New Zealand Brewers

[crusader1612]

Yeah that or 23A - Specialty Beer category, or even 22B - Other Smoked Beer depending on how much smoke comes through.

Brewing an APA this weekend. Epic Pale Ale base with some different hops thrown in for good measure! Watch the blog for updates

Nice what hops are you adding?? I did a partial mash on the epic, but I had to Add medium Crystal instead of Pale i think it was, and used 2xtins of light LME forthe base.
Bottledand nearly ready, I upposedthe hops at the same intervals, and did 15 days primery, with all the hops then added another 1oz and cold crashed in my cupboard... its amazing what a couple of frozen coke bottles swapped out every 8 hours can do. down to 8 degrees within a day or two, and it cleared very well. will do thato n my last extract too.

Macros, Depends on what you shot for, whats more present the chillit or the chocolate?
The other category would 21A spice/herb/vegetable beer, but that woulde be particularly ok if the chillit is quite prominent?

I got my p[artial mash entered, under american pale ale, it may be a tiny bit sweet, witht he darker crystal used. but there seemed to be a good hop presence from the NZ Cascade.

Lunchie you ever find a HB Club?? I found the CHCH One, recently started some good guys and advice going around.

 

[NZLunchie]

Nice what hops are you adding??

Going with Cascade bittering, Motueka flavour and aroma and both in as a dry hop addition. Should be good!

I did a partial mash on the epic, but I had to Add medium Crystal instead of Pale i think it was, and used 2xtins of light LME forthe base.
Bottledand nearly ready, I upposedthe hops at the same intervals, and did 15 days primery, with all the hops then added another 1oz and cold crashed in my cupboard... its amazing what a couple of frozen coke bottles swapped out every 8 hours can do. down to 8 degrees within a day or two, and it cleared very well. will do thato n my last extract too.

Ghetto lagering/cold crash!! I like it. Never thought of doing that myself, good kiwi ingenuity at its best :rockin:

Lunchie you ever find a HB Club?? I found the CHCH One, recently started some good guys and advice going around.

Na not yet, haven't really looked to be perfectly honest, but got a Facebook page running for a Palmy Brew Crew

 

[sheblom]

Havnt been on here for a while, how everyone cracking?

Been a bit busy brewing here lately. Tried my hand at making an Oktoborfest from extract and steeping grain, which is bottle conditioning as we speak.
I am also trying my hand at some small batches as well. around 4.5l so I can experiment with all grain but with limited space. So I have some orange mead and grape fruit honey ale going in the small batches going right now.
I have also tried an Coppertun Ginger beer kit. So that's bust fermenting as we speak.

Will keep you posted if anyone is interested.

 

[NZLunchie]

I think I may have a problem.....

 

[crusader1612]

I'm assuming that's not your order? My mate had same problem. Brewshop.co.nz?

 

[MacrosNZ]

I think i have a few problems :-\

 

[NZLunchie]

I think i have a few problems :-\

Touche

@Crusader, yeah thats the freezer side of the hops. All from BrewShop except the two clear bags, they're from Liberty Brewing.

Dealt with The Brew House in Wellington today to get my grains and yeast for Saturday. BRILLIANT customer service!!

 

[sheblom]

I think i have a few problems :-\

I Like your problem man! Looks like you have a brew room to boot. I am still stuck brewing in my kitchen and fermenting in my living room. ! bedroom house fail...

 

[crusader1612]

Hey Lunchie, Just a heads up: I used Irish moss in my Epic Boil. and Cold Crashed, thats made it clear, if you were looking to make it nice and clear, I'd recommend it .
Picture to be posted soon.

 

[NZLunchie]

Hey Lunchie, Just a heads up: I used Irish moss in my Epic Boil. and Cold Crashed, thats made it clear, if you were looking to make it nice and clear, I'd recommend it .
Picture to be posted soon.

Yeah I did the same with my first Epic Clone and I still got a massive amount of cloud. The difference this time is an immersion chiller, hops, Koppafloc instead of Irish Moss and I've got with US-05 instead of Wyeast....

I'll hopefully get the blog updated on the day so keep an eye out

 

[crusader1612]

Yeah I did the same with my first Epic Clone and I still got a massive amount of cloud. The difference this time is an immersion chiller, hops, Koppafloc instead of Irish Moss and I've got with US-05 instead of Wyeast....

