Zen and free beer

Despite the heat my levels of Zen are sitting at a higher than normal level this week.

My weekend brewing session went well (yes I remembered the yeast and hops) seeing me punch out two batches in 6 hours. Thats pretty damn good and I managed to keep my efficiency up. And thanks to a phone conversation with Hendo distracting me from where I was up to I ended up with more beer than I was shooting for but it still made the gravity targets ( I transfer wort in a bucket 5 litres at a time, I lost count). Sometimes it pays not to have things go to plan.

Brewing these two pretty simple beers, a porter and a my old pale ale also reminded me of how good some simple things. Firstly my pale ale uses Chinook hops, a hop I havent used much for a while. It might just be this particular batch but damn they smelled great, just an awesome punchy smell. Loved it. And the smell of a porter mash, all coffee and roast and blackness, fantastic!

Might have been my mood or what I had for lunch or just the high levels of zen I was experiencing but these two smells just relly made me smile. Must make more porters and use more chinook. Perhaps chinook mash hopped in a porter?

The zen continued past the brewing. I got some free beer from twitter. Thanks to the guys at Renegade Brews I got a free glass of Bayrischer Bahnhof Berliner Weisse at Slow Beer. This was a great beer, really complex, sharp and tart with a great nose (even though my first thought was a feet like smell, piedo I think?). It also gave me a chance to have a chat to one of the guys from Renegade (whose name now escapes me, that’s a tad embarrassing). Anyway good beer, good conversation. Cant go wrong with that, and I’m looking forward to some more interesting imports from these guys, based on the Berliner Weisse I expect good things.

Add to that my humble little attempt to get some beer made commercially sneaking along a bit more and I’m off fishing on the bay tonight, all in all it was a very zen week. Even if I don’t catch a massive snapper this evening I think its going to round off as a good week.

Have a Zen weekend everybody.

Cheers D

 

Tripple Hightail

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. In my last post I had a good whinge about my epic brewday fail. It is true it was a massive failure that meant I got no Zen. However I have some lightbulbs on the drive. Ideas for new tweaks on saisons, beers that I’ll brew in the coming months, and a bit about getting some beer made that I can actually sell. I’ve had some awesome conversations about this recently, everything from finding people who will actually talk to me about doing beer on a contract basis, people I think can make good beer, and do it in volumes I can handle and where I can play in the brew house. Also my folks are OK with the idea of me pinching part of the farm workshop with a small brew house (a nano brewery).

It’s still all just talk, but its good talk. Now I need to look more into the boring paperwork side of things. This is probably something that the guys at Mountain Goat did 15 years ago. Those lucky (read hard-working) bastards have made it to 15 years in the brewing industry. They are the Sierra Nevada of the Australian brewing industry. I don’t love all their beers, don’t get me started on the Steam Ale, but a their stout and a bunch of their one offs are great, as is the original Hightail Ale. These guys are the You Am I of the Australian beer scene, without them we wouldn’t have breweries like Moondog, Feral or even Little Creatures.

Trailblazers and trendsetters.

Anyway to their beer that I’m drinking while I’m contemplating the mountain of paper work that lies in front of me – Mountain Goat Triple Hightail. It’s a bigger version of its little bro, it has the same chewy flavor but its kind of sweeter. That might be due to the bumped up booze content. The beer has a definite belgo feel to it, again I think it’s the chewy boozy thing. I like it. After drinking Hightail for a few years this is a nice change, a boozy less hoppy version. Actually I can’t work out how many years I’ve been drinking Hightail for, probably 10 at least? its just one of those always there beers.

Anyway cheers for 15 years of beers MG! good luck for the next 15. For now I’ll be happy if I can get something to a 1st birthday, and thanks to my dud brew day I maybe have an idea of an 1st b’day beer 🙂

Cheers D

 

Sour experiments and the Wig and Pen

Firstly let me start with “ALL HAIL KING RICHARD!”, I’ll get to that in a bit. Na bugger it, I’ll cut to the chase.

Following a work trip to Canberra and a visit (OK 2) to the Wig and Pen pub I am inspired to do more in the way of brewing sour beers. Richard Watkins is making what I think are Australia’s best sour beers in a very unassuming pub, that from the outside has almost a shopping centre feel to it. The beers though. WOW.

I tried a few of the beers, a pale ale (hoppy and malty, well worth trying), a steam beer (I liked it but don’t really know the style), something through a randall (??) and an english IPA on hand pump (probably the best beer I’ve had on hand pump ever), and a stout that was roasty, chocolatey, coffee, smooth goodness (it was stout day after all). And then I tried the sours.

