Brew #1 - Epicish Pale Ale

So after getting Beervana, work, finances and life in general out of the way, I was finally able to put down my first solo batch of home brewed beer on the weekend.

With fear and a bit of worry, I kicked off on a beautiful Swamp day. I went in with this simple motto in mind: be methodical, be thorough, be sure.

I decided to copy a recipe posted on the RealBeer forum, touted as an Epic Pale Ale clone. As I say here, Epic Pale Ale was the beer that got me into "the good stuff" so brewing a clone of it seemed as fitting a brew as I could think of. I've just substituted NZ Cascade for US Cascade to make things easier.

I had already boiled the water two days ago and let it sit open to get all the chlorine out of it, so it was just a case of getting it up to temperature. However, I hit a snag - while I headed up my mash tun with some hot water already, it clearly wasn't enough. So the temperature dropped to well below my target for mashing in.

There was a point where I thought about just dumping in the grain and rolling with it, mainly because I was trying to figure out how to get about 15L of water back into my HLT at the top of my shed. But that voice in my head came on again: be methodical, be thorough, be sure. So I spent a good 20 minutes lugging crap around my shed to get back, essentially, to Square One. Taking in the time to heat up water again, it put another 50 minutes into my brew day - I could live with that.

So, I finally mashed in - this time pretty much hitting my target temperature - and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

How's that for some insulation on my mash tun

Throughout the day, I quickly learned that brewing is really about sitting on your bum all day waiting for things to happen. But I tried to keep busy, mainly by cleaning.

Pots be great for recirculation.

After recirculating and sparging, I ended up with about 26L of wort for the boil. However, I lost a CRAPLOAD. I ended up with only 15L in my fermenter. There was probably about 2-3L in the kettle due to it not clearing out as much as I liked, but that still seems like a lot of wort-loss. I tried to keep things at a low rolling boil to ensure I didn't lose too much, but it seems like that didn't work.

It also ended up very murky going into the fermenter. After some post-brew Tweeting, Kieran let me know I should have added some calcium chloride to my water to help with clarity. Something to remember for next time.

Here's the recipe I ended up using and times of my brew day:

4.7kg Golden Promise
.41kg pale crystal
50g NZ Cascade @ 60 min
50g NZ Cascade @ 10 min
50g NZ Cascade @ 1 min
Dry hop with 100g NZ Cascade after krausen calms down
US-05 yeast

The total hop bill (incl. dry hopping). Omnomnom... I hope!

8am - HLT on. 45L of water @ 30C
9.35am - screw up strike water
10.25am - Mash in. Mash start temp = 67C
11.58am - begin recirculating. Mash temp = 65C
12.30pm - sparge
1.10pm - start 90min boil
2.44pm - flame out, chiller on
3pm - turn off chiller, wort = 20C
4.05pm - run into fermenter
4.15pm - pitch yeast into 14L of wort. Temp = about 18C

24hrs into fermentation - bubbling in airlock once ever 8 seconds. Temp = about 16C
48hrs into fermentation - bubble every 2 seconds. Temp = about 20C

Keeping my temperature level is going to be the hardest part from here on out. I've just scored a fridge from a mate, so I'm going to convert that into a fermentation chamber sometime soon.

But ultimately, I think I'm happy with how things are going so far. And as a way to both pat myself on the back and keep the ego in check, here's what I know I did well and what I'll need to improve on next time.

Chur:

- Recirculation: I know this is important to try get crystal-clear beer. When I did the brew with Chris and Stu, we had a pump to make life easier. At home, it was a two-pot collect-and-pour job. It took longer than I expected, but I knew I had to get it right to get the beer clear. And I did have a damn nice looking wort afterwards.

- Clearing and sterilising: Making sure everything was clean was a priority. I made sure to scrub the day before, then wipe on the day, then sterilise everything twice. I was using a no-rise formula, so I didn't worry about using too much. I reckon things were damn clean, so it should help the beer come out nice.

