Pitch Black Boysenberry Stout - Invercargill Brewery.

Hello stout, its a stout worthy day and I've just mixed up a batch of beer. While I wait for the wort to cool, I need to wait for the stout to warm up. Straight out of the fridge probably won't do it justice, so let wait while it warms up.

It pours with a thin brown head, very dark in colour, plum wine black sums it up.
Aroma heavily features tart boysenberries and unripe plum, some roasty malt notes hiding in the mix.

Its a very velvety drink however the boysenberries come shouting through and a mouthful finishes with singing berries tartness and sweetness. There is hints of medium roast coffee. Warmer is definitely better for this beer, the flavours melt together better and the beer becomes very moreish. Hints of chocolate start to come through and the boysenberry flavour subdues. Carbonation is very light, but a slight effervescence on the tongue.

It sits at 5% alcohol and I think its pretty noticeable in the flavour profile.

Boysenberries stout is an interesting experiment, feels like a dessert matching kinda beer and is best served warmer than you think.

Epic Lager.

Okay lagers, you and I have an issue. I kinda don't like you. You are boring and sickly, too sweet and dull of flavour. But damn if you ain't good after a hot afternoon in the garden. You are my booty call beer. I only call when I need you and as soon as you're done I want you out of my life.

The over abundance of lager has also conditioned generations of New Zealanders into thinking that its either good and the way beer should taste, or they hate it and therefore hate all beer. Both options depress me.

Now if you hate lager it doesn't mean you don't like beer.  It just means you don't like lager.

And if you think lagers are the be all and end all of beers, thats fine, but its like thinking chardon is the be all and end all of wine. There's just so much more out there.

Granted lager is uncomplicated and unchallenging to the palate, refreshing and easy to drink a lot of. But a pilsner is just as crisp and refreshing with a little bite of hops for flavour and a regular english bitter makes for a great session beer and won't get you too wasted either. Both options are not heavy on alcohol or "weird" craft beers. So if you're in the mood for expanding the palate give those styles a try.

So Epic, what can you bring to a lager? She pours a very pale golden straw yellow with a thin white head then even a heavy hand can't overcome.

The aroma is very bready with maybe a hint of of hops, a slight sweet fruit aroma too. A dancing mouthfeel, well carbonated. Crisp. A little spice and bitterness. The finish is a bit malty, bitter from over boiled hops and musty. Its okay. I don't think I can fairly critique this unless its next to another lager. For some reason lagers leave this funky taste in my mouth that makes me dread the next mouthful.

I won't be buying this one again, but to be fair I can't really judge this beer impartially.

Invercargill Brewery - Sai!son

Ah Invercargill, I've never been, but I've been to some of your beers. I'm a fan of the B.man Pilsner. So with spring being rather disappointing so far, hopefully this summer styled farmhouse ale will be the thrilling pick me up to get me in the summertime mood.

This brew pours a gorgeous hazy burnt orange with a thin white head. A persistent carbonation sustains keeps that foam a going. Now I don't need my beers to be crystal clear to enjoy them. Thats mostly aesthetics and I'm only slightly impressed by good looks. 

First nosey impressions are winegums, yeast and peaches. Gotta love the saisons, certainly a mixed bag of aromas but Invercargill brewery have made an appealing brew here. Fantastic aroma  and my tastebuds are crying out so down the hatch!

Hmm a well rounded syrupy mouthfeel  some decent bitterness to tame the brew and a sweet yeasty aged finish. Just enough bitterness on the tongue to leave you wanting more and maybe a hint of citrus sourness. Its certainly a playful brew with flavours bouncing all over the place and some may find the sweetness too much. But it certainly has the rich ripe feel of summer in a glass.  

I'd love to pair this beer with some roast pork and kumura. Or a thick slice of ham off the bone. A delicious brew, bit too heavy on the alcohol to be a refreshing summer beer (6.8%), but certainly an end of the day, finished gardening, lets have some leftover christmas ham sandwiches kind of beer.

Emersons 1812 - Hoppy Pale Ale.

*Please note, its a pale ale, sure its "hoppy" but it doesn't claim to be an IPA.

I probably wasn't the only one to rush out and buy some Emersons today. The big news in craft beer today is that Lion has bought Emersons out 100%. Not an investments stake, but full on, bought the whole shebang.
I am in two minds. A part of me is sad, Lion has a history (macs anyone) of destroying a good thing. However this reminds me of the software business (bare with me). Its a good thing when a small software company is bought out, they get a nice payday! I hope Richard Emerson got some nice cash, he deserves it after 20 years. Also publicity and distribution that a bigger company can offer. Maybe I'm naive and optimistic to hope that Lion will use its clout to promote Emersons. I also think that it's a sign that the big guys recognise the force that is growing in craft brewing. They want an in, they want a share of our dollar. Long term maybe this can only be a good thing for craft brew. Some may want to abandon Emersons seeing as for some, supporting craft brew isn't just about flavour, its about ethos and supporting the underdog. For example, Hashigozake have their own ethics to follow and this means saying farewell to Emersons.

