tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57445426449730880182024-03-20T21:50:41.791+10:00KDAn online account of my brewing passionKristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-57350957448482475312010-03-05T13:28:00.002+10:002010-03-05T13:33:41.487+10:00#25 GxSA (Galaxy Summer Ale)Brewed: 3rd December, 2009<br /><br />Another catch up post. This next beer in my series of Summer Ales was the second one that used Galaxy Hops. The change between this one and the <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2009/12/22-gxsa-galaxy-summer-ale.html">last one</a> was that instead of using Torrified Wheat, I used <a href="http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/CaraPils">Carapils</a> malt. I am assuming that the wheat content in the <a href="http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?autocom=recipedb&code=show&recipe=199">original recipe</a> is used to aid head retention, and as Carapils is also used for that, I thought I would see if I could notice any difference between the two. I'm actually planning on doing the side-by-side test later on today, and I'll report the results back here in the near future.<br /><br />The brewday didn't go entirely to plan. It was the first time I had a boil-over in the full size kettle, resulting in quite a mess in the brewery. I also made a note that the final volume appeared to be lower than usual, which I put down to the extra vigorous boiling at the start (which is what overflowed the kettle!). Aside from that, I came close to my target numbers, and more importantly, the numbers were consistent with similar recipes done previously.<br /><br />The recipe:<br /><br />Australian Pale Malt: 4500g<br />Carapils: 400g<br /><br />Galaxy pellets (13.4% AA): 12g @ -80 mins ~18 IBU<br />Galaxy pellets (13.4% AA): 12g @-20 mins ~10 IBU<br />Galaxy pellets (13.4% AA): 16g @ -5 mins ~4 IBU<br />Galaxy pellets (13.4% AA): 23g in no-chill cube < 1 IBU<br /><br />Mash time: 60 minutes<br />Target mash temperature: 64C<br />Start: 64C End: 61.5C<br /><br />Run-off: 30L<br /><br />Pre-boil SG: 1041<br />Boil Time: 90 minutes<br /><br />Target OG: 1047<br />Actual OG: 1046<br /><br />Volume in fermenter: 21L<br />Yeast: WLP001 - California Ale (harvested from #24 GBSA)<br />Ferment temperature: 19C<br /><br />FG: 1011<br />ABV: 4.6%Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-55940828048806985112010-03-05T12:56:00.006+10:002010-03-05T13:25:08.277+10:00#24 GBSA (Green Bullet Summer Ale)Brewed: 25th November, 2009<br /><br />Time for a catch up post. I had used <a href="http://www.nzhops.co.nz/varieties/green_bullet.html">Green Bullet hops</a> before with great success in a couple of New Zealand Pale Ales and wanted to see how the hops worked in the Summer Ale hop schedule, ie, with more late additions. The first time I tried the first of my NZPAs, it immediately brought back memories of some beers from previous trips to NZ, even though at the time I didn't think that NZ beers had any particular common flavour/aroma traits. I've since heard that this hop is used by a few commercial breweries in NZ, which probably explains the association I made.<br /><br />I actually brewed this on the same day as the <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2010/02/23-gipa-german-eis-pa.html">#23 German "Eis Pale Ale"</a>, mashing in at the same time that the German ale was in the kettle, and it's the only time so far that I've done two brews in a day. Mind you, the German ale was already in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wort">sweet-wort</a> form, so I only needed to do the one mash on the day. In any case, I don't think it added too much time to the whole day, which is good to know if I ever want to do multiple batches in the future.<br /><br />Although I had another beer in mind to take to Mackay over the xmas period, it hadn't finished carbonating in time so a keg of this one went up instead. It turned out to be a good choice, as it was more interesting than a lot of mega-swill beers out there, but not over the top in terms of flavour and aroma so you could enjoy a few in a sitting (and that we did!). I've since been told that this would also be a good "gateway beer", to show those who are not as adventurous with trying different beers that there is a whole other world of flavour out there!<br /><br />The recipe:<br /><br />Australian Pale Malt: 4500g<br />Torrified Wheat: 400g<br /><br />Green Bullet pellets (13% AA): 13g @ -80 mins ~18 IBU<br />Green Bullet pellets (13% AA): 12g @-20 mins ~10 IBU<br />Green Bullet pellets (13% AA): 16g @ -5 mins ~4 IBU<br />Green Bullet pellets (13% AA): 22g in no-chill cube < 1 IBU<br /><br />Mash time: 60 minutes<br />Target mash temperature: 64C<br />Start: 64C End: 62C<br /><br />Run-off: 30L<br /><br />Pre-boil SG: 1040<br />Boil Time: 90 minutes<br /><br />Target OG: 1047 Actual: 1046<br /><br />Volume in fermenter: 22L<br />Yeast: WLP001 - California Ale (harvested from #22 GxSA)<br />Ferment temperature: 19C<br /><br />FG: 1013<br />ABV: 4.4%Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-65604767913808113562010-03-04T16:02:00.003+10:002010-03-04T16:21:45.562+10:00#35 RP (Chocolate Porter/Stout)Brewed: 25th February, 2010<br /><br />I've brewed this recipe a couple of <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2009/11/21-rp-robust-porter-chocolate-jaffa.html">times</a> before, and with St. Patrick's day not far away, I thought I'd brew it up again for that occasion. Unfortunately, the <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2010/02/34-bwb-babbs-wild-brew.html">Wild Brew</a> is still chugging away in the fermenter, so I haven't been able to get this one fermenting yet and I'll be pushing it to get it ready in time! Luckily I've still got a few bottles from the last batch if it's not ready in time.<br /><br />The last time I brewed the beer, it came out a little more roasty than I was expecting it, pushing it more into Stout territory, hence the slight naming confusion in the title. I had to substitute a smaller quantity of Chocolate malt for some of the Carafa Special grain this time, as I didn't have enough of the latter for the recipe. I also added a little more cocoa this time (150g instead of 100g) and added it to the no-chill cube instead of the kettle in the hope of pushing the beer back into Porter territory. The experiment on the last batch with using late citrus style hops didn't have the desired effect of adding a noticeable citrus taste to the beer, but the flavour worked out well, so I went with a similar late hop schedule. I substituted Fuggles for East Kent Goldings as the bittering addition due to stock levels.<br /><br />The brew day went completely to plan - all target numbers were hit and no mistakes were made. I was joined for part of the day by my sister's friend, Aaron, who currently makes beer from <a href="http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Home_Brew_Acronyms#K">Kits & Bits</a>. He wanted to see the process involved at this level, which I was happy to show.<br /><br />The recipe (based on the <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2009/11/21-rp-robust-porter-chocolate-jaffa.html">previous batch</a>):<br /><br />Australian Pale Malt: 4500g<br />Light Munich: 1000g<br />Crystal 135: 500g<br />Chocolate Malt: 250g<br />Carafa Special II: 100g<br />Roast Barley: 100g<br />Cocoa powder: 150g (added to no-chill cube)<br /><br />Fuggles pellets (4.5% AA): 51g @ -45 mins ~21 IBU<br />Cascade pellets (6.6% AA): 18g @ -5 mins ~2 IBU<br />Cascade pellets (6.8% AA): 10g in no-chill cube <1 IBU<br /><br />Mash time: 60 minutes<br />Target mash temperature: 68C<br />Start: 68C End: 66.4C<br /><br />Run-off: 28L<br /><br />Pre-boil SG: 1052<br />Boil Time: 60 minutes<br /><br />Post-boil volume (hot): 24L<br />Target OG: 1057 Actual: 1058<br /><br />Yeast: Re-cultured Coopers yeast (harvested from #31 CSA)<br />Ferment temperature: 18CKristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-23470531659669039812010-03-04T13:17:00.004+10:002010-03-04T13:26:54.725+10:00February mini-comp resultsLast Thursday's <a href="http://www.babbrewers.com/">BABBs</a> meeting included the first mini-competition of the year. The selected styles for the competition were Australian Pale Ale and English Bitters. At the mini-competitions, you can enter up to two beers, but only one can count towards points that are accumulated over the year, and the other is just for feedback. To make things more interesting, you have to choose which is which at the time of entering.<br /><br />I did a tasting of my three contenders a couple of days before and I decided to enter my <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2010/02/31-csa-coopers-sparkling-ale-clone.html">Coopers Sparkling Ale clone</a> as my "points" entry, and my <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2010/02/32-esb-english-best-bitter.html">English Best Bitter</a> for feedback. The <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2010/01/29-opa-oz-pale-ale.html">Australian Pale Ale</a> that missed out was starting to show some signs of aging, and wasn't tasting nearly as good as the other two beers. Once that was decided, it was also easy for me to choose the Sparkling Ale clone as the better beer, as the Best Bitter had an unexpected slightly dirty/ashy flavour to it. I'm still not sure where that came from, but am happy to say that it is starting to fade away now.<br /><br />In the end it didn't matter, as both of my beers scored 36/50. The winning beer of the night scored 39, but there were at least four others that scored higher, as I wasn't mentioned in the top 5. Out of 31 entries in total though, I am still happy with the two results.