Thanks to the world of twitter I was able (with the assistance of some mates – Dan thanks) to actually ask the brewer (whom I have never met in real life) what should I drink. The message was Sour Blonde then Armpit then LPG! Enjoy.

Sour Blonde – an under 5% ABV bright blonde beer with a complex yet under powering sourness that make this the ultimate gateway beer for getting people onto sour beers. BUT this is still a beer that you could happily drink all day and still keep finding new things in. Awesome beer, if this was my local, this would be my 1st pint every time.

Bobs Armpit – this was a bigger and more complex beer (7% I think?) great drop, became more excellent with each sip as it warmed.

LPG – I think this was kind of Belgian golden strong with bugs (again 7%? or I could be mixing it up with the Bobs armpit) what I do remember about this beer was the aroma, it smelled fantastic. People who tell you sour beers smell like horse blankets, well perhaps they havent tried this beer. It was amazing.  The other amazing bit was that thanks to the power of twitter and the generosity of the brewer who was in Perth at the time I had it shouted for me. Cheers for the beer Richard, most generous.

The beers were big, and took their toll on me a little, I should have taken notes, but that would have been a mood killer. Great beers and I’ll be back, perhaps for a cellar tour if the hosts generosity permits. I want to see these barrels!

Also its worth noting that the staff at the Wig and Pen were excellent, the barman I got talking to (Ian I think) was great, new his beer, had time to talk to the punters and was a great ambassador for the beers. So when in Canberra I now drink at the Wig and Pen, do yourselves a favor and do the same.

Drinking Richards sour beers has reignited my desire to make some of these beers myself. Well more to master them. In the past 10 months or so I’ve had a tiny crack at making some sour beers. Sour beers seems to be the general designation that has been given to any beer that isn’t 100% clean. However the term sour seems to cover a whole world of flavor. Think sour and you go straight to a vinegar (yep even they have a massive range of flavors) or lemon. It’s not that simple.

In beer depending on what you start off with, what bugs (this is my generic term for non traditional brewing yeast) and where and how you age it.

My experiments to date are;

1. Buggy Harvest Ale

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
2.25 kg	Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (3.9 EBC)	Grain	43.52 %
1.25 kg	Pale Malt (2 Row) US (3.9 EBC)	Grain	24.18 %
0.50 kg	Barley, Raw (3.9 EBC)	Grain	9.67 %
0.50 kg	Wheat, Torrified (3.3 EBC)	Grain	9.67 %
0.50 kg	White Wheat Malt (4.7 EBC)	Grain	9.67 %
0.15 kg	Caramel/Crystal Malt – 80L (157.6 EBC)	Grain	2.90 %
0.02 kg	Black (Patent) Malt (985.0 EBC)	Grain	0.39 %
25.00 gm	Crystal [4.30 %] (60 min)	Hops	14.6 IBU
25.00 gm	Crystal [4.30 %] (30 min)	Hops	7.4 IBU
20.00 gm	Crystal [4.30 %] (1 min)	Hops	1.9 IBU
1 Pkgs	Wyeast 3789-PC Trapppist Blend	Yeast-Wheat

I made this beer back just after Christmas 2011 and its been ageing in a demijohns ever since, when I tasted it months ago it had a hint of Orval about it. The OG was 1.045. The inspiration for this beer was a Brewing Network CYBI show on a Jolly Pumpkin beer. To be honest I havent really done much with this beer and it’s probably oxidised. I really need to taste it and get it in a bottle, but dealing with these dirty beers is just a little intimidating. The word “unclean!” springs to mind.

2. Buggy wheat with grapes

5.00 kg	Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (3.9 EBC)	Grain	50.51 %
2.00 kg	Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC)	Grain	20.20 %
2.00 kg	Wheat, Torrified (3.3 EBC)	Grain	20.20 %
0.40 kg	Caramel/Crystal Malt – 30L (59.1 EBC)	Grain	4.04 %
0.20 kg	Acid Malt (5.9 EBC)	Grain	2.02 %
40.00 gm	Warrior [15.00 %] (50 min) (First Wort Hop)	Hops	48.6 IBU
10.00 gm	Nelson Savin [11.30 %] (50 min) (First Wort Hop)	Hops	9.2 IBU
20.00 gm	Cascade [7.30 %] (10 min)	Hops	2.3 IBU
30.00 gm	Nelson Savin [11.30 %] (10 min)	Hops	5.3 IBU

Wyeast 3789-PC Trapppist Blend

wyeast brettanomyces claussenii

1.5 kg of unwashed red grapes hand squashed into the fermenter

This beer was the result of wanting to make 2 beers at once, a hoppy seasonable IPA type wheat beer, and something more buggy and experimental. The OG was 1.050. I split the batch as outlined above with about 12l of the 37l total going to the sour fermenter, and the rest getting a shitload more hops thrown at it in the hopback and dryhop, it also got the rather tame 1056 yeast (more on this beer when I taste it).

