Innocence Lost To Homebrew Aka How S*#t Is Vb!

[waggastew]

I lived there for a few years myself, and likewise, I only visit occasionally to visit my brother and some mates. I was drinking at the Union last time I was there, but that was mainly because it is a short walk from the Tandoori Tavern

Ahh the TT, my parents favourite night out in Wagga. Solid 'Aussie' Indian food, good service, I think they even do Kingfisher?

Where else can you find an Indian restaurant with the name Tandoori TAVERN??

 

[Nevalicious]

Under et al

re Carltonish beers

Not hard, but the problem is that even with an addition of POR that looks totally pathetic you can still end up over hopping it.
Many a time I have looked at the pathetic lonely little bunch of hops waiting to be put into the kettle and thought "you've got to be fn joking" but it still seems to work out ok.

Try:

4000 Pale Australian Pilsener Malt (BB or JW)
330 Carapils

Mash at 66 degrees for 60 mins

600 white sugar in the boil

18g Pride of Ringwood pellets or 20g flowers new season only

60 min boil

dried lager yeast w-34/70 run at around 14 degrees for 2 weeks
Lager for 2 weeks at cold fridge temperature

Gelatine and Polyclar during lagering.

Strangely this general recipe will elucidate "ooooohhhhh did you really make this yourself???????????"
As opposed to serving them an all malt APA bittered to 35 IBU which usually results in "hmmmmmmmmm now THAt's a bit different" <_<

You know, this is probably not such a bad recipe for someone just starting to do full grain batches ie: me!

I think I might just give it a crack. Have plenty of POR (tis 09 season but - problem??). 1 x 60 min addition Bribie? Awesome.

I love hoppy APA's and the like, but can easily throw back a few cold CD's after mowing or pulling weeds.

Cheers

Tyler

 

[bignath]

4000 Pale Australian Pilsener Malt (BB or JW)
330 Carapils

Mash at 66 degrees for 60 mins

600 white sugar in the boil

18g Pride of Ringwood pellets or 20g flowers new season only

60 min boil

dried lager yeast w-34/70 run at around 14 degrees for 2 weeks
Lager for 2 weeks at cold fridge temperature

Gelatine and Polyclar during lagering.

Bribie, what's the final volume of this mate?

cheers,

bignath

 

[Synthetase]

Bribie G - Interesting you say about the many incarnations of CD. I am a southern NSW boy (who'd have guessed given my member name!) and my first few years were drinking ice cold CD in midi's. I agree that it doesn't taste like that anymore, ever since they launched it in Sydney they seemed to have buggered it up. I reckon it tastes very soapy now.....

Great, I'm not the only one who thinks this. I was at a uni club event a few weeks ago and swapped one of my HB golden ales for a CD. Sweet, soapy rubbish.

 

[alowen474]

Bribie G - Interesting you say about the many incarnations of CD. I am a southern NSW boy (who'd have guessed given my member name!) and my first few years were drinking ice cold CD in midi's. I agree that it doesn't taste like that anymore, ever since they launched it in Sydney they seemed to have buggered it up. I reckon it tastes very soapy now.....

Manticle - I will defo's give POR a go at some stage. I might try and make a 'fresh' Aussie lager next winter, just for a laugh.

Banshee - Is Dogbolter the same incarnation as when it first appeared in the mid 90's? It was a bit of a revelation back then, a bigger Tooheys Old'ish.

MeLoveBeer - When ever we go to our local now I am usually spend about 2 minutes forlornly looking at the offering on tap. I figure that if I am at the pub I might as well go a tap beer but the offerings not great. Often end up drinking Fat Yak or Wicked Elf (I am a mid-Nth Coast local). Tried Carlton Black last time and it was sh#te.

Melbourne Bitter is definitely the best of the standard bunch though. I actually got into drinking it mainly because no one else in Sydney did. At uni parties if I saw someone else drinking it I knew the feckers had nicked one of mine from the esky!

Thats what you get for drinking at the star!!
Come to think of it Wagga isn't any better. At least you still get to wear your leagie shorts down the street.

Who mentioned little romano's? The tourist that is.

The bridge (used to be the riv) was the best for beer and steak.

