Bateman's Rosey Nosey

Turkey, Ham, Pavlova, Trifle...Santa, Rudolf, Presents, Family...Champagne, Egg Nog, Beer!

What better time to try a new beer but Christmas time. Santa was good enough to give me a brew bearing his visage this year. This one's an English beer called Rosey Nosey, by Bateman's Brewery. They have somehow brewed it so that you get both a malty and hoppy finish at the same time. The idea behind it is that it tastes a bit like Christmas Pudding. I am not a big fan of Christmas Pudding, fruitcake or any of those raisiny, sultanay deserts, however, although it has some festive spicyness to the taste to give it some Christmas cheer it is by no means as strong a taste as Christmas Pud. It was tasty enough, but perhaps more suited to a pub in the middle of English Winter than out on the deck in the middle of NZ summer.

Fill Em

Now that the hops had had time to do their thing it was time for that all important, but oh so slow, job of bottling. I got my bottles nicely cleaned and sanitised, and set to work at filling and capping them. Won't go into detail. You know how that part all works by now. I had hoped to be able to complete another brew shortly after this one, but it is pretty clear that I just don't have enough bottles to do that just yet. Only one way to deal with that problem...bottoms up!

Hopping to it

Exciting times. I have finally decided to get a bit more experimental with one of my brews (only marginally) by adding some hops to the brew. The internet tells me that day three is about the right time to drop some hop pellets in there. But how much? Again the internet tells me that about an ounce is the right amount. So I measured out about 28 grams (which is apparently an ounce in modern measuring) of Chinook hops. Tip them in the top of the barrel and the float to the bottom. Hopefully that means I am going to get some hoppy action to balance out the maltyness of the home brew. Apparently it won't make the taste more bitter. You have to do that at mash making time (well more advanced than I am), but at least this will add a bit to the aroma.

Krausen Hell!

Maybe adding the brew enhancer late wasn't quite as harmless as I first thought. I opened the door to the cupboard to see froth bubbling out of the top of the airlock. I'm pretty sure that isn't supposed to happen. Fortunately the wonders of the internet assured me there was nothing to worry about, it was just Krausen, which is a fancy name for the froth you get on top of beer. At least I know it is working. The advice is to leave it to stop bubbling and then clean up and re-sanitise the air lock. After a few hours I checked it again and it was still bubbling away, with the Krausen blob getting even bigger and beer starting to pool on the top of the barrel. Trusting in the advice I left it to carry on and a few hours later the bubbling had died down quite a bit so I managed to get the airlock out, cleaned up and sanitised and then back in the hole on the top of the barrel. Hopefully that's the last we see of that.

Another round

Finally time to have another go at making my own brew. This time Countdown has hooked me up with not only the lids and sugar capsules but also the brewing kit. Coopers Real Ale. It's Australian...but the Aussies do actually make some good beers (Little Creatures) so there is no reason why this shouldn't be good. After the usual ceremony of cleaning the barrel and the equipment (hopefully Palmolive is OK cause I don't have any other beer kit cleaner) I poured the mixture into the barrel and started filling it up with water. I probably should have read the instructions at the start because I was supposed to mix in the brew enhancer before adding the water....Oh well, add it in later and mix it around. No harm done. At least I hadn't added the yeast yet. I had managed to sort out a new spot for my beer barrel, a nice little shelf in the garage cupboard. Hopefully that will keep the temperature a bit even. The days are warmer but it still gets cold at night.

Yeastie Boys - Digital IPA

With the good weather coming around and the homebrew starting to run low it was time to try another limited release from a local brewer. This time it was the local Wellington boys, Yeastie Boys. The Digital IPA has some sort of background which they put down to the 1s and 0s of digital code (you can read about it on their website.) The beer itself is a nice golden colour. You get a good hit of hops as you taste the beer, with quite a fruity aftertaste. Must be those Motueka hops. If you want to find out more about the Motueka hops, and all the other stuff in it, then you can because much like Firefox, VLC Media Player and a bunch of other cool software this beer is open source. They give you the recipe! Share away, cause beer is always better when you share it with someone else. This beer is well worth a share too. Very tasty. Love a good IPA and this one is gooooood.

Social Drinking

Social networks on the internet are all the rage. Some are more successful than others...So why wouldn't there be one for beer drinkers too? Well there are actually a few, but I have decided to have a go at one called Untappd. The thing I like about it is it is all about the beer. You can tell people about what you are drinking and find out about other beer before you drink it. What else do you need? So check it out.

Garage Project's Day of the Dead

I don't drink a lot of Garage Project beer. Mostly because it isn't available in as many places as some of its competitors like Tuatara or Epic. They are certainly one of the more experimental breweries around with all manner of small batch brews coming out trying all manner of brewing techniques. For me no trip to Moore Wilson's is complete without picking up a random beer to try. With Halloween having just passed the appropriate beverage had to be one of Garage Project's two Halloween specials and I decided on the Day of the Dead, a strong black lager. That's right, black lager. If I hadn't had it in the Czech Republic I would have thought it was a gimmick. In true Garage Project style they have mixed all sorts of random things into their brew like smoked chipotle chili and organic blue agave syrup (from cactus like in Tequila).