<br /><br />I've transcribed the scoresheets below. Unfortunately, I didn't get a whole lot of feedback on the Best Bitter - I was mainly hoping that someone might have an insight as to where the unexpected flavour was coming from. As for the Sparkling Ale, it turns out that it was judged by our table, so I inadvertently received even more feedback than we recorded on the scoresheet. It was the last beer we judged though, and after the four other beers (three ordinary bitters and another Australian pale ale), I didn't recognise it from the flavour! The lack of carbonation that we marked it down for was possibly from the way I filled the bottles. I'll make sure that it's slightly over carbonated next time I fill it from the keg.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2010/02/31-csa-coopers-sparkling-ale-clone.html">#31 CSA</a> Category 3A (Australian Pale Ale)</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Aroma: 10/12</span><br />Good fruit & ester<br />Bready aroma coming through<br />Slight solvent aroma?<br />Apple aroma coming through<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Appearance: 2/3</span><br />Carbonation a bit low<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Flavour: 14/20</span><br />Bitterness is too strong for malt<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Mouthfeel: 3/5</span><br />Lacking carbonation<br />Not finishing dry enough<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Overall Impression: 7/10</span><br />Good drinking beer<br />Needs more carbonation<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2010/02/32-esb-english-best-bitter.html">#32 EBB</a> Category 3C (English Best Bitter)</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Aroma: 9/12</span><br />Fruity and malty aroma<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Appearance: 2/3</span><br />Some cloudiness<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Flavour: 15/20</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Mouthfeel: 3/5</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Overall Impression: 7/10</span><br />Typical of styleKristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-34188120071676669802010-02-28T18:03:00.006+10:002010-02-28T18:13:33.497+10:00#34 BWB (BABBs Wild Brew)Brewed: 19th February, 2010<br /><br />This beer is part of a collaboration brew for the brewing club I belong to. The idea is that about 22 members will brew up the same recipe and ferment it out under the same conditions (well, as close as possible anyway), then the resulting beer will be blended together and aged in an ex-wine barrel with another yeast strain. At the end of the year, we will bottle off half of the barrel and then brew a new beer (possibly a different recipe) and blend it with the remaining half of the beer and the cycle will start again. More details, including the recipe, can be found on the <a href="http://www.babbrewers.com/story/babbs-gone-wild">BABBs website</a>.<br /><br />With an estimated original gravity of 1.104 SG, this was by far the biggest brew I've ever attempted. The grain alone for this batch weighed in just under 8kg; three kilograms more for the same volume than the usual grain bill for the Summer Ales I have been brewing over the recent months. As I still only have a hand mill, I was lucky enough to get the grians pre-milled!<br /><br />I was a little surprised to see that my system was able to extract the necessary amount of sugar from the grain for such a large volume, with my pre-boil gravity coming in just above the calculated expected value and getting more volume than I had anticipated. I think this was partly to my mis-calculation of sparge water volumes, resulting in first-runnings of 20 litres instead of the expected 14! I adjusted the second sparge to account for this mistake. I'll have to look into this calculation again for future big beers so I don't make the same mistake again.<br /><br />The gravity of the second runnings was indeed high enough that I decided to sparge one more time and get 5 litres of additional sweet-wort from the grain. It's still sitting in the fridge (after being boiled) waiting for me to make a decision about what to do with it.<br /><br />My evaporation rate wasn't quite as high as I predicted, and as a result, I needed to boil the wort for two and a half hours instead of the predicted two. It probably could have done with an extra 10 minutes on top of that to hit the target OG spot on, but it was close enough in the end.<br /><br />The biggest mistake I made on the day was that I didn't notice that my kettle drain filter had become blocked towards the end of draining, and I assumed that it had finished emptying. This resulted in me leaving behind 3 litres in the bottom of the kettle instead of the normal 1 litre I usually lose, and pretty much canceled out the great extraction efficiency I had during mashing. I think the blockage was partly caused by the wort being a lot more dense than I am normally used to - yet another lesson learned.<br /><br /><br />These were my results from the brewday:<br /><br />Mash time: 60 minutes<br />Target mash temperature: 65C<br />Start: 65C End: 63.5C<br /><br />Runoff: 30L<br /><br />Pre-boil SG: 1.068<br />Boil time: 150 mins<br /><br />Post-boil volume (hot): 21L<br />Target OG: 1.104 Actual: 1.101<br /><br />Volume in fermenter: 17L<br />Yeast: Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity<br />Ferment temperature: 18C for first 24h, then up to 24CKristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-23907689845607962062010-02-28T16:49:00.003+10:002010-02-28T18:03:20.508+10:00#33 ChSA (Chinook Summer Ale)Brewed: 13th February, 2010<br /><br />This was the 9th batch in the Summer Ale series I have been brewing and a contender for the <a href="http://www.babbrewers.com">BABBs</a> March mini-competition, which focuses on American Ales. I actually changed two key ingredients for this batch; the hops and the base malt. I chose Chinook hops as I've heard of its good for bittering and flavouring aspects, and although I haven't used it before, I've tasted a few beers that contain Chinook and have enjoyed the flavour. This recipe will isolate the hop flavour so I can see what it tastes like itself. I changed the base malt for this recipe too, as I knew I wanted to enter it into the competition, and American Pale Ales are meant to have a bit more of a malt component than what I've been getting in my previous Summer Ales. I chose English Maris Otter, as it is said to leave more malt flavour trace than the Australian Pale Malt I've used in the past.<br /><br />I first noticed the difference that the base malt brought to the recipe when I was draining the Mash/Lauter tun; the runnings were a lot darker and cloudier than I had seen in the past. It almost had a green hue to it and certainly appeared to have a higher suspended protein content. The aroma from the mash and kettle was also a bit more grainy than what I remember from previous batches, so hopefully that carries through in the final product.<br /><br />I hit most of my targets on the day, with the exception of stopping the boil a few minutes late, hence the odd timings for the hop additions.<br /><br />I've since tasted the beer after primary fermentation finished, and really noticed a good citrus aroma and grapefruit/passionfruit flavours coming through. I'm going to <a href="http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/05/21/dry-hopping-enhanced-hops-aroma/">dry-hop</a> the keg before I bottle my competition entry, with the aim of delivering more of that fresh aroma on the night. I didn't notice a change to the malt flavour at the time though, so I'm not sure if that part of the experiment has paid off. Time will tell.<br /><br />The recipe:<br /><br />Maris Otter Pale Malt: 4500g<br />Torrified Wheat: 400g<br /><br />Chinook pellets (11.5% AA): 15g @ -83 mins ~19 IBU<br />Chinook pellets (11.5% AA): 15g @ -23 mins ~ 14 IBU<br />Chinook pellets (11.5% AA): 20g @ -8 mins ~ 4 IBU<br />Chinook pellets (11.5% AA): 20g in no-chill cube < 1 IBU<br />Chinook pellets (11.5% AA): 20g dry-hop in keg < 1 IBU<br /><br />Mash time: 60 minutes<br />Target mash temperature: 64C<br />Start: 64C End: 63C<br /><br />Runoff: 30L<br /><br />Pre-boil SG: 1042<br />Boil time: 90 mins<br /><br />Post-boil volume (hot): 24L<br />Target OG: 1049 Actual: 1051<br /><br />Volume in fermenter: 19.5L<br />Yeast: WLP001 - California Ale (harvested from #30 AmSA)<br />Ferment temperature: 19C<br /><br />Actual FG: 1010<br />ABV: 5.4%Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-69050724023909849102010-02-11T16:41:00.004+10:002010-02-11T16:59:43.292+10:00#23 GIPA (German Eis-PA)Brewed: 25th November, 2009<br /><br />Time for a catch up post. This brew came about after a <a href="http://www.babbrewers.com">BABBs</a> social outing up to <a href="http://www.eagleheightsbrewery.com.au">Eagle Heights Brewery</a> at Mount Tamborine. On the day we were there, they made up 500L of boiled sweet-wort, which was packaged into 20L cubes and distributed to members of the club. Each member who took some wort home was able to further process the wort and ferment it out however they pleased, with the only exception that no further malt could be added to it (other fermentables, such as sugar, honey, etc were ok). The results were to be brought back to the club's first meeting of the year in January, where we got to try everyone's beer side-by-side. The grain bill for the wort was 100% Munich malt, mashed at 66.5°C then boiled for 45 minutes.<br /><br />Here's a picture of me on the day peering into the Mash/Lauter tun as Johann, another BABBs member, was mixing in the grain:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBXjUAhEaOBvL2tdRqEJvjv4kwFDvW-KMdb_XCh9gOwH-bfPejiGQ6nVb9hxVaVrhG0_O6COCOlKod_b5KTRyvXow2OZKlAdWbDKMfzY_-n9oFv1NJZO6JaKRBVkCvU_sirOckR1D4mwqB/s1600-h/Picture+3.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBXjUAhEaOBvL2tdRqEJvjv4kwFDvW-KMdb_XCh9gOwH-bfPejiGQ6nVb9hxVaVrhG0_O6COCOlKod_b5KTRyvXow2OZKlAdWbDKMfzY_-n9oFv1NJZO6JaKRBVkCvU_sirOckR1D4mwqB/s320/Picture+3.