 

[under]

Recipe: Carlton Draught
Brewer: Dazza
Asst Brewer:
Style: German Pilsner (Pils)
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 27.70 L
Estimated OG: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 5.0 EBC
Estimated IBU: 18.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.42 kg Pilsner, Malt Craft Export (Joe White) (3.Grain 81.14 %
0.28 kg Carapils / Carafoam (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 6.69 %
20.00 gm Pride of Ringwood (Flowers) [9.00 %] (60 Hops 18.0 IBU
0.51 kg Cane (Beet) Sugar (0.0 EBC) Sugar 12.17 %
1 Pkgs German Lager (White Labs #WLP830) Yeast-Lager

 

[hazard]

I don't know. I haven't had one for about 7 years. I didn't see it on the shelves for a long time and now it has reappeared. If I remember rightly it had a recognisable crystal malt flavour.
I remember when I was a kid and Redback appeared it was 5.2% then I think CUB took over and to cut cost reduced it to around the 4.7%. I never tried the original Redback but I only know that by reducing the malt the flavour and body reduces but the price didn't reduce.

The original dog bolter was a strong ale, brewed in Perth I'm guesiing. The new one is a dark lager. I think it comes from the Dandenong brewery that CUB bought - so totally different beer, just the same name.

Showing my age a bit - when I came to Melbourne in '87 there was only CUB on tap, so I used to drink stubbies of Redback in most bars. It was good stuff back then as long as they didn't stuff a lemon in the neck (why oh why did they do that??). I also used to go to the Redback Brewery in Flemington Road in the early 90s with a young lady to see cover bands and drink beer (we celebrated our 18th anniversary on the weekend). Redback was brewed there and served on tap, nice and fresh, was a lovely drop. Haven't had one for many a long year know, and I've not seen it on tap either, but I don't get out much these days, since I started brewing I prefer my own beer!

 

[[email protected]]

Here's a bit of info behind the big brewing process.

A beer is brewed at high gravity with BU of whatever. That base beer can then be modified to what ever is needed. This is usually done before or after filtration.
eg - De-aerated water is added to achieve the final alcohol content
- Isohop is added to control the final IBU
- Caramel (or similar) additives are used to change the colour
- PHA (Pure Hop Aroma) is added to add hop aroma. various aromas are available
- PGA (propylene glycol alginate) can be added to assist head retention, etc, etc, etc...

So essentially a variety of beers can be produced from one wort stream. There then is the added option to blend processed beers to achieve a new beer. i.e. blending a main stream full strength beer with a main stream light beer to produce a main stream mid-strength beer.

Possibly this is why main stream beer tastes processed and Craft beer tastes a whole lot better...

Cheers
Booz

 

[Nick JD]

Also, for those wanting to make Carlton Draught clones ... if you make exactly the same recipe, instead of the 34/70 or S189 lager yeasts, reculture some Coopers bottle yeast (18-20C) and use that for a Coopers Pale Ale clone.

It really shows what a difference the yeast makes.

A mate who after drinking my CD clone for a weekend, went and got a schooner of the real thing and texted me saying mine was better. I reckon it's the real hops - initially megaswill drinkers will find the real hop taste is the reason it doesn't taste "correct", but after a few they realise that the real hop taste is a "better" taste.

I now make "Premium" versions of Aussie Lagers by whacking in a fair bit of spec malts and later additions of POR and Cluster. They shit all over commercial beers, yet megaswill drinkers recognise them as "beer" and not a "Pasito Shandy" (yes, that's exactly the description I got from a mate trying my Galaxy APA). I don't blame anyone who doesn't want beer to taste like a fruitbowl.

AG Aussie lagers are easy to make better than their commercial counterparts - just make premium versions.

 

[warra48]

Nah, forgot to say the FY and Wicked Elf is only in bottles. I would be stoked for FY on tap too!

waggastew,
Wicked Elf Pale Ale is on tap at the Port Macquarie Golf Club.
When it was first released it was on tap at the pub along Hastings River Drive, but they took it off because it wasn't selling.
I'm not aware of any other places locally where it's on tap.
Now, if only I could inspire the Wauchope Country Club to get Wicked Elf on tap, I'd be a happy chappie, and likely to hang around a lot longer after a game than I do now! I did ask them on a couple of occasions, and was told they wouldn't put that sh*t on tap. I guess there's no accounting for taste or class.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Thats a possible set of processes that covers a large gambit of the different large brewers around the world... It is not necessarily however, what happens at any given "big brewery"

For instance.. At a certain big brewery that I am very familiar with, which may or may not have been mentioned frequently in this thread before, no wort stream is responsible for more than two (obviously quite similar) beers - and the vast majority are individual recipes for each beer.