- No shortcuts: As I said before, I had a disaster at the beginning. For a few seconds I thought about dumping the grains on the too-cold water, but quickly got that out of my mind. I presume shortcuts in brewing usually lead to crap beer, so I took the time to lug things around a wait. I'm sure the brew should work out better for it.

Unchur:

Fermenter chilling on a bed of heat pad, upside-down
baking tray (to let the cable out) and carpet, wrapped
in a sheet for extra snuggles.

- Water: I forgot didn't add any calcium chloride to my water, which I've been told helps wort get nice and clear. I also didn't get a full analysis of the town water supply to ensure I treated it right to give myself a good base to go off. I won't be making that mistake again.

- Air: I probably didn't aerate the wort enough when I transferred it from the kettle to the fermenter. I used a hose to transfer it, but probably didn't hold the hose high enough to let it get enough air in. Next time, I'll be sure to use a smaller piece of hose to make sure the wort can splash enough on it's way to aerate properly.

- Expectations: I expected to be making crystal-clear, beautiful beer from the get-go, with no issues during brewing. I now know this is stupid, and I'll have to be patient while learning. I'm only learning and will need time to get good at doing this. But when I get good, I will know all those mistakes I made and lessons I learned will have been worth it.

So, there it is. First batch on the way. Is there anything I need to watch out for? Is there anything you would do differently to this recipe? Any brew tips I should know for next time? How can I not lose so much wort during the boil?

Hit me with your advice, because I'm a dry sponge and ready to soak it all up!

Beervana: The post-match analysis

Wellington on a good day

I started writing this the Monday after Beervana (yup, it's taken me a while because I've been working), and I feel exactly like I used to after I once played four games of football over a weekend - sore legs, slightly seedy and so glad I put myself through it.

But you have to forgive me for being so glad. When you're walking into Westpac Stadium and the weather is that good, you can't help but be happy with whatever you're doing.

For me, that doing was volunteering. I really, really, really miss bartending - but maybe not the pay - so thought I would offer my services, and promptly got told I would be serving beer alongside cool people like Richie. He ended up working every session. If he was a brewer, that would be understandable, but for a volunteer he put in a big effort. Someone should get that man a beer sometime.

But I didn't end up working at a bar at all. Volunteer maestro Jessica caught wind that I was in the media-brewer competition, and decided I could help with the tasting. Then she decided I could run the session... five minutes before it started...

It was hard yakka. No microphones, some judges who weren't very crowd friendly (sorry guys, no offence) and a lot of running around. But it was great fun, with some wacky brews offered up; horseradish pale ale, chili and marshmallow beer and ANZAC biscuit ale were there for the judges to try. The most "normal" beer was an imperial IPA.

Liberty Brewing - Rennals Toward Murawai

And I came third! Well, Stu and I came third with a lot of help from Chris Banks. I didn't really have much to do with it to be perfectly honest. I just turned up on brew day and provided the stainless. But I think Tintin and Uri's Third Wheel Spoonbender turned out great. Easy-drinking for 7-ish% but that candi sugar made from a sweet white wine still stood out. Smart! I'm looking forward to seeing what the Yeastie Boys do with it from here.

The most fun part was chilling out with people afterwards and going through the brews. I managed to meet a lot of awesome people who I had only "met" through the Twitterverse. But I spent the most time with Simon Morton and Richard Scott from Radio NZ's "This Way Up" show. It may have had something to do with the free beer (a lure to any good journalist), but it was great to sit down and talk brews and journalism with a couple people who know what they're on about and were really nice.

Naturally, having a few drinks with journalists left me in a great place to have a few more beers with journalists. I met up with a few buddies from my journalism class and proceeded to drink some of the Beervana brews.

Picking a favourite from Session 2 was tricky. Hallertau Funkonnay was absolutely everything I thought it would be - sour, wine-like but still with some awesome beer flavour going on. Emerson's Regional Best Bitter was tasting great on the handpump, as did the Cassel & Sons Milk Stout. Both nice and creamy, with the stout a rare treat for me. I even managed to fit in some Garage Project Red Rocks Reserve.