Here are some photos from the brew day

So what has happened with the buggy grape? its tasting sour, has a nice purple hue from the grapes and is mostly sitting in a demijohns getting a little more time before bottling(its full so there shouldnt be an oxidation issue). Not really sure what I’ll do with it at bottling? should I carbonate it, or leave it flat? don’t know. As an experiment I have got 3 PET bottles, 2 primed with sugar, one left alone. I don’t want bottle bombs and I’m a little hesitant about the bret causing me issues down the track. Will see how it goes.

So whats next? planning on getting some barrels. Dan the brewer, this plan it very loose so far. I might also just leave a batch out coolship style at the farm. Not sure what that will bring. And there will be a gosse.

Plenty to do and brew.

Thanks again Richard, you’ve reignited the sour bug started by Cantillon and Orval.

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

American Bison IPA…..another belated IPAday post

I know, again this is a late post that harks back to IPAday, but it was a beer that was given to me on IPAday and its a IPA so damn it I’m going to write about it. It’s an American IPA of sorts by Rick Besserdin, as previously mentioned he made an online offer to give away beer then had to follow through and drag a suitcase of beer around town. I think I got the last one. I think I am a deserving recipient though as the beer was bottled on my birthday, June 25.

So to the beer, American Bison IPA a 7.6%ABV beer with a calculated IBU of 65 (no idea how he calculated that one, hope he has beer smith or something, bugger doing maths) hopped with Cascade and Simcoe hope (the simcoe were in the dry hop I believe). It’s a pretty good beer, and as an IPA should be its dominated by the hops, especially the simcoe I think, its pineapple and citrus. Hangs around in the mouth with a nice lingering resiony hit. It’s a bit lacking in the malt bill, not at all a full beer, more the style of my preference rather than those gut busting under fermented beers. I’m quite curious as to the recipe of this beer (Rick if you read this shoot me the recipe).

The bits of this beer that I can be a little critical off is the lack of a good hop aroma, something I struggle to get in my IPA’s. It’s the bit that eludes me, I think a hop back is the answer, in combination with dry hopping of course but I really struggle to get right consistently. It’s also a little light on the up front bitterness, I think more would not only make the beer bigger but also balance it out a bit. It’s a totally drinkable beer though, as I’m on my second pint of it, that’s a good enough sign for me, it also went well with steak and mash (not sure if thats an A1 IPA food and beer matching)

Also big thumbs up to Rick for sharing his beer, not an easy thing to do, but by far the best thing to do to make yourself a better brewer. Well OK there are some other things you can do like making yeast starters, going all grain and controlling your fermenting temperatures. But sharing your beer and getting feedback is totally a good thing on the path to better beer.

So when I next have an IPA that’s worth sharing Rick gets a bottle, the rest of you I don’t think so, be buggered if I’m carting a suitcase of beer around town.

Cheers D

Seven Sheds Leggett IPA

Friday evening, footy on the telly, pizza dough rising, and a beer in my hand. What is that beer, well the last one was a Pacific Ale, but the next one is infinitely more interesting.

I’ve had the week off, wasnt in massive need of a break but it seemed like a good idea. After a bit of deliberating on a location we ended up back where we started, Cradle Mountain in Tasmania. The diversion of thoughts occurred when I decided I needed to learn to fly fish. Seems it’s not really the season for fly fishing right now (and I hadn’t done the slightest bit of preparation) and Cradle Mountain sounded like a must see place to go. Havent heard anyone talk it down, and I wont be starting (with the exception of the beer list at the Cradle Mountain Lodge, yes I know its Tasmania but do we really need 4 versions of Boags?).

So after dealing with the huge line at Jetstar, and the much shorter flight to Launceston we were in the bright green rental car, a Kermit green Nisan Micra. Needing breakfast we stopped at a cafe that had sentimental value to Jacqui. There I read a bit of a local paper, something I never do. And that’s when I figured out I could fit in a brewery stop. It seems Willie Simpsons Seven Sheds Brewery, Meadery and hop garden at Railton, about half way between Launceston and Cradle Mountain. What a well thought out location, good thinking Willie.

