Well, after some frantic organisation and a short notice, fleeting trip to Auckland I managed to spend Monday brewing
Torsion (Coconut Porter) at Hallertau Brewbar.
What an awesome day. Steve and Vince were driving the brew day with me 'assisting' and soaking up the experience.
JoKing was helping out also and provided the majority of the day's entertainment. Steve was so generous with his knowledge, experience, food & beer that I felt like I was stealing from him. The brewing experience was fantastic and I have come away with several ideas on how to improve my beers and speed up my brew day. At the and of the brew day I got to sample all of the Hallertau beers that were on offer at the bar along with a few 'special' beers from 'out back', some of which were truely memorable.
A totally awesome day and a totally awesome prize from the NHC.
It'll be hard to top that as far as beer events are concerned.
Jo said drop the amber and go to like 7-8% melanoidin.
Current APA has 200g pale and 100g medium crystal, I'm swapping out the medium with amber to hopefully get a bit of crunchy-toastiness in there. I think the level of 'maltiness' is OK, hence not going with the melanoidin. Whether or not it will carry the columbus will be a different story.
If it doesn't carry the Columbus, then you've got one big hop sucker onya hands
reckon the amber will be good though. Nice malt, haven't used it for awhile, might have to try it again soon. Adds a good non-cara/crystal dimension that isn't there often enough
Got this planned for the morning - any feedback???
Brew Type: All Grain Date: 5/22/2010
Style: Special/Best/Premium Bitter Brewer: Gaz
Batch Size: 42.00 L Brewhouse Efficiency: 82.00
Boil Volume: 53.20 L Boil Time: 60 min
Ingredients for Mashing Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.30 kg .Pale Malt, Golden Promise (Bairds) (2.5 SRM) Grain 95.45 %
0.30 kg .Crystal, Dark (Bairds) (121.8 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
Single Infusion, Medium Body Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 17.21 L of water at 75.0 C 67.8 C
10 min Mash Out Add 9.64 L of water at 91.7 C 75.6 C
Sparge with 34.46 L of 75.6 C water.
60 min 45.00 gm .Motueka [7.10 %] (60 min) Hops
10 min 30.00 gm .Motueka [7.10 %] (10 min) Hops
10 min 40.00 gm .Riwaka [5.40 %] (10 min) Hops
1 min 30.00 gm .Motueka [7.10 %] (1 min) Hops
1 min 40.00 gm .Riwaka [5.40 %] (1 min) Hops
One fermenter with WLP002 and one with Burton Ale yeast