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...

Captains log...

Its been a while since my last post - life has certainly got in the way.

I went over to Masterton for a weekend away with Steph. On the way we stopped in at the Tui Brewery. I've been on the tour before, but its a little hazy on what exactly happend - was for Brian's stag do.  

 

A couple of things:

 

Eating a hop pellet = a free beer. I did this last time I was there, except the hops were fresh, this time they were a little on the brown side and very stale, hopefully they don't chuck them in the beer!

 

DB - seriously consider getting the Brewers Reserve out into the public, not just an onsite beer. I think you'd be surpised how well it would sell. Its probably the hoppiest beer from DB and for me, its a pretty good beer. 

 

To Kava or not to Kava?

I was having a conversation with my boss at work about the Pohutakawa Cerveza and he asked me about kava. I've tried it, I liked it, its not illegal in New Zealand, so a kava beer?

 

The taste of Kava is pretty strong and dirty/muddy, so I think you'd need a pretty strong malt backbone to hide the earthy notes, or throw a truckload of hops at it.

 

A quick Google and I found some stuff. A Porter recipe over on HBT, I'll wait and see how that turns out before I progress, if I do. It's got me interested though. 

 

Next Brews

I've made the decison to re brew the American and I'm going to call it a KPA, or a Kiwi Pale Ale. While its not an offical style, home brewing is all about experimentation...

 

And in between now and brew day (13th October) I'll try and get the Pohutakawa Cerveza done.

 

So some questions for you, my loyal followers:

1. Would you drink a kava beer?

2. Would you drink a Pohutakawa Cerveza (think Corona with a slight salty aftertaste)

A President, a porter and some port

Well, if you're into brewing and you're following anything like this blog at all, you'll know that Mr President, Barack Obama brews beer.

 

Rumour has it that the Pres brought a home brew kit and like most of us caught the bug. Unlike most of us who continue to brew, he's got his staff to brew and they use White House Honey.

 

Full article can be found on the White House Blog.

 

Recipes:

 

White House Honey Porter

Ingredients

• 2 (3.3 lb) cans light unhopped malt extract
• 3/4 lb Munich Malt (cracked)
• 1 lb crystal 20 malt (cracked)
• 6 oz black malt (cracked)
• 3 oz chocolate malt (cracked)
• 1 lb White House Honey
• 10 HBUs bittering hops
• 1/2 oz Hallertaur Aroma hops
• 1 pkg Nottingham dry yeast

 

White House Honey Ale

Ingredients

• 2 (3.3 lb) cans light malt extract
• 1 lb light dried malt extract
• 12 oz crushed amber crystal malt
• 8 oz Biscuit Malt
• 1 lb White House Honey
• 1 1/2 oz Kent Goldings Hop Pellets
• 1 1/2 oz Fuggles Hop pellets
• 2 tsp gypsum
• 1 pkg Windsor dry ale yeast

Pretty standard beers really. I have had some conversations with some people about the porter and instead of using White House Honey, throwing in some Manuka Honey. I've toyed with the idea of honey before and still might go ahead with it.

 

Also thought about a Mexican Cerveza with some Pohutakawa Honey hoping some of the saltiness from the Pohutakawa comes through. Might do a small batch and see what it comes out like, it'll be a cheap extract kit:

 

Pohutakawa Cerveza

• 1.5kg Mangrove Jack's Mexican Cerveza LME hopped kit
• 1.5kg Coopers Light LME
• 1kg Pohutakawa Honey
• Saflager S-23 Yeast 

Not sure if I'd follow a "normal" extract brew, or if I'll do a full boil and throw some more hops in there. I'll put some thought into it. Maybe even some speciality grains as well, can't hurt. Although, I guess what hops does one put into a Cerveza? Saaz baby, all the way!! Might be out of style, but then again that's the joy of brewing right?

 

Port Porter/Stout

I got offered a bottle of Port, which I gracefully agreed to grab, which brings me to my next brew. A port based porter. Now it might sound odd, it might sound funny to some, but if you imagine a strong porter, let it ferment then throw it into in a barrel that has been used to store port, then cellar it for about 6 months...If you like port and if you like Porter, then it'd be a beer for you, or in this case me.

 

A couple of points to note:.

1. I don't have a barrel
2. The barrels I have found are pretty expensive ($NZ220 for a 5L)
3. Will it be worth it?

I'm keen to have a goo and to be fair, should this little hobby become something more serious, I'll have a 5L Oak Barrel to play with - who wouldn't want it right? Experimentation anyone?

 

I'll sleep on it, dream about it and hopefully save some money to actually do it! Pledge Me account time maybe?

Bubble Tea?

Time to bottle the Bubble Tea Mild. First, a final "gravity" test. Still at 1.020 and well, it'd be rude not to have a taste right?

