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Who’s been brewing for the comp recently? I’m just transferring my IIPA into the fermenter. This is the third time I’ve made this beer now, so I’m getting closer to what I’m aiming for.

Nice beers. Last year was my first time entering a comp and also helping out as a steward. It was a great experience. Sitting down with the judges all day, the most common fault was guys not leaving their beer in primary long enough. The judges picked up lots of faults they said would have been...

No, just registered. I haven’t started making the IIPA or Hefeweizen yet. Barley Wine is just finishing up conditioning on dry hops, so I’ve still got some work to do. I’ll drop everything off close to the closing date at the end of May.

I just entered my beers in this years HUB homebrew competition. I was surprised to see I'm entrant number 1. Still 2 months to go I guess. With that huge prize pool I'm sure it will turn into a big comp. I look forward to helping out as a steward again this year, and tasting a heap of tasty beers.

My past IIPA's used 5 different hops, hence why I thought I would ask about single hop IIPA's. I like the comment that it imparts different qualities in the boil to the fruity elements in the dry hop. Anyway, sounds like a good plan after all.

I have a heap of Vic Secret hops that I was trying to work out what to do with. I make and like IIPA’s, so I was thinking of making one exclusively with the Vic Secret. As in past IIPA’s, I’ll do a 60 min and 20 min hop addition, whirlpool, dry hop in fermenter and dry hop in secondary keg...

Yes it’s bitter to start with, but rounds out with some age.

One of the main reasons I think secondary fermentation/conditioning has gone out of style is because people worked out that the oxidation it causes to your beer if not handled properly does more harm to your beer than the benefits of the secondary process. I have my process now with pressure...

Good work on the brew. To me, it looks like your OG is more like 1.095. But I could be seeing your photo wrong. 10g/L of dextrose will get you over 3.0 volumes of CO2 which is a bit high for the style. I aim for around 2.2 CO2, which is 6g/L dextrose. In my 19L bottling batches I use 4g of the...

I decided not to get that sophisticated with the pump by adding a gauge. When I’m bottling I give the pump a 5 second run, by which time I find it hard to pull the bottle off the counter flow filler, so there’s quite a vacuum in the bottle. With the keg I run the pump until the lid looks like...

When I purge my kegs I only do one cycle. First draw all the air out with the vacuum pump, then pressure fill it with CO2.

This is the bottling station I made with vacuum pump and CO2 tank to try eliminate oxygen in my bottling process.

This is the way I do it. I put my priming sugar and 4g of rehydrated CBC-1 into a keg. I draw the air out of the keg with my vacuum pump and pressure fill it with CO2. Then I pressure transfer my beer from its bulk conditioning keg into the bottling keg and mix the sugar and yeast with the beer...

The CBC-1 carbs up my big beers real fast. I’ve cracked a few 12% to 14% beers just 7 days after bottling and they are always fully carbonated. Because I mostly do bigger beers and they get bulk conditioned for long periods before bottling, I couldn’t do what I do without the CBC-1. I’ve got a...

One carbonation drop will be fine in a small bottle. I’ve found using the CBC-1 yeast at bottling is one of the key steps in making this a solid beer, and I wouldn’t skip that part. The Candi syrup isn’t needed at all, I just add it for more complexity. I’m doing all grain RIS now and still...

I have the BrewZilla 65 V3.1.1. I can identify a few pieces of gear I bought that made a big difference to the quality of my beers. By far, stepping up to AG with the BrewZilla has made the biggest leap in quality. As mentioned I would be a bit reticent to be a beta tester with the BrewZilla...

I bought a Grainfather conical fermentor with the glycol chiller. It’s an expensive setup, but the quality is obvious and I would buy the same gear if starting over again. Soon after I migrated to AG and couldn’t see the value in the Grainfather all in one. I bought the BrewZilla 65 and it has...

Yes you can see the earth in the photo.

I use a Mill Master with fluted rollers. Started off using a hand drill, but the fixed motor is much better, more powerful with a constant slow speed and consistent crush.

I can’t keep my hands off my RIS, so the only way I’ve found to build up stock for aging is to keep brewing it faster than I drink it. Another good RIS yeast is Mangrove Jack M42. All my RIS is between 12.5% and 14.5% using M42. I do pitch 4 packets, but it powers through fermentation and...