There was some great food as well. I made sure to get in on Fork & Brewer chef Anton's session about beer and food. Beer vinegar, salmon paired with Emeron's Pilsner and a chance to give Neil Miller a bit of stick - what else could a guy ask for!

Trying to check the clarity of C!tra

I had a glass of both Liberty C!tra (nicely modelled by Kerry there) and Yakima Monster (which was far too awesome) near last call, but it was their Rennals Toward Murawai which really stood out. As black as Death but really quite light for a beer that big, it showed off more than enough promise to convince me to go out and get a couple bottles sometime. Chur Joseph, chur indeed!

After a good sleep, shower and feed of McDonalds - there may have been a Tuatara Double Trouble from Fork & Brewer somewhere before that good sleep - it was off to Session 3!

For some reason, I didn't feel like high alcohol beers on Saturday. So instead, I mainly stuck to the milds. While annoyed I didn't get any of Feral's Watermelon Warhead - 2.7% watermelon sour beer - I managed to have a whole lot more awesome stuff.

Monkey Wizard's Black Mass oatmeal stout was the best of the session for me, but there were other great milds - ParrotDog Dogg, Garage Project Milk Chocolate Stout and Yeastie Boys/Lobethal Bruce ordinary bitter the ones I really remember - but there was really only ever going to be one beer of the session.

The one thing I loved about the festival was the relative lack of queues. But at 3pm, a massive line formed for 8 Wired's Bumaye. What else was going to happen for a 17% barrel-aged imperial stout?! It was tasting pretty fresh (lots of oak and alcohol notes) at the festival, but I think it'll be great in a year.

I went with the intention of taking detailed notes - I even had a notepad - but didn't get around to it. Why? Because I was simply having too much fun with people. And that's where Beervana was great for me. It was a chance to meet some people, catch up with some people, congratulate a lot of people and generally spend time with people who all shared something in common - an appreciation of beer as a drink, rather than a drug, and a want to share that with other people.

Brewers, bar tenders, photographers and people being idiots - that's Beervana in a collage.

So, until next year, cheers Beervana!

Beervana: Pre-game 2.0

So, yesterday's post was all about the North Island bars and the festive brews. Today's shall be about the South Island beers which will be on display at Beervana.

I'm probably looking forward to these the most. Plenty never make it up this way, and there's sure to be plenty on handpump. If I could pick a bar to be placed at on my volunteer shift on Friday (hint hint) I would jump for the Real Ale bar. Handpump ales are just so damn good! Understated, but so full of flavour and omnomnomness.

Anyway, on to the bars!

Top of the South

That land of golden sun, golden beaches and hops which, after I imbibe enough brews, make the world seem more golden. It's like being a pirate, but without the sailing. I really don't know what I mean by that. Ignore me, just read!

Must have: After watching this episode of NZ Craft Beer TV, I know I have to try something from Monkey Wizard. Lucky for me, their Black Mass Stout (3.6% oatmeal stout) will be at this bar. He really has inspired me to have a bit of fun with brewing (when I eventually get going) and not worry if things may not work. Because this brewing thing should be fun! It's a creative, enjoyable, vibrant experience and I can't wait to get among it.

Also, Phil Cook passed his love of session beers on to me, so I think it's only reasonable that I have to get me a glass of this, especially given Wellington's love of being cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey.

Must not: I've already made my thoughts clear here on the latest batch of Renaissance Brewing Craftsman (4.9% stout). I've had it a few times since and my thoughts haven't changed much. That should say it all really.

Canterbury

I'm always amazed at how well the breweries from Chch and co are doing, considering the catastrophic quakes which tried to place a choker hold on the city. But fear not! These brewers are made of tough stuff, and I'm glad they're sending plenty of beer up north for me to enjoy.

