Guess this is the wrong forum now... my good old mate Sam and I brewed 1200L of Yeastie Boys Pot Kettle Black on Sunday. The beer I served at the HomeBrewFest last year, and to a couple of you in June/July. Switched to NZ hops as US Cascade were a no go. New hopping is a combination of Sauvin for bitterness and NZ Cascade and NZ Styrian for flavour and aroma (in the kettle and dry hopping) - 9kg all up, so it's a pretty hoppy little beast. Have to thank Doug at NZ hops for some advice there as brewing 1200L of beer with a completely new hopping schedule and no customers was a little scary. Have to also thank Steve Nally for dinners, digs and the use of his brewery. It's the possibly the shiniest microbrewery I've seen, no wonder he makes such great beer.
First tastes at Beervana. We'll have a stand, so drop by and say hello to Sam (he was a member of SOBA even when living in London). I'll be in Australia during BrewNZ week but hope to work something out for an official release after BrewNZ.
Hopefully of the usual suspect bars after that - I've talked to a few people, who are keen, but just have to follow up with the reality of $ (otherwise, as Kieran said, it'll take a fair few of his Thursday nights to work our way through it).
Nah, wouldn't fit on the plane. Brought back a pretty jaded palate, dull headache and heavy eyelids though.
Flew into Invercargill, the Southern Alps were spectacular. Dux de Lux for lunch, fantastic fish and chips. I did one touristy thing in Invercargill on monday before I flew out. Visited e Hayes & Sons... maybe the world's best hardware store... ??? Steve was like a kid in a candy store.
Good Question, Maybe "I'm out of beer and I need to get the cellar full quick!" But in all seriousness its a change to my last batch, same grain bill but using straight sauvin instead of Motueka, NZ Pale Ale again. It was one of my better efforts last time so just trying some self education on hops. The idea came to me at the Emersons tasting on Friday, I really liked his Motueka special, not that we weren't spoilt for choice.
ESB, because the Twisted Hop has opened me up to a whole new world of beer... and I love their Special Bitter (but I think the beautiful 'biscuityness' has waned since I first tried it)
Anyway:
My PVC lautering manifold is proving to be a real pain in the arse. I syphon over the side ofthe chilli bin and the manifold keeps moving to the surface which means I need to reposition it and recirculate. I need a new mash tun, maybe a new chilli bin with a spigot will do the trick.
sounds like you've got a plan cooking up with getting a nice bin with spigot etc but if you were trying to economise i can recommend a copper manifold - no problems with floating to the surface. i got the copper from a plumbing shop and cut with a crappy flimsy metal saw for next to nothing from bunnings