I brewed with Damon at the Lord Nelson yesterday. Boy was it a good day. I learned a lot, drank a lot of beer and had a mighty good time.
We brewed 3 Sheets, which is an Aussie / American pale ale. If you haven't had it, get down to the Lord and treat yourself to a pint. The beer is never more than a month or two old there, and is served straight from the big bright tanks in the basement.
Here are some pics that I took of the day.
Doughing in:
View of the mush tun after tipping all 150kgs of grain in:
Damon giving the mash a good stir:
After mashing in we transferred a batch of Nelson's Blood from a fermenter upstairs to a maturation tank downstairs to free up a fermenter for the 3 sheets we were brewing. A taste test was compulsory. You can see the mash recirculating in the background:
Getting the hops ready. Galaxy ooh yeah!
The two hop additions weighed out. Galaxy for bittering and heaps of US cascade with a little galaxy for the late addition:
Time for a beer break. This is the Double Nelson, a seasonal, 5.8% APA that Damon does every year with cascade, amarillo and a bit of galaxy. He changes the hop used for dry hopping every year. This year's batch was dry hopped with Amarillo (I think, will check with Damon). This was just one of many beer breaks throughout the day. Damon was kind enough to give me a sample of pretty much every beer that he brews at the Lord that was on tap at the time.
Adding the late hop addition to the kettle. We let this boil for another minute before turning off the kettle and starting the whirlpool.
With the wort chilled and in the fermenter and 500g of US05 pitched, we relaxed at the bar and had a taste of my APA, followed by quite a few house beers. Note the coopers longneck of homebrew on the bar
Thanks to the ESB challenge organisers for their time spent organising the comp, Damon for putting up with my questions all day, and Blair for having me, shouting me a Victory Bitter, and telling me some crazy stories about toothless fishermen, who frequented the pub when he first bought it 25 years ago.
Cheers! :beer:
EDIT: cleaning up image attachment