Brew No.16 – American Pale Ale

RATING: 4/5 Stars

17 November 2008 – Well I must say, I’m a bit excited by this brew. My fav style of American Pale Ale and using extracts, grain and plenty of hops…

• 3kg of LDME
• 225g Crystal Malt
• 20g Perle Hops – 60 min boil
• 20g Cascade Hops – 30 min boil
• 30g Cascade Hops – 15 min boil
• US05 ale yeast

Crystal was steeped in 5 L of water at 68deg for 30 min then 1/2 the LDME brought to the boil with enough water to bring up to 12 litres. Hop additions as scheduled above. rest of LDME added at flameout then cooled in water and ice bath to 20 deg.

added to fermentor with water to 20L then added yeast without re-hydration.

29 November 2008 - bulk primed and bottled into PET. Awesome hop aroma on the nose….

23 December 2008 - I’ve been drinking this for a couple of weeks now, and have to say this is the best beer I have brewed to date. Although there is a small amount of harsh undertones (probably from the shitty LDME) the strong hop flavour and bitterness are awesome. I have even managed to turn a couple of megaswill drinkers over to drinking real beer which is testament to this beer. Interestingly, I drank a couple of Little Creatures APA’s after this beer, and actually preferred mine!

Brew No.15 – Summer Wheat

RATING: 3/5 Stars

I was so impressed with the last country brewer wetpak, I decided to try out the wheat beer. Looked something like this…..

• 3kg extract
• hops in the extract for bittering (not sure of type, but there wasn’t alot being a wheat)
• Aroma hops
• about 200g grains
• packets of bitter orange peel and ground Coriander
• Safbrew yeast

6 November 2008 - boiled up the extract and bittering hops in only 5L of water for 60 minutes. Meanwhile the grain was soaked in hot water. After 60 minutes the water from the grain was added with the aroma hops, orange peel and coriander, then cooled down in a water bath. Then added to fermenter topped up with water to 20L and added re-hydrated (30 min) wheat yeast, mixed in thoroughly and left to ferment….

15 November 2008 - bulk primed and bottled in PET bottles. Gotta say I was surprised about how dark the beer was for a wheat…..

29 November 2008 - Not exactly a wheat, as it is an amber colour and can just get some of the wheat grain characters. Not bad though and I reckon will get better with time

5 January 2009 - Being a wheat I think this is probably drinking at it’s peak now. Not a bad drop, but I think the malt needs to be lighter and brewed at lower temps. Some funky esters are coming through that impacts the taste a little.

Brew No.14 – Bastard Lager No.2

RATING: 2.5/5 Stars

I will also be using a simple can kit again this week, but using a Coopers draught instead of lager.

• Basic Coopers Draught can kit
• 500g LDME
• 500g Dextrose
• 14g POR hops (for aroma only)
• Safale US05 yeast

LDME and dextrose will be brought to the boil in about 2L of water. Hops are added and boiled for 15 minutes before adding straight to the fermentor with the can kit. Topped up to 23L and fermented out. Rehydrated yeast…

3 November 2008 - Put together brew as above. Rehydrated the yeast for 30 minutes (stir halfway) in 40 deg water. Pitched in fermenter at about 24 degrees. 

12 November 2008 – Bulk primed and bottled into PET bottles
30 November 2008 - ewww….still tastes like crud…another couple of weeks yet… 

19 December 2008 - Whilst this is now drinking OK, I’m not overly excited about it. I think now my expectations and taste buds have progressed from the supermarket can of goo. Lucky I’m now going to be brewing AG!!!