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436873425734450578" /></a><br /><br />A great day was had by all, starting off at Eagle Heights Brewery, then heading up the road to MT Brewery for a few more beers before returning home. There's more pictures from the day on Eagle Heights Brewery's <a href=" http://www.eagleheightsbrewery.com.au/news.html">website</a>, and more information about the day in the BABBs <a href="http://www.babbrewers.com/files/newsletter/2009/2009-11.pdf">November newsletter</a>.<br /><br />Anyway, back to the brew. I didn't want to do anything too fancy with it, as I wanted the Munich Malt to shine through the end result. I was considering doing a <a href="http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/what-does-term-smash-mean-138096/">SMaSH</a>, but then had the idea of combining German and English ingredients, and doing something along the lines of an IPA, a style I hadn't tried brewing before. So I ended up with German malt, German bittering hops, English flavouring hops, and English yeast.<br /><br />One of the most interesting things to happen with this batch was that at the end of five weeks of cold conditioning at around 0-1°C, when I went to transfer the beer to a keg, I found that it was a little too cold and had partly iced up on the inside! I only noticed this after I had started transferring, so I couldn't wait for it to thaw out. In the end, I decided to leave the ice behind and ended up with an <a href="http://www.germanbeerinstitute.com/Eisbock.html">Eis Bier</a>! A German Eis Bier (Ice Beer) is made in a similar way, where once the beer has finished fermenting, it is cooled to below 0°C. At this temperature, the water component of the beer starts freezing, but the alcohol, which has a lower freezing temperature, remains in liquid form. Once the water is in ice form, it can be separated from the beer, thus concentrating the remaining flavour and alcohol. In my case, I only lost about 2 litres out of 16 to ice, which increased the alcohol content by about 1%. Ordinarily, brewers yeast can only tolerate alcohol up to 12-15% ABV, but by repeating the process, you can get the alcohol content much higher, which is <a href="http://www.internetwines.com/rws28347.html">how</a> <a href="http://www.brewdog.com/blog-article.php?id=214">some</a> <a href="http://www.brewsnews.com.au/2010/02/cold-war-arms-race/">beers</a> can achieve up to 40% ABV.<br /><br />I was pretty happy with how this one turned out - a great strong malt flavour. If anything, it is a little too bitter, but I'm planning on letting it sit for a couple of months and see if it smooths out.<br /><br />There was a wide variety to the beers that were brought to the January meeting by the other members. There was a Belgian interpretation, a Bock and Dopple-bock, a couple of Dunkels, a sour-orange and a berry infused brew, and then there were those that were flavoured with oak chips, chai spices, and even pureed banana! I also took the oportunity to enter a bottle to be judged by Eagle Heights Brewery's owner, Ed Gordon, with the chance of winning a case of Mikkeller beer. I guess that will be announced at the next meeting.<br /><br />This was the recipe I went with:<br /><br />Light Munich Malt: 100%<br /><br />Perle pellets (8.3% AA): 30g @ -60mins ~35 IBU<br />East Kent Golding pellets (4.8% AA): 47g @ -15mins ~15 IBU<br /><br />Pre-boil gravity: 1051<br />Pre-boil volume: 20L<br /><br />Boil time: 60 minutes<br /><br />OG: 1064<br /><br />Volume in fermenter: 16.2L<br />Yeast: WLP005 British Ale Yeast<br />Ferment temp: 19C<br /><br />FG: 1018<br />Pre-ice ABV: ~6%<br />Final Volume: 14.2L<br />Final ABV: ~6.9%Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-51707177324808928662010-02-11T14:54:00.004+10:002010-03-04T13:29:15.464+10:00#32 EBB (English Best Bitter)Brewed: 6th February, 2010<br /><br />This is another contender for the February <a href="http://www.babbrewers.com/">BABBs</a> mini-competition. In all I'll have three to choose from; this one, <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2010/02/31-csa-coopers-sparkling-ale-clone.html">#31 CSA</a> and <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2010/01/29-opa-oz-pale-ale.html">#29 OPA</a>. The rules of the competition are that you can only enter one beer to count towards scoring, and one additional beer to get feed-back on, so I'll enter the one that fits to style best for scoring, and perhaps the one I want to improve for feedback. <br /><br />This brew will be cutting it fine for the competition, but it's also a style that is better fresh/young, so that might work out in my favour. I figure I'll have a week for primary, then transfer it to finish off fermenting (maybe three days?), four days cold conditioning and a couple of days to carbonate it. The competition is on February 25th and I transferred to primary on the 9th. Yes, definitely cutting it fine!<br /><br />Once again, I was shooting for a lower volume with the intention of having just enough to fill one keg. I've only just started adjusting recipe volumes and I now realise that I have made a couple of mistakes over the last couple of batches, thinking I was doing the right thing by scaling the volume along with the grains & hops. Unfortunately, I hadn't taken into account that things like evaporation rate and transfer losses remain fairly constant, and so on both occasions, I have ended up with far less volume in the fermenter than I was expecting. It's a good lesson to learn, and something I'll be practising over the next few brews until I get right.<br /><br />There were a couple of hiccups on the day. Firstly, during pre-heating the Mash/Lauter tun, I noticed a small leak at the tap, but subsequently forgot to tighten it after emptying. It wasn't until the grain was in and I'd started filling it that I noticed the leak again. Luckily, I was filling the tun from the bottom, which meant most of the grist on top was still quite dry and I was able to remove enough to get in and tighten the tap. I'll have to figure out a way to remind myself in the future.<br /><br />The second problem came as a result of cleaning up from the last batch, when I mixed up the stainless steel washers from the MLT and Kettle. I had thought they were the same size, but it turns out that the kettle one is slightly bigger and I couldn't get the other one to fit. I only noticed this after the MLT was full so I was unable to retrieve the proper kettle washer, which meant I had to file back the mash tun washer until it fit the kettle. This lead to slight delays after mashing. On the plus side, the two washers really are interchangeable now.<br /><br />Everything else went to plan, and aside from the lower volume, I'm confident about the result. I recently bought some English Maris Otter malted barley to use in some of my more malt-driven ales instead of the Australian Pale malt. The aroma coming from the mash tun was noticeably nuttier, the sweet wort had a nice grainy taste to it, and there was a slight toffee flavour in the hopped wort. I'm really looking forward to tasting the finished product.<br /><br />The recipe (based on <a href="http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php/?autocom=recipedb&code=show&recipe=145">this one</a>):<br />[Note that the original recipe calls only for Caramunich II, but as I didn't have enough, I substituted the remaining amount for the lighter Caramunich I]<br /><br />Maris Otter Pale Malt: 3717g (88%)<br />Caramunich II: 268g (6.5%)<br />Wheat Malt: 165g (4%)<br />Caramunich I: 62g (1.5%)<br /><br />East Kent Golding pellets (4.8% AA): 54g @ -60mins ~32 IBU<br />East Kent Golding pellets (4.8% AA): 17g @ -60mins ~5 IBU<br />East Kent Golding pellets (4.8% AA): 17g added to no-chill cube <1 IBU<br /><br />Mash time: 60 minutes<br />Target mash temperature: 67C<br /><br />Start: 67C End: 65.5C<br /><br />Runoff: 25L<br /><br />Pre-boil SG: 1043<br />Boil time: 60 minutes<br /><br />Target OG: 1046 Actual: 1048<br />Post-boil volume (hot): 20.5L<br /><br />Volume in fermenter: 17.5L<br />Yeast: WLP005 British Ale harvested from #27 DA<br />Ferment temp: 19C<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Updated 4th March:</span> This beer scored 36/50 in the BABBs February 2010 mini-competition. Results posted <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2010/03/february-mini-comp-results.html">here</a>.Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-20553230608499949162010-02-01T20:52:00.003+10:002010-03-04T13:30:21.798+10:00#31 CSA (Coopers Sparkling Ale clone)Brewed: 31st January, 2010<br /><br />I decided to brew this batch for a couple of reasons; first, it fits in to one of the styles open for competition at the February <a href="http://www.babbrewers.com">BABBs</a> mini-competition, and second, it looks like we're going to a party at the end of February where this style of beer could go down pretty well. The hop signature of this, and many other Australian main-stream beers, is that of the <a href="http://www.hopproducts.com.au/products/australian_varieties/pride_of_ringwood.html">Pride of Ringwood</a> cultivar, and although it's far from my favourite from a flavour perspective, it's pretty distinctive, and in my experience, reasonably easy to replicate from a home brewing perspective.<br /><br />I was shooting for a lower volume with this brew with the intention of getting enough to fill just one keg (without any left overs for bottling). Unfortunately my calculations were a bit out when it came to my first sparge water and I ended up with a lower first-runnings volume. I made up for it with the second sparge, whilst still being close enough with my pre and post boil gravities.<br /><br />The yeast for this batch is currently being brought back to life from a couple of <a href="http://www.coopers.com.au/">Coopers</a> Pale Ales I was enjoying the other night. For those reading who aren't aware, Coopers' beers are bottle conditioned with what is reported to be the same strain of yeast that they use in primary fermentation. What this means from a home brewing perspective is that you can take the "dregs" from a Coopers beer and build it back up to a quantity of yeast suitable for pitching into your own brew, giving you a yeast flavour profile and properties that are similar to Coopers' beers. There's an <a href="http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17276">article and discussion</a> about how to do this on AussieHomeBrewer.com.