Otterbrau

A romp of Otterbraus. Or possibly a lodge of Otterbraus, I'm not sure.

Otterbrau is New Zealand IPA, loosely based on this excellent Digital IPA recipe by the Yeastie Boys.

No 1 Queen Street Home-brew Club

I recently joined an Auckland based home-brew club, the No 1 Queen Street Home-brew Club.  It's a based at the No 1 Queen Street bar and cafe, just outside the Britomart transport center.

We meet once a month to taste, discuss, and swap home-brew.  I've found it's a really great way to learn about brewing, to get feedback on my beer, and to give (non-judgmental) feedback on other brewer's beer.

The best part is that in the bar there is an exchange fridge, and at any time during the month I can swap one of my beers for someone else's. (Although you can't drink it on site, due to licensing restrictions.)

If you're in the Auckland area, and are interested in learning more about brewing, I would highly recommend coming along to the monthly meetups.

Introduction to Kegging

About three months ago, I bought a second hand kegging system from Hauraki Homebrew.   (Basically it's two corny kegs inside a fridge.)

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I purchased it, but I found the following Youtube videos extremely helpful when trying to get it all going.  For someone with zero experience in the realm of kegging, these videos were indispensable.

• Introduction to Kegging P1 - Overview
• Introduction to Kegging P2 - Keg Cleaning
• Introduction to Kegging P3 - Sanitizing your Keg
• Introduction to Kegging Pt 4 - Carbonating Your Beer

I also found this kegging carbonation calculator useful:

• Keg Carbonation Calculator

Here's a picture of my kegging system, once I got everything set up:

The first two beers I made for kegging were ultra-budget extract brews. (I didn't want to waste any money if I stuffed up.)  The one on the right was pretty bland, but the brown porter on the left actually turned out somewhat awesome.  The fact it cost me around $25 made it taste all the sweeter.

Here is the recipe for a 19L batch:

• 1.7kg can Coopers dark ale hopped malt-extract
• 550g can Maltexo liquid malt extract
• 700g brown sugar 
• 250g chocolate malt (steeped)
• 8g black patent malt (steeped)
• 200g caramunich T1 (steeped)
• 1 packet SafAle US-05

It came out around 4.6%ABV.  Yes, it's cheap and cheerful, but it tasted delicious.  

I call it Squirrelbrau. 

New Zealand Ordinary Bitter

I'm looking at brewing a 'New Zealand Ordinary Bitter' soon.  That's a style I just made up - an ordinary bitter, but with New Zealand hops. (Basically an Emerson's Bookbinder clone.) According to the style guides, ordinary bitter should be a flavourful, low alcohol, pale ale made using herbal/floral English hops.  I'm looking to make something similar maltwise, but using citrus/floral New Zealand hops.

These are the references I've been looking at to design my recipe:

• The Highwayman (Bookbinder clone)
• Emersons bookbinder clone
• Spellbinder (Bookbinder clone)

• Ordinary Bitter: Style Profile
• The Jamil Show Archives: Ordinary Bitter

If it turns out tasty, I'll post the recipe.

Adding Fresh Yeast for Bottling Conditioning

Apparently I need to add yeast to my Belgian Golden Strong before bottling, as it's 9% ABV and has had an extended secondary fermentation period. Basically the yeast is almost dead, and not up to the task of carbonating the beer to the required level.

So I need to add fresh yeast before bottling.  I have no idea how to do this.  I had a poke around the internet, and this was all I could find:

• On the Yeast: Guide to Bottle Conditioning
• How do you pitch additional yeast for bottling?
• When is it necessary to pitch fresh yeast for bottle conditioning?

I also found these resources, but they were more about bottling and ageing in general.

• Advanced Bottle Conditioning (PDF)
• Bottle-ageing beers: the don’ts and do’s

Munich Helles Resources

I'm looking at brewing a Munich Helles lager at some point the next couple of weeks - here are some resources I found:

• Helles: Style Profile
• Munich Helles - Recipe and Tasting
• Brewing a Munich Helles
• The Jamil Show - Brewing With Style: Munich Helles
• The Jamil Show - Munich Helles

These are some links related to lagering in general:

• Brewing the perfect lager at home
• Brewing a lager with Erik Schmid

Honeybrau

This is the new label for my recent batch of Honeybrau, a blonde-ale made with honey.

This is the second time I have made this, and both times I've been really happy with it.  The honey really shines through. It has quite low bitterness, and it often appeals to people who don't usually drink beer.

Next time I might consider dropping the late addition hops, as I'm not sure it needs them.

Here is the recipe:

Style:  Honey and wheat blonde ale? Golden ale? I'm not sure.
Batch Size:  20L
Type:  Partial Mash

Ingredients:

• 1.5kg liquid malt extract
• 2kg New Zealand 2-row ale malt
• 1kg New Zealand wheat malt
• 500g Manuka-blend honey (or full Manuka honey if you can afford it)
• 15g Pacific Jade hops (14% AA) boiled 60 minutes
• 10g Pacifica hops (5.6% AA) boiled 30 minutes
• 5g Nelson Sauvin hops (12.8% AA) boiled 10 minutes
• 5g Pacifica hops (5.6% AA) boiled 10 minutes
• Safale US-05 dry yeast

Note: I have poor mash efficiency (about 55%) so you may not need quite so much base malt.

