What are you drinking ?

[jt]

Ok, so What Are You Brewing was a hotty, as topics go.

Now I'm 15 pints into a keg I only filled on Tuesday and wondering if anyone else has a favourite at the moment ?

It's my second brown with US-Oh05 and it's better than the forst, maybe Ikept the temps down a bit during the scorcher we had in januray

[jt]

Of course, now I remember - and what did you think of the Special K in it's test run ?

[MrC]

Special K in it's test run
Overall I like it. I think it's a great base malt but for a small'ish beer like this (4% ABV) I'd probably swap some out for munich but only a little.

I really like B-Sharp and will likely brew if a few more times yet. Love the hops. My only complaint is that it lacks a little in the malt backbone department. I reckon either more base malt (a bigger beer) or some munich to strengthen it up will do the trick.

It's my intention to brew this beer a few times with different base malts. So far I've only tried MO and Special K. Next up will be GP.

[Mike Neilson]

B Sharp is spot on!! To make it Malty? It is!! Add Melanoidin or base malt of Vienna? maybe? If anything I thought it was a little light on the body but not malty goodness!!

[MrC]

I agree about the body. I tried to mash at 68c but due to the small amount of grist the temp kept dropping. My mash tun struggles to hold temp for the smaller batches. Might up the Carapils a little next time to compensate.

[David Nicholls]

Mr Cherry, thanks for the ups on the Original. Any chance of of finding out the batch number and whether in 750ml or 375ml as I have a couple of trials on the go at the moment. Will be along the lines of L1409 or the like.
Cheers

[MrC]

Here you go David, hope this makes sense to you:
375ml
L.15.0.9
B.B.4.22.9.11

Just let me know if need help with that trial ;-)

p.s. I'll add this as a comment also so you can find it easily.

[David Nicholls]

Sure does. This I dried out a little and upped the Motueka late hop.....

[Martin Bridges]

A couple of wonderful pints of Bob Hudson's tonight at Galbraiths, made even better by the presence of most of the Big Cheeses of the NZ craft beer scene - Richard Emerson, Carl Vasta, Carl Harrington, Brian Thiel, Craig Bowen, Ian Ramsay and, er, Colin Mallon. Plus a few more, my memory is a little hazy. The place was kicking OFF - the beer festival at Ellerslie tomorrow is going to be legendary!

[Reviled]

Went to the Auckland beer festival yesterday and had an absolutely awesome time!! So many beers were tried so ill go over the ones I can remember and that really stood out :o) Big big Props to Martin, Brett, Greig and everyone else for volunteering at the Guild/SOBA stand and serving awesome beers like Emersons and Nerdherder through Martins handpump which was just awesome!! A few of my mates complained about the carbonation of Nerdherder but I thought it was perfect ;o) It was really good to see the craft beer stands getting so much attention!

Managed to try 8wired's Rewired which was my first taste of Sorens beers and I was not disappointed at all! Really hopped up brown ale with surprising balance! Awesome stuff mate!

Ben Middlemiss' Dortmunder - After hearing alot about this beer and having tried his Pilsner a while back I knew it would be a good beer and it truely was! That lovely minerally aroma profile, crisp and clean!!

My stand out beer tho would have to be Crouchers Cherry Bock, 8% and so tasty, like black forest chocolate in a glass! Very clean and balanced, very well brewed beer and even tho previously I hated anything cherry flavoured I am now inspired to try and brew something like this at home!! Cheers Paul!

[denimglen]

Must agree to the Dort, NH and CB comments there mate.

Didn't actually have as many new beers as I should have this year.

Had the Mussel Inn Manuka beer for the first time. Enjoyed the taster but I think I'd struggle with a whole pint.

Croucher's Vicar's Vice, great beer, spicy and vanilla.

Bath's dark bitter, massive fruity yeast character, very awesome.

Kaimai rye pale. My first beer with rye in it, enjoyable, will have to try some more or make some myself.

About 3 glasses of Armageddon, kept going back, couldn't help myself, very drinkable.

Bookbinder. I'm sure this beer used to be better. Had this massive sulfur thing that seemed to overpower everything, settled down by the end of the glass though.

Renaissance blonde and APA. Meh. Nothing wrong with them but just nothing outstanding.

There were heaps more that I can't remember.

And what was wrong with last years tokens? Yeah it was a bit of a bitch to walk around with a pocket full but it was better standing in line with a card for like 15 minutes to get a beer. Felt like I was in some trendy AK club. Good idea with the cards, but failed miserably on the day.

Tyler, I kept an eye out for ya but didn't see you around. Did see your partner in the crowd a few times though.

[Martin Bridges]

I'm glad you enjoyed it mate. I was really worried that the problems we were all having with the payment system would have ruined it for people. I was certainly getting very stressed by it all, didn't manage to get more than a glass or two of beer and had to run away at 5 o'clock to get to a BBQ. Managed to find a bottle store that stocked Galbraith's Munich though so all wasn't entirely lost.

I plan to write up some notes on my thoughts from the festival when I get time but suffice to say I think it was amazing to see the increase in the range and popularity of the craft beer stalls, and the attendance at the Brewers Guild food & beer seminars was very encouraging. Props to the Brewers Guild and the brewers that came up, too.

[Greig McGill]

Yeah, I have a bit to say on the subject too, but will save most of it for another time.

A few things though... That system... I don't believe it was tested under any kind of load, or the wifi connections back to the server tested from all locations in the building.

Other huge black marks were the multiple different advertised times for closing/last call versus the *actual* time of 7pm for cutoff on the liquor license. Way to piss off a large number of people who'd been drinking for quite some time. Lucky for us, a timely visit from a great cop at the stand managed to defuse a few of the angrier punters.

The above might seem negative, but seriously, teething issues aside, it was a massive improvement on the first two I attended - I missed last year based on the tendency toward big breweries, and general "munter" attitude. This year was like a breath of fresh air, and I credit David Cryer with much of that. He worked very hard to ensure that craft beer was well represented. The beer and food matching was fun (though I was up first, and wasted a divine match of Lamb Bhuna and Three Boys Pilsner on just 10-15 people), and it was great to watch the reactions on people's faces as we served them nerdherder, and 1812 IPA - well, when I didn't have my angry face on, struggling with the demon RFID EFTPOS system.

Apologies to all the great people I saw whom I didn't really get to talk to - hard to chat properly with a see of angry people waiting to be served because we can't process them fast enough.

Denim: Really? Sulphur in the Bookie? I was tippling on that throughout the day (it was right there, and I didn't want to waste the limited supply of nerdherder) and thought it was in top form. Sure you didn't have some of the pilsner in your glass still? That was a little sulphury, but still a fine drop. I also thought the Renaissance Paradox was a great beer. So refreshing, citrussy, and a perfect way to end the day (we had to drink something while we cleaned up). ;)