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

[MrC]

How did the cider come out denimglen?
Is it a "Thumbs up" for the blackrock cider?

[denimglen]

I dunno yet...

Only just transfered to secondary a couple of days ago.

I used a can of black rock extract, 3 x 250mL fresh-up green concentrates made to 21L and at transferring it tasted watery as hell. I've made the BR cider before and it was quite good, dunno whats up this time.

I've given it a good dose of campden and potassium sorbate hoping to do some damage to the yeast. I've bought some more concentrates which I'll use to try and boost up the flavour and backsweeten a tiny bit.

The WLP300 hefe yeast in it is good, smells kind of like red bull and a little bubblegum, not as gross as it sounds! I was hoping there would be some banana and clove but I think the yeast might have cleaned up those esters (can they do that?).

[MrC]

I heard Jamil make a comment on a pod cast about how yeast can't clean up esters once they have been created but my extremely estery whiteboard pale ale is definately mellowing over time.

[Ollie]

Jost bottled extremely experimental but damn fine wheat beer:

BUSHWEET:
50% Weyermann Pils
50% Weyermann Wheat
Decoction mash with a little Tartaric acid.
Hopped with Riwaka to 18IBUs
Metric handful each of crushed Kawakawa and Horopito leaves in the boil
Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit.

Big banana but with a delicate riwaka and herbal aroma. Horopito and Kawakawa just slightly cuts through the sweetness. Would definately do it again but with bigger handfuls of leaves.

[Mark]

that sounds bloody interesting, where did you get the inspiration for the leaves? what are the flavours like?

[Ollie]

I got the idea from horopito in food and kawakawa tea but I found out after the fact that apparently they're both used in taakawa (pure wankery if you ask me - not enough to taste and I'm not sure you'd want to in a lager??)

Horopito is also called pepperwood and is an awesome spice. There are 2 species - Pseudowintera colorata (mountain horopito) has distinctive red patches on mature leaves and a white underside to the leaf and is extremely spicy, P. axillaris (lowland horopito) doesn't and is much more mild. I used both for this since the spicy one is hard to find in Wellington (there's only 2 plants) and I liked the more subtle herbal flavour of the other. Apparently you can get dried horopito at Moore Wilsons.

Kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum) has the tastiest berries of any NZ plant. The leaves are poisonous in large quantities and mildly hallucenogenic in small quantities. Maaori used to drink kawakawa leaf tea before going into battle. The flavour is bitter and herbal. Smells like the bush after rain. Grows like a weed everywhere with heart shaped leaves often heavily browsed by kawakawa moth larvae.
Combination of both performs the same function in terms of balance as orange peel and coriander seed but tastes like the bush - great counterpoint to spicy wheat and Wit yeast flavours.

I have a complex about NZ not having any of it's own beer styles (aside from spruce/cooker and that batch of Gizzy Gold... hehe). We all just ape American, English and European styles - maybe throw in some Nelson hops and call it ground-breaking. There is a whole country full of tasty things to eat. Maybe a berry lambic next?
Haha. Spot the ecologist.

Chur Burr.

[Mark]

awesome, great idea to produce a truely nz beer rather than a clone of some sort

[integersmirk]

I work at an outdoor adventure company and we often tell customers about kawakawa... Generally I serve about 4 cups of kawakawa tea a day, don't know anything about it being hallucinogenic! But am definitely going to do something with it in brewing soon.

[jt]

Well the Tamarillo Chutney was a breeze, didn't scorch too much on the bottom of the pot.
Next brew is another ale. Sort of a carry on from the Blondes, but a lot more hop character and flagging the wheat
Shabby Technique Brewery's Pale Beer
85% Pale
10% Munich
5% Various Crystals
And a smidge of chocolate
Bittering with Willamette 17 IBU and then 12 IBU Styrian Goldings late
1.042 and aiming for about 1.009 with Thames Valley Ale yeast.
I've been getting really good attenuation with this lately.
It used to be described as 72-76% attenuation, but I see Wyeast now lists it as around 77% and I'm getting around 80% ... or my measurement is dodgey
Seems to go best at the lower end of the temp scale

cheers, jt

[jt]

Very, very tasty when kegged last night.
Warm tasting from the fermenter reminds me of my first extract & grains attempt of Palmers Crouchback bitter 4 years ago.
After years of Coopers Lager, Muntons Hoighland Heavy and Traditional Bitter that was a revelation to me.
Hopefully this conditions up well and makes me go WOW just the same

cheers, jt

[Bambule]

Sorely tempted to do an oatmeal stout but was put on to a robust porter, after sampling the renaissance porter this week. Stunning.

Sooo

5kg Pilsner
1kg Munich
0.5kg Crystal
0.3kg Carafa
0.15kg Black Patent
0.15kg Carahell
Maybe a bit of brown sugar 100-200gr or so.
1968 yeast
Not sure on the hop bill. I have at my disposal Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, NZ Hallertauer & Styrian Goldings. Any ideas. I think a combo of the last two is maybe a safe bet but who knows.

[Stu McKinlay]

This might not be as "robust" as Renaissance but...
Just do the sauvin at 60min. You'll boil any flavour out. Let the malt speak.
Get your estimated IBU up to 70-80% of the OG.