Must have: There is a lot from this bar I would have, but the Resolute Brewing Beechwood Bock (6.4% smoked bock) has to take the cake. I've been a fan of smoked beers since someone mispoured a Invercargill Smokin' Bishop at The Malthouse once. Any beer that tastes like smoked bacon has to be the business, ain't I right haters?!?!

Must not: Sorry Three Boys, but I've had enough Oyster Stout (6.5% stout) to drown half of Palmerston North. And probably enough to turn me into a complete horn dog if this is to be believed. I best leave that until I get back home.

Southern

Them Southerners know their brews. Richard Emerson is a titan of the New Zealand brewing scene, and I'm very glad he got some national TV attention recently (without subtitles - good work TV3!). He's helping to continually prove the point that there is more to Southern beer than Speights.

Must have: Probably the busiest brewery in the country with all the contract work they do, Invercargill Brewery also - somehow - find the time to pump out their own awesome range. But I have got to have some of their Pitch Black Boysenberry Stout (5% stout). The missus has had some lying around for a while, but won't let me drink it. This may be my only chance to have some.

Must not: I had never had tequila (in any decent quantity) until I worked at The Malthouse. As much as I love the stuff now, I still hate the Tequila Beer (5.6% fruit flavoured beer) from Green Man Brewery. But some go gaga for it. Don't be put off - at least give it a go. You can't mock it until you've tried it

Wildcards

Sure, so I said there would be only one - but bugger it. There's too much awesome beer to only pick one! So here are my three random picks for Beervana.

1) Cassels & Sons Brewery Milk Stout (5.3% sweet stout) - I've been told by many people that this is the beer I have to have at Beervana. I've not had much/any of their stuff before, but I can't turn it down with the number of people preaching praises about this brew.

2) 8 Wired Brewing Bumaye (17% experimental barrel-aged imperial stout) - anyone who knows me well enough should know I'm a sucker for an imperial stout. I've drunk an imperial pint of Moa's version before, and even made a cake out of it. I was a big fan of Søren's Batch 18, so I'm hanging out for this. I may have to make it the nightcap on Friday night, but what a nightcap it will be.

3) Liberty Brewing C!tra (9% imperial IPA) - C'mon, watch the video below and tell me you don't want to drink it - sweaty surfer armpit and all!

Beervana: Pre-game 1.0

271 brews from 96 breweries is the official count from the organisers. If the hype is to be believed, this year's edition of Beervana will be the biggest and best yet.

But beer nerds have the usual problem. "I can't drink 271 beers in one session, so what will I drink?"

Planning is a big part of beer festivals for most beer nerds, and should be for you. Making a list of must-haves, must-nots and maybe-dos helps to cross of the beers you have already had and the ones you probably won't like, and prioritise those you can't miss.

So, in my helpful little way, I'm going to throw out there the beers I know I will and will not have. And with them split into territories, my job is easy: a must and must not from each regional, the festive stand and a random "wildcard" I can't not leave behind.

So without further waiting, the North Island regions and my pick of the festives...

Northern

Beers from the land north of The Tron. The breweries up there are the ones I have probably had the least from, so sorting the must from the must-not was tricky. To be honest, I'll probably have a few from here. However, self-imposed rules are self-imposed rules...

Must have: While sour beers are hardly my go-to, Hallertau Funkonnay (6.5% sour ale) was an easy choice. Now-retired blogger Alice Galletly did a very good job of letting me know that this is a beer I have to try. Any beer aged in chardonnay barrels has my interest after Yeastie Boys aged their Rex Attitude in some.

Must not: As nice as this beer is, I really have no need to drink Scott's Gluten Free Pale Ale (4.5%). Delicious of course, and a must-have for any of the gluten-free out there. However, I have bigger fish to fry.

Central

I'm glad that, finally, there will be some beers from #manawatumeke at Beervana! Massey University's Palmerston North-based micro-brewery is sending down a couple drops. Heck, I'm proud to say my former university brews beer. Does yours?

