June 2011 Blog Posts (6)

Here are a few things about Wyeast, RealBeer.co.nz and the company previously called Nicholford Brewing Company

Wyeast - some background

- Available in New Zealand since 1997

- First imported by Luke Nicholas for brewing at Cock & Bull brewpub, then supplied to other brewers and homebrewers along with malt and hops, out the back door of the brewery.

- Orders of FRESH yeast every 2 months

- Direct from lab, most cases brewers receive yeast…

Just a quick one to show you my new (well actually secondhand off Trade Me - $111) 60L kettle and the new deluxe kettle stand I built to go with it ($0).

The original stool.

 …

After a long hard week of blending wine, spilling wine, drinking wine. One looks forward to spending a weekend working on his little piece of dirt. Such things like mowing the lawns while having a beer. “Pissing on the back fence” Weeding the gardens while having a beer. “Pissing on the front fence” The latter should be done at night so the rubber necking traffic don’t see you with your python swinging in the breeze! "Note the lower case's regarding my python"

But none the less one…

15 years ago age I came back from my Brittish OE with a dream to start my own Whiskey distillery...............after working in north eastern Scotland planting and harvesting malting grain and living in whiskey country I had come home with it in my veins if the Scots sarted doing it hundreds of years ago how hard could it be.

Well when I got home I seeked advice on getting going, I met a old bugger who told me to brew beer "its easy to make and cheap to start out" so I got some gear…

Here is a rough idea of the first stage of my brewery - the kettle. Apologies, my drawing skills didn't develop much after the age of five.

There is a copper immersion chiller up top (bought 12m of copper tube for this for $69 from Trade Me) which goes into a 60L stainless cook pot I bought from Trade Me for $111. 

Next is a weldless bi-metal…

I had a break from brewing for a couple of years and am just starting up again. So far I have a bitter bottled, plus a golden ale and a lager bubbling away. I just brew from extract at the moment, no kettle involved, although I do boil hops and add to the wort. 

I've been brewing like this for about 7 or 8 years now and have had some great results, with one or two mishaps along the way. But now I'm…