<br /><br />The recipe (based on <a href="http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?autocom=recipedb&code=show&recipe=829">this one</a>):<br /><br />JW Pale Malt: 4030g<br />Wheat Malt: 225g<br />Crystal 125 Malt: 75g<br /><br />Pride of Ringwood pellets (8.3% AA): 17g @-60 mins ~17 IBU<br />Pride of Ringwood flowers (9.6% AA): 11g @-60 mins ~12 IBU<br /><br />Mash time: 60 minutes<br />Target mash temperature: 63C<br /><br />Start: 63C End: 61C<br /><br />Runoff: 24.5L<br /><br />Pre-boil SG: 1043<br />Boil time: 60 minutes<br /><br />Target OG: 1051 Actual: 1048<br />Post-boil volume: 19.5L<br /><br />Yeast: Recultured Coopers Ale yeast<br />Ferment temp: 18C<br />Target fermenter volume: 20L<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Updated 4th March:</span> This beer scored 36/50 in the BABBs February 2010 mini-competition. Results posted <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2010/03/february-mini-comp-results.html">here</a>.Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-22783699233433678902010-01-28T14:58:00.002+10:002010-01-28T15:03:14.354+10:00#30 AmSA (Amarillo Summer Ale)Brewed: 10th January, 2010<br /><br />The eight batch of beer in the Summer Ale Series, this time using Amarillo for the hopping component. This was a bit of a last-minute batch to accompany the <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2010/01/29-opa-oz-pale-ale.html">Oz Pale Ale</a> for our firend's party this Saturday. As I write this, the beer has just finished carbonating and will get a couple of days rest at about 3°C. The hydrometer samples I've tasted so far have been very promising and I look forward to tasting the final product!<br /><br />In terms of recipe formulation, I used <a href="http://www.kentplacesoftware.com/products/BeerAlchemy.html">Beer Alchemy</a> to determine how to adjust the hop bittering addition based on the lower <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_acid">Alpha Acid</a> content of the Amarillo hops (as compared to Nelson Sauvin or Galaxy). Based on the advice of another brewer, I left the weights for the flavour and aroma additions the same as the base recipe.<br /><br />As far as the brew day was concerned, I was pretty close to my target mash temperature, starting fractionally high and ending up only losing less than two degrees over the hour. First runnings were a little low, but I managed to compensate well with the second volume of sparge water added. In a major oversight on my behalf, I didn't record the original gravity anywhere (or I did but forgot to save it), so I'm only going by memory on that one. There also may have been a little bit of precipitated hot-break material that made its way into the fermenter, as my kettle filter came off at some point during draining. Not that I'm worried it will have any impact on flavour, but if it does, I have something that I might be able to trace it back to.<br /><br />The recipe:<br /><br />JW Pale Malt: 4500g<br />Torrified Wheat: 400g<br /><br />Amarillo pellets (8.6% AA): 20g @ -80 mins ~19 IBU<br />Amarillo pellets (8.6% AA): 25g @ -20 mins ~ 14 IBU<br />Amarillo pellets (8.6% AA): 20g @ -5 mins ~ 4 IBU<br />Amarillo pellets (8.6% AA): 25g in no-chill cube < 1 IBU<br /><br />Mash time: 60 minutes<br />Target mash temperature: 64C<br />Start: 64.3C End: 62.5C<br /><br />Runoff: 30L<br /><br />Pre-boil SG: 1039<br />Boil time: 90 mins<br /><br />Target OG: 1047 Actual: 1047<br /><br />Volume in fermenter: 22.5L<br />Yeast: WLP001 - California Ale (harvested from #26 XMAS)<br />Ferment temperature: 19C <br /><br />Actual FG: 1011<br />ABV: 4.7%Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-18921499828028136472010-01-08T15:58:00.002+10:002010-01-08T16:01:02.726+10:00#28 NSSA (Nelson Sauvin Summer Ale)Brewed: 2nd January, 2010<br /><br />First brew of the new year! This is for my sister's birthday party in a few weeks time and is the seventh batch in the series of Summer Ales I am brewing. This time, I tried using malted wheat instead of unmalted torrified wheat. If anything, I expect the body of this one to be slightly thinner in comparison to the summer ales I've made with torrified wheat.<br /><br />The brewday went well with most of my targets within acceptable ranges. I actually had an extra litre of sweet wort from my second sparge runnings, which I intentionally left out of the boil, as I wanted to see what the gravity of the remaining liquid was out of interest. It was a bit of an eye opener to me to see that the gravity was 1019; a lot less than the rest of the wort in the kettle at 1042, so it was probably a good thing that I stopped when I did, because otherwise it would have brought my pre-boil gravity down without significantly contributing to the malt level.<br /><br />I went with a 60 minute bittering addition again (as opposed to 80 minutes in the original recipe) to play it safe for the party. I still haven't done a blind side-by-side tasting to see if it makes much of a difference, though I've got that planned for the near future and will report back here.<br /><br />The recipe:<br /><br />JW Pale Malt: 4500g<br />Wheat Malt: 400g<br /><br />Nelson Sauvin pellets (11.5% AA): 15g @ -60 mins<br />Nelson Sauvin pellets (11.5% AA): 15g @-20 mins<br />Nelson Sauvin pellets (11.5% AA): 20g @ -5 mins<br />Nelson Sauvin pellets (11.5% AA): 25g in no-chill cube<br /><br />Mash time: 60 minutes<br />Target mash temperature: 64C<br />Start: 64C End: 62.5C<br /><br />Runoff: 30L<br /><br />Pre-boil SG: 1042<br />Boil time: 90 mins<br /><br />Target OG: 1052 Actual: 1048<br /><br />Volume in fermenter: 21.5L<br />Yeast: WLP001 - California Ale (harvested from #26 XMAS)<br />Ferment temperature: 19CKristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-15095749750800770402010-01-08T15:31:00.004+10:002010-01-08T16:01:42.816+10:00#29 OPA (Oz Pale Ale)Brewed: 7th January, 2010<br />Time to catch up on a few recipes!<br /><br />I brewed this one for a friend's party at the end of the month, and I've still got one more to do for that party so I'll be cutting it fine. On the plus side, if it comes out any good, I'll can take a few samples of it to enter into the first club competition of the year in February where the styles contended are Australian Pale Ale and English Bitters.<br /><br />I've brewed the recipe a couple of times before. It's a pretty easy drinking pale ale; not over hopped and fairly dry. Think of a slightly lighter <a href="http://www.coopers.com.au/beer.php?id=128&pid=1">Coopers Pale Ale</a>.<br /><br />The previous times I've made this recipe, I've been a little unhappy with a sulphur taste that was present in the bottles. I think I've since narrowed that down to the old bottle cleaner I was using (sodium metabisulphate), so I'll be interested to see if my current cleaner (iodophor) leaves the beer tasting, well, cleaner. I also noticed when looking at the previous two batches that I made, I added double the amount of hops that was required (copy & paste mistake), so perhaps that had an impact on the undesirable flavour as well. Mind you, it didn't appear to be over-bitter so here's hoping this one comes out bitter enough.<br /><br />The original recipe calls for 95% Australian ale malt and 5% wheat malt, but because I didn't have enough ale malt, I ended up substituting the missing amount with Australian pils malt. Aside from that lapse in preparation, the brew day went very well with most of the numbers falling well into place.<br /><br />Actually, just as I write this, I'm thinking that perhaps I should have boiled for longer to account for the pils malt in the bill. I've seen in passing a number of references to doing a 90 minute boil for pils malt, but I'm not sure if that's more for doing lagers, or because of the malt itself. It's something I'll need to look up on for the future.<br /><br />The recipe (based on <a href="http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?autocom=recipedb&code=show&recipe=543">this one</a>):<br /><br />JW Pale Malt: 2700g<br />Aus Pils Malt: 1100g<br />Wheat Malt: 200g<br /><br />Pride of Ringwood flowers (9.6% AA): 10g @ 60 mins<br />Pride of Ringwood pellets (8.3% AA): 15g @ 45 mins<br /><br />Mash time: 60 mins<br />Target mash temperature: 65C<br />Start: 65C Middle: 63.5C End: 62.5C<br /><br />Runoff: 26L<br /><br />Pre-boil SG: 1037<br />Boil time: 60 minutes<br /><br />Target OG: 1043<br />Actual OG: 1042Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-62108877866671604652009-12-11T16:44:00.004+10:002009-12-11T17:01:34.130+10:00Sierra Nevada Pale Ale tasting<a href="http://www.sierranevada.com/beers/paleale.html">Sierra Nevada Pale Ale</a> was one of the original beers in the American microbrewery revolution of the late 70's. It's one that is often talked about on home brewing forums and beer appreciation sites, and is said to encapsulate the <a href="http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style10.php#1a">American Pale Ale style</a>.<br /><br />Despite the warnings about it not traveling well, when I saw it on the beer menu at Brisbane's <a href="http://www.erabistro.com.au/">Era Bistro</a>, I knew I had to give it a go.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizbR55V3sTdrtTZ_CD_-Qx3RZsA8CY-Dh2DFEgJ2KOJwStjrKd_1GA4ScA716AiMTjFgTnLV1N6J2y-0w6pXfhyRb85LJxt0I99MkcaQldjy_EArlJufEID9YpiG6-otDnmtKrVtfauCi_/s1600-h/IMG_0385.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizbR55V3sTdrtTZ_CD_-Qx3RZsA8CY-Dh2DFEgJ2KOJwStjrKd_1GA4ScA716AiMTjFgTnLV1N6J2y-0w6pXfhyRb85LJxt0I99MkcaQldjy_EArlJufEID9YpiG6-otDnmtKrVtfauCi_/s320/IMG_0385.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5413867886011684098" /></a><br /><br />The warnings refer to the degradation of the aroma and flavour on the long trip over from California. I've even heard that Australian exports of the beer come via Europe, adding to the length of the journey. Bright hop aromatics fade over time and at increased temperatures, and when you consider that the beer could have been sitting in a container or warehouse for who knows how long on its trip over, the warnings are understandable. But it didn't stop me from ordering one.