Emerson's are not my stand out special favourite, but this bottle is a stand up tribute to quality and balance in a beer. Beautiful amber pour with off white large bubble head. Sweet hop aroma, spicy caramel malts and lingering tasty citrusy finish. ABV 5% which is lovely bang on alcohol content for me. This would be a great restaurant beer, it refreshing moorish and not too dominating with alcohol or hops. It would pair nicely with a lot of meals and even some desserts.

It was a good run Emerson's. Here's to the future, I'll be watching with interest.

John Bull London Porter - Vanilla Bomb

So I'm still extract brewing and my IPA is still in the fermentor, but I have second barrel so I couldn't help but lay another beer down. This time in the style of a London Porter.

I read the web page about how to kick up your extract kits to the next level so I bravely did a mini mash of 500g chocolate malt, 250g smoked and 250 carapils cause I likes it! And of course two cans of malt, john bull london porter and Muntons medium malt extract. 

My mash tun is just a medium sized pot with a towel wrapped around it but I think it did the job okay. Temp didn't drop too much. Then I boiled my wort and added 100g of lactose at the end (unfermentable for a bit of sweetness).

I've also got two vanilla pods soaking in a wee bit of Bowmores legend whisky to add in at some end stage.

This will be my fifth batch of beer and I haven't followed instructions to the letter since the first batch. It may have been more sensible to postpone experiments till I had mastered making a basic kit. But wheres the fun in that!? Also, these kits, some of them are pretty bland. They need some jazzing up. AND MORE HOPS!

4/11/12

OG 1.0575 (1.058 corrected for temp) whoops a bit high but there is bound to be some unfermentables in mix. Sitting at 22C need it to cool a bit before I add yeast.

9/11/12

SG 1.025 or 1.0275

11/11/12
SG about the same as last time, so sitting on 4.4% ABV

14/11/12
SG 1.025 or 1.0275 man my hydrometer sucks. I want a better one.

25/11/12
SG 1.0225 Bottling day! 30 bottles, 750ml

Second batch underway
500g Chocolate malt
300g Smoked Malt
200g Carapils
100g Lactose
1 John Bull Porter kit
1 bucket (1.8kg) of muntons medium malt extract
1 sachet of yeast rehydrated and proofed. (Safale s-04)
2 vanilla pods soaking in 1/2 cup of whisky till bottling day

8.12.12 OG 1.0525
13.12.12 SG 1.0200
23.12.12 SG 1.0175
27.12.12 SG 1.0175 add clearing agent

Three Boys Brewery - IPA

To Christchurch I go, via a sample of beer anyways. Three boys brewery is run by a scientist, Ralph Bungard, PhD no doubt. An expert in plant physiology. As a scientician myself I cannot wait to sample the brew.

On popping the cap I get instant fresh hops aroma, not hops that smell fruit or tropical flowers or what not, but nice oily authentic hops.

It pours with a generous head of foam, ah I may have um..er....... over poured it, the last few beers have needed a bit of coaxing so too heavy a hand with the pour. But the head is a nice off white, full of bubbles of all sizes, the smaller ones lasting down to the last mouthful. I like the staying power!

Colour is a not too bright amber and as it goes down I get load of lovely lacing on the sides of my glass.

Excellent mouthfeel, biscuity malty goodness. 5.2 percent alcohol, so just a little extra oomph to give a nice warming finish along with those resinous hoppy notes.

Its weird, but I want to say something in this reminds me of tobacco, a sweet dried leaf type aroma. So not an ash or burning, but something a little edgy. Maybe its weed? After all Hops are of the same family as marijuana. Whatever it is we'll say its a hard to describe hop flavour. It certainly adds to the complement of flavours and pleasant in nature.

The empty glass aroma reminds me of home made ginger bread. There is something lovely about the grains in this beer. They are nicely balanced with the bitterness for a truly enjoyable easily sessionable beer.

Baroona Original - Waiheke Island brewery

Its an odd name for a beer, but its named after an old ferry that serviced the island.
There's also another oddity in the label. Its called a Pale Ale, but the Waiheke brewery website says its actually a kolsch style beer.

On pouring its a lovely golden hazy colour with a thin white head. Carbonation is fairly light.
First aromas are sweetness, citrus and cereal. Its made with NZ grown saaz hops which apparently give lots of citrus flavours.

After a hectic 30 minutes of weed pulling I was eager to taste and its an excellent post gardening beer. The body is light and bitter crisp with a pleasantly dry hoppy finish which really reminds me more of a pilsner.

It feels like an everyday quality beer, the alcohol is 4.7% so you won't be too incapacitated after just the one and can head back to the garden for more tedious weed pulling.....yay. :-/

While not the massive hop bomb I usually like to drink it was still very pleasant after some hard yakka.

