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!

Christmas is coming...

Sorry for the bad news, but Christmas is coming....

As you can see, I grabbed a couple of brews and gave them a whirl. Yakima Monster a Pale Ale from Liberty Brewing and Black RIPA a Black Imperial Ale, part of the Enlightenment series from Renaissance. Both brilliant beers. The Yakima Monster is a beast of a beer, using hops from the Yakima Valley in the States. Hops hops and more hops. Beautifully balanced with the malt back bone - if you like hops, go hit it. The RIPA was for me the best out of the two. Its black, looks thick, yet there are none of the roast, chocolate or coffee notes you'd expect from a Stout/Porter you'd expect - why? Because it's an "Indian Pale Ale" but it's black. Insert mind over mater here. Beautiful beer, for me more caramel notes did it for me. Both good beers though, get down to your local and have a browse for them!

I've been asked to brew some beers for the family for Christmas. My initial thought was yep, APA, Red Ale and maybe something darker for night time or should the weather pack in.

I've since out some thought into it and I think an APA, since they're refreshing and an Imperial Stout, should the weather pack in or for a night time tipple. Craft wise, think an Epic Pale Ale and an 8 Wired iStout. Both beers I personally rate, but I guess at the end of the day its not about me (yeah right). APA is staying, that's a definite, but the other one (or two) I'm not to sure about. The Imperial Stout is a BIG beer, coming in at about 9% all going well and I'm not 100% sure that it'll be in its prime come Christmas, might not even be fully primed knowing my luck!

Brian then said something about a proper Christmas beer. So I've been jumping about on HBT trying to find a recipe and to be fair, since the forums are based in the good ole US of A most of them are based on stouts, porters and brown ales, which are 'winter' style beers. I guess I was/am looking at a 'winter' style beer as well with the Imperial Stout. There are some spiced beers I could look into, but they don't sound right to me. The closest I came to spice was coriander in the Chubby Highlander.

 

Then there is cider, a good summer tipple if you find the right flavours. I love Bulmers (albeit made in NZ) thanks to an unsuspecting bottle left in the fridge at a party. So I could brew an Irish Cider from a kit and see how we go with that.

I could also look at a cider that's even more refreshing than Bulmers, like a Rekorderlig anything really. The wife is a big fan of their cider so I guess any flavour pairing would work. Cinnamon and apple is always a good combo, making an apple crumble flavour, is that summer though? For me Rekorderlig is far to sweet for me, so I'm not the one drinking it.

So some decisions to make, what's your favourite tipple in summer apart from wine and top shelf?

Got any tips on making cider?

Made a kit cider, how'd it go for you?

 

Beervana

Two days later and I've finally got around to writing something about Beervana. We took the day off work and headed to the Friday night session. 

On our way down we stopped in at the Thorndon New World and mecca for the craft beer scene, the mighty wall of beer. We grabbed a couple of brews to try out before Beervana. I grabbed an Old Speckled Hen from Greene King and a world famous Hobgoblin from Wychwood Brewery, I'll get onto those brews soon.

We got to the flat, dumped our gear and went to find Hashigo Zake by far one of the best bars I've been to in years. The place is a mecca for craft beers from New Zealand and beyond. The bar itself was hard to find, but we found it on our second drive passed. I had a pint of DeadCanary from ParrotDog a VERY tasty beer. Right up my ally. Brian decided to go for his name sake, a Brian IPA from Emersons and Steph tried out a blackcurrant cider from Peckhams.

Cider Kir from Peckhams @ Hashigo Zake

Back to the flat for more pre drinks. I tried the Old Speckled Hen. I have heard lots about this beer, but to be honest, wasn't quite up my alley. A nice beer, but I'm not sure I would have more than one in a session, personal preference.

Onto Beervana we went. We decided this year we'd hit things a little different than 2011, mainly because we all tried the same beers last year, this year, we actually did some research and got beers we individually wanted to try then sampled each others. Worked out really well, we certainly tried more beers!! 

We started at the festive and real ale stands and started with a beer called Festivus from 8 Wired Brewing. Good beer and pretty much what you'd be expecting from a lambic beer, sour. At the same time we tried a beer called Marmalade from The Twisted Hop. If you like marmalade, then you'll like this beer. Also tried a beer from Aoteroa Breweries called Mata Carrot & Orange Cake another good brew.

We moved up and down the concourse and hit some other breweries, downed a curry, bratwurst and the finale was an Alpaca pie.

Best beer for me, had to be Funk Estates Black IPA followed closely by the 17% Stout from 8 Wired Brewing called Bumaye. A beautiful stout that has been aged in a barrel. Very smooth beer and just what you'd need at the end of a session like we had.

More than likely not the best idea but I tired the Hobgoblin after Beervana and again, not my cup of tea. I will definitely need to try it again, without so many beers under my belt!

All in all a good session, next in line is The Great Pacific Beer Expo in October. Tickets go on sale 1 September from www.cultbeerstore.co.nz

We had the normal day after feed and went to find ParrotDog a newly founded brewery in Wellington. I tried there BitterBitch last year and as above, tried the DeadCanary. From all accounts, they were closed, but I found out after the fact, never mind, they were a lovely bunch and the dude we spoke to seemed to be a little miffed we were there, but all good. We will be back to visit them and Garage Project at some point in the near future.