I am also aware of no brewery in Australia that uses PGA.. It might be used, but they are keeping it a secret from the public and from each others lab people too.

And craft beer only tastes better when the "crafter" in question is a decent brewer... I don't know about you, but I have had some truly awful, infected, diacetyl ridden, yeasty, autolisized, utterly abominable "craft" beer.. But I with mega beer... I've only ever had mass produced beer, that was consistent and consistently brewed to a certain high level of quality... Which I mostly happen to not like.

So... Yep, absolutely. I love craft beer and I'm no fan of mega beer... But don't forget the shortcomings of the small brewers when you bemoan the failings of the large ones. And try to get your information both right and in the correct context for the Primarily Australian audience on this forum. Yours was mostly correct... But obviously, and intentionally skewed to make it sound worse than it is. it's bad enough... Exaggeration only weakens the argument.

 

[kelbygreen]

I agree POR is shot down to often every second brew is POR and they need to be flowers also found they are heaps better aged. I done one with 45, 20 and 10 min additions and its very nice but 10 times better after 5 weeks in bottle

 

[Nick JD]

Exaggeration only weakens the argument.

VB smells like arse and tastes only slightly better.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

VB smells like arse and tastes only slightly better.

Ever so subjective... Are we talking your rancid and hairy bum crack... Or are we referring to perhaps Megan Gale's plucked, bleached and awesome G'string holder. There is a vast difference in my willingness to drink a beer that tastes like "arse" depending on just who's arse is about to be sampled....


Note: I am in no way suggesting that VB shares any similarity in any way to Megan Gale's bottom.... It may or may not bare a resemblance to Nick's

 

[rendo]

Maybe you can make a brew that does taste like Megan Gale's arse...as such. Can you imagine the sales if you get the hops just right!! You'd have to be using "pride of RINGHOLE ringwood" for sure....she is an aussie after all!!

Ever so subjective... Are we talking your rancid and hairy bum crack... Or are we referring to perhaps Megan Gale's plucked, bleached and awesome G'string holder. There is a vast difference in my willingness to drink a beer that tastes like "arse" depending on just who's arse is about to be sampled....


Note: I am in no way suggesting that VB shares any similarity in any way to Megan Gale's bottom.... It may or may not bare a resemblance to Nick's

 

[under]

Put me down for a keg of Megan Gale's hairy bum crack..

 

[razz]

Put me down for a keg of Megan Gale's hairy bum crack..

I guess it's only a matter of time before that one appears in the recipe database.

 

[arogers]

I guess it's only a matter of time before that one appears in the recipe database.

yep!! lol
:beer:

 

[warra48]

I can never understand why so many on this and other forums speak down what is termed as "megaswill".
They are mostly very well brewed, consistent from batch to batch, and very well marketed to the average consumer.

Now, as to the taste, that's an individual thing. There really is no basis to criticise the beer if it's not to your taste, when the beer is technically sound. All it means is that you prefer a different taste. And the corollary is that we shouldn't criticise others if they do like the taste.

I homebrew because I have never much been a fan of most commercial brews. By brewing my own I indulge in a great hobby, and get to drink beers I've made myself, to my taste. Technically they might not be as good as most "megaswills", but I enjoy them nevertheless. And the fact I've brewed them adds an other dimension to my enjoyment.

 

[reviled]

Ever so subjective... Are we talking your rancid and hairy bum crack... Or are we referring to perhaps Megan Gale's plucked, bleached and awesome G'string holder. There is a vast difference in my willingness to drink a beer that tastes like "arse" depending on just who's arse is about to be sampled....


Note: I am in no way suggesting that VB shares any similarity in any way to Megan Gale's bottom.... It may or may not bare a resemblance to Nick's

:lol: lol, pure gold!! That was hilarious!!!