Time wasnt of the essence so a stop wasnt a problem, and being a quiet little town we had the tasting room all to our selves. Just me, Jacqui and Willie (I think his wife was in the back room). So to the beers, all ales, done in open top fermenters that were dairy vats in a previous life, actually I think all the brewing vessels are. The brewery is a shed, however there appears to be only one of them. I was somewhat disappointed by this, for some reason I expected there to be seven of them. unfortunately I can’t add any other logic to the name than perhaps this is the 7th shed he has brewed in?

OK back to the beers, we tried them all (except the barrel aged ones) and liked them all, perhaps with the exception of the raspberry beer. It could have done with some time in a barrel and some souring bugs. I particularly liked his Kentish Ale, seems to be the flagship, kind of an english ale fairly easy drinking but with enough going on to let you know its a well made beer (I have one in the fridge) and the Paradise Ale, more of a hoppy golden ale, nice hop flavor on this one. But the one that really caught my eye was the Leggett IPA, a beer from the Brewers Reserve Range and possibly the only beer in Australia made with the Leggett hop. Apparently Leggett was named after a hop breeder, bred for Tasmanian Conditions, and only grown in any quantity (read small) in Willies hop garden. Dont know much about this hop, other than it being supposedly a high alpha acid variety, and the internet isn’t giving me much joy either. Lets just say its a hop. Oh and it seems that all of the harvest went into this batch of beer.

Enough said what about the beer? I think I can paraphrase Willie and say it’s not a US hop bomb. The roots of this beer are definitely in the traditional UK IPA spectrum. It has a nice bitterness, not too much and a little bit piney or fruity going on in it. All round its a great beer that goes down well after a day of foot slogging it around the face track and hansons track on Cradle Mountain. If you are expecting some kind of hop freak beer this may not be what you are expecting in an IPA, but still try it, a ballanced IPA is a great thing.

So does rarity make a beer a great beer? hell no, but its a nice little side line. What I really like is seeing someone growing something that was bred for the region and using it right there on the spot. Cant get any more local than that. Take that food miles people! Willies hop garden also gave me a little hope that I may get a decent hop harvest this year coming from my lone hop bine. Oh and the hand written labels are a nice touch.

So get some Leggett IPA if you can, although that may be tough unless you are on the road from Launceston to Cradle Mountain. However even if you can’t get this beer, drop in and say g’day, Willie was a most welcoming host, the beers are good, and who doesnt want to see a home brewer going pro and try their beers? Oh and grab some of his beer if you are staying at the Cradle Mountain Lodge and want to drink something other than Boags.

Cheers D

Where to start?

I’ve been slack on posting but busy on everything else. This has involved many dull non interesting things. Doing budgets at work. Travelling to Canberra for work, and no not going to the Wig and Pen as suggested by everyone, just one solitary Coopers Pale at the Rydges Capitol Hill, a hotel with a small jungle in its centre. Shopping for stuff. Going to my nieces 3rd birthday, actually that was cool, kids and sugar. Generally doing stuff.

There was also some pretty cool stuff that involved drinking plenty of good beers. The list goes something like this;

Monday – beers with a colleague from Canberra at the Belgian Beer Cafe under the Eureaka Tower. A surprisingly good list on the taps, can’t really remember them all. I do recall Holgate Temptress and the smoked beer from 3 Ravens. There was also some good imported IPA and an Imperial Stout that wasnt at all appropriate for a Monday, I behaved it went untasted.

Thursday – Southern Bay Brewing beer launch at Dejavu, the bar formerly known as Biero. 3 new (well 2 new one newish) beers from Southern Bay Brewing, thanks to Hendo and his crew, a larger, a pale ale and a porter. The larger and the porter were ok, nothing to write home about, but still worth grabbing. I think there will be more tweaking to come on these beers, the porter was my favorite, kind of a session porter.

Friday – beers at The Turf Bar, Carlton draught while watching some footy and some competitive eating. 7 and a half parmas, don’t know how they did it.

Saturday – Louise’s 3rd birthday. Louise is my niece, there was cake, sausage rolls and a few bees knees floating around. It was most amusing when the kids found the hills hoist was also a climbing frame/ride. Oh to be 70kg lighter. Then to Huxtable for dinner, Alpha Queen Pale Ale. Good food, good friends, good beer.

Sunday – The Local Taphouse in StKilda. It was almost my birthday so we had a few beers. They had a bunch of the GABS leftovers on tap, interesting for me, may have left a few of my friends confused. Double Day of the Dead is still tasting good.