The beer itself has a nice dark look to it, like a stout, but as you would expect from a lager it isn't nearly as heavy to drink. You still get all the nice chocolatey, cocoa flavours but without the heavy aftertaste that comes along with a the porter our stout. I will be honest that I didn't really notice the chili or the cactus, but I would certainly drink this one again given the opportunity (I bought another bottle for the cupboard so the opportunity will arise again...)

Matutu Quest

Time for JaMbrew to get international. Sure I have drunk plenty of beer in other countries but not since I started writing this. A trip to the Cook Islands was the perfect opportunity to try some of the local craft brew, Matutu, brewed in batches on Rarotonga. Always drink the local beer. It is made to be drunk there.

On our first night the resort had three local beers on the menu and a ton of NZ and Australian standard beers. Not that excited about standard beer I tried for the local beer only to be told that they were sold out and they weren't sure when they were going to be getting any more. More than a little disappointed I decided that was a sign to drink wine. (Totally not a sin on a beer blog. Wine is awesome in its own way.)

The next day we were visiting the weekly market and although I managed to pick up some Matutu t-shirts there was no sign of the beer. A wander through the main town of Avarua and we came across the local supermarket. It was well stocked and full of tourists loading up on supplies. A check through the shelves and I managed to find some Matutu Mai (Lager). I decided a half dozen should keep me going for a while. No sign of the Matutu Kiva (Pale Ale) though.

The expectation was high with all the work to get it. The weather was warm (which helps) and the taste was certainly better than the other standard beer on offer. It wasn't too dissimilar to homebrew lager, which in a way I guess is what it is. Batch brewed in small batches.

Our time in the Cook Islands passed by with no sign of the elusive Matutu Kiva until some time towards the end of the week we decided to check out the Saltwater Cafe and although they had no Matutu Mai they had the Matutu Kiva and it went down well with my Octopus Curry. Much hoppier than its counterpart and as the weather wasn't all that hot on our trip it was the better choice.

Matutu certainly has some more interesting offerings than some local beers I have tried. If you are ever in the Cooks give it a try (otherwise you will have to drink Tui.....)

Carbonerific?

I've never been all that happy about the lack of fizz in my ginger beer. Having said that I don't fancy investing in a Soda Stream or some other sort of carbonation equipment (not at this stage anyway.) A search on the internet suggests that there are a few options available to me to get the bubbles so I pick this one and get underway.  I have everything I need except for the plastic tubing but a quick trip to Bunnings fixes that. I drill some holes, stuff the tube in, get my vinegar and baking soda measured out. It is a careful pour to get the ginger beer from the brewing bottle into the carbonating bottle, because I don't want the sediment all getting mixed in by the bubbles. It is then a case of putting the tube into the ginger beer, screwing on the lid, tipping the baking soda into the vinegar bottle and getting my shake on. Unfortunately without seals around where the tube goes through the bottle lids a fair amount of the vinegar seemed to be coming out too. It also looked like it might have been traveling down the tube and into the ginger beer....Not sure that that would improve the taste. The tube bubbled away nicely for a while and then eventually I pulled it out and let the foam on top of the ginger beer settle. It poured nicely into the glass and there were certainly bubbles in the ginger beer. It probably did improve the taste to have the bubbles in the drink, but if I have to go to that much more effort every time I want the ginger beer to be bubbly it might be easier just to buy some...oh well, back to the drawing board.

Beervana

Now that most of my friends have created little versions of themselves it isn't often that they all get to go out by themselves l, however, there is one event every year that has a standing reservation on their calendars...Beervana, a chance for craft brewers to show their wares to the Wellington beer drinking public. It runs Friday afternoon, Friday night and then same again on Saturday. Beer drinking is never improved by battling with the crowds so Friday afternoon is the time to go. 

You get a taster glass and can have it filled with whatever is on offer. In the past you also got some tokens as a part of your ticket. Unfortunately this year tokens were extra. No point on stewing on the stingyness though, the beer wasn't going to drink itself. Now I am not going to tell you about every single beer that I tried. A) because I can't remember and B) because beerticking isn't really my thing. I like trying different beers that I haven't had before but I don't need to keep a record of it. (Having s

aid that, Beervana organisers you should totally get an App for next year.)

Beervana (also known as Boganvana due to the typical patrons) is a great balance of all sorts of craft beers and  some tasty tasty food from some of Wellington's best food venues organised under the oversight of Martin Bosley. Martin's Croque Monsieur goes perfectly after a few beers but there are plenty of other tasty treats from Pies to dumplings to pizza as well as some sweet treats for those that way inclined. 

Garage Project had gone all out this year with a stand that three times the size of some of the other attendees and two bars, a normal one and a workshop one which did all sorts of crazy (gimicky?) beers like a porter blended  by hot poker, beer slushies and jellied beer. I wasn't sure that it was my thing, but the crowds loved it with a massive queue all day. With so much other good beer on offer I steered clear of the queue and sampled some other random offerings.

