split batch photos

Well I brewed today, a split batch, part super hoppy wheat beer with a gutload of hops (about 260g), part bret beer with grapes.

just a few hops, 100g NZ Cascade flowers, 100g Nelson Sauvin flowers, 80g Simcoe, 40g Warrior, oh and another 40g of Nelson Sauvin pellets. They all went into this batch, seems like a lot now as its not even an IPA?

I went to check some crops when I got the mash on.

Some wheat, part of which will end up in beer eventually

And to the boil.

The boil in action, note the near full kettle and some leaf hops

And now to the contraption that is the pump, chiller and hop back. I really need a bracket or something.

hoses, hoses, hoses. It works though

The wort for the hoppy part of the batch hitting its dry hops (cos more hops is never enough).

hoppy beer hitting more hops

Oh and I threw some grapes picked up from the South Melbourne Market into the brett portion of the beer (I squished them by hand and threw them into the wort with the yeasts).

grapes

And that’ll do for now, the beers are comfortably fermenting away now, fingers crossed in a few weeks I’ll have some interesting beer. Well the one with brett and grapes may take a little longer.

Cheers D

what to brew part 2. the decision

Thanks for the comments on my previous post “what to brew?”. While I havent taken any of the ideas on directly they did provide the inspiration for the beer(s) that I will be brewing tomorrow. That’s 1 mash, and 2 beers.

So the recipe for a 38l batch is;

5kg Best Pilsner malt

2kg Best Wheat malt

2kg raw wheat

o.4kg Simpsons Crystal

0.2kg Acidulated Malt

I’ll throw a bit of gypsum in the mash, and mash it at about 64deg C. I’m targeting a starting gravity of 1.051, I’ll probably only give it a 50 minute boil, depends on what time I get going.

Hops will be 40g of Warrior first wort, aiming for about 40IBU, with some late additions of cascade, nelson sauvin and simcoe (I havent worked them out yet).

Half of the wort will go through the hop back with more of the Nelson Sauvin, Cascade (its NZ Cascade) and Simcoe and be fermented out with more of the same as a dry hop (again amounts to be worked out). This will be fermented out with Wyeast 1056, the US ale or Chico.

The other half will get no hop back or dry hop and be fermented out with the Wyeast Trapist Blend, a Belgian yeast with some brett, and another bag of Wyeast Brett that has been sitting in my fridge for way to long. I think I’ll also grab some fruit like grapes and throw them in the fermenter too, will have to see what looks good in the fruit shop.

This will be only my second deliberate bret beer, the other is still ageing in a demijhon. I really must bottle that beer.

So there it is, a hoppy wheat pale ale, and a dirty perhaps fruit tinted belgo-ish ale. That takes into account at least a few of the comments.

And that my friends is what I’m going to brew tomorrow, thanks for the comments, they sparked my creativity.

Have a good weekend.

Cheers D

I feel dirty…..Perverse Sexual Amalgum

I feel dirty.

It smells like a tart black forest cake. A little dirty.

Its black.

It tastes all tart, sour, and moorish.

It’s in my glass.

Its MoonDog’s Perverse Sexual Amalgum. This is a dark beer, fermented with witt yeast, brett, pedio and lacto, then aged in an oak with cherry plums. I love cherry plums. The beer is fairly light in body, tart and super drinkable. The dark malts give it that nice chocolate roasty flavor, the cherry plums give it the fruit and the bugs give the tartness. Put a dash of cream on it and you have a black forest cake. Its awesome.

What do the brewers say about it?

“Funky, wild and tart.

Some things don’t seem right but you want them anyway. That quasi-erotic feeling you get when Charlton Heston makes out with Zira the chimp.

Sure, she reluctantly says “All right, but you’re so damned ugly….” But you know she’s into it. And as with all things a bit perverted, so are you.

This beer is released every now and then… And increased birth rates can be correlated to the releases. Coincidence? Probably.”

The label is also kind of awesome, bikini girl with a rooster head (a cock head perhaps?)

Yet again MoonDog this is a great beer. I think I need to get some oak barrels, if only the bastards werent so expensive. Ah well, if anyone knows where I can get some cheap (OK moderately priced) oak barrels let me know. Also if you want a desert like tart beer made right here in Melbourne, go track down some MoonDog Perverse Sexual Amalgam.

Cheers D

 

 

 

VicBrew 2012

Well the beer judging went well, met some good people, had some interesting beer, spent some time focusing on bee. All good.

While I judged some beer, I also had some of my own beers entered and this morning I got the email letting me know that 4 of my 6 beers had gotten 3rd place in their category and therefore are off to the Australian Amateur Homebrew Competition. The beers are a Belgian triple, an English barley wine, a peach saison and an American IPA- tex the third. I wasn’t expecting any places from this years entries so I’m pretty happy with the result. Perhaps brewing less is good for my brewing?

Now I just need to figure out how to arrange the logistics of moving my beer whet I’m on holidays. Just a small challenge, I think it’s sorted but I’ll owe a few people a beer or two to get it sorted.

Time for another celebratory beer.

Cheers D

Bottling fruit beer 3

Well its done. The “Undoubtedly peachy” my peach infused saison is now in the bottle. This will no doubt in either be:

1. one of the best beers I have ever made
2. the worst brewing experiment I’ve ever done, not even worthy of pouring down the drain, using to rinse oil stains off the garage floor or feed to drunken iron man challengers at “O” week.

So my full process for making a yet to be proven successful fruit beer are as follows;

1. make some wort
2. add some yeast
3. when the ferment is in full flight, at least 24 hrs in full kraused add the fruit of your choice. I added peaches at the rate of 1kg to 9litres. This was based on listening to the Brewing Network where a range of US and Belgian brewers seemed to average out at a pound per gallon, thats about a killo per 9 litres. The fruit I added was verry ripe, simply cut in half and I left the pits in. Any idea of sterilising the fruit with alcohol or sanitiser just sounds stupid to me and the belgians dont do it so why should I.
4. let the beer ferment out as normal.
5. taste the beer.
6. once you think its done rack the beer off the fruit and yeast.
7. let it sit for a few days to ensure that its fully fermented.
8. bottle or keg it as you normally would.

I dont know what happens next as I havent gotten there yet. The beer had an interesting white skim on it, only slight but perhaps it was the beginning of a pelicle? perhaps this sucker is going to go funky in the bottle? I dont know, only time will tell, still it taste’s nice and peachy right now.

So everyone please cros your fingers that I am not woken in the night by the sound of exploding bottles any time in the near future. That wouldnt be fun.

That will do for now.

Cheers D