Must have: As excited as I am about university beer, the must have must go to the Brewaucracy Bean Counter (4.2% vanilla porter). The brainchild of Greig McGill and Phil Murray, this is bound to get me excited. I loved the vanilla from Renaissance's Craftsman last year, so am hoping for something same-but-not-but-still-good.

Must not: Croucher, I love you guys but I've had enough Patriot (5.5% American Black Ale) to last me quite a while. A great beer others should have, but one I shall miss.

 Wellington

Home-town support goes a long way, so these beers are sure to be popular. I still spend most weekends in the city, so am looking forward to making my way through some of the drops.

Must have: Most beers at the festival are looking fairly strong, so it is great that the Lobethal/Yeastie Boys collaboration called Bruce (3.5% ordinary bitter) manages to make its way in. I'm a fan of session beers, and am thinking this may be the drop to start on. Also, the tasting notes described it as looking "naked" *cue the funk music*.

Must not: Speaking of funk, I very much doubt I'll be having any of Funk Estate's Coconut Rough Stout (5% spice/fruit beer). I had some at the recent SOBA Winter Ale Festival, and think that was enough for me. If you're into your kinda-sour beer - which I remember this being -  do give it a go.

Festive

On the Beervana website, it says the beers in this category cannot be relased until after the BeerNZ Awards. But when all the tasting notes first hit the website, the festives were included. I made sure to download a copy then, so am fairly sure I'm covered on any embargo-breaking front. And if I am... well, TV One seems to be getting away with breaking this one. I'm sure a beer list is not as big as that, nor is my blog as popular as a national news channel.

Must have: Once again, it's them Yeastie Boys. This time, they've teamed up with Moon Dog to create -wait for it - Peter Pipers Pickled Pepper Peated Purple Pale Ale (9% strong fruit ale). A beer which looks like unicorns, smells like a horse and cart and tastes of clamped nipples has to be tried to be believed.

Must not: A hard choice, but it has to be the Renaissnace Brewing Great Pumpkin (6% spiced pumpkin beer). Funk Estate also have a pumpkin beer, but it was brewed at Massey - talk about bonus points!

Tomorrow (hopefully), I'll post about the South Island regional bars. I'll also pick out my wildcard brew. Until then, let me know what you are hanging out for at Beervana. Are some of my picks well off? Are there some I absolutely need to try? Any I should steer well clear of?

Until then, cheers!


Post-script: So it turns out the Yeastie Boys/Moon Dog spooning session festive will not make it to Beervana in time - unchur indeed! So, back-up festive favourite goes to Liberty Brewing's Rennals Towards Muriwai (11% festive brew). Anything which claims to absorb light while having a maximum bitterness and sweetness rating has got to be awesome.

Two Ravens walked into The Swamp...

I'm a huge fan of collaborations. Working with people tends to bring the best out of you. I've found it to be true in music, in writing and it is very visible audible clear that it is especially true in the beer world.

It is almost for this reason alone that I wish I lived in the US. Dogfish Head - one of the absolute titans of the renaissance in the craft brewing scene - recently did a series where they worked with musicians. While watching Brewing TV, I found out they did a beer with Dan the Automator which had chilies, Fuji apples and cilantro in it. If that ain't wack, I don't know what is. But I do know it was a 9% ABV IPA called Positive Contact.

There have been plenty of collaborations in the Kiwi craft beer scene as well, but arguably the most regular would be the Motueka/Yakima duos brewed by Yeastie Boys and Liberty Brewing respectively. Two beers, exactly the same, but one with NZ hops and the other with US hops.

After a couple years of doing IPAs, this year's edition sees the Ravens - two black IPAs. So, naturally, I had to get both and try them out.

I started with Yeastie Boys' Motueka Raven, mainly because I had a tot of Aberlour beforehand. Knowing Stu's fondness of whisky - if only going off Rex Attitude - just seemed right.

L-R: 1) Bottle and beer. 2) The blurb.

