeast London 3(1318). If the results are ok with this I will try it again with the Steam Beer yeast(2112). It is a base of trad ale malt and some carrapils. It was bittered with magnum, some NZ SaazB added at ten minutes and Hallertau at five and one. I like the idea of that flavor profile. Will see how it turns out. Could even make it a lager if it turns out the right way.

The American brown is tasting great. Just trying to give it a couple of extra weeks.

I have been keeping up the brewing but have also been doing a bunch of study and been getting into photography so haven’t found a lot of time to write about my brewing. The IPA’s I brewed a couple o months ago are tasting great. At first tasting they were both a bit ordinary but have hit their stride after a few weeks in the bottle. I have to try not to be so impatient with my beers. I’m finally getting some stock built up again so that shouldn’t be a huge problem.

Since the two IPA I have brewed another American IPA and a American brown/Porter. The brown is on the verge of being porter so I will call it whatever is most appropriate after tasting it. The IPA is very similar to the previous one I made. I’m enjoying hoppy bitter beers at the moment so I thought another was appropriate. I have also made these two with a fresh sample of Wyeast 1318. The last two were made with yeast that was a couple of generations old so it will be interesting to taste the difference. I bottled these beers on the weekend so will be able to taste them in a couple of weeks.

We have a public holiday coming up and I’m going to do a double brew day. So far I have decided on a stout. I’m no sure about the second beer but I’m considering a pseudo lager finished with a bunch of Halertau and or Saaz. Not certain at this stage though.