<br /><br />It is difficult to evaluate a beer that comes with so many preconceptions. The hop aromatics were still there, although I could easily imagine them being less subdued in the fresh product. I can't remember a lot of the malt characteristics that are said to be present, though I wasn't taking detailed notes at the time (after all, this was a night of a work milestone celebration). I do, however, remember making comparisons in my head to <a href="https://www.littlecreatures.com.au/Beers-Category/menu-id-59.html">Little Creatures Pale Ale</a> at the time; an American Pale Ale style of beer that is said to be a tribute to SNPA.<br /><br />Overall, I wasn't disappointed, and am still excited to have had the chance to try it. If anything, it has made me want to go over to the US and find out just how good the beer is fresh, and how good a job Little Creatures have done in paying tribute to the style.Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-49531555067871871872009-12-04T18:13:00.005+10:002009-12-04T18:41:14.130+10:00#22 GxSA (Galaxy Summer Ale)Brewed: 12th November, 2009<br /><br />The fourth batch in the Summer Ale series, this time using Galaxy hops instead of Nelson Sauvin.<br /><br />I tried a slightly different technique of filling my mash tun this time, called underletting. This involves dumping all of the grain into the mash tun and filling it from the bottom up through the outlet. The aim of this was to see if I could saturate the grain properly and hit my mash temperature without having to stir the mash as much. The result I ended up with though was even more inconsistent temperatures throughout the mash (requiring more stirring!) and still coming in slightly under the mash temperature despite the fact that it was way over temperature before I started mixing in properly! Oh well, something learned for next time.<br /><br />Part way through my first runnings, I realised that I made the silly mistake of not attaching the tap to the kettle. All of a sudden I was wondering what the dripping noise on the floor was! Luckily I was standing next to the kettle at the time and didn't lose too much sweet wort. The spills didn't end there though, as with a higher than expected post-boil volume, I overflowed the "no-chill" cube after the boil. In the future, I plan to use a brewday checklist and actually tick things off instead of relying on my memory to consult the checklist that's on the fridge in the brewing area.<br /><br />In terms of numbers, I didn't lose as much temperature over the hour compared to last time (1 degree instead of 2). My first runnings were slightly under, which I made up for my adding an extra litre of water to the second sparge. My pre and post boil gravity readings were also a point lower, but well within my expectations.<br /><br />The recipe:<br /><br />JW Pale Malt: 4500g<br />Torrified Wheat: 400g<br /><br />Galaxy pellets (13.4% AA): 12g @ -80 mins<br />Galaxy pellets (13.4% AA): 12g @-20 mins<br />Galaxy pellets (13.4% AA): 16g @ -5 mins<br />Galaxy pellets (13.4% AA): 23g in no-chill cube<br /><br />Mash time: 60 minutes<br />Target mash temperature: 64C<br />Start: 63.5C<br />Middle: 63C<br />End: 62.5C<br /><br />Run-off: 30L<br /><br />Pre-boil SG: 1038<br />Boil Time: 90 minutes<br /><br />Volume in fermenter: 21L<br />Yeast: WLP001 - California Ale (harvested from #20 NSSA)<br />Ferment temperature: 19C<br /><br />Target OG: 1052<br />Actual OG: 1046<br /><br />Actual FG: 1012<br /><br />ABV: 4.5%Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-17659887853933820532009-12-04T16:24:00.003+10:002009-12-04T16:32:35.290+10:00Work experience at MT BreweryOne day a week for the past few weeks, I've been heading down to <a href="http://www.mtbeer.com">MT Beer</a> on Mount Tamborine to lend a hand to the head brewer, Ian Watson, in the day-to-day operations at the brewery. It is part of my on-going quest to discover the gaps in my knowledge about working in a commercial brewery so that I know where to focus my efforts in going forward.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu7sxqdGmuqddbrfg2exTKTa-CGOJ0_tRwb2H1kp_FOTxMgHtzZq7kZyhpHcdJ0i_LLQOJYeuQps9l2_zQgmKnGOqtUqnFhBZXEN7o4Xj1azUc2VHD1kgYI4ZyWZqfhoh-Ny-v8MMfKRQ0/s1600-h/IMG_0364.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu7sxqdGmuqddbrfg2exTKTa-CGOJ0_tRwb2H1kp_FOTxMgHtzZq7kZyhpHcdJ0i_LLQOJYeuQps9l2_zQgmKnGOqtUqnFhBZXEN7o4Xj1azUc2VHD1kgYI4ZyWZqfhoh-Ny-v8MMfKRQ0/s320/IMG_0364.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411264715686168562" /></a><br /><br />So far I have been involved in cleaning and filling kegs and transferring beer to/from various vessels. Last week, I was there to help out with brewing the latest batch of Blonde, including what I imagine would be the least pleasant job, which was to empty the several-hundred kilograms of spent grain from the lauter tun. I guess I didn't mind so much at the time because it is all still new to me! It is interesting to see the similarities and differences between home and commercial brewing, where the latter in this case is approximately 100 times the volume. So far, most of my focus has been on the process side of things as opposed to the business side that I know I'll need to start looking into soon.<br /><br />The days start much earlier than I'm used to, but it has definitely been worth it. Getting feedback on my own beers throughout the day makes it even easier and more valuable to me (though you certainly have to go easy on it given the lack of commuting options)!<br /><br />Next week Ian is planning to do a bottling run while I'm there, which will fill in yet another piece of the puzzle for me.Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-43370467855004099682009-11-13T14:56:00.002+10:002009-11-13T15:02:15.674+10:00#21 RP (Robust Porter - Chocolate Jaffa Porter)Brewed: 5th November, 2009<br /><br />This was a variation of a Chocolate Porter that I made a few months ago. The original recipe turned out really well and a suggestion was made about the possibility of a choc-orange taste, which is where this brew idea came from. I'm going for more a citrus taste as opposed to straight up orange, but depending on how this one goes, some orange essence may be called up in the future. I'm using Cascade hops for flavour and aroma in this case to try to achieve the citrus notes. I also want to do a choc-vanilla take on this recipe one day, using vanilla beans for the flavour.<br /><br />As far as the brew day went, it was reasonably uneventful. I did forget to close the tap on the mash tun after draining it the first time, which resulted in a bit of leakage when I went to fill it up the second time, but I caught it pretty quickly. I hit the mash temperature spot on and held it well over the hour.<br /><br />An interesting thing I noted was that when I poured the wort into the primary fermenter, it didn't froth up at all (unlike nearly every other batch does). It corresponds a bit to the way the previous batch of chocolate porter is pouring out of the tap; ie. very little head on it. Remembering back to what food oils do to a head on a beer (transferred to the glass after eating such food), I put the lack of froth and head down to the fat content of the cocoa powder used in the recipe.<br /><br />The recipe (based on <a href="http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?autocom=recipedb&code=show&recipe=444">this one</a>):<br /><br />JW Pale Malt: 4500g<br />Light Munich: 1000g<br />Crystal 135: 500g<br />Carafa Special II: 200g<br />Chocolate Malt: 200g<br />Roast Barley: 100g<br />Cocoa powder: 100g (added to boil @ -5 mins)<br /><br />East Kent Goldings pellets (4.8% AA): 48g @ -45 mins<br />Cascade pellets (6.3% AA): 19g @ -10 mins<br />Cascade pellets (6.3% AA): 10g in no-chill cube<br /><br />Mash time: 60 minutes<br />Target mash temperature: 68C<br />Start: 68C<br />Middle: 67.5C<br />End: 67.5C<br /><br />Run-off: 30L<br /><br />Target pre-boil SG: 1046<br />Actual Pre-boil SG: 1050<br />Boil Time: 60 minutes<br /><br />Volume in fermenter: 23L<br />Yeast: Re-cultured Coopers Stout yeast (farmed from #19 MS)<br />Ferment temperature: 18C<br /><br />Target OG: 1057<br />Actual OG: 1055Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-90255238606912437312009-11-02T16:12:00.003+10:002009-11-02T16:29:29.158+10:00#20 NSSA (Nelson Sauvin Summer Ale)Brewed: 29th October, 2009<br /><br />This was the third batch in the series of Summer Ales I'm doing with slight tweaks between each recipe. Today, I only boiled the bittering hops for the last 60 minutes instead of the 80 minutes previously. This should have the effect of producing a slightly less bitter beer. I'll do a side-by-side taste when this one is ready to see if I can notice the difference. If not, I might try a 45 minute bittering addition some time in the future.<br /><br />The brew-day was fairly uneventful for this one. I was slightly under the mash temperature target, but I only lost 2 degrees instead of the 3 I lost in the last batch. In hindsight, I could have added some boiling water at the start of the mash to bring it up to my target temperature, but I guess I didn't worry about it at the time because it was only half a degree off. I had slightly better efficiency, which I think would have been even higher if I had both elements running when heating up the kettle (the variable dial on one of the elements was off even though it looked like it was on). In all, there were no surprises, and no stuff ups so I certainly can't complain.<br /><br />The next day, I transferred it to primary and pitched the yeast. This was sooner than the last two batches (two days for #18 and 3 days for #20) and adds another variable, as the cube hop addition wasn't in for as long, but I don't think it'll have much of an impact. I also decided to save the cube hops for a future batch of this recipe to see if they have enough bittering capacity left in them (I got the idea from <a href="http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=36855">this thread</a> on AHB).