Correct me- someone - if I'm wrong, but I think I can pick out cascade hops. It may have to do with trying to snort the things when Stu and I did the media-brewer pro-am brew, but I'm sure I can find them in there. I also get a very dusty aroma, like the nasal texture (is that even a thing?!?!) Renasisance Craftsman had in 2011. There is also some coffee on the nose. If I had to pick it, I would say a filter coffee like a Chemex brew; sweet, but with enough bite to keep things dry, but in a sourish kind of way. There was also a bit of mint in there, but only enough to keep things zingy.

I picked up pineapple and what I think is mandarin when actually drinking it (because that is what you do with beer after all). Maybe more a mandarin version of those British chocolate oranges; like Jaffas, but slightly more exotic. It all finished up with a nice bittersweet chocolate finish, and seemed to get fresherthe longer it was in the glass. A nice hit of umami as well, along with some grass. I know what grass tastes like after being a football goalkeeper. I pretty much ate a few mouthfuls every Saturday, playing two games a day at Donnelly Park in Levin.

Things just got weird.... more beer!!!

L-R: 1) Bottle and beer. 2) The blurb.

The Yakima is instantly different. For a start, it pours with a bigger head. Then on the nose - my goodness Joseph, those hops! While the Motueka is pretty relaxed, this throws up those citrus notes US hops are so loved for, which helps to bring the chocolate to the front. Now this smells like Jaffas! It reminds me a lot of Yeastie Boys' Pot Kettle Black, but bigger.

Same kind of mouthfeel (must come from the identical malt/yeast/water profile/etc), but a much fuller hop flavour. Far more refined as well. While the Motueka had a more "across the net" division of malts and hops, the Yakima seems to fade the malt into the hops more. It's like the difference between tennis (stay on your side of the net fool!) and football (we can get together wherever we want to on this field). I've heard before that this is a common difference between NZ and US hops - am I right? Feel free to tell me I'm full of crap.

All in all, two very awesome beers. If I had to pick a winner, it would be the Yakima. While both beers are awesome, the US hops just seem to fit better.

I'm a bit gutted I didn't think ahead and blend the two at the end. But maybe that's what 3 of 3 is for - am I right?

This station is now (almost) operational

Yes, I finally have the kit in my shed! 

 (Clockwise from left): 1) How's that for a gravity system?! 2) Base of mash tun. 3) View from HLT to mash tun

I'm still a way off brewing though. I've got to get me some essentials like Star San, a heat pad (because The Swamp is very, very cold) and ingredients. I've also been very busy at work, and have got make sure I've got plenty of money together for Beervana weekend (hope to see you there).


But I have given it a test drive of sorts. A few weeks ago, Stu McKinlay and I converged on Chris Banks' place to brew up a beer for the media/brewer pro-am competition at Beervana. It was great fun, and a good learning exercise. Chris taught me some of the little quirks my kit has, and Stu was a wealth of information on everything to do with brewing. I even learned some techniques I had no real clue about, like first wort hopping.

I probably can't tell exactly what we brewed, but I'm thinking it will turn out great. It should have enough of a difference to be interesting, without being totally wacky. I hear someone is using horseradish in their brew - seriously, what the hell?!


I also, still, have to decide what exactly I'm going to brew first on my kit. I'm wanting to do something for the autumn months, so a red or brown ale seems to be what I'm leaning towards. Do you have a good recipe, or know where I can get one? If so, please shout out!

And while giving the HLT its first test in the shed - albeit just to boil water to clean some bottles - I imbibed in one of Epic's many new offerings of late. Message In A Bottle was brewed to be paired with "Beer Nation", Michael Donaldson's brilliant biography on the history of beer in New Zealand. A big malty IPA, it comes bearing a truckload of caramel, toffee and marmalade. and leaves behind a slow-building finish which just makes you want more.

To me, it tastes like the perfect gateway from Tui to real IPAs. It has got enough sweetness to appease an orange can fan, but enough flavour and character to give them a beer which actually tastes good. And that can only be a good thing