Public Service Announcement – bottles go bang!

It’s a hot evening so I’m lying on the couch watching some TV. Theres not much on, I’m watching monster trucks. Like I said its hot and its late.

Then fucking BANG! breaking glass. What the fuck was that?

And now to the Public Service announcement – Bottles Go Bang!

While there are many stories of home brew bottles exploding this is only the second time that I know of a bottle of my beer blowing up. I found the evidence of one about a year ago, no idea when it blew but this one I heard. It was actually quite confusing, a bang, breaking glass sound, if it wasnt for the shards of brown glass and smell of beer I wouldn’t have known.

The beer in question was a peach saison from Jan 2012, it was highly carbonated and probably had some wild yeast from the peaches working away, and it was just a regular beer bottle, probably needed something stronger for a beer like that. Strange that it spent 2 weeks in my car then chose to go bang when I brought it inside? no idea what tipped it over the edge but it went off like a rocket.

No stress though, plenty more beer can be made. I actually have a couple of saisons (a split batch actually) fermenting away right now. Really simple recipe, 98% pilsner malt, 2% palm sugar, mashed at about 63 deg C with a target OG of 1050 and about 30 IBU’s of styrian goldings. Half the batch got the French Saison yeast, the other half got the Belle Saison from Lallemand (a new yeast for me). Oh and I did intend to use the Belgian saison yeast, but it turns out that I pitched it by mistake into my “Something Sexy in French” saison that went sour and I dumped. No idea how the Belle Saison will turn out, it’s a dry yeast so interested to see how we go.

Anyway a little cleaning and its mostly sorted, but remember bottles go bang! So let the beer ferment right out. Dont use too much priming sugar. If you have any wild yeast in the beer use thicker bottles. And don’t leave peach saison in a 97 Magna wagon for 2 weeks then put it in your kitchen. Also wear safety glasses at all time.

Might need a little more cleaning tomorrow though.

Cheers D

Bottling Fruit Beer????

A few weeks ago I brewed a saison and chucked in a bunch of peaches. This beer is now nearing being ready for bottling, or at least I think it is. The unpeached version of the beer is good to bottle now, this I know how to handle. However I’m not really certain about what the addition of peaches does to my process of packaging the beer, the following questions are kicking around my head right now:

1. Does it need more time? if so how much longer?
2. Should I rack the beer into a secondary fermenter to let it settle away from the peaches and yeast for a while before I package it?
3. Should I bottle condition it and if I do will all the bottles explode?
4. Should I just keg it?
5. What do I do?

If you can answer any of the above please let me know by leaving a comment. I need to figure this one out soon. At my last tasting of the beer it seemed to be tasting ok, not like drinking peach juice, just a nice subtle peachy background.

Actually while I’m back on this fruit beer the ratio of peaches to beer was about 1 kg of yellow peaches to 9 litres of beer (starting gravity was about 1.050) just in case anyone is interested. I don’t know how much extra sugar the peaches would have contributed, they tasted sweet, I’m guessing a bit but they were only cut in half, not all juiced up.

Cheers D

Danger – Biero has Brew Dog Tokyo on tap tonight!

Brew Dog Tokyo is an awesome beer. Biero $5 pint night is an awesome drinking experience. The two of them together is scary.

Why you ask – this is what Brew Dog say about Tokyo, an 18.2% ABV stout.
The irony of existentialism, the parody of being and the inherent contradictions of post-modernism, all so delicately conveyed by the blocky, pixelated arcade action have all been painstakingly recreated in this bottles contents.


This imperial stout is brewed with copious amounts of speciality malts, jasmine and cranberries. After fermentation we then dry-hop this killer stout with a bucketload of our favourite hops before carefully ageing the beer on French toasted oak chips.


It is all about moderation. Everything in moderation, including moderation itself. What logically follows is that you must, from time, have excess. This beer is for those times.

I love this beer, it is a triumph of modern brewing. And it does not taste like an 18.2% beer but it will kick peoples arse well and truly. I don’t know what they will charge, surely not $5 a pint. When it landed at Slowbeer a week or so ago the guy there didn’t know what to do with it. I wanted it on growlers but they would have been in the range of $90 ish a fill. Worth it I’d say but it would be a business risk so fair call to him.

Tokyo is an intensely complex beer that everyone who loves a stout should try but treat it more like a fortified or a spirit. This is a beer that is well suited to a winters evening by the fire after a big day drinking red wine. It will cut right through any big rich flavours that are hanging around in your mouth and set up camp in your taste buds. It will also, if over consumed result in you eating a burger shirtless like the Hoff. Bad Bad.

I always like to have a bottle in the fridge, but as I don’t I will have one at Biero tonight.

Cheers D