Beer thread
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I’m gonna start brewing in the new place ( along with a vege garden and growing my own chillies ) although with the abundance of beer to choose from I might not get around to it as often as I’d like.
There is something immensely satisfying about drinking your own brewed beer even if you’re following a recipe
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@roninwc I have exactly the same set up as in your photo but have only made one batch in the five years since I bought it. Just takes up too much time. Great place to prove my bread dough though.
I had already decided to have another go over the Xmas / New Year as it's an expensive ornament.
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Yeah I say I’m gonna do it when I have loads of space but realistically I don’t know if I will. We live in absolutely unprecedented times in terms of different types of beer to buy, the selection is ridiculous ( although still not enough Pilsners on the shelf, GOM gripe ). Why not get out there and support the professionals ?
Plus if I do it and fuck it up first time I might throw my toys and not try again.
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@dogmeat said in Beer thread:
@roninwc I have exactly the same set up as in your photo but have only made one batch in the five years since I bought it. Just takes up too much time. Great place to prove my bread dough though.
I had already decided to have another go over the Xmas / New Year as it's an expensive ornament.
Before the purchase, I considered exactly that situation, buying equipment but then not using it often enough to warrant the purchase. It's happened many times in the past, just ask my wife.
So I did the research and that's why I decided on buying the BrewArt BeerDroid.
Brewing a good to excellent beer is as simple as filling with tap water, adding steraliser tablet, waiting 2 hours before emptying the steraliser water, then pouring 10 litres of water of your preferred brewing water (I use reverse osmosis water from the supermarket as Sydney tap water can be terrible) into your Droid, pitching the yeast, toss in the packets of ingredients, close the lid and select the brew program you want.
There are programs for each of the BrewPrints (full kits that include the yeast, malts and hops), standard programs for Ale and Larger or a fully customisable option. Then there is nothing more to do than wait for 7-14 days depending on the type of beer you are brewing. Oh yeah, there is the option on some beers to dry hop when nearing the end of fermentation which is simply open the packet(s) of hops, open lid, pour in, close lid.
At the end of fermentation which the Droid will tell you, it will automatically cold crash for two days to let all the bits settle and then tells you it is ready to keg and/or bottle.
And BTW, there is an app that updates you at every stage and also allows you to manage the brew if you want to go full customised and step up temperatures as the brew progresses.
It really can be as simple as that but you can also take it to different levels if you want to and experiment like I am trying to.
And I live in an apartment so the size and 10 litre batches really appealed. Also clean up is a breeze, there is a outlet below the spout and most of the stuff at the bottom (called Trub) of the Droid can just be poured out into a bag. I then scrape the rest out with a spatula and then rinse down. Then it's ready to be sanatised and start another brew.
I started bottling but realised that I wanted to keg and therefore the kegerator became a must (at least that's what I tell the wife but in reality, I've always wanted a kegerator and I worked backwards on how to best get that.
Now the decision is whether to do a secondary fermentation or force carbonate and how long to let it mature before it goes on tap.
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@roninwc you may as well force carbonate, particularly for hoppy beers. You don't have to let the beer warm up after dry hopping is complete - it's one of the real advantages of kegging.
BeerDroid looks a nice unit. You can probably start making your own recipes - but just getting a regular cycle of brewing is important. The more you brew, the more you save!
Also, first beer out of the house last night, and $13 for a glass that looked only just 400 mm if you squinted was surprising in Whangarei. Not bad, but that's city prices. Puts the brewing for $1.50/$2 a litre into perspective for sure
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Panhead Sandman Hazy - me like
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@taniwharugby said in Beer thread:
Panhead Sandman Hazy - me like
Panhead is a pretty safe bet. Bloody good to find some in a bottler in rural Hawke’s bay over the break although in the stinking hot day we had when we arrived the Exports went down a treat to be fair.
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Put myself in detox after a few beers in the bay over the break, not heaps but enough each day ( 8-10 or so ) to make me think a break will do me good.
Broke the drought yesterday for the anniversary with the girl with a fortune favours berry stout ( outstanding ) and currently sipping an Urbanaut Chilli Lager ( also outstanding but in a different way )
Fuck we live in an amazing time for beer drinking compared to what our Dads “endured” at our age.