Monday – my actual birthday Jacqui took me to Golden Fields. Great food, mostly sandwich and mannish orientated with a few Kooindas.

That’ll do for now. Was a good run, couldnt live like that every week, but happy to have a crack at it once in a while. And that’s a post, was beginning to feel a little guilty for not having posted for a while. Better now.

Cheers D

Evil Twin, a beer by Jamil

About 5 years ago I started brewing. Around the same time I started listening to the Jamil Show on the Brewing Network. This was two guys John and Jamil going through every beer style in-depth and giving a recipe. Back then I was all about getting the recipe, thinking that was the secret to brewing good beers (all the recipes were aware winning ones) but through listening to two blokes on the other side of the world, sometimes drinking coffee, sometimes half cut I learned that the recipe was far from the most important bit. Temp control, water chemistry, yeast health, and don’t worry about all the bullshit that doesnt really matter. These guys really helped my brewing, I think Jamil was the main brewing influence here.

I still listen to the Jamil Show, but now it focuses on recreating beers from commercial breweries, with a blind taste test to verify the recipe. I’ve also met Jamil a couple of times, and had him taste one of my beers. This resulted in him having a story about how using the right malts is important (I was using Australian malts to substitute US and UK malts, worlds apart) and I got my stout recipe sorted out (got a medal in a home-brew comp with it). He’s a good guy and he has helped my beers out immensely.

Anyway he has now done what all homebrewers at one stage or another hope to do, he’s opened his own brewery. Well not exactly, he’s brewing in some sort of venue share arrangement, but he’s making his own beer – Heretic.  I’m happy that he’s living the dream, but I’m also a bit jealous. So when I heard they had some of his beers at Grain and Grape it was a no brainer that I wanted to try them. So far I’ve only heard good things about them, mainly from the guys on the Brewing Network. They are his mates but they wouldn’t blow wind up his arse, if they didn’t like them they wouldn’t talk them up.

I’ve just cracked open a bottle of Heretic Evil Twin, “A Bold West Coast Red Ale”. So what do I think? Its dark, darker than what I’d expect from a red ale, it almost looks like a brown ale. On the nose I get a bit of malt and a bit of a citrusy hop aroma, definitely an American beer. The taste, well its hoppy, but not crazy bitter, more of a tasty mouth coating hoppy but without that puckering bitterness that can come from some mega hoppy beers. I think I like this beer. No I know I do. It’s great to have a beer that’s traveled from the other side of the world arriving so fresh.  Its a really vibrantly flavored beer, and I really like the hops in it, I’m guessing its a mix if the C hops (cascade, centennial, chinook….) not really sure but I like it.

I also like the lableing. Cool evil head. Looks like some kind of computer game devil head. And look at all the crap in the background? what am I doing, yes thats an Easter Egg with no ears and a Humpty Dumpty egg still unopened.

If you go to the Heretic website it says “This blood-red ale may not be what you might expect from a malty and hoppy craft beer. Evil Twin has a rich malt character, without being overly sweet. It has a huge hop character, without being overly bitter. It is a great example of a bold, rich, balanced craft beer, without being heavy and hard to drink in quantity. Our Evil Twin is only bad because it is too good to resist“. I tend to agree.

Grab yourself one of these if you get the chance, I’m not sure what I’d pair this beer with. Its pretty bold and dominating so I guess it’d need something that hits the same spot. I think the name red ale is a little off for this beer, it kind of understates it. Its more of a red IPA, a bit like the 8 Wired Tall Poppy. Bloody good beer though, well done Jamil. Thanks for the beer, and all the help with my beers, from my first all grain recipe to me figuring out how to manage yeast properly. Keep cranking out beers like this and I’ll keep figuring out how to find them in Australia.

There is a large part of me loving this beer just because its a home brewer gone pro. Thats what I want to do. Time for me to get serious about that dream again. I need to sell some beer.

Cheers D

 

Search for the perfect Saison number 3.

Ah here we are again on a Sunday night, watching Homeland (excellent show), eating a bacon and egg sandwich (excellent sandwich even if I do say myself) and having a beer (saison no. 2, the one with all the Stella, its settled a little but still isnt great). This is all fairly normal. BUT TOMORROW IS A PUBLIC HOLIDAY. Thats a pretty good thing, a day off amid all the crazy bump and grind of work. Excellent, so I’m brewing. This will be Saison no. 4 of the season.

