What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[Tony]

Just tried my Oatmeal Stout last night (in fact I tried it twice). If I don't mind saying so, it is fantastic!

I am really pleased with how it came out. It has turned out to be an old fashioned style, dry/bitter stout.
It does have a little sweetness on the palate with that hint of oats and a dry, bitter finish. It has a good head that holds well, but not a great retention. It has a roasty/fuggles nose. For my first full mash, I am really pleased.

[Edward Siddle]

well done! onwards and upwards. what's on your brewing schedule next Tony?

[Tony]

Just brewed an APA, last weekend:

Bushnix APA, .

Mashed:

2.7 kg Pale ale
250 g Munich malt
250 g crystal
150g wheat
100g cara munich

added 1L of LME left over from my yeast starter to the boil

50 g of Cascade at start
50 g cascade 10 minutes from end
50 g Cascade at flame out

Liquid ale yeast starter

Bushnix= Bush (as in president)- Nix (German slang for nothing)

[Barry]

Tony, get some in bottles and enter it in the NHC!

[denimglen]

Brewed a Hefeweizen yesterday.

Nothing flash, 50-50 Aussie pale and Weyermann's wheat - 1.046, NZ Hallertau Aroma to 11IBU, WLP300.

[Mark]

Marzen:
3.5kg vienna
1.5kg bohemian pils
1kg munich
0.5kg carahells
0.5kg carapils
20g super alpha 60mins
12g cascade 30mins
saflager 34/70 (2pkts)
roughly 27IBUs
o.g. 1057
colour is darkish golden, definitely on the lighter side for this style

first attempt at a double decoction mash, can be messy if you don't watch it! generally went very well though, efficiency definitely an improvement on ye olde infusion mash.

how's yours going ed? we will have to have a taste off when they're ready

[Edward Siddle]

it's more or less finished fermenting so i've turned the fridge down so it is now sitting at about 1-2C until I can be bothered cleaning up some bottles.

a taste-off sounds good. no doubt we'll be up in palmie nth in the next month or two because my folks are off overseas for a holiday end of september so we will have a weekend up there before then.

my one is also at the golden end though will probably i suspect have less body than yours as i didn't use carapils/carahell. other difference is the yeast. where did you get the 34/70? that yeast is basically out of commission now, at least in dried form. maybe the bloke in the hb shop in palmie has simply not run out of it yet.....

double decoction eh? braver man than me mark. i only did a single (15 mins boil) - as much for sake of 'tradition' than anything.

[Mark]

yep a session sounds good.

as far as the yeast goes it's probably the last of his stock, hopefully it's not too old! why have they decommissioned it???? it's a better yeast i reckon to the other one, drier and less fruity. would be a shame if they've only now got one lager yeast.

yeah the double decoction was a bit overkill but i figured what the hell, i might as well go the whole hog. it's a surprisingly well thought out technique, the temperatures came out almost spot on each time. just a bit ugly when it boils over!!

lagering is my bane - don't have a fridge so yours will no doubt be crisper. am relying on diacetyl rest and a well timed frost.

[James P]

Fermentis is still producing it, however only in 500g packs:

From the website:
Saflager W-34/70
The most popular lager strain worldwide, from the Weihenstephan institute in Germany. Available in 500g packs.

Has anyone found an alternative in NZ? Craftbrewer.com.au has a similar branded yeast.

[Edward Siddle]

craftbrewer is currently listing the small packs of this yeast as currently unavailable; the guy in lower hutt says it has been discontinued. i've no idea why. perhaps it wasn't selling, perhaps they were worried that there were quality issues due to fact that it was mainly sold in 500g blocks and broken up (it was never branded the same remember), perhaps they are preparing to repackage and brand as per all the other fermentis yeasts, or perhaps weihenstephan had issues with them selling it. who knows.

with the caveats noted on the other thread about lack of refrigeration, i personally am quite tempted by the availability of liquid yeasts via craftbrewer at what seems considerably cheaper prices than we are normally able to get them. alternatively, also through craftbrewer, try the s-189 yeast: it's pretty good.

[Barry]

Craftbrewer has the small packs of the Weihenstephan lager yeast, he is just using the listing to advertise the larger packs.
The official fermentis version appears unavailable but the ones that Ross packs himself are in stock:

[Edward Siddle]

right you are barry. two days when i looked that was not the case. good to see it is still available in some shape or form. i also notice that's he's obviously taken receipt of a bunch more liquid yeasts too. i didn't carefully compare the ale yeasts (except to note that there are two available that we don't often get here - denny's choice (presumably a reference to denny conn, a regular contributer on US homebrew forums, tagline signoff "life begins at 60, 1.060 that is"), and koelsch II (2575) - but in the lager category there's quite a few more that weren't there two days ago.