Directions:
Mash at 67c for 60 minutes.
Add the honey and liquid extract at flame-out to avoid scorching.

Original Gravity: 1.054
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol by Volume: 6%
Biterness: 20.45 IBUs
Colour: 5 SRM

Belgian Golden Strong Ale Links

Here are a couple of resources for for brewing a Belgian Golden Strong Ale. (i.e. a Duvel clone)  

• Belgian Strong Ale with Michael Mraz – BeerSmith Podcast #72
• Belgian Golden Ale: Style Profile
• Duvel Belgian Ale clone
• Northern Brewer Belgian Golden Strong Ale (PDF)

New Zealand Pale Ale resources

I've been trying to find some resources or recipes for making a New Zealand pale ales, but there isn't a lot of information out there.  I have found the following links to be useful:

• As well as a recipe, this Realbeer.co.nz post attempts to define an NZ pale ale.
• I've tried Mash Up before and I really liked it, so I'm pleased there's a recipe available.
• This is just some random dude's recipe using NZ hops.
• Here's some advice on combining Nelson Sauvin and Motueka hops.
• This is something I refer to all the time - a cheat sheet describing the characteristics of the most common New Zealand hops.

Saison Links

Here are some references for brewing a Saison, a refreshing summer beer style produced in Wallonia (the French-speaking part of Belgium.)

• Saison Beer – Belgian Farmhouse Ale Recipes
• Brewing a Summer Saison
• Saison: Style Profile
• Saison For All Seasons
• The Way of the Saison

Craft Beer Characteristics Chart

Stout, Port, and Coffee cocktail

I've just watched this video showing how to make a beer cocktail using Russian Imperial stout, port, Sambuca, and coffee.  I'm a big fan of stout cocktails, and this one looks pretty good.  

The Beer Chick ladies get on my nerves a little bit, but they appear to know what they are talking about.  I may have to watch some more of their beer cocktail videos.

Brew Dudes Robust Porter Recipe

I really like the look of this Brew Dudes robust porter recipe, so I've posted a link to it:

http://www.brew-dudes.com/robust-porter-recipe/4776

Also, their brown porter recipe doesn't look so bade either:

http://www.brew-dudes.com/brown-porter-recipe/332

US Brewers Association Style Guidelines

The 2013 US Brewers Association Beer Style Guidelines have just been released.  While I don't believe a beer must match its style exactly down to the very last ingredient, SRM value, and IBU value (they really are just 'guidelines' after all) I've always found this style guide a useful tool in designing a beer recipe. I'm a firm believer in knowing what the rules are before before you start breaking them.

My only gripe is that while it contains guidelines for such obscure beers type as Grätzer or Bamberg-Style Märzen Rauchbier, there's no style guidelines for New Zealand Draught. I guess they don't drink a lot Speights in the US craft/home-brew scene.

The 2013 beer style guidelines are available for download from BrewersAssociation.org here.

Beersplosion.

One of my Otterbraus exploded today. It was my first ever beer bottle explosion.  Now I remember why I don't usually make beer in summer.  I also learnt why it's important to not store beer on the carpet in the spare room.

I was actually quite relieved when I found out it was a beer that had exploded.  I was in the middle of cooking up a batch of Goldenbrau with a new gas burner at the time.  I had temporarily left it boiling unattended when heard the bang, and I had visions of faulty gas burner induced fireballs engulfing my garage.

Still, I got to spend a pleasant evening cleaning beer off the walls.  The carpet still stinks like Zythos hops though.

Romp

A romp of Otterbraus.  Or possibly a lodge of Otterbraus, I'm not sure.

Labels

Here are all the Highetbrau labels I've done to date.  I am by no means a graphic designer, but I think they've turned out pretty good.

The aesthetic is intended to be psuedo-Germanic, taking inspiration from classic German beer labels, Euro-Disney, Motorhead, and cheesy German-themed restaurants.

Deep Creek American IPA

It shouldn't really have a label because I bought the wort pre-made from Deep Creek Brewery, and it has nothing to do with aquatic mammals, but I don't care - I'm calling it Otterbrau.

Media Sensationalism

Thanks for the sensationalism TV3, but I'm fairly certain that this teenager's death, caused by drinking two litres of home-brewed spirits in ten minutes, doesn't "put he spotlight on the growing home brew industry".

I'm reasonably sure that drinking 2 litres of top quality, shop-bought vodka in 10 minutes would still have the same effect.  

If anything, it puts the spotlight on New Zealand's binge drinking culture.

Beer Bottles

I just contacted a New Zealand based bottle company about getting a quote for a couple hundred 500ml brown glass beer bottles.  Turns out you can only buy them in a minimum quantity of 44506 bottles!  No wonder there's hardly any beer bottles for sale in New Zealand.