Author Archives: mikey

25 Aug 2013
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Experiments

“Gauss’ Law” Hopped Cider – Review

Quick note that there’s no brewing this weekend. Chas is overseas and I’ve already got a brew in the shed.

Last weekend we tried a few different brews. Chas has already put up his review of the stout. The review of the Australian Pale Ale will go up in a couple days.

Another one we tried was “Gauss’ Law” Hopped Cider. Another experimental cider from Chas. As was pointed out to us, a malted cider is called a Graff. Not sure what a hopped cider (with no malt) would be called. Anyway, we got around to share a bottle. And at over 10% alcohol I’m glad we didn’t have one each.

First up there was plenty of earthy apple aroma. Rich and woody without a strong sweetness. Good on the nose and matches well with the flavours.

Wow, this is complex and tasty. Initially it’s light and easy with the apple coming in quite subtlety then building big. It’s not until mid-late into it before the hops kicks in. There’s a good citrus hop flavour that sticks around for a long time. The bitterness keeps the apple in check and there’s no sickly sweetness anywhere in sight. If anything there’s a bit too much hops here. Bitterness does get a bit much after half a glass. But, that may be a good thing given the alcohol level in this.

Food wise this would match really well with duck, turkey or chicken. Preferably roasted. Would also work with pork.

If Chas makes more of this I’ll definitely be getting my hands on a couple bottles for myself.

 

-Mikey

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23 Aug 2013
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General tips

New 101 – beer ingredients

So, far so good. First 101 went up last week and a week later second one is going up.

This week we’re looking at the basics of beer ingredients. There’s a lot of detail behind it all, but really there’s four main ingredients  Malt, Hops, Water and Yeast.

Page is under the 101 section. Hope you like it. Let us know if you think something else should be added, removed or fixed.

-Mikey

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21 Aug 2013
2 Comments
Experiments

Lesson learnt, a bit too late

On Sunday we had another brew day at my place. Was time to do another Porter and a using some grain for the first time since the Brewsmith kits.

There was bottling of the Australian Amber Ale and tasting of the Australian Pale Ale. Both are a lot darker than ‘amber’ or ‘pale’ and should be renamed ‘dark’ and ‘amber’. The tasting of the Amber was, how should I put this, bad. The idea behind the two brews really wasn’t thought out well enough. I had assumed the sugars in the liquid malt cans would mostly ferment leaving only a slight sweetness. I was very wrong. And I should have realised it when we did the gravity readings. Chas has a review that will be going up, but to summarise… it’s bad. The amber came in at lower gravity than the pale, so that might be worse. I’m not going to even attempt tasting the Amber Ale in two weeks. I think both beers need to condition for a number of months, maybe six or more.

So, with that in mind I’m very glad we did a brew of something that should turn out a fair bit better. Or at least in theory. The brew can’t be classified as a ‘Partial’ because the grains used were crystal. That means no enzymes to convert starch into sugar, aka a mash. This was Steeping of the grains, and therefore this brew should be classified as an extract. Plus a can of amber liquid malt extract was used. There was 500 grams of Crystal (ebc 115-145) used.

Baltic Porter #1

Grains for Baltic Porter #1 steeping in the pot

I wanted to get the most out of the grains so steeping occurred for a full 60 mins at around 80C. I say around 80C as the temperature wasn’t fully controlled the whole time. It dropped down to around 77C and was as high as 86C at one point. Not great. But, in defence it was only steeping and not mashing.

And so the Baltic Porter started.

After steeping there was a sixty minute boil. The can of liquid malt and the liquid from steeped grains were all thrown into the wort. Once the hot break occurred in went 7 grams of Warrior hops.

After 30 mins there were 3 grams of Fuggles added. Then finally another 2 grams five mins before flame out. This was then put in the big 30L fermenter and topped up to the 10L mark. Windsor hops were added and fermenter given a good shake to get more oxygen due to the expected high alcohol.

  • Crystal grain (ebc 115-145) – 500g
  • Black Rock Amber liquid malt extract – 1.7k (cans are now bigger)
  • Warrior Hops – 7g
  • Fuggles – 5g (split 3-2)
  • Danstar Windsor yeast – aprox 5g

The original gravity was calculated at 1.081, but only came in at 1.072. That’s probably a good thing considering what happen to the two Australian Ales recently brewed.

The day had some painful lessons. And they were kept to small batches so there’s not too much pain. If this Baltic Porter turns out bad I think it might be time to return to some kits for a little bit.

-Mikey

PS. Forgot to mention we tasted the Black Rock Miners Stout and Gauss’ Law hopped cider. Review for stout is up and review of Gauss’ Law will be coming soon.

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16 Aug 2013
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General tips

Brew 101, it’s what you want

For the past couple months we’ve been letting you all know what we’ve been up to. What we brew. What goes in. What it ends up like. And that’s been great. We have even touched on what’s involved in the brew process.