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@tim said in Beer thread:
Pretty good.
Just had a pint of this off the tap. Nice drop but happy to try something else afterwards.
Have been trying a few of the new lower alcohol (long) session beers at 2.5% or so during the holidays.
Can recommend the Urbanaut 2.5 Hazy. Very juicy and not “weak” at all.
Canyon from Queenstown also do a nice 2.5 called “Tussock Basher”
Both lift the game a bit from the likes of Fugazi and Small Wonder. Up there with the Croucher version -
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@tim said in Beer thread:
@crucial said in Beer thread:
Just had a pint of this off the tap. Nice drop but happy to try something else afterwards.
Yeah, it's definitely a "one is enough" beer for me. Like many sours are.
I had my one sour a few years ago. It was ok😀
Seriously, one craze I never got into. Just never floated my boat although lots of folks go crazy for them
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Urbanaut are one of the most out there breweries. Tried their Hokey Pokey Hazy over the weekend. Also a one is more than enough type of beer. Not really hazy at all but it instantly took me back to being at the movies as a nine year old. Someone else described it as summer at Mission Bay in a glass.
Way too sweet but an interesting flavour profile. They nailed the caramel perfectly, but you have to ask what's the point? It's beer Jim but not as we know it.
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@taniwharugby said in Beer thread:
Panhead Sandman Hazy - me like
I've been drinking only Hazy IPAs and Pale Ales over this summer period, and this was one of them. Great on these hot days.
Others have included:
Behemoth Brain Smiles
Behemoth Something Hazy
Deep Creek Haze
Panhead Hot Rod
Sawmill Hazy Pale Ale (on tap)Both Behemoths were very tasty.
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Whilst I know it technically is not beer, I did brew this Cider in my Droid and it's so fkn awesome.
Called it "Rebecca's Rocket PinkLady Cider".
Rebecca's because I brewed it for my wife's birthday which is in mid-Jan. The rocket part, well it ended up at 9.2% ABV.
For anyone interested, the ingredients were:
Yeast: Fermentis Safcider AC-4 @ 5g packet
1 packet Yeast Nutrient @ 4g packet
6x 1.50 litre bottles of The Apple Press Pink Lady Cold Pressed Apple Juice
1x 1 litre bottle of Preshafruit Cold Pressed Pink Lady Apple Juice
500g of Dextrose
Set both Propagation and Fermentation at 21°C, after 5 days I stepped it up to 22°C and for the last 5 days 23°C. Cold crash is at 4°C then ramp it up to 16°C to keg.The Apple Press are from NZ, Hawkes Bay, and makes for a great base product as it has a excellent pink lady apple flavour and contains no preservatives. The Preshafruit is from Tassie which is close enough to NZ anyway and was also Pink Lady and preservative free.
The original gravity (OG) of The Apple Press juice came in at 1.044.
After adding all the juice along with the dissolved dextrose I got a starting gravity (SG) of 1.070
I checked the final gravity when kegging after 14 days fermentation and a 2 day cold crash, FG was 1.000 which equals 9.19% ABVInitial smell was very clean apple and the taste was crisp apple with some tartness. After almost 3 weeks maturing, the smell has become a little more apple with that cider smell. The tartness is subdued a lot and is now just beautiful crisp apple.
The 9,2% ABV is felt but not tasted.
Absolutely Love it and importantly, so does the wife.
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oh, forgot to add to this thread
If you go to Tassie the beer scene is sensational. So many breweries, most spitting out very decent beers. Can't list them all, but every brand i tried had at least one complete stand out.
I had even forgotten how good (for a mass-produced full strength lager) Boags Premium is
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@roninwc said in Beer thread:
The rocket part, well it ended up at 9.2% ABV.
I'm not a big cider drinker, and that would put me to sleep after a few.
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@antipodean said in Beer thread:
@roninwc said in Beer thread:
The rocket part, well it ended up at 9.2% ABV.
I'm not a big cider drinker, and that would put me to sleep after a few.
Me too. I have ordered quite a few of the excellent Peckham's drops in the past and the higher ABV ones go straight to the head in a snoozy way.
Sounds like a nice drop. Maybe not so much dextrose next time?
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@mariner4life Always have time for a Cascade Lager.