With NZ craft beer being a bit of a hopfest the Belgian bar with its Stella Artois, Hoegarden and Leffe felt out of place (and certainly wasn't being visited by the patrons). Interestingly Moa was conspicuously absent. Financial troubles or just another instance of Moa thinking it is better than everyone else? In any event, thoughts like that were only fleeting with plenty of good ale on offer (8 Wired Bumaye aside...) and another great day out.

Hop Over to Nelson

Wellington may currently be the beer capital of New Zealand, but the city of Nelson in the South Island, with its sunshine, beaches and Abel Tasman National Park on its doorstep has certainly taken to the brown nectar too. It may well be because many of NZ's hops are grown just down the road in Motueka. I had the good fortune to visit Nelson not that long ago. I was there with my wife so it wasn't specifically a beer trip, but it was still nice to take in some of the local beeriness.

I cracked my first beer in Nelson at Deville, a very nice restaurant with a great garden where you can sit outside, enjoy the food and sample some beverages. They had a decent range of beer and cider on tap. I settled for a nice pint of Mussel Inn Golden Goose Lager. Golden Bay is a bit further away than Nelson but at least I was in the right region. Refreshing with a touch of hops. Perfect for afternoon in the sun.

The next place I checked out had been recommended to me by my friend Bex (a staunch Nelson advocate). I always go in for something quirky and the Free House Pub has that in spades. In the UK a Free House is a pub that is not affiliated with any particular brewery so is free to sell whatever brews it likes. The owners of the Free House in Nelson used this same philosophy. They bought a little church, put a bar in it, put a big Mongolian Ger on the front lawn for events and then encouraged people to plant themselves at a mismatched table or on a bean bag outside and take their time enjoying pints (or half pints) of random beer. The place was the closest we had found to a proper English pub in New Zealand, while at the same time feeling distinctly New Zealand. There is something a little naughty about drinking in a church, but that aside I highly recommend it as a place to spend some time.

With the growth of craft brewing, places like the Sprig and Fern have opened taverns all around Nelson (and Wellington and Auckland too). It is a smart way to get your own brews to the market and Sprig and Fern have a wide variety of them. We decided to stop for a quick Sunday afternoon pint at the Sprig and Fern in Hardy Street, Nelson. The bar itself was nice enough, but could be one of many other similar ones around the place. It was nice to enjoy a pint of their American Amber Ale. Love those red beers. It was also interesting to see the range of people popping for a quick beer, from young people still recovering from the night before to old ladies just after a half of Stout.

A weekend isn't a long time, and given the chance I would go back to Nelson to check out more of the beer brewing activities that go on there. Brewery Tour anyone?

Hmmmm...this ain't Jamaica mon...

As is always the way, time has to pass between the drink going in the bottle and the time you can actually drink it. Fortunately that is only a couple of weeks so it isn't too long to wait. A couple of weeks have passed since I bottled my ginger beer so it was time to try the handiwork. There hadn't been any bottles explode so that was a good start. I decided to start with ginger beer from one of the glass bottles. It poured out nice and golden, but it wasn't as cloudy as I had come to expect from ginger beer. That's OK though as it is really about the taste. Unfortunately, the taste was not great. There was certainly a taste of ginger there, but it just didn't have the bite from the ginger, or even the fizz that gets up your nose. None of that I am afraid. Not sure if it was the cold temperature or the lack of sugar in an attempt to make it non-alcoholic but this one sure hasn't lived up to expectations. My wife agrees. I now have thirty odd bottles of mediocre ginger beer to drink. Perhaps I will learn to like it with time...

Share that 1/2 Gallon

Avid readers of this blog (yes I appreciate their are none...) will recall that when I visited the Tuatara brewery I picked up a 1/2 gallon flagon of Aotearoa Pale Ale. The instructions on the side of the bottle were pretty strict about making sure you drink the whole thing within 24 hours of opening it. I am getting old so no longer see this as a challenge to be taken by myself. Instead it is an opportunity to share a tasty brew with friends. Much more civilised. The hosting of a game night was a perfect opportunity. Ian and Nick were more than willing helpers in the game of emptying the flagon. In fact, the flagon wasn't enough so I also got the opportunity to share some of my English Pale Ale with them too. And they came back for more. That's the beauty about homebrew though. There always seems to be an endless supply of beer to drink.

Back to the PET

So I did manage to get away a bit early from work and got straight into washing and sanitising the bottles. Back to the plastic PET bottles again. I have heard that ginger beer can be prone to exploding so hopefully the plastic will be a bit stretchier than glass. As it turns out I was short a couple of bottles so had to quickly grab a couple of empty glass ones. No sanitiser left so hopefully a good wash will suffice. Been a bit of a long brew this one but it is good to have them in the bottles. Now to see how they taste.

