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

[Doublehoppy]

Yeah, I never really got beer & food matching either.

If only we could actually match, say 5 day cricket with, say, a Hefe. Nope its Tui or Export Gold.

[denimglen]

I think beer and food matching is generally a bit "meh". Sure I like a nice porter with crusty bread and a good soft cheese but I'd be just as happy with a thai green curry.

Agreed. The best match is the beer I'm drinking with the food I'm eating. I've tried the matching thing before and I don't see its appeal.

More important is beer and event matching. You could match a 6% IPA with a movie, a gig or a football match but it'd not be a great match with an all day festival...

No IPAs at beer festivals for you then? ;-)

Everything in moderation I say, an IPA to start the thing and then some session beers to finish the day.

[Stu McKinlay]

No IPAs at beer festivals for you then? ;-)

I hear the Townshend IPA was one of the big sellers at Marchfest.
Maybe it was the long lines... I think more likely the fact that all the beers were the same price that got people into it... 1:1 ABV:$ ratio as opposed to something like The Mussel Inn beer which was 1:1.5. And they say Scots are cheap ;-)
Could have been that it was delicious. But they all were that.

[Sean]

Tried a couple of bottles of the YB PKB and loved it, got a fair amount of smokey overtones on the nose. Awesome stuff, looking forward to the "Return to Magenta" which we should have in the next few days (you should give me a t-shirt guys, size L :D).

8 Wired HopWired - Great taste, great beer. The ReWired is awesome too.
Brew Moon - Hophead IPA and Dark Side Stout. Last time I tried the DS Stout I was a little let down as it seemed to lack any depth or dimension in taste but this time it was great, reminding me of why I like this so much.

Plus the usual weekly dose of St Bernadus ABT 12, Firestone Walker Union Jack and Rochefort 10.

Cheers and happy drinking!!

[Reviled]

Sean can I plz have your job? lol

[Sean]

haha, it's hard work don't you know :D

[Daron]

Working my way through an expensive but good 4 pack of Moa Harvest....and hoping to harvest the yeast from the bottles as I go. Still not much activity as yet....

[MrC]

Just a heads up. There's a good chance that the yeast in the bottle is champagne yeast that was added for bottle conditioning. It doesn't make nice beer. I have a beer at the moment that I fermented with yeast harvested from La Trappe Blonde and it's terrible.

[Llew Bardecki]

I'm a big fan of harvesting yeast from commercial beers. and I actually asked the guys at the brewery about this a while back.

I can't find the e-mail, but if I remember the reply correctly, they said that the bottling yeast was the same as the primary strain, and that the Moa Original yeast was a blend of lager yeast and champagne yeast.

Could be different for other varieties, but I bet you'll get something decent out of the Moa bottles.

[Reviled]

It really depends on the beer and what the brewery does, some change the yeast for bottling, and some dont.. I harvested some 1968 from 3 Renaissance bottles and made a silver medal winning beer with it ;o) But as a general rule, I wouldnt bother with anything thats not bottled in NZ due to all the travelling stress the yeast has no doubt gone through from overseas...

[MrC]

They mention the addition of a different yeast here:
http://www.moabeer.co.nz/downloads/files/Moa_Harvest_Lager_TN.pdf

"Prior to bottling, priming sugar and a yeast more often used for Sauvignon Blanc is added to enhance complexity."

I wouldn't harvest yeast from that beer. Just my 2c.

[David Nicholls]

Hi all, some of our beers are conditioned with the primary yeast and others with additional wine yeast. This can be either still or champagne yeast, depends on the beer type and what we are trying to achieve. Noir, Harvest and Original bottles would have a little of the primary yeast but mainly the various wine yeast we use. I would tread carefully culturing this as I am sure the wine yeast would dominate.