Recent content by Captain Kimbo

I have my first batch of lager fermenting atm which will be ready Saturday, I don't have kegs so I'm planning to bottle. I guess my plan is to keep the bottles at 12C for 2 weeks to carbonate and then put in the fridge to lager at 2C for 2 weeks. Does that sound about right? Does the beer...

Hopefully sooner than later, as far as I'm aware there's only really 1 bottleshop in Perth that has it and even then it's rare I think it was $10 per 330ml bottle. I'd like to try it in the US. I can see I'll need to plan a trip to the States with visits to the Alchemist, Russian River...

Yeah I'm with MartinOC on temp control. That and cleaning are the 2 most important things for a good beer. I recently had to dump 23 ltrs because during a few hot days the fermenter hit 28 C. If not for that then I would be close to drinking a delicious IPA

I've been trying to make a lacto starter to sour the mash as I don't have access to commercial lacto like that from Wyeast etc.. boiled 2ltr water with enough DME to sit at 1025 SG then added a cup of unmilled grain and tried to keep warm. Haven't had any success yet.

Yesterday I tried for the first time Dog fish Head 90 min IPA. It was so different to what I thought it would be, I'm not sure if it was the batch I tried but it was unlike any IPA I had tried before. I was expecting a huge hop hit on the nose but instead there was the most amazing barley malt...

Yeah it is, but it's one of those beers that was on the boundary. Look at Punk IPA by brewdog, that sits at 5.6% which is fairly low for an IPA. I think from memory that Alpha used to be 5.5%. I only mentioned it because there was a time when Matilda Bay were really dominating the craft brew...

Yeah we've just decided to dump it, going to invest in another fermentation fridge asap, 1 brew at a time just isn't enough

Anyone remember what Alpha pale ale tasted like 10+ years ago? When that 1st came out man that was a beer, big and malty, super bitter....when I think of Australian IPA's that had to be up there. It's totally changed now though

Cheers guys I guess I'll up the dry hopping and serve ice cold, it still has to be better that drinking a teds

Cheers Les thanks for the welcome

Great story & pics, I played footy for pemby as a young bloke and had no idea there was any hop farming going on. Is anyone still farming them down there?

I read somewhere that Feral use (or used) 100% Galaxy malt for hop hog, maybe the 1.5kg of wheat would be too much so the idea of changing it to maris otter is a good one or maybe Barrett Burston Pale Pilsner. Apparently Galaxy gets really high mash efficiency so maybe drop the 1.5kg of Wheat...

I've recently picked up a buch of El dorado hops, has anyone made a straight hop APA with these? They smell great and I've used them sparingly alongside citra & Northern Brewer but haven't tried them in straight up brew.

Guys, A friend and I did a IPA partial mash brew on Saturday, our fermentation fridge is in use so the fermenter has been sitting in the linen cupboard which has been sitting at around 28 - 30 degrees. It looks like fermentation is nearly complete. I just want some ideas about the best course...

Thought I'd introduce myself, I'm from Perth and have only really gotten back into homebrewing in the last 6 months. I've done a few allgrains -when I've had the time - but have mostly been doing partial mash/extract brews. I've had some really good results, Currently have bottled a choc/coffee...