Some thoughts on the quintessential Australian beer

August 13, 2009
The time has come to start the upcoming brews. A bit of thought has gone into it this time, more than usual. Rather than the stardard trial of styles not before tried, or hops not before trialled, it has been about creating that great summer beer. A quick search through the yeasts available has shown that Saison and Biere de Garde have very high fermentation temperature tolerance. Perfect for the hot Adelaide summer.

Biere de garde is a great style and a very nice beer so using this yeast should provide a great result. Combine the yeast with a good Aussie hop, some great Aussie malts, and good technique and it could be that  the ideal summer brewing beer could have been found. Only time will tell.

A Topaz Saison will be first off. The recipe is yet to be developed but it already sounds appealling. It will be followed by a Galaxy dark ale using the Biere de Garde yeast and a Pride of Ringwood Biere de Garde or Saison (Belgian style).

A great summer brewing season coming up. And if the weather keeps warming up the way it is, it will start sooner than usual.

Posted by Jared Birbeck.

 

Burners and Hops

August 10, 2009
The burners have arrived. Great littles things and it will be great once they have been incorporated into the brewery. There will be a test run on the weekend for the last competition brew that is getting prepared. The it will be onward to the search for the Australian brew.

Topaz hops and Pride of Ringwood hops are on the way and a couple of different yeast varieties. The first test will be using Bier de Garde yeast from Wyeast. Bier De Garde was a special release last year and it performed ...
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Posted by Jared Birbeck.

 

New burners

August 7, 2009
The brewery has been working on a converted natural gas four ring burner for a long time. It has dones it job and worked well. There are a lot of pluses when it comes to natural gas. You never run out of gas and it works. The down side is, unless it has been converted well the gas flow isn't strong enough to get a good rolling boil in a lot of situations. For example, despite being a four ring burner the burner does struggle when the volume being boiled is above 20 litres. It also really stru...
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Posted by Jared Birbeck.

 

Delays at the brewery

August 3, 2009
The great bargain that was to begin the brewery has not turned out to be what was expected. Instead of two 100 litre pots as the photos indicated the pots were a very small 19 litres. These pots will make a great brewery for someone, or perhaps they will be used for soups and stocks. But the brewery does not need them.

As a result the search is on for larger pots that can be used as the hot liquor tank and mash tun in the new brewery. Buying new, while an option, is a last resort.

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Posted by Jared Birbeck.

 

The bitter and decoctions

August 2, 2009
The bitter went really well on the weekend. Bittered to around 37IBU, I used the TF floor malted Marris Otter (95%) and Imperial Malt for the other 5%. As a bit of a new idea for english brewing I used the German technique, decoctions. What was the result? Rather than getting 19 litres at 1045 as estimated using Beersmith with 75% efficiency, I hit just over 20 litres at 1052 which makes it an Extra Special Bitter rather than a Special Bitter.

Despite the hassle of a decoction I have found so...
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Posted by Jared Birbeck.

 

This weekend's brew

July 28, 2009
This weekend I am planning on an English bitter to enter into a competition. Taking a different approach I will be using decoctions rather than a simple infusion. For those that don't know this means I will be taking the thick part of the mash out of the main mash to bring to the boil before returning to the main mash to raise the temperature. My step mash schedule will be 50 degrees, 63 degrees and 69 degrees before mashing out.

I'll be using Thomas Fawcett floor malted Maris Otter ale malt ...
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Posted by Jared Birbeck.

 

The brewery is expanding

July 28, 2009
My home brewery is expanding. I have been working with smaller bits and pieces using chairs and old tables where I can, even the BBQ. But soon I will be up to three 100 litre pots in a gravity fed system and a dedicated stand or rig. I haven't decided on the design yet but I am looking at something with a small footprint to save space.

I will bring some updates on the design and build along with the beers to be brewed.

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Posted by Jared Birbeck.

 
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