A good read

Yet another two days have passed. Time for yet another reading. Fortunately this time my reading is the same as it was last time. That means I can bottle this baby up. Not today though. Too late and cold to get started. Better try and get away from work early tomorrow.

Am I Reading this right?

So apparently after two days the readings should be same. That means the brewing has stopped and it is time to bottle. So I was expecting that I should be in a position to get the ginger beer out of the barrel today. Unfortunately the readings were changed from last time. The cold weather strikes again...time to wait another two days...

Syrupy goodness

A week has gone by. It says on the instructions that you should add the ginger flavour sachet after the
bubbles have stopped. Bubbles seem to have stopped so time to unscrew the lid and tip in the ginger syrup stuff. Phew, smell that ginger ! Next break out the hydrometer again. Readings are 111, 37, 2.5%, 12°. (Not sure those are all quite right.) If readings are the same in two days then its time to bottle.

Extra Cold Brew

Hmmmmmm, so the heating pad isn't really living up to its name. The cold weather seems to have it beaten. The temperature on the thermometer is down at the lowest setting. There are still some bubbles going through the air lock. Hopefully it is still brewing...

Bare Ginger

With temperatures rising slightly after the storm I ventured out to the still very chilly garage. I gathered my gear together and washed it all out using the cleaning and sanitising products. Managed to avoid tipping the gear down the drain too, which was a good start. 

I tipped the malt mixture into the barrel and filled it up with water. I had heard that the ginger beer can be a bit temperamental and the flavour wasn't all that gingery. On that basis I decided to grate up a bit of fresh ginger from the fruit and vege market and then I tipped it into the mix. A bit of yeast on top, lid on and we would see how it goes.

First reading - 120, 50, 2.5%, 25° (I promise one day I will find out what that all means)

Emersons Weizenbock

After Wellington's worst storm in 30 years the weather was still pretty grim. Wind, rain, cold. All the stuff that makes winter, wintery. After the last Emersons I thought I would give them another go with the Weizenbock. A doublebock wheat beer. I have spent some time in Bavaria and they have some mean winters so, by rights, they should have good winter beer. 

It poured out very dark. That is what you want in a winter beer. The taste was very malty. It had that definite wheat beer taste. That rich sweet flavour you get from something like a Hoegarden but with some burnt flavours too. It might just be me but the beer could do with some hops to even out the wheat beer sweetness. One was fine but I just don't see myself settling in for a night drinking a few of those.

Ginger Ninja

I was out helping my parents shift 30 years of stuff out of their roof so a trip to the home brew shop down the road was a must do. I picked up another air lock. Apparently you shouldn't fill it up too much with water. I also decided to go for a slightly different brew. I picked up a Ginger Beer kit. That's right. Non alcoholic! I had a chat with my brother about it because he had made it before. He said it turned out awful and it might be a good idea to do some internet research before trying it out. Oh dear. Tips anyone?

Emersons Taiere Gorge

A trip to Moore Wilsons is always a good excuse to pick up a bottle of interesting beer. My wife suggested that as her family are originally from Taieri Mouth and we had previously taken the train up the Taieri Gorge that the Emersons Taieri Gorge was the obvious choice. 

Emersons have come up for a bit of criticism in recent times for selling up to Lion Brewery late last year. I

am not that precious so happy to keep drinking their brew.

The beer poured out with a nicely dark colour. Good start for a cold dark night. The flavour was actually quite complex. It started out biscuity and then you taste the spices (it is a spice ale after all). Then the whole thing gets rounded off with a smooth chocolately finish. Very satisfying. Good work Otago. They clearly know the right way to deal with cold weather.

Pasty Pom

Rather than tucking in to my latest brew as soon as the two weeks was up I decided to give it a week's
grace before trying it this time. Just that little bit extra to get it going. Can't really tell what it was going to be like by looking at the outside of the bottle. Only way to find out was to open it up and pour it out. The benefit of having used the smaller bottles is that I can pour into a normal sized glass in one go and it all fits. It came out a medium brown colour. Probably not quite as dark as I was expecting for an English Pale Ale, but I guess it just comes out as it comes out. The taste is what it all comes down to though. Unfortunately the taste was a bit plain. I was expecting a bit of hops in there, but was a bit disappointed that the malt flavour still seemed to overwhelm the hop flavour, which was only slight. Not that there is anything wrong with it. It is certainly drinkable, just not what I was expecting. Guess next time I put a brew on I might need to invest in some hops.

Caps On

Sufficiently inspired after my trip around a real brewery I decided it was time to get my latest brew into the glass bottles I had rescued from the recycling bin. I had spent the morning scrubbing away at the bottles before arranging them on the workbench ready to be filled. I dropped in the carbonation drops, pulled the barrel to the edge of the bench and I was ready to go. This time I had the filling tube working properly so that the valve stopped the beer rushing out the bottom until you put the bottle over it and then the beer got flowing. A lot of my friends reckon that filling small beer bottles takes too long so I started with the big ones but before long all I had left were the small ones. I had washed all the brown bottles I had so hoped it would be enough. It was also a good chance to try out my bottle capper. You drop the cap on the bottle, bring down the capper, lower the handle and pop the beer is sealed nice and tight. I carried on with this for a bit over an hour and before I knew it the barrel was empty and all of the bottles were full. Fortunately there were just enough bottles. That leaves me with all my plastic bottles which I can use for another brew. What to do next?