The feedback has been that people want more. Friends, family, work colleges, barristers that we visit regularly, and random strangers out and about. Its something I was planning on doing after the Journey To Home Brew series. Its something Chas wants to do. And the time is now right.

So with that in mind we are proud to present… (drum roll) Brew 101!

We’ll aim to get a new one up every week (or so) over the next few months. The start will be on the very basics and we’ll work our ways across different brewing methods, styles, ingredients, equipment, bottling, cleaning, and everything else brew related. We won’t get it right first time for everything. We’re learning a lot of this stuff too. So, we’ll fix and add things over time.

First cab off the rank is 101 Brewing concepts.

-Mikey

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4 Aug 2013
3 Comments
Experiments

Same-same, but different

Brewing day. Ah, nice to have one that doesn’t involve having to fill 80+ bottles. Due to craziness, ie doing other stuff, brew day was moved to Saturday. Plus there was no need to do a supply run which always saves a fair bit of time.

Australian Pale Ale #1

Australian Pale Ale #1 in carboy with separation after 2 weeks.

In the last brew we made the Australian Pale Ale #1. This was an experiment to see what could be done with just a can of liquid malt and hops. It was an attempt to make a very simple but still tasty home brew beer. Last time it was a can of light malt, this time amber malt. Rest of the recipe was the same. Same hops, same boil time, same yeast. Well, the yeast was slight different combination and I’ll explain a bit further down.

So, bottling the Australian Pale Ale #1 was quick. Only 12 bottles used, and the last one wasn’t a full one. There was a huge amount of sediment on the bottom and the brew looked like it had separated at the half way point. Not sure what that was about. There’s the pic to the side here. Anyway, we did a quick stir to mix the two half’s together before bottling. Due to the massive amount of yeast the bottles were very cloudy. I’m not sure how much sugar wasn’t fermented and this is the first time I’m a bit concerned about exploding bottles. Very interesting that the final gravity reading came in at 1.040. That’s high, very high. I’m thinking it’s mainly to do with the huge amounts of yeast. Anyway it means the beer will be 8.6% after bottled. Yay, finally a strong beer.

After that was all done it was onto making the Australian Amber Ale #1. Yes, I know the names are basic and Chas comes up with some great ones. I just can’t be bothered until I get one that I’m happy to continually remake. Plus, the name says what it is.

Started with three litre boil and threw in the can of liquid amber malt. Start of boil added 3 grams of Warrior hops. Twenty mins latter added 2 grams of Galaxy hops. Then 15 mins later another 2 grams of Galaxy hops. Five more mins then flame out and into the sink for a cool bath. Once temperature was close to what was needed it was pored into the carboy and topped up with cold water. Chas got shaking with the carboy and gravity readying was done, 1.097. That’s less then the Australian Pale Ale #1 and I think it’s because a bit more water went into this at the end.

Australian Amber Ale #1

Australian Amber Ale #1 in carboy.

Yeast for the last beer was an issue. There was too much left and the SN9 wine yeast was only put in after 10 days which didn’t do much. So, for the Australian Amber Ale #1 there was a change in what was done. Only half of a kit yeast pack was put in, and the SN9 wine yeast was put in at the same time.

  • Black Rock Amber Liquid Malt Extract – 1.5kg
  • Warrior hops – 3g
  • Galaxy – 4g (split)
  • Kit ‘Premium Brewing Yeast’ – 2.5g
  • ‘Premium Wine Yeast’ SN9 – 1g-ish

A good brew day was had. We busted out the Newcastle Brown and had a couple. Chas put up the review yesterday. Had a couple of the lagers, but one bottle was flat (no sugars in the bottle?). And opened a stout, but it’s not ready yet.

-Mikey

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30 Jul 2013
3 Comments
Experiments, Home brew reviews

The Friedlieb coffee porter – review

Was meant to put this up a week ago. Then things happened. And now it’s this week.

The Friedlieb coffee porter

The Friedlieb coffee porter in glasses

As part of the massive bottling day, I mean brew day, there were some taste testing.

One was the coffee porter from a few weeks ago. We cracked one open, not smashed it open. Up front there was plenty of malt and coffee aromas. You could tell straight away this was going to be a big and complex beer.

First taste got a big malt hit. Rich flavour all the way through giving this beer a strong base. The coffee was also there for the whole journey, not overpowering or overpowered. Has a nice dry finish thanks to the coffee. Good bitterness from start to end but is a little all over the shop.

Some smoke and even hints of chocolate. Chas wants more smoke and I’m sure he’ll talk about that in the comments below. For me, I was happy with the malt profiles and mix in this.