<br /><br />The recipe (based on <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2009/10/18-nssa-nelson-sauvin-summer-ale.html">this one</a>):<br /><br />JW Pale Malt: 4500g<br />Torrified Wheat: 400g<br /><br />Nelson Sauvin pellets (11.5% AA): 15g @ -60 mins<br />Nelson Sauvin pellets (11.5% AA): 15g @-20 mins<br />Nelson Sauvin pellets (11.5% AA): 20g @ -5 mins<br />Nelson Sauvin pellets (11.5% AA): 25g in no-chill cube<br /><br />Mash time: 60 minutes<br />Target mash temperature: 64C<br />Start: 63.5C<br />Middle: 62.5C<br />End: 61.5C<br /><br />Run-off: 29.5L<br /><br />Pre-boil SG: 1039<br />Boil Time: 90 minutes<br /><br />Volume in fermenter: 21L<br />Yeast: WLP001 - California Ale (harvested from #18 NSSA)<br />Ferment temperature: 19C<br /><br />Target OG: 1050<br />Actual OG: 1047Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-64788677793261275292009-10-24T10:45:00.000+10:002009-10-24T10:51:34.755+10:00#19 Milk StoutBrewed: 22nd October, 2009<br /><br />I had some different issues with my mash temperature for this brew. I lost more than normal from my strike temperature, but didn't lose as much as I normally do over the hour. It doesn't bode well for my consistency. <br /><br />I was a bit suspicious that my thermometer was out, but I tested it at freezing and boiling and it seems to be correct at the extremes. I still have to do a comparison with some accurate thermometers around the mash temperature to be sure, but at the moment, I'm reasonably confident that it is not my thermometer. Maybe the different type of grains had a role in absorbing more temperature?<br /><br />I also underestimated the sparge water required and came out about a litre under my pre-boil volume. That ended up working out in my favour though, because I had overestimated the boil loss and ended up with my target volume in the end. The original gravity came in close enough too and probably would have been too low if I had the extra litre or so there.<br /><br />Finally, I'll need to remember to wear my glasses more in the future! I was splashed in the eye with hot water when filling the mash tun, which wasn't a pleasant experience.<br /><br />The recipe (based on <a href="http://www.beersmith.com/Recipes2/recipe_355.htm">this one</a>): <br /><br />JW Pale Malt: 3175g<br />Carafa Special II: 450g<br />Crystal 135: 225g<br />Carapils: 225g<br />Roast: 225g<br /><br />Perle (8.3% AA): 30g @ -60 minutes<br />Lactose: 500g @ -5 minutes<br /><br />Mash time: 60 minutes<br />Target mash temperature: 70C<br />Start temp: 68C<br />Middle temp: 67.5C<br />End temp: 67.5C<br /><br />Expected run-off: 26L<br />Actual run-off: 25L<br /><br />Boil time: 60 minutes<br /><br />Target volume: 19L<br />Actual volume: 19L<br />Target OG: 1056<br />Actual OG: 1053<br /><br />Yeast: Coopers stout yeast, harvested from #17 Dark Ale<br />Ferment temperature: 18CKristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-10443894115863317782009-10-23T12:26:00.004+10:002009-10-24T10:37:55.788+10:00QABC result feedbackA couple of months ago, I entered my Winter Ale (recipe coming soon) into the <a href="http://qabc.chad.id.au/">Queensland Amateur Brewers Competition</a>. It was the first time I have ever entered a beer in any competition, so it was a completely new experience for me.<br /><br />The beer was entered under the <a href="http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style11.php#1c">Northern English Brown Ale</a> style of the Brown Ale category, a decision that was made the night before with my trusty tasting partner, who helped me realise that it wasn't going to fit under the <a href="http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style19.php#1a">original style</a> I was thinking of. I was really glad that I made the switch, as these competitions are so much about entering under the correct style so that the beer can be matched up with the guidelines.<br /><br />The <a href="http://qabc.chad.id.au/results">results</a> were published about a month ago, but it was only last night at the <a href="http://www.babbrewers.com/">Brisbane Amateur Beer Brewers</a> club meeting that I received the score-sheets with feedback.<br /><br />It's very interesting to see the comments by the two judges side-by-side, and it made me realise just how much of the score comes down to luck of the draw with the judges. I'm not saying that the results are completely down to luck - you obviously need a good beer to do well - but a few points can mean the difference between placing and not placing. The difference is understandable too; no matter how much objectivity they try to put into the judging process, at the end of the day, the range of ability to discern different flavours & aromas can vary quite a bit between people.<br /><br />Also interesting to note that the main flaw I thought the beer had (too much <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diacetyl">diacetyl</a>) wasn't mentioned at all in the comments. Maybe it was within the style limits after all.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Aroma</span><br />Judge 1: 6/12<br />Very low aroma. Cannot detect any malt character at all. No faults detected either.<br /><br />Judge 2: 8/12<br />Lovely light fruit hops, caramel also comes through.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Appearance</span><br />Judge 1: 3/3<br />Good colour, clarity for style. Head is moderate and stable.<br /><br />Judge 2: 3/3<br />Nice head retention. Lovely carbonation billowing up the glass. Good amber colour to style.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Flavour</span><br />Judge 1: 14/20<br />Well balanced beer, needs a touch more malt complexity for style. Increase nutty by adding chocolate malt etc. Low fruitiness from yeast - good. Hops & after taste reserved.<br /><br />Judge 2: 15/20<br />Malt sweetness good. The hop flavour & bitterness levels are within style.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Mouthfeel</span><br />Judge 1: 4/5<br />Medium body good for style, slight warming sensation ? higher end of alcohol scale.<br /><br />Judge 2: 3/5<br />Carbonation level to style. Nice dry finish to style.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Overall Impression</span><br />Judge 1: 7/10<br />Good easy to drink beer. Not enough aroma character with more malt complexity required for style.<br /><br />Judge 2: 6/10<br />An overall good attempt at style. Nutty & dry finish. Well done.<br /><br /><br />The combined result for the beer was 34.5/50, and it was beaten by three other beers in the category (with scores of 39.5, 36.5 and 36) amongst 15 entries in total.<br /><br />I remain extremely happy with the result, and I look forward to entering more beers in the BABBs mini-comps for more feedback in the lead up to next year's QABC.Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-6334518500854959452009-10-19T18:15:00.002+10:002009-10-19T18:26:20.437+10:00Brewday picsHere's a few snaps from my <a href="http://kristiandomagala.blogspot.com/2009/10/18-nssa-nelson-sauvin-summer-ale.html">last brewday</a>.<br /><br />Weighing out the grain:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu6iTKTtQW6ewZpOjfWKDY-E0WH2e-ctsijAvV6wj0gTtZEoLlCEFcSDFinyMwl0yBiP26S8GYsyS_e4sSzeSf2drNmwvyh2-rBBCbtmig0tk-y5kvrojgFvpuhYarESrhUx-WvupCt1w6/s1600-h/IMG_0311.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu6iTKTtQW6ewZpOjfWKDY-E0WH2e-ctsijAvV6wj0gTtZEoLlCEFcSDFinyMwl0yBiP26S8GYsyS_e4sSzeSf2drNmwvyh2-rBBCbtmig0tk-y5kvrojgFvpuhYarESrhUx-WvupCt1w6/s320/IMG_0311.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394197141752032498" /></a><br /><br />Getting ready to mill:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4s-Y3pI2HBCCODi6t4qKGC8-ESkknmmC7VAg7t0MUHpTcrjxTiJcUlrVPDUp3OGLcvhbI1Ef85g_laSei-ZBm6U1EgMlZ5OHq7IPlJkfq2S49dp0S8xB-t_T7wM83HCO0E8Ew1tpBGY8V/s1600-h/IMG_0313.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4s-Y3pI2HBCCODi6t4qKGC8-ESkknmmC7VAg7t0MUHpTcrjxTiJcUlrVPDUp3OGLcvhbI1Ef85g_laSei-ZBm6U1EgMlZ5OHq7IPlJkfq2S49dp0S8xB-t_T7wM83HCO0E8Ew1tpBGY8V/s320/IMG_0313.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394198246906999314" /></a><br /><br />Roughly 500 turns of the handle later:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqOO7YnRSkP8r_PI5IEDkS-z8aB_dgMoBkMBGSnP5yyOGVSnBM5VxooJzZt9V_Nok47b4e284cI_ITSdLBMuIkiwwq-fqIDcqyOm82Lib80_zEDkZ2aPlFunTXC4846pVzp5sWtxMwF3kj/s1600-h/IMG_0316.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqOO7YnRSkP8r_PI5IEDkS-z8aB_dgMoBkMBGSnP5yyOGVSnBM5VxooJzZt9V_Nok47b4e284cI_ITSdLBMuIkiwwq-fqIDcqyOm82Lib80_zEDkZ2aPlFunTXC4846pVzp5sWtxMwF3kj/s320/IMG_0316.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394198255538257570" /></a><br /><br /><br />Grain close-ups<br />Before:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnaJEbATgGSykvONT10BcapQRU0yh0kvpxKUWLaYKapsWvsCCr46Kj_5NdVKx_2uaQc46856PwPIGGgWaGFUgikRHG83ViZ7hwcO9thHTDsjtGqrMn254RSL-gzlI_jF2BOKk-BvK9hVmF/s1600-h/IMG_0315.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnaJEbATgGSykvONT10BcapQRU0yh0kvpxKUWLaYKapsWvsCCr46Kj_5NdVKx_2uaQc46856PwPIGGgWaGFUgikRHG83ViZ7hwcO9thHTDsjtGqrMn254RSL-gzlI_jF2BOKk-BvK9hVmF/s320/IMG_0315.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394198264326514098" /></a><br /><br />After:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikbw38m5RKk9XUkxn-skj5a_M8LS2tpHzKGpvzClRfVvX7fX-J4kdlTz2f6t-IxP-ByVog7O6KutfH7i1I4-w2brzj-VaU-QwlCuG-98Dw2V7ZNnidn7jCSyGTmGxU0_jR8Hq4NXKtF7dA/s1600-h/IMG_0317.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikbw38m5RKk9XUkxn-skj5a_M8LS2tpHzKGpvzClRfVvX7fX-J4kdlTz2f6t-IxP-ByVog7O6KutfH7i1I4-w2brzj-VaU-QwlCuG-98Dw2V7ZNnidn7jCSyGTmGxU0_jR8Hq4NXKtF7dA/s320/IMG_0317.