Tour-atara

It was an exciting day. My friend Hamish had organised a tour around the new Tuatara brewery in
Paraparaumu. After the dilemma of how we were going to get there and back (thanks for agreeing to drive Andy, although five burly lads packed into a Toyota Corolla is pretty tight going. Lucky we are all friends.) Suitably situated in an industrial area we pulled up to the wood paneled warehouse which serve as the new Tuatara brewery. After years being up at owner Carl Vasta's farm in the hills above Paraparaumu they finally ran out of room.

We all started out with a pint of the Aeotearoa Pale Ale before seating ourselves around the big table to listen to Fraser McInnes, one of the founders of the brewery and former owner of bar Bodega, tell us all about the history of Tuatara and the history of beer. Not sure about the factual accuracy of it all but it was pretty convincing that beer is the reason we have civilisation as we know it.

That was the right amount of time to finish our pints before making our way out the back to where all the magic happens. It being the weekend there was no work underway but it meant we could comfortably walk through without getting in people's way. Fraser showed us how they make their mash, the tanks for brewing, the freezer where they keep a dizzying array of hops and the big bottling machine which filled, labelled and capped leaving the "Oompa Loompas" to fill the boxes at the end. He also revealed that they do some contract brewing for some of the smaller Wellington brewers, like Yeastie Boys.

After that we were out the front again, each with our tasting rack filled with fou little glasses. We had selected the Pilsner, the Tripel, the Aotearoa Pale Ale, and the Double Trouble. Suffice to say it was very pleasant sitting outside in the autumn sun sipping on our beers. I won't talk about all the different beers. Can save that for another time, other than to say Fraser said that he thinks the Tripel (the current seasonal brew) is a bit sweeter than they had hoped, but if you buy some now and put them away they should be tasting just right by the end of the year.

Sufficiently lubricated we decided to finish things off with a bit of shopping. Must have gotten a bit excited by the whole thing as I walked away with a t-shirt and a half gallon flagon of APA. Apparently you have to drink it within 24 hours of opening. Might need some help with that one....

All Fine and Dandy

Next day, readings are still the same so must be just about time to bottle. Don't want cloudy beer though so off with the lid of the beer barrel (phew, it's pretty fumey) and tip the finings into the top of the mixture. Now all to do is let it do its magic and another brew will be ready to put into bottles. Hopefully my diligent collecting of beer bottles after I have drunk from them will do the trick.

Special treat for the next blog entry. Some proper beer fanboyism to come.

Frothy

A week has passed since I put the pale ale on to brew. The bubbling has stopped on the air lock which is a good sign. I'm not sure all is well though. When I ran the tap to fill the testing jar the beer was brown but it had a weird frothy head on it. Hope I cleaned the soap out properly. Anyway readings as follows.

110, 32, 0.5%, 22º

Too Cool for School

I checked on the beer barrel  in the morning before going to work and it was clear all was not as it should be. The thermometer showed a temperature of 12° (although you could barely see it). That is well below the optimal temperature for brewing and in fact is so cold that the beer wouldn't be brewing at all. Looks like my heating pad was money well invested. It said not to turn the heating pad for the first 24 hours but I decided to throw caution into the wind and throw the switch.

I came back after work and was pleased to see I had done the right thing. The temperature was up at 22°, a good temperature for brewing, and the air lock was bubbling away nicely with that carbon dioxide showing that the yeast was doing its thing.

My Garage Project

My heating pad has finally arrived. Big plastic square with "Copper Tun" across the front of it and a power lead coming out the side. Not much too look at but apparently this thing will let me brew beer in the cold that is Wellington winter. It is now even more important as I have sacrificed some of my work bench in the garage to set myself up a proper brewing space, rather than taking up room in our laundry. It isn't actually a good example of cleanliness is godliness with cobwebs and dust and other dirt around the place but there is something that just feels right about brewing beer in a space that has a concrete floor. You can see my new bottle capper on the bench too. Lets see how reusing beer bottles from my various drinking adventures works.

A rainy ANZAC day is the perfect opportunity to finally put on another brew. Hasn't been much of a brewing blog so far has it? Won't tell you all about the cleaning again. That was basically the same as last time. Don't need a million photos of soap suds.

Instead of malt mixture in a can, this time it came in a pouch. Apparently the pouch seals in the flavours and keeps it fresher longer. Not sure that really makes a difference to me. You have to rest the pouch in hot water for 15 mins to loosen up th mixture inside so after that I tipped the gooey mess into the barrel. It was a dark brown with streaks of light brown through it. Not sure what that was all about but hopefully it makes for a tasty pale ale. All filled up and yeast added and time for it to work its magic again. The heating pad is not supposed to be used in the first 24 hours so hopefully it will keep itself warm in the meantime.

