What to brew next?

In about a week's time I'll be bottling batch #3 (Yankiwi Pale) and so it's time to think about what to brew next. Once again it will be a brew based on malt extract but hopefully with some steeped grains.

At the moment I'm thinking about one of 2 options:

1. A German Altbier
2. A strong, hoppy golden ale in the style of Hop Back Summer Lightning or Twickenham Daisy Cutter from the UK.

If there are any of you reading this blog, feel free to make some suggestions of recipes or things to try.

Cold conditioning

My Yankiwi Pale has completed fermentation. I've decided to experiment with cold conditioning this batch. I've set the temperature controller on my fridge to 2 degrees centigrade and I'm holding the beer at that temperature for about 2 weeks. The idea is that the suspended yeast will go dormant and sink to the bottom so the beer will be nice and clear for when I bottle it. I won't be putting any finings in this brew so we'll see if the cold cconditioning (in conjunction with the Irish Moss I added at the end of the boil) will fix the haze problem I had with the last batch. I plan to bottle in just over a week's time so we'll see then.

Tonight I'm off out for a beer at my favourite Auckland pub - Galbraith's Alehouse. It serves proper English-style real ale and is a must-visit for a beer lover in Auckland.

Quite a beery weekend

We had a great weekend, very relaxing, and managed to drink some pretty decent beer.

On Saturday the weather was better than had been forecast so we caught the car ferry across to Waiheke Island. It's a beautiful place and we'd love to go back and spend more time there, as a day is nowhere near enough to properly experience it. There are apparently 30 wineries on the island but we only made it to one of them - Cable Bay. The wines were nice (though not amazingly spectacular) and the kinetic sculpture exhibition was excellent.

After that we had a lovely meal at Vino Vino restaurant. Despite the name I drank beer, and was pleased to see that they had a beer from the island's only (I think) microbrewery. It was pretty nice so after the meal we went to the bottle shop next door and picked up a couple of big bottles. We got the Baroona Pale Ale and the Wharf Rd Wheat Beer. The Pale Ale was good - not quite as bitter as some examples I've tasted, with a good level of fruitiness. We didn't have time to go and visit the brewery, but I will certainly try next time we're over there.

On Sunday the weather was less promising, but we decided to head out to Hallertau brewery bar & restaurant. It had been on my "must do" list for some time and I was very glad to finally make it out there. We had a tasting paddle of their 5 house beers (including the seasonal wheat beer) and they were all excellent. I struggled to find a favourite - the Luxe kolsch-style beer was excellent, but so was the Deception schwarzbier. The American Pale Ale and Red beer were also very good. The food was excellent too, and they even had a small playground to keep my son entertained. We rounded off the visit with a few takeaways from their excellent beer fridge, stocked with bottles from numerous New Zealand microbreweries. An excellent day out - if you're ever in Auckland and you like beer, Hallertau needs to be near the top of your itinerary!

Temperature controller fixed

I managed to fix the temperature controller on my fermentation fridge. It was a simple matter of a loose wire on the back of it.

In case you were wondering what it is, it's basically just a temperature-controlled switch which sits between the power outlet and the fridge. When the fridge temperature (measured by a probe) goes above a set level, the fridge is switched on. When it has cooled down enough, the fridge is switched off again.

This is used to keep the fermenter at a suitable temperature. In the summer in Auckland the ambient temperature is generally too warm for beer fermentation. I'm aiming for about 20 degrees centigrade - much higher and funny flavours can be produced.

The temperature controller can also be used to control a heater belt, which I might need in the winter time. Either that or I'll just switch to brewing lagers which need a much lower temperature!

Batch #003 - Yankiwi Pale

I started my third batch of homebrew at the weekend. It's based on an American Pale Ale recipe but with the addition of some New Zealand hops, hence the name. The recipe is:

• 270g Crystal malt, steeped for 30 mins
• 1.8kg Light liquid malt extract (LME), boiled for 60 mins
• 1.8kg Light LME, added at end of boil
• 25g NZ Hallertauer hops, boiled for 60 mins
• 27g Galena hops, boiled for 60 mins
• 12g Cascade hops, boiled for 15 mins
• 10g East Kent Goldings hops, added at end of boil and left in fermenter

Half a teaspoon of Irish Moss was added for the last 10 minutes of the boil. The yeast used was Safale US-56 dried yeast, rehydrated in one cup of water before pitching. The boil volume was 13 litres, which was made up to 23 litres for fermentation. Yeast nutrient salts were added prior to pitching.

It's now bubbling away in a fermenter in my Fermentation Cabinet (i.e. an old fridge with a temperature controller on it). However, the temperature controller doesn't seem to be working at the moment (will try and look at it tonight) so I'm having to regulate the temperature by manually switching the fridge on and off.

The intended Original Gravity (OG) of the beer was 1.047, but when I tipped the wort into the fermenter I noticed I had some malt extract stuck to the bottom of the pot. As a result the measured OG was only 1.040, which is a bit on the weak side. The bitterness should be around 58 IBUs which is pretty damn bitter (a good thing).

I'll post updates if there is anything interesting to say as we go along.

New Year, new direction

If anyone's still out there reading this, congratulations on your persistence. In the 16 months or so since this blog was last updated, things have changed a bit. Since it was the start of a new year I thought I'd relaunch this blog.

Previously, my profile blurb at the top said "After 12 years as a project manager for a major IT consultancy I'm disillusioned with my career, and thinking of doing something crazy like buying a country pub. This blog will document my progress. Although primarily intended as somewhere for me to work out ideas and save links to useful resources, it's in a public forum so anyone's welcome to comment, provide suggestions, feedback etc. or ask questions."

Well, I did do something crazy but it wasn't to buy a pub (yet). I've moved with my family to New Zealand. Still working in IT, though.

I have not given up on the pub/bar/restaurant idea yet though and I've now taken up homebrewing, so I thought I'd resurrect this blog. Let's see what happens.