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394198272306878546" /></a><br /><br />Note that the idea of milling the grain is not to completely pulverise it, but rather crack it and crush it enough to allow water to mix with the dry content of the grain. In the above photo, you might still be able to see some of the larger husks in tact. This husk aids in filtering grain particles when running the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wort">wort</a> out of the mash tun.<br /><br />Speaking of which, my mash tun:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH3JtNa5yQZlSOhKQLjVA5pWh2BzblzNn58H7CWMXxx6tIvu7OtOJ0QePjQsXvOmG5oCYtlD79uE8CBt5Nk-loJALlo9GyMqDWyLQhAQ9AA6enXtEd60pkKdqAIVV3qJAXEuGVzEX_xf6q/s1600-h/IMG_0320.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH3JtNa5yQZlSOhKQLjVA5pWh2BzblzNn58H7CWMXxx6tIvu7OtOJ0QePjQsXvOmG5oCYtlD79uE8CBt5Nk-loJALlo9GyMqDWyLQhAQ9AA6enXtEd60pkKdqAIVV3qJAXEuGVzEX_xf6q/s320/IMG_0320.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394199688786888050" /></a><br /><br />The mash tun is the vessel in which the grain is mixed with heated water and left for a period of time. During this time, enzymes present in the grain break down the starches in to simpler sugars that can be later fermented by the yeast. By adjusting the temperature, you can adjust the kind of sugars that are produced, which in turn impacts the body of the resulting beer. Higher mash temperatures will produce less fermentable sugars and result in a fuller bodied beer, whereas lower temperatures will produce more fermentable sugars (easier for the yeast to convert) and result in a drier beer.<br /><br />Inside the mash tun:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkdY4tuF_keKEwSbZhYlR3nrMLdDvFlk4Ckw7nIvrrbUryYbwq64_Yfz-lnc7bN2DY04GhhISBy2C4FNvmexXwxRvK6j8f7zJjisS7LmCZg1FR7-f5q8lowI_zF3NLeJRc5wmQbI7pGfiU/s1600-h/IMG_0321.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkdY4tuF_keKEwSbZhYlR3nrMLdDvFlk4Ckw7nIvrrbUryYbwq64_Yfz-lnc7bN2DY04GhhISBy2C4FNvmexXwxRvK6j8f7zJjisS7LmCZg1FR7-f5q8lowI_zF3NLeJRc5wmQbI7pGfiU/s320/IMG_0321.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394199695334233522" /></a><br /><br />I have stainless-steel braided mesh to prevent larger grain particles from going through the tap, which in turn eventually stops the smaller particles from going through.<br /><br />An hour after adding the crushed grain and water to the mash tun:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12aJxFaRoFT9SQYzFv-duTLcBTXvByQILZHmyEEIDYHDvTWWGW0WorXvWQPt_7RgMbt1RaNxoXr9_iFJXJ8DKLQOVMZvnAbjiL-wt-SX4WaL7GL9s-U8vqxXwRpJqa0D0ss9-bdTkxS57/s1600-h/IMG_0326.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12aJxFaRoFT9SQYzFv-duTLcBTXvByQILZHmyEEIDYHDvTWWGW0WorXvWQPt_7RgMbt1RaNxoXr9_iFJXJ8DKLQOVMZvnAbjiL-wt-SX4WaL7GL9s-U8vqxXwRpJqa0D0ss9-bdTkxS57/s320/IMG_0326.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394199723759828018" /></a><br /><br />Collecting the start of the wort, waiting for the liquid to be visibly clear of grain particles:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFArBbGar8pKd0KTopISJEYZ2Dlth0n3fjDa7nDmNv8_mJXxJCQ4MhwOKhE3UzkC2koyIiH4-wCdRJrhOaSxS1Yzkpek0GA4vOsGb8rx65H8MyA7mMro6XM1KedTALf9G_g9_56UKZalhG/s1600-h/IMG_0325.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFArBbGar8pKd0KTopISJEYZ2Dlth0n3fjDa7nDmNv8_mJXxJCQ4MhwOKhE3UzkC2koyIiH4-wCdRJrhOaSxS1Yzkpek0GA4vOsGb8rx65H8MyA7mMro6XM1KedTALf9G_g9_56UKZalhG/s320/IMG_0325.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394199715972149746" /></a><br /><br />Grain particles add tannins to the beer if they are boiled with the wort, which results in an astringent taste. This is why we want to wait until the liquid is clear before transferring to the kettle.<br /><br />Inside the empty kettle:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi6ODbVJSbuc1fFCSbwYFu6ibVce0sTX8Pe9pAiayoC1oiz47bm9U5BpBnbK1z4KdFic4HC7xIrU6t0LbYPhqPiQGMg3U8yAqV7s0KpGvoYDXa-Dp86U-HVuKext2IJ-DkQOHaGRLF7qVk/s1600-h/IMG_0323.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi6ODbVJSbuc1fFCSbwYFu6ibVce0sTX8Pe9pAiayoC1oiz47bm9U5BpBnbK1z4KdFic4HC7xIrU6t0LbYPhqPiQGMg3U8yAqV7s0KpGvoYDXa-Dp86U-HVuKext2IJ-DkQOHaGRLF7qVk/s320/IMG_0323.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394199707004633330" /></a><br /><br />Mash tun as it is being drained into the kettle:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHY-i4kBxDOcaexufdOr0emU6EBXehILsjnhMcFrP3h6cafcQqnuFc_y6VQ8Z6s_Al3t4DlCAX-869HCl1zlS14zvPxNLbMKyETx8ZJxkX2Amt_ei-ASz3Vl3bXVxBOgjeGJR9S_T6mH5/s1600-h/IMG_0327.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHY-i4kBxDOcaexufdOr0emU6EBXehILsjnhMcFrP3h6cafcQqnuFc_y6VQ8Z6s_Al3t4DlCAX-869HCl1zlS14zvPxNLbMKyETx8ZJxkX2Amt_ei-ASz3Vl3bXVxBOgjeGJR9S_T6mH5/s320/IMG_0327.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394202727864206146" /></a><br /><br />Mash tun at the end of draining:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiND8NS3PAkaZYThyphenhyphenkRnpj1wVGKkiZfbS__cxuEda75blbzdhFzfP4o28gOib6pyNTe5iTbgY2unFBUt8Pt9ZHxaxsgWl5SmmuSkUUFU9yoasbZH2fSjxvbaTq5HmFfX-qUJy81I_JVgB3Y/s1600-h/IMG_0328.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiND8NS3PAkaZYThyphenhyphenkRnpj1wVGKkiZfbS__cxuEda75blbzdhFzfP4o28gOib6pyNTe5iTbgY2unFBUt8Pt9ZHxaxsgWl5SmmuSkUUFU9yoasbZH2fSjxvbaTq5HmFfX-qUJy81I_JVgB3Y/s320/IMG_0328.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394202739288987186" /></a><br /><br />See how the grain particles have all compacted together, creating that natural filter for the wort to flow through without taking the particles with it.<br /><br />After draining the mash tun, it is topped up with water again, left to settle, and drained for a second time to extract more of the converted sugars. This particular procedure is called <a href="http://brewiki.org/BatchSparge">batch sparging</a>, and although it is not the only <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparging_(beer)">sparging</a> method available to brewers, it is one of the simplest and requires the least equipment.<br /><br />Weighing out the different hop additions:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieAf2vHoqq-DyMqaLZbmIePdaIRAWFxVs2YpAqwMh7f22DgZ_tl5hCAgqo1NiYjfc9hp5-zPcC8PBZcCy1uTsvylKKQ06zVcZ_K0RNTakVByyqKD4tAS0WxGjUZBEUp7uys_N7O6Nul9p-/s1600-h/IMG_0329.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieAf2vHoqq-DyMqaLZbmIePdaIRAWFxVs2YpAqwMh7f22DgZ_tl5hCAgqo1NiYjfc9hp5-zPcC8PBZcCy1uTsvylKKQ06zVcZ_K0RNTakVByyqKD4tAS0WxGjUZBEUp7uys_N7O6Nul9p-/s320/IMG_0329.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394202748210616546" /></a><br /><br />The hops above are hop flowers that have been compacted into pellet form.<br /><br />Hops are added to the kettle at different times during the boil. Earlier additions (boiled for 80-30ish minutes) are generally used for bittering the beer. Flavour additions are generally added between roughly 30-10 minutes before the end of the boil, and aroma additions are added in the last 10 minutes, or even after the boil has finished. The longer the hops are boiled for, the more flavour and aroma is driven off from the wort, hence the different timings.<br /><br />The liquid yeast I used for this brew:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDnmQX3NGA2ViBn___69rYiNgoirCP5iqd_12JatG6VrJPbZIgPtBkfUjIA_t_yscwQ-j9ojLaRIzhKqWzO7RGRnFNW5XRyXeLE7tH7SDAokpyucYYiD_1xiGx-nfhv-HMEUgJutC4_U-I/s1600-h/IMG_0334.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDnmQX3NGA2ViBn___69rYiNgoirCP5iqd_12JatG6VrJPbZIgPtBkfUjIA_t_yscwQ-j9ojLaRIzhKqWzO7RGRnFNW5XRyXeLE7tH7SDAokpyucYYiD_1xiGx-nfhv-HMEUgJutC4_U-I/s320/IMG_0334.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394202764110021938" /></a><br /><br />Once the boil has finished, the hopped wort is drained from the kettle and cooled down to fermenting temps (for the case of ales, around 20°C). Once at fermenting temperature, the yeast is added, or "pitched" to the hopped wort, and begins converting the sugars into alcohol. Three weeks later and with a little luck, I'll be pulling the first beer from this batch out of the keg!Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-86107358264499787922009-10-15T16:33:00.004+10:002009-11-02T16:27:44.789+10:00#18 NSSA (Nelson Sauvin Summer Ale)I did my 18th all-grain batch today. It is the second in a series of brews that I will be doing based on <a href="http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?autocom=recipedb&code=show&recipe=199">Ross' Summer Ale</a> recipe, where I will be changing one variable at a time. In this batch, I am using a different, higher quality, <a href="http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp001.html">yeast strain</a> and trying to keep everything else the same.<br /><br />Unfortunately, I've already had a couple of other differences. First of all, the mash lost three degrees over the hour instead of 1 degree the first time. It may have been because I started a lot earlier today when it was much cooler in the brewery. Next time, I'll try to compensate for that by heating up the mash tun before I add the grain so that I don't lose as much heat to the vessel while it warms up.<br /><br />Secondly, I had an extra litre of wort into the kettle compared to last time. It was looking a bit thin towards the end, and I nearly stopped it early, but I didn't realise that I only took 29 litres last time. My original gravity is down too, which I suspect is at least partly from the extra volume. Last time my original gravity was over the expected gravity by two points.<br /><br />Anyway, I'm really looking forward to tasting the results of this batch with the different yeast, and to reusing the yeast for subsequent batches. I've got the yeast getting ready in a small starter now that I hope to step up tonight and pitch tomorrow.