National Crate Day, Extract & Time

National Crate Day has come and gone. Some good company, some good beers and some not so good beers.

I managed to brew a Vienna/Centennial SMaSH albeit in between drinks, but it came out at 1.062, higher than the 1.057 I was aiming for - good efficiency again! I don't recall too much more than that for obvious reasons...

Onto the not so good beers....Its been a while since I've had a kit n kilo beer, but Brian brought around a couple of beers, a Pilsner, an IPA, Bock, Yorkshire Bitter and a bottle of Wheat Pilsner. I think the common feeling was kit and kilo beers should be drunk fresh. I don't remember much about the Pils apart from gushing bottles, the IPA had no hops in it at all, tasted more like how I remember Lion Red tasting, the Wheat Pils was ok being a partial mash, but just to much malt, not enough hop. A stray ESB made it which I'm trying now. Very much about the malt, similar to what I recall it tasting like fresh, but just no hops, no bitterness. I guess that's how we learn as brewers, our pallet gets used to what we've been brought up on. Second beer in is a Bock, its a little newer than the ESB, but still the same "extract twang". Fresher is better.

We had an impromptu tasting on the day, we had a Pilsner vs a Munich Lager vs the MPA. Two kit n kilo's vs a BIAB.To be honest, it probably wasn't going to be a fair fight, but we headed in full steam. The MPA came first, followed by the Munich then the Pils. One down for the MPA!!!

The star of the night for most of us that where left over was the Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter. Brian's done a brilliant job of this beer. The one we had was with Jim Beam Honey as the Bourbon part. Fantastic beer, albeit maybe a little young for such a big beer, but still, was a very good drop. The vanilla comes through, but I think it could use just a touch more, the mouth feel is like velvet, very very smooth beer. Be good to see how its tasting after some time in the cellar, if it can last that long.

Next up will be a BIPA for the brother in-laws birthday, then a double batch of MPA - gotta build up the stocks!

All Grain and an American

Well, All Grain brewing has been a success. It was supposed to be a combined brew day with bross002, but I wanted to get it ready for my birthday (7weeks). This will be brew number 1, the second I am yet to decide on, Irish Red or Cream Ale.


The recipe is a clone of Epic Pale Ale. The recipe itself is from the Can You Brew It section of Brewing Network. I was thinking of a No8 Wired iStout clone as well, but that was getting expensive!!

So into it. All Grain is a winner. I don't think I can go back to partial or extract and that's without tasting the beer. It's awesome.

Before I brewed I borrowed a gas burner. Turns out is was buggered, so it was back on the stove top. I was a little worried about boil over on the hot break, but it was all good.

A four hour brew day as well, not as long as I thought it would take, most of that was the 90min boil.

Golden Promise Pale Malt x1

Golden Promise Pale Malt, Carahell and Carapils

Caramalt

Mash in - target temp bang on!

NZ Cascade Hops 8.8% AA and Cali V Yeast

Mash out done

Pre boil volume = 27.5l nervous about a boil over!

Rolling boil

10min hop addition - lots of evaporation

OG should be 1.052. Bang on

OG sample - mind the protein/hops

It was easier than I thought. Note there are no photos of me trying to mash out and sparge. It's waaaaaaaaaay to hard doing that alone. I did buy a 10L pail but it wasn't big enough. I think I need to find some way of holding the bag while I sparge out. I'll get my kiwi brain going and see what I can come up with.

Lesson learned:

• I really need an immersion chiller. I've got a mate from work looking into it for me. Cooling boiling wort to pitching temps is taking me 12 - 24hrs. While some do that now, no chill method, I'm doing it in the fermenter, so there is a risk of infection with no CO2 layer. I did it once with the Highlander and it worked OK, just worried about infection.
• All Grain does seem to be better, however it is a little more expensive. There could be merit buying in bulk grains, but I just do not think I will be able to brew that mush beer. I currently buy base grains at ~$NZ5 per kg and specialty at ~$NZ6 per kg surely I can find somewhere cheaper, if you know of somewhere, leave a comment :-)
• Kegging is still needing to be done. This brew in particular requires some dry hopping at cold crash temps. Not 100% sure on how exactly that will work since the cold kills the yeast, meaning when I bottle, the yeast is dead, can't eat the sugar = no carbonation.

Watch this space for the next brew and some tasting notes on the Pale Ale. Recipe in the recipe DB. Full credit to Jamil from the Brewing Network.