8 Wired - Hopwired

As a reward for actually finding some sort of costume for tonights dreaded halloween party ( I find costume parties immensely stressful) and also for cleaning up the kitchen after last nights brewing I have shouted myself 8 wired's hopwired.

So this brew has all New Zealand malt and all New Zealand hops. Plenty of local flavour to be had then.

The beer pours with an almost syrupy consistency into the glass and forms a nice white head. I love the way the higher alcohol brews pour. I'd describe the colour as dark old gold, hint of amber, beautiful in the spring sun. First aromas are surprisingly sweet with passionfruit, fruit salad, ripe pears and honey. This is the New Zealand hop aromas really shining. I'd say the Nelson Sauvin is driving a lot of these fruity aromas. It's wonderful.

Taste is quite different, the bitterness tingles the back of the tongue straight away. Very full mouthfeel, sweet malt, loads of bitterness all at the same time, finishing quite sweet then evaporating to dry bitterness. This is an extremely pleasant beer, some of the malts have a caramel or candied? sweetness desperately trying to balance the hops and the interplay is blowing my mind. I love complexity of flavours!

As the brew goes down we get some lovely lacing and more sweet malts coming through as it warms up. Temperature seems important for this beer, it goes from being hoppy to balanced to almost sweet as it warms up.

Very drinkable for a friday afternoon. Would definitely buy again.

Making the best IPA I can

Okay, time to stop bouncing around with styles. I LOVE IPA's,  bitterness, yum, floral hops yum, massive  biscuity malt base yum. Thats my idea of the perfect beer.

So while I am still a lowly extract brewer I have decided I will do my utmost to brew what I like and to make it awesome. No more bouncing around different style just cause I can. time to brew with purpose!

I professed my inexperience to the kindly gentleman at brewers coop and he said that the mangroves jacks british series produced a very nice IPA. Plus instead of brewers sugar (blah) I got directed to some light malt extract.

I recommend everyone to try malt extract at least once in their lives, its god damn delicious! whoops I spilt some on my hand?! oh noes, I better eat it! nom nom nom.

I used my lovely spring water and a little bastard mashing of carapils malt. It never ceases to amaze me how sweet the liquid gets. First time I mashed in a bag and I got a dry spot in the middle. I sampled. wow can still taste the sugar. Tonight however with my slightly modified bastard method I had no dry spots and now more sweet grain, got all those lovely sugars out. And for the first time eye witnessed the hot break. The magical moment when the boiling wort foam suddenly breaks down. I almost  feel like a real brewer!

I stirred for HOURS (minutes really) to nicely aerate so to give my yeasties a good head start in life. Sniff, those poor bastards will be giving their lives, and THEIR childrens lives in honour of making my beer. (yeah I don't recycle yeast yet.)

So while I lust after 30L stock pots, copper wort chillers, chilly bins with a bung for mashing, unlimited litres of gas and three ring burners from bunnings, extract brewing will be my main stay.

my wort a chillin

25/10/12
OG 1.05

29/10/12
My brew is downstairs where the temperature is constant and cool. Read out says 18 degrees all the time. Nice. Keep bubbling little yeasties.

30/10/12
SG 1.02 woo its fermenting fast, just a few bubbles now, few more days ought to finish it off. Taste test, hmmm we will see. Not quite the hop bomb I'm aiming for, but Its a good base to work from.

1/11/12
SG 1.015 nice, sitting at 4.58% alcohol. Tasting good, been kept nice and cool.

3/11/12
SG 1.015 excellent, fermentation is pretty much done. Might leave till next weekend to bottle. Another week for yeasties to work their magic.

6/11/12
Good god, I've split the batch. I am dry hopping one to extremes. 30g zythos. 30g, cascade, 30g hallertau wakatu and 15g amarillo. Jeebus.

11/11/12
Bottled. 17 days in the fermentor. Not enough? Bulk primed with DME. Messy scary stuff.

This is what happens when singles are on sale at the supermarket. For $2 I could buy a beer I've never seen before. Shiney gold can!

Investigation of the label reveal this to be brewed by no one, but a little internet digging leads me to DB breweries.

It pours a nice amber colour with a little head and moderate carbonation. Time to inhale the fine aromas... Its  a little musty, maybe a hint of egg. Definitely a grainy smell sort of like raw yeasty dough. This is a malt monster.

In the mouth its nothing  but sweet maltiness. Complex it is not. But it is beer and could be a standard DB brew under a different label. I don't drink enough to really recognise anything. Feels ale-ish with a few top notes, not really crisp enough to be a lager, but what do I know?

So I'm halfway through and its terribly blah. Its got a rank finish that makes you feel like you've already drunk half a dozen of them and you're ready to start drinking water now. The sweetness gets cloying as the beer warms in the glass. Can't say I'm enjoying the last mouthfuls.

Meh so a fairly average almost terrible all malt beer with not much going for it.