<br /><br />Here's the recipe:<br />JW Pale Malt: 4500g<br />Torrified Wheat: 400g<br /><br />Nelson Sauvin pellets (11.5% AA): 15g @ -80 mins<br />Nelson Sauvin pellets (11.5% AA): 15g @ -20 mins<br />Nelson Sauvin pellets (11.5% AA): 20g @ -5 mins<br />Nelson Sauvin pellets (11.5% AA): 25g in no-chill cube<br /><br />Mash Time: 60 minutes<br />Mash Temperature<br />Start: 64.5C<br />Middle: 63.5C<br />End: 61.5C<br /><br />Run-off: 30L<br /><br />Boil Time: 90 minutes<br /><br />Yeast: WLP001 - California Ale<br />Ferment temperature: 19C<br /><br />Target OG: 1050<br />Actual OG: 1046Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-74945215664046251012009-10-12T20:48:00.003+10:002009-10-13T10:43:40.469+10:00Day one on my new career pathAs I alluded to a couple of posts back, I've been spending a lot more time this year on a rediscovered passion of mine, so much so, that I have decided to pursue it as a career. And that passion is brewing beer.<br /><br />I began making beer with my father when I was at university, and continued doing so throughout the remainder of uni and my first career as a software developer. I use the term "making beer", as we were using pre-brewed, concentrated kits and fermenting it from there. This year, I made the switch to all grain beer, which actually involves mashing and brewing the grain and hops as well as fermenting the resulting wort. The all grain method is a lot more time consuming, but you have much more control over the results and you can make beers that are at least as good as a lot of micro-brewery beer.<br /><br />The task now is to find out how to scale this method up to a commercial level. Whilst I've already done a bit of preliminary research towards this goal, today was my first real day working directly towards it.<br /><br />Like any first day on the job, there were a lot of unknowns in front of me. My first port of call is to try to line up some work in the industry so I can gain some experience. While there's not a whole lot of opportunities around in Brisbane, I'm confident that I'll be able to find somewhere to get started.<br /><br />Today I also discovered the brewing courses offered by the University of Ballarat. They have a <a href="http://www.ballarat.edu.au/ard/sci-eng/programs/scmb.shtml">short course</a> as well as a <a href="http://www.ballarat.edu.au/coursefinder/display.php?ID=366">Graduate Certificate</a> and <a href="http://www.ballarat.edu.au/coursefinder/display.php?ID=367">Graduate Diploma</a>, which is something else to look into. The short course certainly looks like something I'd be keen to do, but I'm told that it isn't being held again until mid next year.Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-15615811964948129502009-08-25T21:00:00.000+10:002009-10-12T17:32:09.075+10:00J Walker @ The Queensland Art Gallery August 14thThe other week, we went to see J Walker of <a href="http://www.machinetranslations.org/">Machine Translations</a> playing as part of <a href="http://qag.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/the_met/up_late">The Met Up Late</a>. On show at the Queensland Art Gallery was the <a href="http://qag.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/the_met">American Impressionism & Realism</a> exhibit. I don't know a lot about physical art mediums, so I can't really comment on much of the exhibit itself.<br /><br />However, I do know a bit about Machine Translations, and I was very happy to hear a number of tunes from J's back catalogue tonight.<br /><br />Having just said that, I have to admit to not recognising the first song of the set, which was performed by building up upon layers of acoustic guitar loops. I'm not sure if it was from the latest album (which I haven't listened to enough yet) or if it was something else.<br /><br />From there, he moved on to a slightly different take on <em>Misunderstood</em>, which was played to a more swung beat. I'd had this song in my head a couple of days earlier and it took a while for me to realise what it was when he started playing it. <em>She Wears A Mask</em> followed, which for the first time that I can recall, I actually heard a lot of the words. Not that they had been a mystery that I'd wanted to solve for a long time, but it was interesting to hear a bit of what the otherwise catchy song is about.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMfDCMVMW9U3kFaqvMFtQfyL__6vr9Qp8j-jfaZNNQ9klICFiuslYaaCQX91jP3GN0tBzXsBNh-SHu6Sdg8oWPKBs3-bBx3MgU2TxcDQrCyybAu_yqUhh-v_KRslpCPbQ57S_nEq3DczlR/s1600-h/j_walker.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMfDCMVMW9U3kFaqvMFtQfyL__6vr9Qp8j-jfaZNNQ9klICFiuslYaaCQX91jP3GN0tBzXsBNh-SHu6Sdg8oWPKBs3-bBx3MgU2TxcDQrCyybAu_yqUhh-v_KRslpCPbQ57S_nEq3DczlR/s320/j_walker.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373849920571640226" /></a><br /><br />Two more of my favourite Machine Translations songs were up next; <em>Not My Fall</em> (including the whistling solo, which he wasn't too happy with but I thought sounded alright) and <em>Amnesia</em>. Unfortunately we're still waiting for him to bring back <em>Simple Life</em> into his set, which we always get our hopes up for each time we see him.<br /><br />The rest of the set included a Leonard Cohen cover (with more whistling), and a couple of other songs that featured crescendo building noise collages with the help of the loop pedal. Finally, he opened up the tuning on his guitar for what I think was <em>You'll Change</em> (though my memory is starting to fail me now, so don't quote me on that).<br /><br />The gig happened right in the middle of a very busy week for us, but it ended up being an unusually relaxing and enjoyable night. It was also an early night for us, which was an added bonus!Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-83353366798208012622009-08-25T20:45:00.006+10:002009-08-25T21:20:17.076+10:00A change to the (ir)regular programmingAs anyone who may still be following this space may have guessed, there hasn't been a lot happening for me on the music scene this year. While there have been some exceptions (notably Gomez, The Black Keys, Ben Kweller, David McCormack and Paul Dempsey), I haven't really been out to see as much live music, and when I have, I haven't been able to make the time to write about it.<br /><br />I have, on the other hand, been taking many notes on what <em>is</em> taking up a lot of my time these days, which is probably where my writing here will be heading shortly.<br /><br />In the meantime though, here's something for old time's sake...Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5744542644973088018.post-28154936550653121822008-11-30T21:12:00.005+10:002008-11-30T21:33:40.363+10:00Emiliana Torrini @ The Powerhouse November 16thWe went down to the Powerhouse right after the first of the heavy storms to hit the South East Queensland area that night. We arrived with enough time to get a great carpark and enjoy some more of the rain on the back deck with a couple of drinks. Inside the main Powerhouse Theatre, you wouldn't have had any clue about what was happening outside, owing to the great acoustics of the place. It was nice to go to a sit-down event for a change, especially given that we were on the tail end of a pretty big weekend. <br /><br />Supporting the night was Sydney quartet, <a href="http://www.charge-group.com">Charge Group</a>. I couldn't help thinking of The Dirty Three when I was listening to them, most probably because of how the violin influenced the sound. Whilst I didn't feel that the vocals really fit in with the music, and I thought the stage presence was lacking a bit between songs, it didn't stop me from taking a liking to the music.<br /><br />After intermission and a slightly extended period of waiting, <a href="http://www.emilianatorrini.com">Emiliana Torrini</a> made her way to the stage with her "Mötley Crüe" of a backing band. The delay was explained by the fact that she was pre-empting a possible wardrobe malfunction and needed to find another dress to replace the one that turned out to be partially transparent under the stage lights! <br /><br />The set was mainly drawn from her most recent two albums and she sounded genuinely surprised to hear requests from the first album. The exaggerated dynamic tempo of <span style="font-style:italic;">Heartstopper</span> was executed very well, and it was great to hear a live version of <span style="font-style:italic;">Sunny Road</span> - the song that drew me to her music to begin with. I had only gotten around to buying her latest album on the night, but I loved what I heard from it, especially <span style="font-style:italic;">Gun</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Ha-Ha</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">Fireheads</span>. The rest of the songs, including <span style="font-style:italic;">Lifesaver</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Fisherman's Woman</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Big Jumps</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Me And Armini</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Heard It All Before</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Jungle Drum</span>, and many more that I've since forgotten, were just as enjoyable.<br /><br />In contrast to Charge Group, Torrini was very chatty between songs, often regaling the audience with personal and humourous stories about her life, her music writing, the band and whatever happened to find its way into her head at the time.<br /><br />The earlier reference to the band was made literally by her when commenting about the guitar swapping that was going on between some of the songs, but the band really were the most unlikely looking group I have seen in a while. They certainly proved that looks can be deceiving though by providing a great musical platform of electric/acoustic/slide guitars, electric piano, keyboards, melodica, glockenspiel, drums and other percussion, upon which Torrini delivered her vocals. Bass guitar was absent from most songs, but it didn't feel like it wasn't missed.<br /><br />I think the exhaustion from the flight on the way over to Australia really caught up with Torrini by the end of the night, as she struggled to recall lyrics and keep a straight face through the encore, but it wasn't to the detriment of the entertainment value of the performance. In all, another wonderful night of music!Kristian Domagalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334114225292145389noreply@blogger.com0