Jt's Blog (8)

OK, home after a week away and I was drying to try the brown ale with US - oh5

Surprisinglingly tastes like Sparky and Richies APA's with W1056

Hmm .. I have a W1968 starter going for a parrallel (well slightly off squee) brew on Monday

On Gervin - supposedly AKA Nottingham ?

Not for me, it's a case of the sherriff stole my hops.

I'm struggling through the brown / mild in the keg. The last two bottles went as entries in the HB Comp. The pale ale / bitter is a tad better, it's going down better but the hop character is still significantly down on what I expected. If I hadn't hopped it to hell it'd be a pale mild I guess ?

On Pilsners ?

I thought the extract Pils was good, but boy the grain version…

I'm excited ... oooohhhhh ... watch out beer ... hhmmmmmm !

I was very please with the extract & grains Pils I brewed with cali lager yeast @ 16-18C.

Next up was the grain version and it's had two weeks primary and 10 days in seconday so I thought I'd better look at kegging and bottling the rest.

Thought there's only a pint, maybe two of the extract one left in the keg and I'd polish them off with the hot dogs for tea last night.

WRONG - four pints later I was…

Ok, the jury's still out on this one.

Brew #1 was the brown ale and had no hop character in the keg yet plenty in the bottle .. confusing. This was more than the usual keg vs bottle difference, markedly so.

Brew # 2 was a bitter, 3kg LME, 300gm medium crystal, OG 40 and IBU 30 or so.

After 4 days in the keg it's ok, no major hop loss or anything. tastes just like any 40/30 bitter I've put together over the last 2 or 3 years

maybe I did something stoopid with the…

Ok, the Pils is in, but German or North German rather than Bohemian or whatever the correct name is. I think it's the high bitterness that does it. Not that I've every knowingly tasted a commercial offering of either style but I guess that' s the fun of trying.

The bitter with the Gervin yeast has been in the keg a day and is cold but not very carbonated, bit of a bad idea really. The pint hasn't warmed up enough yet to really tell what it's .like. Initial indications are slightly…

I was disapointed with the brown ale with gervin ale yeast, seemed to be pretty hopless from the keg - I had it down as a mild instead.

but, tasting the bottled version tonight is quite different, very flavoursome, anyone struck that with keg vs bottle primed before ?

So, no mild to battle K H-M and B, but a Northern Brown !

Ok, 18C in Welly already and the family are off to the Christmas parade, time to brew ?

No, I did that already so there's time to laze about in the vege garden pulling weeds out and getting a sunburnt neck and ears.

The neighbour is mowing lawns, really should do that too but what the heck it's Sunday - day of R&R

cheers, jt

Chec out the piccy of the cactus in my profile shot - oh and the cookie bear sort of cookie jar .. oh and the hydrometer shot too

cheers, jt