The brew was a cool 21º at the moment. That is pretty borderline in terms of temperature. Lucky I got that heating pad. Last thing to do was the hydrometer test. Readings 117, 56 and 5.5%. Still no idea what that is all about...

Boundary Road Brewery Red Baron

Another large brewery craft beer today. I have had mixed experiences with Boundary Road Brewery before. Some of their beers are a bit single minded in the tastes. If it tells you it has flavour then that is what you get (chocolate milk anyone?) Nonetheless that isn't a reason to not try their beers. With that in mind I had myself a glass of the Boundary Road Red Baron. It markets itself as an amber ale with a smooth malt taste has a wee story on it about WWI fighter planes.

It came out nice and dark brown
as you would expect from a good amber ale. The taste is definitely malty with that being the overwhelming flavour. You get some hops but not too strong. it also has a slightly burnt taste which I enjoy. I believe those with fancier pallets call that toffee and caramel. I call it burnt. Tasty beer. Would gladly have it again.

Yeastie Boys Golden Perch Summer Ale

Well, they tried to deliver my heat pad but I wasn't home so all they left was a car. I went to their website and scheduled for it to be delivered again Today. Unfortunately I get home and no sign of the heating pad. How disappointing Post Haste...

Guess I best be talking about someone else's beer again. Another one from Yeastie Boys today. Even though we are now well into a cool and wet autumn I thought I would throw it back a couple of months and try the Yeastie Boys Golden Perch Summer Ale, although it is actually an English Pale Ale.

The beer had a nice yellowy cloudy colour. There was a smooth smokey taste. There was some hops but not too strong. Pretty similar to the homebrew summer ale I had last month. Actually works quite well in autumn. Not what I would expect from a pale ale but I still enjoyed it.

Yeastie Boys Gunnamatta IPA

Well. no sign of the heating pad but that's fine because it means I can continue to drink and talk about other people's beers. Today's candidate is the Yeastie Boys Gunnamatta IPA. This beer is the winner of a few awards. People's choice at the Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular 2012 (for which it was specifically created) and Hashigo Zake's Beer of 2012. The twist on this one is that as a part of the brewing process they imbue it with Earl Grey Tea. I have tried beer imbued with tea before so I was interested to see how this one tasted.

The colour was a nice middle brown. It looked nice and smooth. Even though it is an IPA the taste was actually maltier than hoppy. It tasted good, but when you are drinking ale you want a bit more hoppyness. The tea taste was also much subtler than I expected it to be. That was shame as it could have enhanced the hoppy bitterness. It was a smooth drink and I did enjoy it but maybe it was a bit of a lesson in leaving your expectations at the door.

Blame it on the rain

Woo hoo! Water restrictions are all over so I can use the water to make some more beer.

Boo hoo...with the rain has come the cold so I don't think I will be able to get the brew temperature up to where it needs to be.

Oooh hooo? Bought myself a Copper Tun Heat Pad online so when it arrives we will see how that works. Might mean I can brew in the garage instead of the laundry too. That will keep my wife happy.

Monteiths Brewers' Series IPA

So these water restrictions are continuing. Even though it has been raining quite a bit they tell us we still have to conserve water. Hopefully shouldn't be too much longer. That means no brewing though. Doesn't stop me drinking beer though, so thought I might share my thoughts on some other people's beers. 

For many years Monteiths led the way in terms of making interesting beer in New Zealand that you could still buy. Appreciate they are no longer an independent brewery, being owned by DB, but that doesn't mean they can't make good beer. They now have their Brewers Series to tap into that craft market, so I thought I would go for a good standard against which to measure, their Indian Pale Ale. They market it as being very malty and having a high hop content.

There was certainly a strong malty taste. But you could only really get a very slight taste of the hops. rather than being bitter it actually had more of a citrus taste. It had a nice honey colour. Overall it was a nice easy drink although not anything that amazed me. I would drink it again but it wouldn't be my first choice.

Carl's Brew

As it turns out I'm not the only brewer in my family. In fact my brother Carl has been brewing for several months longer than I have. He even brought some out to our parents for everyone to try. This one was a Pilsner which he had brewed in glass bottles, instead of plastic. The trip had shaken up the sediment a bit but I was happy to help him drink it down. The beer itself was quite yellow in colour, but had a decent head on it. It turned out Carl had used table sugar to feed his yeast instead of the brewers mix that you can buy. That meant that the beer was quite sweet and had a stronger aroma to it then a store bought pilsner, almost wine like. You could definitely taste the malt, although it wasn't overpowering. Not much of a sign of hops though, which could have balanced the sweetness quite nicely. 

Now if these water restrictions can just come to an end I can put on another brew myself. Had some rain over the weekend and more forecast for this week. Trouble is I know that once the rain comes that will be it for summer again. Sun or beer? What a choice...