I'll hopefully get the blog updated on the day so keep an eye out

Mine is a beautiful red colour from the 80 I used. Hops haven't come though as much as I'd hoped but a nice drink non the less. 2 bottles to the competition to get feedback

 

[NZLunchie]

Brewed and fermenting as we speak.
Overshot the OG in a big way. Was supposed to be 1.059 but I got 1.072, so efficiency is higher than I expected. Means it no longer fits in the APA category, but more of an IPA. Smell during boil was amazing with the Cascade and Motueka combination......I'll get the blog updated at some stage today

 

[MacrosNZ]

Shipping my entries soon!

 

[crusader1612]

Shipping my entries soon!

Looking good.

 

[NZLunchie]

Shipping my entries soon!

Good luck!

 

[crusader1612]

Shipping my entries soon!

Smoked Kumara Beer? I'm Intrigued?!?!

 

[MacrosNZ]

Yeah it's similar to an American sweet potato ale but with smoke and dark malts. My brewing partner went over to see Luke at epic and brought around a few beers for him to try. He thought the kumara and 'choc chip' beers were really good.

 

[NZLunchie]

Yeah it's similar to an American sweet potato ale but with smoke and dark malts. My brewing partner went over to see Luke at epic and brought around a few beers for him to try. He thought the kumara and 'choc chip' beers were really good.

Keen to share the recipe for the Kumera Sucker?

 

[MacrosNZ]

4.6 kg pale malt
0.5 kg crystal
300 g chocolate malt
140 g heavy smoked malt
2 kg of mashed kumara (in the boil)

Used Pacific Jade for bittering and Pacifica for Aroma (I think 20 grams each)

 

[NZLunchie]

4.6 kg pale malt
0.5 kg crystal
300 g chocolate malt
140 g heavy smoked malt
2 kg of mashed kumara (in the boil)

Used Pacific Jade for bittering and Pacifica for Aroma (I think 20 grams each)

Sweet thanks
Any particular type of kumera and what literage we looking at?

 

[MacrosNZ]

Not really... I just used the purple type. Was for a 5 gal batch. The smoke is a little bit overpowering at first but after a couple of weeks in the bottle it's smoothed out. Can try just using normal smoke if you want. I used a little less of the heavy stuff in the second batch.

 

[Dubnorix]

Hey guys, another Auckland brewer here just popping in to say Hi!

 

[crusader1612]

Hey guys, another Auckland brewer here just popping in to say Hi!

Welcome, ll the way from CHCH

So, update. I was bored on the weekend, and don't have the capacity to maintain a constant heat for a second fermenter, however I saw the gunslingers graf, and thought bugger it. so i did it , except i used the black rock miners stout kit (I was goingto use your Tui recipe Lunchie) with another black LME, up to 10 litres for it, plus some additional hops. 20grams cascade, 10 grams willamette, and about 5 grams of tettnanger.
threw it in with 10 litre of fresh up crisp apple juice and 2 packets of us-05.
OG was 1.070, pretty high, and tastes a bit tangy... from the apple juice.

if you search on here: gunslinger, you'll find it.

Its an experiment so time will tell, leaving it in primary for 3 weeks, and then i'll rack to secondary, depending on EQC and let it age.

Doing this one has made me wonder about snakebites/diesels. thoughts?

 

[NZLunchie]

I've seen and thought about doing the Graff thing a fair bit, but never have.

I've bottled my American Pale Ale, made an bottled a Stout and threw together a Black Rock cider for Christmas. Hopefully the APA is as good as I think it is and it becomes my house ale.

I've got one more APA to go for Christmas and then I'll think about playing around with some ideas.

Home brewing is all about experiments right!
If you do go for the Tui recipe let me know how it turns out! I'm well and truly moved on from the kits but I still wouldn't mind knowing how it goes.

 

[crusader1612]

I've seen and thought about doing the Graff thing a fair bit, but never have.

I've bottled my American Pale Ale, made an bottled a Stout and threw together a Black Rock cider for Christmas. Hopefully the APA is as good as I think it is and it becomes my house ale.

I've got one more APA to go for Christmas and then I'll think about playing around with some ideas.

Home brewing is all about experiments right!
If you do go for the Tui recipe let me know how it turns out! I'm well and truly moved on from the kits but I still wouldn't mind knowing how it goes.

I'll let you know how it turns out on the graf side of things.Send a bottle my way I'll be sure to give you a good idea, of how good it is ... lol. "TUI: I'll swap you for a Graf, Yeah Right" lol

Oh and Lunchie, My All Grain has some teething problems, but I'm working on it . just water volumes, otherwise its all looking pretty good , Next Up Boysenbeer.

As a separate question: what do you lot do wqith your trub at the bottom of the kettle, do you pour it all into the fermenter, or do you rack off the top with a siphone, to keep things clear? generally things settle out when cooling, but i've been getting alot of the trub in there recently., which clogs things up a little bit sometimes.
Its more an experiment to see if it even works.