Still tasting good! Still has that initial sweet hit then a slight roast from the chocolate malt (which is a new flavour) and the final taste bud sensation, HOPS!

 

So there it is, in all her glory, brown, not fizzy yet and for now, rather tasty. Not the yeast still in suspension (white specks).

 

I got the kistchen ready for bottleing, gave it a nice clean and hunted through my bottles to get as many 500ml bottles as I could. I'm liking the smaller bottles, more so for tasting. I grabbed some bombers (650ml) bottles that I had from Stoke and the usualt 750ml suspects from those other breweries.

 

I did have a slight mishap when I was bottling though, didn't waste much and I have one 500ml bottle that might not be so good...

I was filling a 500ml bottle, and the end of the bottling wand come off in the bottle! So I had beer splasing all over the floor and then end of my wand in a bottle. I managed to turn the tap off on the fermenter and after about 10mins of mucking arojund, go the end out of the bottle. Resantitised and carried on. Am I worried? not really. Should I be? Probably...

Had a chat with Brian about some upcoming brews. He's keen to do a vanilla porter and I think I'll have a go at a black IPA. Have you brewed or tried either a Vanilla Porter, or a Black IPA? Leave us a comment below.

Bubble Tea Mild Ale

Bubble Tea Mild chillin'

Its been just over a week since the Brewhemoth Brew Day and my failed attempt at a porter. Never fear though, I have decided it will now become an American Mild Ale. Its an American because it has more hops than an English version of the same style of beer. In staying with the name of the original, Bubble Tea Porter, I've now named it, Bubble Tea Mild.

Its currently siting at roughly 5.2% abv, which to me is a sessionable beer. The gravity samples I've tasted have been pretty good, hoppy nose, sweet front, hop bitter back and a velvet mouth feel. I guess the lactose and malto-dextrine have done their job.

Plan is to bottle on Saturday since I now have Saturdays back post rugby season, although the ITM Cup is staring this week and the All Blacks are playing Saturday night, maybe Sunday for bottling day. All going well in the bottle, in two weeks time, we'll have a taste.a

Side note - I have also decide the JD SMaSH is going to cellar over the summer and I'll see how it goes in the winter. I'm not sure if I'll keep it in the house or in the garage over summer, I think the house, since it'll be cooler.

Brewhemoth Brew Day

Well, with Dropkick Murphy's pumping we finally got around to the brewhemoth brew day. We ended up just doing three brews, Centennial Blonde, Stone Arrogant Bastard clone and what was supposed to be a Black Pearle Porter isn't anymore....we'll call it a mild ale for now. Pretty happy with the day, we started a little later than planned, but it all worked out in the end. Shady brought over his new toy, an immersion chiller. Worked really well, got the wort to 30 degrees from a rolling boil in about 20mins. My backyard is now officially a swimming pool with the rain we've had over the week and cooling three beers on top. The things we do for beer.

20g of Cascade and 4oz of Lactose for the "Black Pearle Porter"

I thought I had enough chocolate malt, turns out I only half of what was required. So its not as dark as it should be and wont be as roasty as it should be. Due to that fact I ended up using Fuggles for bittering and NZ Cascade for aroma and flavouring. Give it fiveish weeks and we'll see how it turns out.

"Black Pearle Porter" at a rolling boil

Shady and Brian both popped their All Grain cherries with us all doing BIAB. We had two three ring burners as you see above and one 2 ring burner. Since Shady and I were onto it and here first we nabbed the three ring burners and got up to strike temps quickly. Brian came and joined the race soon after. Three mashes in and it was time for a beer.

Stone Arrogant Bastard with a rolling boil

We left it a little lat to get the sparge water on the heat, so all three brews were left mashing in for longer than expected and at lower temps than expected. None of us are all that worried about it, beers, beer and at this stage is just a hobby (yeah right).

We mashed out and got onto the boil. Shady was first to hit a boil and man, once the centennial hit the boil, my backyard smelt like a brewery. Brian was next with his 1.5oz Chinook hit, yet again a massive wave of hops filled the air. Next was me and the fuggles.....not much aroma there...

Centennial Blonde with the IC

Along we went with all the hop and other additions then onto cooling. The immersion chiller worked really well, especially on a coldish day, the water was fairly cold. It hits about 30 and tends to plateau for a little before hitting pitching temps.

Into the fermenters went all three beers, Shady and Brian are usignUS-05 and I'm using US-04. Give us at least 5 weeks and we'll see how the beers taste!

"Black Pearle Porter" cooling

And just as a teaser....the JD SMaSH in the glass....its still VERY dominated by bourbon on the nose and taste. Definitely one to cellar! Next time, I need to find a stronger beer. I just don't think a SMaSH has enough of a malt back bone to compliment the Jack Daniels. I think a Porter wiould be better and perhaps toast the chips as well. Might make that a project beer, 5L at a time.