The Drys

Unfortunately there hasn't been much to blog about lately. With the worst drought in Wellington in over 70 years and the risk of domestic water running out, all the water needed to prepare to put a brew on is a luxury we just can't afford. On the plus side the brewing barrel makes an excellent storage container for a backup supply of water when indoor water restrictions kick in. Lucky I still have plenty of that Munich Lager left to quench my thirst.

More Ins-brew-ation

I was very fortunate to celebrate my great friends Ian and Amy's wedding recently. They had engaged (love a good pun) their friend Darren (who coincidentally had made our wedding rings) to prepare a special wedding brew for them. Darren has been brewing much longer than I have and it shows. He had converted a fridge, painted it blue, run lines inside to taps mounted on the front so that you could pour ice cold homebrew from the kegs inside it. Now that is science, and a bit of engineering too.

He had two beers on the go. A hoppy pale ale and a tasty summer ale. Still hoppy but lighter and fresher and perfect for the sunny outdoor wedding ceremony and reception. Darren's homebrew ran out well before the bottled beer did so if that isn't a vote of confidence I don't know what is. More please!

Selling to the public

Waitangi Day was a good day for another round of Settlers of Catan. This time though we had guests join us. It was time to see if the brew that I was enjoying was actually enjoyable to real people. My wife's brother and cousin were the voluntary test subjects. A bit of apprehension on their (and my) parts but after taking their first steps they were convinced that the beer was good. I knew it wasn't just being polite because they asked for another one. I was happy to oblige.

I also managed to find a way to avoid the sedimenty yuckiness. Brandy glasses. The Belgians drink beer from round glasses with stems, so why can't we too? The beer fitted perfectly and avoided that home brew cloudiness. It was also a good opportunity to use our Straffe Hendrik glasses that we had picked up on our travels in Belgium.

Bottled In

So the beer tastes alright, but there is something about pouring your beer out of a plastic bottle that just isn't as satisfying as getting your beer from a cool glass bottle. Fortunately a BBQ at our place left me with a surplus of empty beer bottles stacked high in our recycling bin (and some full ones floating around in the chilly bin....SCORE!) I'm not usually one to go through the rubbish bin but this time I decided to make an exception. Why not reuse something instead of throwing it away?

It was time for the trusty laundry sink to get another workout. This time filled up with warm water and washing liquid. The water may have been a little hot as I couldn't keep my hands in there long enough to properly fill the bottles. However a bit of maneuvering with a wooden spoon and I slowly managed to get all the bottles submerged. Twist tops didn't get a chance but I was still left with plenty of Epic, Tuatara, Monteiths and Stoke bottles, big and small. A good overnight soaking and then a check the next day to see how they were looking. They were all still labelled up, but a bit of scraping with my nails and the labels all came off pretty easily. All except the Stoke bottles that is. Their labels were firmly still firmly attached. Hmmm, turns out the labels are actually plastic stickers so they peel off easily. Should have tried that in the first place. Another sink full and another round of bottles and I now have a whole bunch of bottles of various sizes. Not enough for a full brew though. Looks like I am going to have to buy some more beer. The sacrifices I make....

I have tried my brew again too. Another bottle, and still tasty, although maybe I need to get some bigger beer glasses to try and avoid the sediment stirring up too much. Must be a smarter way to do it...

Tasting Time

So not much activity on here for the last couple of weeks. That is because the instructions say you are supposed to leave your brew alone for two weeks for it to ferment. It suggest that even after two weeks has passed your brew will get better the longer you leave it. My friend Andy tells me two years is too long. Unless you like old flat beer... (This is not my friend but he does share the same name.) Having said that you make beer, you want to drink it so I decided to put one bottle in the fridge and have a celebratory beer for my wife's birthday. A good day in the fridge and it was plenty cold. Sitting in the sun and playing some Settlers of Catan seemed like the perfect time to enjoy my beer.

I twisted the cap on the bottle and it hissed just like a proper beer. Those carbonation capsules seem to have done their job. I poured the beer into my glass and it came out beer coloured with a nice head on top it. It was even clear like a beer should be. No sign of home brew sediment in this one. One last test. How did it taste? I put it to my lips, took a mouthful in waiting for that home brew bite, but it never came. It was smooth and fresh and sort of pale aley in its taste. It was supposed to be a Munich Lager so not quite lagery in its taste, but pretty darn good nonetheless. My wife even agreed.

The bottle was enough for two glasses, so after enjoying the first one I went back for seconds. I think the first pour must have mixed things up a bit, because this time it was a bit cloudier and had a slight home brew smell about it. Still tasted good though, and that's what it's all about. Science.

Just Great

As I previously mentioned, I needed to get a new hydrometer and some more cleaning stuff. I happened to be in the Hutt to get a few jobs done so thought I would visit Brewers World - Great Expectations in Fairfield. They have shelves full of all sorts of things you need to brew our own beer, as well as make other things like wine and cheese. However, the shelves were less than full, with only a few items on each. A chat with the guy  behind the counter made it clear that they had had a massive run on stock after Christmas and couldn't get the shop restocked again to meet the demand. He seemed pretty down on it, but I couldn't help but remind him that it was good news to be that busy. He begrudgingly agreed. 

