Uni Brewery

[Wasabi]

Guys!

I know I promised these pics....oh about 10 months ago?...but here they are finally.

For the 100+ members that have joined since I was last on, I use to be a regular here before I quit my life in telco engineering and moved to Ballarat to do a Food Science Degree with Brewing.

Life here is generally good, if not a bit cold, but we have since moved to ahouse with Central Heating and understand it's popularity.

Anyway, the course is going well, though as yet I don't get to do anywhere near enough brewing, more from lack of time than desire.

There are two breweries in canpus. The small PILOT one that is in the lab is the one that is used for teaching. I have made a stout on this system and have recently been told its ok to use it for my own "research" if I supply the grain.

Here is a link to some pics of it PILOT BREWERY

The other brewery on campus is a DMC 60 Hectolire system. Becaus eof the complex tax andalcohol production laws it is strictly commercial. They have to account for everything they make on it and pay duty. For this reason they only use it to make beer for the local pubs. Despite this, we did get to do a full brew run on it this year and make a load of Uni Gold (the local pilsner).

I'm hoping to try and get back being regular here again anyway, I'm a bit of a lone soldier down here. Although I'm doing the Food Science Degree, the brewing stream is an elective, and there are only 6 people doing it at the moment, and thats accross 3 different years. Only me and two other guys in my class.

Will try and get some pics of the big brewey.

The beer awards were fun again this year and again I got to steward and sample to my hearts content.

 

[johnno]

Hi Wasabi,
Good to hear from you.
By the looks of that setup I'm sure you will be making some great beers on it.

cheers
johnno

 

[big d]

hi wasabi
good to hear your still around and going well.looks like an interesting system to brew on.keep the site up to date on things and how your going.

cheers
big d

 

[Hoops]

Great stuff Wasabi, good to finally see some pics.

the brewing stream is an elective, and there are only 6 people doing it at the moment

That's terrible
at least you get to use the system when you want B)

Hoops

 

[Doc]

Great to hear from you Wasabi. It has been a while.
Geez if I was there I'd know where I'd be on my afternoon off each week (brewing up a storm).
Keep the details coming.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Gough]

Good to hear from you again Wasabi. I'm glad the big move from the CC seems to be working out for you.

Shawn.

 

[PostModern]

I sure could do with some of that "research". Good to hear you're still plugging away at the course. Looking forward to hearing more from you.

 

[Borret]

Welcome back Wasabi,

The office at work is not the same without you but you have definately gone to a better place by the looks of the pictures. Glad the course is going well. You did leave a legacy behind you though, with 3 out of the 8 of us now brewing. Cheers :beer:

I'm sure we all also look forward to some educated tips from your learned self.

I also look forward to sipping some of your beers in the hunter valley when you set up your micro (really- you did promise)

Green with envy

Borret :blink:

 

[dicko]

Hi Wasabi,
Good to hear you are still with us.
The pics of the pilot brewery are interesting.
I can see that by the malt stains on the level indicator on the kettle that the more common batches are <70litres< and as most small home breweries, the plumbing is a nightmare
Keep us informed on your progress,
OH! and btw how was the stout??

:beer:
Cheers

 

[Borret]

BTW Wasabi, Are you still making cheeses? They were fantastic.

Borret

 

[jayse]

The other brewery on campus is a DMC 60 Hectolire system.

[post="60540"][/post]​

I think you better strike a zero of the end of that!
60HL is just a bees dick short of LC.
anyway top stuff wasibi.


All my love
Jayse

 

[Wasabi]

Jayse, yeah and I should probably learn to spell litre to

Borret - Cheeses? Yes....I have made a haloumi which turned out very nice and one of my lecturers tried to talk me inot making a brie and using the uni incubators...these would be the same incubators that the E Coli and Salmonella ar stored in. I declined. So who's brewing up there now?

Dicko, this is true. THe fermenters we have are 50 Litre so most people boil 80L down to about 70ish and ferment 50 of it. Though why they can't to a 50 and a 30 I'm not sure.

The stout was so so. The mashing was done a little outside the temp range and we had a few issues with the yeast (read an old smack pack). Some others in my class made an American Amber and it was truly fantastic.

Doc...part of the problem is also getting the brewery off the third years (they have first dibs)....they spend a lot of time brewing which might explain why some of them are in their fourth year and still haven't passed

THere is also a micro malting unit there which I think we are going to have a play with in a few weeks. It's not very big, but it does the job. Again I think it is more for training. They get most of there malt elsewhere.

There are quite a few interesting research projects going on. One in particular is the analysis of all the beers that are entered into the beer awards. They are trying to work out if certain levels and combinations of different substances in beer are linked at all to the ones that win. They suspect not....but you gotta spend your grant on something right?

 

[GMK]

Nice to hear from you Wasabi - how long have u got to go now on the course.

 

[Trough Lolly]

Hey Wasabi! Good to hear from you...

Sounds like the course you're doing is a heap more interesting that the one I scraped through a few years ago! Since my Mum is out at Mt. Helen, I might enrol in the course as a "seachange"
Only problem is what to do with the missus, two kids and mortgage from hell :unsure:
You're never a "lone soldier" when you can get onto the forum mate! B)
Have you used any of the Powells malt over in Romsey? I'm gonna get a few bags when I drive back from the annual family Xmas bash in Ballarat - floor malted malt for under $30 a bag is ok for me, even if it is a bit under powered diastatic wise!!
Cheers,
Rowan

Edit: spelling

 

[facter]

looks pretty cool...the course sounds good - I'm looking at doing the ECU brewing course here next year...

 

[Snow]

Great to hear you're doing well in your course, Wasabi. The pilot brewery looks interesting.

Are you finding the coursework hard? I'd assume there's be a fair amount of chemistry and microbiology stuff in there?

Cheers - Snow

 

[Wasabi]

Snow.

No, the course wokr isn't particularly hard, bu the mental adjustment from ISDN programming to bacterial culturing was interesting.

The course is basically divided into 4 areas

1. Food Processing (this unit REALLY SUCKS) which is all about canning, freezing and lots of mass production techniques I doubt I will ever need to know

2. Food Chemistry. This touches on biochem, but is more about how testing equipment works, and interactions of food chemistry

3. Microbiology - This is my favourite. The lecturer has his doctorate in Fermentation technology, so all the the things I like to make (beer, bread, cheese etc).

The fourth is the elective stream. Most of my classmates are taking biotechnology where I have taken the brewing streams. Raw materals, brewing process, the whole thing split over 5 units. There is quite a bit of sensory evaluation (grin) and making beer, but there is plenty of reading to.

I need a D average to be offered honours (which are in my plans) and I am on target. There is a lot of work (plus I also had to get a job so that I could eat), but I'm loving it. Love Ballarat to, especially now we havea house with a heater

 

[Kai]

Aw, come on. Food processing is great.