Upcoming competition 01 December: Dusseldorf Altbier

[Barbara Joppa]

As always, we start off with a huge thanks to Hallertau for allowing us to invade, yet remain such wonderful hosts. The winner of the last style Rauchbier, was Greig. This is the second consecutive win for Greig - very impressive!

Now the next competition will be on Saturday, 24th November***.UPDATE: Change to date due to holiday bookings - now on 01 December at 2PM*** The style is 7C in the BJCP guide: Dusseldorf Altbier. The overall description of this style is: A well balanced, bitter yet malty, clean, smooth, well-attenuated amber coloured German ale.

I will ask for volunteers to judge now. If you do not plan to brew for this competition, and you are interested in judging, please let me know.  Also, to assist me in having enough judging sheets, please let me know if you plan to enter.

See you all soon. Happy brewing.

Style link here: http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style07.php

[Adam Sparks]

Hey Kelly. Im coming up from South Auckland and picking up Tilt on the way, happy to pick you up as well if you need

[Kelly Milligan]

That would be really awesome if you don't mind mate! Will flick you a PM :) 

[Barbara Joppa]

Congratulations to all those who entered and those who came to Hallertau this afternoon. Alex, Kelly, and myself judged 12 homebrewed beers that ranged from not that "bad to Wow". In the end, Adam won the field with a total score of 101 (average 33.66). Well done, mate.

Greig failed to take a triple but scored well enough to place 3rd. With this honor comes the rights to naming the next style. 

= English special bitter.

I will post the style specifics in the next post. Thanks again to Hallertau for hosting. Your staff are awesome!
Cheers

[Kelly Milligan]

Thanks for organizing barb, and a big thanks and congrats to Adam for a lift out to hallertau! Legend

[Damon Colbert]

Yeah had a great time, thanks Barbara. And thanks to all you chaps who gave us the push start!

Arriving home yesterday and looking at my boxes of beer, I realised I had bought along the completely wrong bottles.  I split that batch and bottled half with wheat DME, half with sugar. The wheat DME one tasted more like a dunkel, and I had intended to bring the sugar one. Whoops. Damn.

[Tilt]

Thanks again Barb - a good afternoon out at Hallertau and great to meet more of the local HBing crowd.  Congrats to Adam - a win well deserved with a cracking version of an Alt. 

A stonking choice for the next round too - looking forward to it.

[Chad Keven]

cheers Barbara and judges sorry I couldn't attend, congrats to Adam,

[Greig McGill]

Just to clarify, the style chosen is: http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style08.php#1b

I think we've done 8A and 8C before, so I went down the middle. ;)

[Tilt]

A fine selection Greig.  Interestingly this category seemed to have a reasonable number of entries in the NHC but with one of the lowest average scores.  Obviously a tough one to do well.  So the gauntlet is down....bring it on.

[Adam Sparks]

Great to meet you all on Saturday... Thanks to Barbara and the judges. It was great having others to pick out flavors and find things in your beer that you haven't noticed before. I was scratching my head trying to figure out where the oak/coconut toastyness was coming from in my beer..... and then I went over my recipe and realized for some reason I put a bit of abbey malt in there,  that must have been it!

Here's the recipe for anyone that wants to have a crack.

Dusseldorf Altbeir

Düsseldorf Altbier

Type: All Grain	Date: 02/10/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 24.00 l	Brewer: Adam Sparks
Taste Notes: Its a lovely drinkable ale. Not sure why I added 20 EKG at flameout. Probably just trying to use it up. The aroma is lovely, almost berry like, with hints of dark fruits and grape, quite rummy and toasty I like it they way it is, however I think the style needs to be more bitter? Probably change the hop schedule next time, and drop some of the Vienna.
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 4.228 kg Gladfeild Lager Malt (4.0 EBC) Grain 1 68.9 % 0.904 kg Vienna Malt (6.9 EBC) Grain 2 14.7 % 0.500 kg Abbey Malt (50.0 EBC) Grain 3 8.2 % 0.200 kg Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 4 3.3 % 0.181 kg Caramunich II (Weyermann) (124.1 EBC) Grain 5 3.0 % 0.121 kg Carafa III (Weyermann) (1034.2 EBC) Grain 6 2.0 % 20.00 g Select Spalt (Add @ 60m) [4.75 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 7 11.4 IBUs 80.00 g Select Spalt (whirlpool addition) [4.75 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 8 23.3 IBUs 20.00 g Goldings, East Kent (whirlpool adition) [5.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 9 6.1 IBUs 1.44 g Kopaflok (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 10 - 1.0 pkg German Ale/Kolsch (White Labs #WLP029) [35.49 ml] Yeast 11 - 2.20 g Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days) Other 12 - 50.00 g Select Spalt [4.75 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.046 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.8 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Bitterness: 40.8 IBUs	Calories: 427.1 kcal/l
Est Color: 31.7 EBC
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out	Total Grain Weight: 6.134 kg
Sparge Water: 24.19 l	Grain Temperature: 22.2 C
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C	Tun Temperature: 22.2 C
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE	Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Mash In Add 20 l of water at 76 C 65.6 C 75 min
Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 20 l water at 78 C
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).

N.B. My actual sach temp hit about 63 C

Water

			Calcium (ppm)	Magnesium (ppm)	Sodium (ppm)	Sulfate (ppm)	Chloride (ppm)	Bicarbonate (ppm)
Existing Water Profile			8	2	9	13	9	25
Finished Water Profile			49	5	12	57	42	65

No-chilled in a cube over night, hence the hops having half an hour added onto them.