Armed with cleaner and a hydrometer  I stopped at Countdown on the way home and picked up some sanitiser. Good to know that the supermarket has a fair amount of supplies for keeping the home brew going. Some water, a sachet of cleaner, some shaking, some scrubbing and some wiping and the barrel was all clean again. No more brown residue. Pulling my tap apart I also found what looked like the valve for my bottle filler (and probably the reason the pour was so slow too. Now I just need to work out how to put it together so it works next time I bottle.

In the meantime it is a simple matter of waiting before any of the bottled beer can be drunk. Patience is a virtue.

Bottleneck

Another hydromoter reading and no change from last time so things were  looking pretty good for getting my brew out of the barrel and into bottles. Unfortunately the loose cap on the testing jar let me down again. It wasn't beer thar went everywhere this time though, it was the hydrometer as its glass frame smashed all over the floor. Looks like I need to find somewhere that sells hydrometers...

With that cleaned up I got out my thirty plastic bottles. Not exactly classy but apparently you can't just use any old bottles because they need to be able to cope with the pressure. (I won't ever forget the big cider bomb war of the early 2000s...) Science.

To make sure not to get infected by that dirty bacteria it was time for some cleaning again. Last sachet of cleaning powder from the kit (best be grabbing some more of that) and half filled the laundry sink with cold water and then swished the powder around just like I do with the Napi-San. Although this time it was rubber gloves on to save my soft office hands. I chucked a couple of bottles in the sink and then vigorously went to town on them with the bottle brush. Only one sink in the laundry so had to use the sink and draining space in the kitchen for rinsing. My timing may not have been best as there was jam bubbling away on the stove only centimetres away. It was a self sufficient house today.

Once clean the bottles also had to be sterilised so it was time to clear out the sink of soapy water and fill it with 5l of water to which the steriliser sachet was added and swished around. It was a careful case of removing the bottles from the pyramid without toppling the rest everywhere and then swishing them around in the sanitiser water. The bench in the kitchen was being used to jar jam so the washing machine lid needed to double as a bottle stand for my sanitary bottles. Lids and bottling attachment floated around during all of this too so they should have been pretty well sanitised by the end of it all (as would my t-shirt have been from all the water it had been splashed with too.)

All that cleaning finally finished it was time to finally get some beer in the bottles. Two carbonation capsules in each bottle (I assume they make my beer fizzy). Fortunately they didn't start fizzing straight away. The bottling attachment is a long tube which attaches to the tap. I think it is supposed to have a valve on the bottom so you can just switch on the tap but it only fills when the tube touches the bottom of the bottle. My tube has no valve so I was switching the tap on and off to fill my bottles. Fortunately with the tube on the bottles sat nicely on the floor and I could start filling one as I put the lid on another. Efficient.

The beer wasn't exactly gushing out so I patiently watched each bottle fill up as the level inside the barrel went gradually down. It got a bit worrying towards the end of my 30 bottles as there must have been some sediment stuck in the tap and the dribble became a drip. A bit of swishing the barrel got things moving again. Hope those bottles don't end up half full of grit. Might have to see if someone else wants to try those ones...

Thirty bottles full and it was time to clean out the dregs from the barrel. A bit of a struggle to get the lid off but some wrestling and leverage got me there. It was all pretty rough in there. Some brown liquid swishing around. I'm not convinced the finings did anything. It sure wasn't too clear. Once I tipped the remaining liquid and sediment into the sink it was not too dissimilar too the way beer looks after coming back up again. Smelt similar too. I was pleased to be leaving that stuff behind. Proper cleaning was going to have to wait though. No more cleaning sachets left so a rinse would have to do for one day.

Job well done. Time for a beer. Know where I can get some?

So Fine

With the testing worked out yesterday and the reading being within the range of what it should have been it was time to do another test today to see if it was time to bottle. All went according to plan, fill the container, carry it to the kitchen, bottom falls out of the container spilling beer all over the floor...oops. Maybe not quite the plan I had in mind. Clean it up before the wife sees and then try again. This time the reading was the same as yesterday 1.011. So, according to my instructions that means it is time to  bottle.

But WAIT. The beer is all cloudy and looks kinda gross. Shouldn't it be clearer? What can I do about that? Luckily the kit came with a solution too. Beer Finings. Mix it up with half a cup of warm water and then pour it in the top of the beer barrel. Looks pretty good in there and hardly smells, even with the lid off. So another two days before bottling but getting ever closer to something I can drink. Have to settle for all those tasty craft beers until then. Life ain't too bad.

A decimal point

As I said I really needed to have a good look at the hydrometer and work out what I was actually measuring. As it turns out I had missed a great big 1.000 at the top. So when I was saying I was measuring 112 I was actually measuring 1.012. Phew, that was what I was aiming for. Today's measurement is 1.011. Looking pretty good and on track to bottle soon.