 

[NZLunchie]

I'll let you know how it turns out on the graf side of things.Send a bottle my way I'll be sure to give you a good idea, of how good it is ... lol. "TUI: I'll swap you for a Graf, Yeah Right" lol

Oh and Lunchie, My All Grain has some teething problems, but I'm working on it . just water volumes, otherwise its all looking pretty good , Next Up Boysenbeer.

As a separate question: what do you lot do wqith your trub at the bottom of the kettle, do you pour it all into the fermenter, or do you rack off the top with a siphone, to keep things clear? generally things settle out when cooling, but i've been getting alot of the trub in there recently., which clogs things up a little bit sometimes.
Its more an experiment to see if it even works.

Yeah could do a swap around of some beers.......

Good work on the AG, once you hit it on the head you won't want to look back! I'm hitting at least 80% efficiency with my setup and thats BIAB!

With the trub, depending on the style of beer, it all goes in. If I'm looking for a clearer beer, then I'll leave maybe 1 or 2 litres in the pot. I use hops bags now as well, which reduces the hop matter in the kettle and fermenter. Definitely worth it

 

[crusader1612]

Yeah could do a swap around of some beers.......

Good work on the AG, once you hit it on the head you won't want to look back! I'm hitting at least 80% efficiency with my setup and thats BIAB!

With the trub, depending on the style of beer, it all goes in. If I'm looking for a clearer beer, then I'll leave maybe 1 or 2 litres in the pot. I use hops bags now as well, which reduces the hop matter in the kettle and fermenter. Definitely worth it

Should probably look into hop Bags, to reduce that sorta stuff. Any recommendations for where i can get them from? I've used panyhose in the past.
I've been told to cool by a couple of guys, then whirlpool. and leave to sit for 30 mins then auto siphon out. transfer the remainder into a jug and let it settle out. i think that'll be the best start for now, if i want clearer beer, i'll start using hop bags, might hop bag when i dry hop from now on though... pantyhose to start with, until i get proper stuff.

 

[NZLunchie]

Should probably look into hop Bags, to reduce that sorta stuff. Any recommendations for where i can get them from? I've used panyhose in the past.
I've been told to cool by a couple of guys, then whirlpool. and leave to sit for 30 mins then auto siphon out. transfer the remainder into a jug and let it settle out. i think that'll be the best start for now, if i want clearer beer, i'll start using hop bags, might hop bag when i dry hop from now on though... pantyhose to start with, until i get proper stuff.

Bunnings, Mitre10, Placemakers. I'm just using muslin cloth cut as required.
I've found Golden Promise is a terrible grain for trub, a HEAP of crap left the last time I did the APA. Might just depend on the grain.

I'm using Koppafloc to and its magical stuff. Within 5 mins of being in the fermenter the trub has settled.

 

[NZLunchie]

33 bottles of Black Rock Cider done.
They reckon 5 weeks, hopefully its fully carbed by then!

Anyone have any luck at the SOBA NHC?

 

[crusader1612]

33 bottles of Black Rock Cider done.
They reckon 5 weeks, hopefully its fully carbed by then!

Anyone have any luck at the SOBA NHC?

Nice Work. Fruit beer went down last night, after a long day bottling and brewing... I broke my hydrometer which didn't help so I don't know how my efficiency was. I also tried the recommendation of getting rid of the trub from the kettle. Cool, then whirlpool (I justy used my spoon to get it really moving) then leave for about 20-30mins and auto siphon off into the fermenter til you start getting the crap in there. If you con't have enough, you recover it by pouring it all into a bottle, putting it in the fridge and settling it out, then adding the next morning. I'll tell you what it worked a treat, it adds half an hour or so onto the day, but with the amount of trub in the fermenter now, it was totally worth it!!!

Bottled my ESB, which was my first AG. I'm happy, taste wise. i missed my volumes by 6 litres and OG by 3 points. 1.048 instead of 1.051 got down to 1.010 with wyeast 1028 London ale.

So, in one week, i'll be racking my fruit beer onto boysenberries for half and I'm toying with the idea of actually putting the other half with pineapple and coconut....??!?! then in another week I'll be bottling, along with my graf i think, seeing as I'll be going to Oz the week after, so get it all cleared up before then. that'll be 3 weeks primary for my graf.

Had some good fortune in the NHC, no prizes, but i got 27/50, which was above average for my Cascadian Pale Ale. Flavour for 8/20 for appearance 3/3, which i was pretty happy with some improvement to be had, but that'll come next year, when i finish my brewshed...