Milestones - One year on

Well, its been a year since we fired up the blog. Its been a whirlwind adventure, from the start, using kits n kilo, partial mash and now BIAB. I've enjoyed the trip, I hope you have as well. Here's to many more beers!

Kit beer - gotta start somewhere

Some thanks to some people before I carry on rambling:

Steph - gotta thank the wife for putting up with the time I spend drinking and brewing. Thanks for coming on random trips to the bottlo, trying all the beers I buy, even though you might not like them, at least you found Rekorderlig!! 

Brian - shot for being the other half of ManawaBrew, albeit a silent partner at the moment, you're here/there but no posts....pretty sure you exist. Teri, cudos for letting Brian play beer with me.

In laws - thanks for the tasting, thanks for the opportunity to brew for you and allowing me to throw beers your way for critique. Gordon, if you read this, you're in here!

Shady - cheers for the use of your immersion chiller, cheers for organising me one, although I'm yet to pay, cheers for coming and being a part of brew day #1 and the rest!

The Online Brewing Community - check my links. If its there, its helped me get where I am. So much advice and such a friendly bunch. Huge shout out to RealBeerNZ for the huge amount of traffic the blog gets!

Any and all craft breweries and brewers in New Zealand - cheers! Putting the beer back into beer albeit in small 500ml increments, but it's happening and the big two are noticing!

APA show down!

Last, but not least, Luke Nicholas - I have never met you, probably never will, you and Epic Pale Ale are the reason I brew beer, not make beer, but brew beer. My first BIAB was an Epic Pale Ale Clone, the ManawaBrew Pale Ale uses the same base as the Epic Pale Ale, cause its that awesome, I just threw my type of hops at it. I remember my first trip to Beervana in 2011, I saw a beer called Hop Zombie. That was the first beer of my Beervana trip and I was hunting to find something as good the whole night. The last beer of the night, was Hop Zombie. Awesome beers, I've just about tried em all, but I keep going back to the Pale Ale.

The Cascade Orange Pale Ale has been bottled. It come out to 1018 FG, but it tastes a lot drier than that, might have been my off taste buds, but it gave a real dry mouth. Not a lot of orange comes through in the taste, but the aroma is very orange. Not much coriander in there, just a slight hit of spice on the end of the pallet. If it comes out OK, might look at a side by side of this one and the ManawaBrew Pale Ale to boost up summer stocks.

I plan to bottle the Rhubarb Saison tomorrow. It was at 1016 FG when I checked it and threw in the rhubarb. Last taste it was odd. Smelt like rhubarb, tasted like rhubarb with a faint hint of pepper and spice. I guess that's from the yeast, but I'm not to sure. It's only a little beer, 15 litres, so I plan to cellar, or bottle condition most of it until the winter. I think it'll be a really good winter beer, perhaps pair well with a crumble? Hope it works out, if its does, there's a seasonal brew!

The past and the future

As I sit here on a chilly Thursday Manawatu evening, its been a big week in ManawaBrew world.

I've looked into a domain name for the site - figured its easier to market than hey, check out blah.blogspot.co.nz, had a chat with a guy about a logo as well and I have had some chats with the lads about a place in town that could be interested in some home brew tastings. More on that when I actually pull finger and have that chat, watch this space though!

 

I also finished reading a book by Micheal Donaldson called Beer Nation: The Art and Heart of Kiwi Beer. Very hard book to put down, highly recommended to anyone in New Zealand, or overseas for that matter that wants to know the history of beer and brewing scene in New Zealand.

 

A couple of things I found really interesting, Speights as we know it, used to be dry hopped. Yes, dry hopped beer way back when Jesus was a Cowboy. Something I never knew. Could explain why the father in law never liked Tui! I guess I may have known that should I have done the tour all those years ago I was there, instead of the chocolate factory.

 

Another thing I found interesting is why, now, I understand why there is such flavour (sic) in "New Zealand Draught" beer (Tui, Export Gold, DB, Lion Red), a secret ingredient.....sugar. Plain old sugar. Now it might not come as a suprise to some, but it makes sense to me now why on the label for Macs Gold you see 'all malt lager'.

 

The 6'oclock swill gets a good mention and I agree with what Micheal is saying. I maybe a part of the generation of young (sic) males who are still entwined in the mindset of the 6 o'clock swill and I'll admit I probably have passed it onto young males coming through my local rugby club, but its New Zealand right? It's how we roll. Well, once you've read the book, you might understand why it is that way, can we change it though?

 

So, go buy the book, buy the beer that Epic also brewed for it, Message in a Bottle IPA and let us know your thoughts. Pretty sure we tried the beer at Beervana as well, although the Epic stand was towards the end of the night so can't quite recall...