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I just measured the FG of Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier and got 1.010. At 5.4% ABV, that’s an OG of 1.051. Exactly the numbers you have. That was a surprise to me as it has the mouthfeel of a slightly higher gravity beer. While my Weissbier is very nice, I would still like to get it closer to...

Has anyone experimented with dextrose additions in their weissbier? It adds to the banana character. But on the flip side you get a slightly lower FG. I’m drinking my Hefe alongside the Weihenstephaner I’ve tried copying, and I like the fuller mouthfeel from the Weihenstephaner. I used 3%...

Brewman is my LHBS here in Newcastle. He’s one of the biggest stores in Australia by quantity, and seems to get fresh stuff in from around the world each week. I like the huge range of stuff he has, how fresh everything is and Steve has been great with a lot of technical advice.

I know it’s a bit of a joke about saving money by brewing at home. I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of spending several thousand dollars on gear. But I’m at the stage where I’m struggling to find anything left to spend money on. So I’m feeling good that I have a nice little brewery setup. I’ve...

Your brew looks great. I don’t have any recipe clones here, I’m just making one up myself. I’m trying to show some restraint, as I love big beers, but I think Doppelbocks have a sweet spot in the mid range. I’m aiming for around 1.085 OG, but I really want to hit 1.020 FG and no higher. That’s...

Anyone got and tips for making a Doppelbock? I’m about to have my first go at one. I like brewing with simple/minimalist recipes and letting the process influence the beer. Malt wise, I’m thinking one third each of Munich I, Munich II and Pilsner. I see a lot of the US brewers use Caramunich...

I just read up on Vic Secret. I think you’re pretty close. I don’t know if we all got the same stuff, but I can fit my ingredients into a NEIPA, so I might make that.

I just had my prize pack hand delivered by Andrew. What a champion. It’s full of local Newcastle beers, malt, hops and yeast. I know nothing about this Vic Secret hop, though it says it’s AA is 18.7% which is impressive. I’ve decided I’m going to make a beer that combines all my winning...

I thought it would make sense to send the prizes out with the scoresheets. I’m not worried about it really, I entered for the feedback and what I got back was gold. So that’s good enough for me.

That’s exactly why I entered, to get feedback. Plus by stewarding for the day, I got to taste a ton of beer and here feedback straight away from the judges. Of the beers that were not so good, it seems a lot of people rush through primary without letting the yeast finish up, and that leaves...

The total score was made up from the 5 different attributes the beer was assessed on, out of 50 points possible. There were 2 judges scoring each beer, so a total of 100 points possible. So yes the beer with the highest total points in its category won that category.

We didn't talk about the prizes at all on the day. But I will be interested to see what they are as well.

Yes we all get emailed our results. I believe it may take a few days while the head judge rechecks everything before sending results. The feedback comments where quite long for some entries I noticed. So how much of that feedback we get I’m not sure yet. That would be a lot of work for someone...

It was a great show. A room full of top people to spend a day drinking beer with. There were over 80 beers in the 4 categories. 12 judges. I got to be one of the 4 stewards serving to the judges, so did a lot of tasting throughout the day. I sat in on the best of show tasting which came from...

So just to continue the story, I entered this into my first beer competition today. It came third in its class, dark and strong, and was best Imperial Stout of show. I’m quite pleased with that given it’s a fairly good beer, but I’ve learnt so much since I made this one and am making better now...

I used the Brewers Friend beer priming calculator to work out how much dextrose to use. The amount of water doesn’t matter, I just use a 1:1 ratio because the dextrose dissolves well in that amount of water.

RIS brew day was today and it went really well. I did the re-iterated mash, splitting the grain bill in half. Mashed the first 6kg for 60 minutes then the second 6kg for 90 minutes, followed by a 120 minute boil. Mash efficiency was 64%, which I was happy with as I ended up with 22L of wort at...

I was just going to spilt the malts 50/50, but I guess mashing the speciality malts first might be a good idea.

I recently did a Barley Wine with a 15kg grain bill. I ended up having to use all my water to mash with, leaving nothing over for sparging, so efficiency was down quite a bit. So I'm about to do an Imperial Stout, and thought this time I would try a re-iterated mash. Haven't done this before but...

I think you’re right, but the KegLand video I saw said you only need do a one point calibration.