The beer had a slight sweetness hidden in it. Like the bitterness, it wasn’t consistent. Unlike the bitterness, that was distracting. This would probably settle after another two plus weeks of conditioning.

Like the other other coffee porter, OMG The Coffee, this is suited to a lot of foods. Any big rich dinner would work. A lot of desserts would go well. You can substitute this for wherever you need a big dark earthy red wine.

-Mikey

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27 Jul 2013
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Experiments, Ingredients

Bottle day now with 20% more bottles, and a brew

Sunday was another brew day, of sorts. Really it was more of a bottling day with a brew at the end.

Australian Pale Ale 1

Australian Pale Ale 1 in the carboy

First order of business was to pick up some new supplies and equipment. My hydrometer broke last brew day and needed another. Needed some more no-rinse sanitizer. Plus picked up some liquid malt, hops (Warrior & Galaxy) and carbonation drops. Decided to go for more carbonation drops as I didn’t want to prime by measuring sugar, and was too lazy to work out how to do bulk priming.

Once back, it was onwards to the bottling. First up was the last 5 odd litres of the Newcastle brown. That was okay. Got 15 bottles in.

Next was the Stout. Gravity reading came in at 1.020 which means after bottling it will only be 4.0% ABV. That’s pretty low for a Stout. Might even need to call it a dark porter. Anyway, we needed to bottle all of it. ALL 23 litres! That’s 68 stubbies! Needless to say, this took most of the day.

Had a couple of breaks along the way. Got to try Chas’s coffee porter. Cracked open a bottle off the Newcastle brown, but it wasn’t ready yet.

Finally after bottling was done we moved onto brewing. For the past couple if weeks I’ve been thinking about how to get a very strong beer and still keep it easy. There’s a couple ways you can go about doing that, and hopefully over the next few months we’ll try as many of those options as we can. To make sure nothing too crazy is done I’m using a home brewing spreadsheet that let’s you put in ingredients and it tells you what characteristics of the beer will be. It’s amazing and I highly recommend getting your hands on it. You will need to sign up to Aussie Home Brewer if you haven’t already.

Anyway, this time around the brew was going to be a 4.5 litres batch for the carboy. Was using liquid malt extract that hadn’t been hopped and doing a 40 min boil with three hop additions.There was a whole 1.5kg can of liquid malt that went in. For a brew this small that’s right on the edge of madness, but I was keen to do this as a real test if a few things.

For lack of a better name, this is getting called Australian Pale Ale #1.

A big pot was filled with 3 litres of water, set to heat and LME was added. After the hot break added 3g of the Warrior hops. Twenty mins later added 2g of Galaxy hops, then last 2g of Galaxy was added 5 mins to the end. When the liquid malt went in the can was washed out with some boiled water. Not sure how much, but originally I was concerned we had to much liquid. In the end a lot boiled off leaving something just over four litres left. Given there was so much heat it took quite some time for the wort to cool down. The pot went through two long cold baths to get down to 22C. As there was a lot more liquid boiled off, I needed to top up the carboy with some extra water. Then I took a sample for a gravity reading.

Yeast was pitched. Used a whole pack of kit yeast as I had some spare lying around. Then give the whole thing a good shake, BrewSmith style.

Then, I checked my gravity reading and it was much lower than expected. Ahhh! I didn’t mix my wort properly. So, get rid of the sample and took another, which took out some of the yeast. But, that’s okay ‘cos there was a huge amount of yeast. Anyway the gravity came in a whopping 1.102!!

  • Black Light Liquid Malt Extract – 1.5kg
  • Warrior hops – 3g
  • Galaxy – 4g (split)
  • Kit ‘Premium Brewing Yeast’ – 5g

So, a few days in and the brew its going well. Huge amount of activity, but no blow out (lucky). From what’s coming out of the airlock, it smells great. Thanks to Chas in about 4-5 days I’m going to throw in some SN9 ‘Premium Wine Yeast’. This will eat up the last of the sugars, and have something to carbonate the bottles.

-Mikey

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20 Jul 2013
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Home brew kits, Home brew reviews

Dead Guy Dark Ale – Review

As the first darker beer that wasn’t a BrewSmith kit and the first 23 litre batch that wasn’t a lager, there was a lot riding on this being a success. I think we can say the Dead Guy Dark Ale met the challenge.

Dead Guy Dark Ale

Dead Guy Dark Ale in glasses

This is a dark ale. Not a brown and not a porter. It’s important to make the distinction because they are trying to do different things. Dark ales are generally the area between Brown Ales and Porters. Not as sweet/nutty/spicy as brown and lighter than a porter.

Up front there’s a dark sweetness aroma. Sort of like a caramelised sugar smell. It’s saying “hey, I’m pretty tasty so come and try”.
Lots of dark malt flavours. Not a huge body or overwhelming. There’s a slight sweetness across the beer which works well. Bit of smoke and darkness up front. The dark malt builds in the middle and then lasts quite a bit. Really enjoy this.