I’ve just bottled no. 3, the Sushi Tribute beer, it’s a little more caramelish and maltyish (I doubt either of those are real words) than I expected (that might be the rye or the fresh vienna malt?), and has less yeast influence but after a little time in the bottle I think this will be a fairly decent beer. A little darker than style but should be ok. The recipe for this beer is a post or two back (the one with 3 saison recipes on it) and although I think it is fitting that Sushi gets a good beer in his honor I have hope that tomorrows beer will be a little closer to where I am heading. The Sushi beer was fairly complicated, lots of malts. Perhaps that’s not what a saison is about and I’m fairly sure that palm sugar wasnt an on the shelf ingredient for french/Belgian farmers.

The recipe is incredibly simple. 100% european pilsner malt, mashed at about 64deg c with a little gypsum, hopped to about 30 IBU’s with some Styrian Goldings, and a bunch more thrown in at flame out. Add in the Wyeast Belgian Saison yeast and a hot few days coming and we are set.

However (there always needs to be a however doesnt there?) I’m taking the simplicity and fucking with it. I’m making a bigger batch than normal and 10 or so litres will be fermented out with some peaches. I’ve got about 1kg of yellow peaches from the South Melbourne Market today, I’ll let the beer get about 3 days into the ferment and throw them in, pits and all. No idea how this will go, but it works in my mind that a farmer with too much ripe fruit, in the peak of harvest, would have fermented some out in a beer.

I went to a show or presentation by Anthony Bourdain, one of my favorite authors and TV guys. He’s kind of cranky, hates vegetarians, loves good simple food prepared with care, and seems to be a generally happy guy despite it all. He spoke of his travels and sitting down with people in little back waters, always happy to share what they have with him, that simple good thing. This often involves him, as he put drinking cloudy fermented liquid from a Pepsi bottle that was fermented by Grandpa in a 44 gallon drum.

I’m thinking that Saisons are the cloudy shit in a Pepsi bottle of the beer world, made from what simple farming people have at hand. Perhaps the peach saison will get close to this. I might put some in a Pepsi bottle for Anthony Bourdain.

So fingers crossed this beer will be a step closer to what I see as my perfect saison recipe. After adding all but the kitchen sink, perhaps a simple no fucking around recipe could be the go. Time will tell.

Cheers D

Ducks and Echidnas

Work took me to Camperdown and the surrounding district this week. Things are looking green and the cows all seemed to be generally happy. The sun was shining on Monday, although today things got a touch colder. I think there was even a bit of a frost this morning, although I wasnt up early enough to get the full experience of it.

Anyway when work takes you places you’d rather not be you need to mix in a thing or two that brightens the trip. Mix business with pleasure. Along with 4 day weeks and never going back to work after a holiday on a Monday this should be included in the welcome to the working world speech given to people at the end of uni, well perhaps not to Arts students, they probably wont get real jobs where these rules are needed.

So how did I mix business and pleasure today? and what does it have to do with ducks and echidnas?

The duck is easy. I was in Camperdown so I went to the Red Duck Providore and picked up a bunch of their limited release beers, I think I have an imperial stout, a porter with honey, a gruit beer, a Belgian porter with vanilla, and a wit with jam. I think that’s it? I’ll be trying these over the next week or two. Anyway I thought I’d get some of their beers as I was near the source but it turns out they have just moved the brewery from Camperdown (where the shop is) to Ballarat. Not sure what impact this will have on the beers, may be a bit hard to tell as I don’t think I’ve had any of these beers before. Havent been massively in love with any of their beers in the past but I’m looking forward to these ones.

The echidna? Prickly Moses. I dropped in to say g’day to Hendo who was tinkering with a couple of soon to be released beers a new (very bright and hoppy) batch of Raconteur, and a yet to be released brown ale. Looking forward to seeing both of them on tap. We talked beer but it was knock of time and we both had a few km’s to cover so I kicked on.

 Well that’s about it for tonight, I probably should be putting some beer for VicBrew in bottles but I can’t be arsed. The Oaked Stout is all good, the Choc Porter is still carbonating, Cosmic Tex is ready for the second batch of dry hopps, but James the IPA is not looking so good. just had a taste and I’m thinking there may be something wrong with it, perhaps a yeast other than the one I intended? not sure whats going on there. It tasted pretty good before I added some dry hopps? will check again tomorrow.

Right now I’m drinking a 12 month old Belgian Tripple that is a touch more carbonated than would be desired. Nice beer but a pain in the arse to pour.

I think I’m done now.

 

Cheers D