Sunday 20 March 2011

Orange Peel and Coriander Hefe Style Beer – Drinking

Well I'm down to just one bottle of the Orange Peel and Coriander Hefe.  It was very tasty, and only slightly sweet.  The orange is more of a hint and the coriander leaves a hint of spice on the back of your throat.  I've already been advised by the wife that we are doing this one again.

Might do it with amber candi sugar next time.

Here is a picture of the brew

Gluten-free Tripel Blonde - Brewday

This recipe has been provided by DKershner.  Hoping this makes a nice light coloured beer with a bit of a kick.

Brew day went well.  Due to my previous failure I was very thorough with the sterilisation, just to make sure no bugs ended up in the brew.

This is the recipe I used;

Gluten Free Tripel Blonde
1.4kg Sorghum Syrup @ 60 minutes
21g of Pearle @ 60 mins
7g of Pearle @ 30 mins
30g Saaz @ 15 mins
750g Sugar @ 15 mins
1.4kg Sorghum Syrup @ 60 mins
***Cold Crash***
4g packet of yeast nutrient
S-33 Safbrew yeast

This is a slight variation on the original recipe, which you will find here.  http://brew.dkershner.com/2009/gluten-free-tripel-blonde/

Saturday 12 March 2011

Coffee Chocolate Porter - Failure

This is my first brewing failure.  I can only think that the cause of my issues was the rice malt.  This brew smelled fantastic fermenting, but the taste is just horrible.  Hopefully when I learn more about brewing I can work out what went wrong here.

Friday 4 March 2011

Chocolate and Coffee Porter - Brewday

Edit:  This recipe was a failure.

This recipe is a month or so in the making.  Using information from both Home brew talk and Beer Smith I've combined recipes to make what I hope will be a half decent beer.

Ingredients and timings

1.4kg of sorghum syrup (150grams of that is dark candi syrup) @ 60 mins
2.5kg's of rice malt @ 60 mins
1kg of honey @ 60 mins
112 grams of corn based maltodextrine @ 60 mins
100 grams of cocoa @ 60 mins
21 grams of Perle hops @ 60 mins
21 grams of Saaz hops @ 15 mins
Cold pressed coffee @ 5 mins
*** Cold crash ***
Yeast nutrient
2 x packets of T-58 fermentis yeast

Starting gravity is 1068.  With all of the sugars in this brew, I'm expecting a very high alcohol content.

Thursday 3 March 2011

Orange Peel and Coriander Hefe Style Beer – Bottling Day

Big thanks to LCassanova from http://www.homebrewtalk.com/ for the base recipe for this beer.  His original recipe is here http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f75/gluten-free-blood-orange-hefe-181144/

My modified version of the recipe is
2.5 Kg's of Sorghum with dark Belgian candi syrup (approximately 300grams) @ 60 Mins
500 grams Glucose Syrup @ 60 mins
500 grams Dark Belgian candi sugar @ 60 mins
15 grams hallertauer hops @ 60 mins
12 grams of tettnang + some hallertauer hops (about 2grams) @ 20mins
8 orange peels @ 20 mins
20 grams of cracked coriander @ 20 mins
12 grams of tettnang + some hallertauer hops (about 2 grams) @ 0 mins
***cold crash***
Yeast nutrient and Fermentis WB-06 Wheat beer yeast.
As you can see from the photo it has a very dark colour similar to a Belgian dubbel.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Review: Brewer's Choice Gluten Free Pale Ale Kit

Over the Christmas break I purchased a Gluten free pale ale kit from Brewers choice www.brewerschoice.com.au With hopes of making a beer that I would enjoy drinking I went about brewing up a batch.

All the ingredients you require are included in the kit, yeast, malt, hops, yeast nutrient, whirlfloc tablet and finings.  N.B. If you are brewing vegetarian/vegan beer omit the finings as they contain gelatine.

The instructions were easy to follow, clearly detailing each step in the brewing process. The wort was boiled, cold crashed and put into the fermenter.  Fermentation time was around two weeks.  The beer was transferred to some sterilised bottles and left for a few weeks to carbonate.

This was a fantastic beer after carbonation.  The hops made for a very fruity beer that was very easy to drink.  We had no trouble getting through the amount we had brewed.  The kit was a very good way to learn the basics of extract brewing and has given me the confidence to try different recipes.

Brewers Choice distribute these kits direct to the public in Queensland, and are carried by other stores in Australia and New Zealand.  Contact Brewers Choice for your local distributor.