Would be matched with any meal that would be defined as “hearty”. Meat pie, beef casserole, thick spaghetti Bolognese, lamb roast, jacket potato, …you get the idea.

Because this is lighter than a porter it’s easy to drink. Works well as a food beer or to knock back at a party.

-Mikey

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19 Jul 2013
1 Comment
Experiments, Home brew reviews

Malted Cider – Review

Malted Cider

Malted Cider in glasses

A while ago Chas ordered some malt for a brew and it exploded in the mail. A replacement of malt was sent, and about half of the original malt was still left. What a great opportunity to add malt to something, like a cider.

I’m no fan of ciders. I’ve made that view quite clear. But the rhubarb and apple cider Chas made was nice and enjoyable. So, I went into this with an open mind.

The first thing I noticed with the cider was an unpleasant off egg smell. Chas ensures me that the other bottles are fine and don’t have any eggyness.

The flavour was okay. Apple sweetness right up front, then a slight sour taste. After that the malt comes through a bit. There’s a bit of egg taste at the end which isn’t nice. The body holds well and if it wasn’t for the egg I might enjoy this.

Not sure what food to match this with. The dud bottle makes it harder. I’m thinking Italian, maybe a spicy and/or greasy pizza. Might work with a red meat Mexican dish like tacos or burritos.

I would like to have another one of these ciders. I think this could be tweaked to make it quite nice. As long as the bottle is good.

-Mikey

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11 Jul 2013
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Journey to home brew – Part 3, The Brewing

In this post I wrap up my story on how I came to making home brew. This follows on from post 1 and post 2.

In my last two posts I mentioned the slow journey to beer appreciation. In this post I’ll talk about the tentative steps, then plunge, into home brewing.

After the 366 Days of Beer challenge I knew that tasty beer is the only type of beer I want to drink. And I knew that only by trying new beers could I find some if the really good beers. There.were a lot of good and some bad craft beers. Surely that was the same with beers made out side of breweries, right?

During 2011 my good mate Ian had done some “on premises brewing” out at U Brew It on the north-west side of Melbourne. He decided to do his own brew and invited me along to help. It was fun. The set up was open and the people friendly. Plus the range of beers you could make was huge.
When we did the bottling there were a whole lot of others doing the same. You get chatting, sharing a couple glasses, and even swapping a six pack of beer or two.

In December 2011 I did a brew with my wife with a view to keep three slabs for our engagement party. The brew turned out quite well. We enjoyed three slabs over the next coupe months. But the three we kept in a cellar weren’t cold enough, and went off.
I made a quick return to U Brew It at the start of May 2012 to brew a golden ale. Then returned again just a day before the engagement party to bottle. The beer went down very well. Nearly all six slabs went in one night!

The intention was to return and do anyone one. But as 366 Days of Beer started taking off there wasn’t a need, or space, for that much beer.

Ian found out about a beer show called The Beer Frontier that use to be on Channel 31 here in Melbourne. The episodes were, and still are, on YouTube. Had some interesting segments including home brew. That opened my eyes up to what home brewing was all about. They were showing the full grain and full boil process, which was a bit daunting.

Then, on 2 November 2012 Crafty Pint sent out a the weekly newsletter with info about BrewSmith. For those who live in Australia and like great beer I can not recommend enough getting on board with Crafty Pint. The weekly newsletter alone is packed with fantastic information about what’s going on with craft beer.
The newsletter on that day included information on, and a competition, for BrewSmith. Now if you’ve been reading the blog you’ll know that we did a lot of BrewSmith beers. And we’ll probably keep doing a few more. Back in 2012 this was a real eye opener for me. I wanted to make good beer but didn’t want to spend massive cash on a set up. The BrewSmith set up allows minimal upfront cash and great beer.

It was around September-October that I decided that moving into home brew was a good idea. My birthday is in the middle of October and I thought it might be a good present. I considered the typical home brew kits such as the one from Australian Home Brewing (link might die in a month or two). I knew the importance of a bench capper so this is the one I was looking at. The alternative was a BrewSmith kit (again, link might die). After a lot of time, I spent over a month thinking about the two, I chose the BrewSmith kit.
Lucky for me my wonderful wife bought me both.

In January 2013 I started my first home brew. And ever since then it’s been fantastic.

I hope you have enjoyed my little story. For some people home brew was originally about saving money. For others it started with a “that’s a cool idea/gift/thing-to-do-one-day”. For a few it has been about trying to replicate or make something better than a beer they know. And for those like me, it was all about the appreciation for great beer.
So far we haven’t made anything bad. The first lager was average, and the second one is better. We’ll keep brewing, sharing our knowledge and letting others know about the awesomeness of home brew.

-Mikey

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