Mark Meyburg's Page

Hi Mark, I was recently reminded of bumping into you at WOMAD as it was on again this last weekend - the year we were there it pissed down on the Saturday night so hopefully it was a bit better last weekend even with the remnants of cyclone Lusi hanging around. I've been brewing on a fairly small scale only  - 23 litre batches and bottle fermenting. Bottles are the limiting factor - I've got about 13 dozen 700ml bottles and the main reason I don't brew more often is that I don't drink quickly enough to free up the bottles! I'm really over cleaning and sanistising bottles so I'm very envious of you having a kegging set up. I'm really tempted by the current special that Mangrove Jacks have on a two tap kegerator ($990) so I might just have to bite the bullet. I've had some good results with malt extracts and steeped grains. I've also experimented with boil in a bag - the brews were OK but I didn't find it a whole lot more convenient. This summer I've built a mash/lauter tun with a copper manifold from a chilly bin and have started full grain single infusion mash brewing. I was stupid enough to attempt a rye beer for first brew and of course the sparge didn't go well because rye mash starches don't convert well to sugars at standard mash temperatures. My latest brew (Northern Brown Ale) was much easier. The best change I ever made to my brewing setup was to fit an old fridge with a temperature controller so I can control the fermentation temperature.

Brewing and drinking my own beer is a lot of fun and I really enjoy the wide range of craft brews that are available in the liquor shops these days. Last November I was able to do a brewing short course at Massey University in Palmerston North which was really informative and a lot of fun.

Do you keep in touch with any of the Geography crowd? The only person I ever briefly caught up with was Paula - I think she works for the Ministry of Health in Wellington these days.

Cheers, Tadd

Hi Mark

A helpful relatively recent addition to the range of brewing supplies has been the availability of liquid yeasts. I can get a wide range of Wyeast products from Brewers Coop in Penrose and I notice that White Labs yeasts are available through brewshop.co.nz. Are you using liquid yeasts and if so, do you make up a starter before brew day?

Cheers, Tadd