Recent content by Half Pint

No, it’s the same yeast they use in the majority of their beers. No doubt they use something different in the lager.

I have been favouring 17° since I was told that is the brewery temperature. In my experience it’s all about banana once it goes beyond 20°. 17°-19° is where I like to keep it for the first few days.

I brew at least one of these every year. Australian brewers are very fortunate imho to have the coopers yeast available at the local bottle-o for the price of a couple of bottles.

I grow it from 2 bottles. I tip the dregs of one into the dregs of the other, add a little starter wort and let it go until it’s peaked. Usually I’ll add that to a litre of fresh wort in a flagon and bung it. I usually pitch the whole 1.5 ish litres at ‘high krausen’ ie when it’s very active...

Fairly satisfied atm that my Aussie Sparkling has won the Pale Ale category at the Nationals.

I’ve just got a little patch I’ve been growing food on. Garlic is coming along ok, shallots, broad beans, spuds, peas, lettuce, Swedes, tomatoes under the plastic and might be counter productive planting out a couple weeks too early. There’sa few metres sown with corn up the back but not emerged...

This post sent me to the cellar to ferret out a bottle of my own Dubbel. I spent yesterday afternoon and evening getting through it. The first glass looked great but I’m not thrilled with the way it drinks. The second glass was hazier and I found maybe a little more merit. The 3rd return was...

I made a beer with ginger on Monday. A recipe from the Home Brew Beer book. Might be a bit on the bland side, but hard to say at this point. Definitely some ginger aroma in the vented gas. Only made 10 litres. Today was probably my last brew day for the year. I spent it making 20 litres of...

After bottling I have 3 different approaches I use routinely, depending on time of year and/or type of beer/yeast. For most ales, late October to Mid-March, I just put the bottles in the room I call my cellar. They can be a bit slow to carbonate but they’ll get there. With beers that used lager...

I start them in pretty basic gear. My equipment to make starters: Saucepan, stovetop, aluminium foil, thermometer, funnel, bung, airlock, 2 litre flagon. I used to use a 2 Litre PET bottle but the flagon is more durable and easier to clean. It’sa two step process for me. First stage is to drain...

My Sparkling Ale was rated Gold and finished equal 2nd in a field of 11. I’m happy with that. I’ve got 13 bottles qualified for National Championships but this is the one I was really ambitious to have judged.

I tried a bottle last weekend and was very happy with it. It will be 8 weeks bottled this week, which is probably just about it’s prime condition. It’s in State comp this weekend; a chance to see what others think of it. I’ll still love it anyway. If I had to choose just one style of beer, that...

Information is much more widely available now, but this thread reminded me of a section in one of Charlie Papazian’s books (The Home Brewer’s Companion, 1993 or ‘94) which spent a few pages discussing a brew made by Anchor in 1989 in an attempt to follow a 4000 year old Sumerian recipe. They...

Bottling a Porter today. Based on an English Porter recipe but I expect the bjcp would declare it too roasty. Next will be a Dry Irish Stout. I’m going to try holding back the dark grain until mashout, which is an approach I’ve never tried. Not sure but I think I’ll use WLP002.

Currently: 17 litres Munich Dunkel about 12 days fermented. I’ve raised the temperature to 18° (from 12°) over the last 4 days. It’s still blowing bubbles but they’ve slowed down. It’s my first shot at brewing a lager in a keg. There’ve been a couple of glitches but I think it’s gonna work out...