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14/08 edit

Tested the gravity, down to 1.020 from 1.060 in three days!!! She was sitting at 22 degrees which is on the high end of S-04....Tasting the gravity sample now and wow, lots of hop nose, soft sweet taste with a kick in the back. Even SWMBO liked it....Litte watery mouth feel, hope it fills out. The maltodextrine should give it some mouth feel, little lacking at the moment. Give it 7 more days and see how it goes before I decide when to bottle.

Brewhemoth Brewday - Grains are here

Three guys, possibly four, maybe 5 brews. After some consideration I'll be brewing a Black Pearle Porter courtesy of BierMuncher over at HBT, BRoss will be brewing a Stone Arrogant Bastard clone from Brew 365and last I heard, Shady will be brewing a Centennial Blonde from BierMuncher over at HBT.

The fourth brew is possibly going to be a black ale loosely based on Tui Dark. The plan at this stage is to use a Black Rock Miners Stout extract tin, a Black Rock Dark LME tin and possibly a dry stout enhancer pack from Copper Tun. Some mention on HBT about throwing in some other hops as well, it likely I might. At the end of the day it could be a good brew!

The last an highly likely not going to happen brew will be a collaboration brew between all three brewers, depending on whats left over. I have roughly 2kg of base grains in my cupboard, so there is potential, obviously dependent on whats left over to brew a mini batch of something. Thinking a stout with some throw ins, maybe raspberry...not sure yet, time will tell.

Speaking of hops.....

 

JD SMaSH bottling

The time has well and truly come and gone to bottle. I've been sick, so haven't really felt like bottling. But today I bit the bullet and bottled.

12 500ml bottles from various New Zealand Craft Breweries and 24 745ml bottles from the Commercial crowd

 

 

Note the kiwi ingenuity and using a beer crate as a seat :-)

Shot of the beer after it'd been sitting for a while, still pretty light. All good, might be a summer ale yet.

Jack Daniels wood chips during bottling. Little bit of liquid gold left in there.

 Krausen line and trub left in the bottom of the fermenter

Lessons learned from the brew?

None really, not more than what you see below.

I have 2 30L pots now so I'm slowly working to proper all grain brewing. Get rid of the bag and use a pot or chilly bin as a mash tun. It'll work. Just need some time.

Next brew is a porter. Might throw in the rest of the Jack Daniels chips to use em up.

Watch this space!!

A Dutchman a Scots/Irishman and a Red Ale

Picture this: a Dutchman, a Scots/Irishman, 4.7kg of grains, 48g of hops, 11g of dried yeast, a 31 litre kettle, a two ring burner, and a half empty gas bottle. That equals a 5 hour brew day!

The birth of an Irish Red has taken place and a decent red she will be! The recipe is from HomeBrewTalk – Quaffable Irish Red. While the actual recipe I used slightly differs mainly due to the grains I used and the hops I could get my hands on, I give credit where it’s due. Check out the differences of the brews here.

This brew is for my birthday next month, along with the American. I chose an Irish Red because I quite like Kilkenny and I figured an APA would be too much for some, considering the Pale Ale using a truckload of hops compared to the Irish.

To the Scots/Irishman house I went with all the ingredients, boil kettle, sparge pot, fermenter, burner and gas bottle.

Hitting mash in temp

Hit up the stove to mash in, figured we’d use the burner for the boil. 4.7kg of grains and we had some porridge. It was our first time working with dark malt like chocolate. We decided to taste the grains pre mash to see what they tasted like. Initial taste of the chocolate malt and we both got coffee which was a little interesting. I think the amount used (70g) was more for colour than flavour.  I put the recipe into BrewPrint and managed to get more SRM than the original recipe asked for, I think that maybe due to using the chocolate malt, perhaps pale chocolate malt should have been used. Not too worried though, looks like it will carry a red hue through.

All the grains and a Munich Lager

Grains going in the mash tun

Porridge!

Boil took a lot longer than I anticipated. Cue an emptying gas bottle, a 2 ring burner and a slight breeze and we where waiting about an hour, if not longer, to get to a rolling boil. Even then it wasn’t always rolling! Never mind, once the hot break hit, it was in with the hops and off we went. RDWHAHB right?

Waiting for the boil

Tested the gravity last night when I went and picked it up. Hit 1.052, which according to calculations is 89% brew house efficiency. Thanks BrewShop for an awesome crush on the grains!!

Spent grains

Pitched the yeast last night as well, no activity just yet, only been 24 hours. I think I’ll leave her in the primary (don’t have a secondary) for 2 weeks. One for fermentation and the second for clean up. Bottle and leave for two, should be bang on for my birthday!

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.