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

[Adam Barnes]

Thanks Joe,

Yea, definitely noticed and figured it couldn't have been just down to different hops!

Really enjoyed it and will have to grab more to try alongside the Motueka Raven. What was the 2/3 on the side of the label, is there a third in the series (not PKB)?

 

[JoKing]

Nah... it was a misprint.

[Stu McKinlay]

Hi Adam

 

Rackham tasting damn fine at the moment... it's about 10 months old and really hitting its #freshisnotbest straps.

 

Looks like you've figured out the Raven thing. The name is, always, A Joseph Wood creation and is a bit of a nod to our friend (and Black IPA legend) James Kemp of Buxton Brewery.

 

As Joseph says... completely different beers. Another excellent showcase of the differences between NZ and US hops (following the Yak/Mot Monsters of 2010 and Yak/Mot Warriors of 2011). 3/3 must be lost in the post... or not yet brewed.

 

PKB is 1.060 / 50ibu and obviously more roast.

Ravens are 1.070 / 60ibu (came through a little lower than the intended, was meant to be 1.074 for 7%).

 

NZ hops, for your info, are 22kg in 2400L. 55% Styrian, 25%kg Sauvin, 20% Super Alpha... For me it was a bit of a trial of super alpha as late and dry hop. I haven't been able to taste it properly yet, as I've had a damn head cold since the beer was filtered and packaged. Just coming out the other side now. Thinking we'll do a Black IPA for USA soon, but I'll change the hops up for that. We'll make sure we keep some kegs back for NZ.

When I got home last night there was an empty bottle of Motueka on our kitchen table. My wife told me that a guest had necked the whole thing in one go and then said "Ah... it's a bit to bitter for me".

 

Cheers

Stu

 

[jt]

Sounds like it's hops balance is more like the first seasons PKB rather than the subsequent maltier ones ?

Not trying to make a comparison between the two beers ...

[Stu McKinlay]

The only difference in hopping between the first two (seasonal) PKB's and now, besides the odd variety tweak, is that the current product is not dry hopped. The grams per litre has remained pretty much exactly the same.

 

I think the yeasts we used in those first two batches, and more importantly the fact that we didn't filter, made more of a difference.

 

Motueka Raven is dry hopped, with all three varieties.

[jt]

Sounds like my sort of ale Stu.

I'm heading southside tomorrow, i'll have to pick some up

cheers, jt

[jt]

Picked up an Emersons APA after reading the piece in the Capital Times.

This was one of my beer awakening beers and I have great memories of it.

Looking forward to it with anticipation ....

[Dave W]

Hopefully it lives up to your

Anticip....pation!

[jt]

Um, maybe I'll have it tomorrow then...

[jt]

Tastes have changed, it's completely different to what I remembered and / or time plays tricks on my memory.
Still has an awesome aroma.
Has more upfront of the tongue bitterness than I remember.
Not quite as malty?

Time does strange things, but the beer's stil really good

[jt]

Beervana!
First visit for a couple of years and it's a bigger, better, beerery event than it was before. There's just so much good beer to chose from, makes me wonder why I missed going last few years.

I was anticipating Bruce and Dogg, to see what brewers that usually do a big beer do with a sub 4
Started off sipping them thinking what are they missing, but then settled down and enjoyed them.
Given me an idea or two for a brew or two myself.

Cheers jt

[jt]

A cold cheeky pale after a cracker North Welly afternoon, digging in irrigation lines in the community gardem.