Brew No.29 – Aussie Pale Ale v3.0

The last batch (a double) of Aussie Pale Ale was good but I thought could do with some improvement. I have done some research and will make the following changes to my recipe:

1) Use one addition as a first wort hop.
2) Use a small amount of carared – about 200g

Recipe as follows:

• 4.0 kg Joe White Pilsner Malt
• 0.5kg Joe White Wheat Mallt
• 0.2kg Weyermann Carared
• 30g POR Hops – first wort hop
• 1 Whirfloc tablet @ 10 min
• Recultured Coopers Sparkling Yeast

Hit my numbers perfectly on this one.  1.043 pre boil and 1.052 post boil gravities. Beautiful clear wort was transferred to a no chill cube, which was lucky as the yeast took a couple of days to fire up!

29 September 2009 – dumped the cube (careful to leave cold break behind) into the fermentor and added the active Coopers starter (about 1L)…so far so good!

4 October 2009 - As per usual, once the Coopers yeast gets going, it doesn’t take long to ferment out. Krausen has almost dies off completely but will leave in the fermenter for another week to clean itself up.

18 October 2009 – Yep, this is spot on. By far the best Coopers clone I’ve brewed thus far. transferred to keg yesterday and forced carbed to almost 3 volumes, I believe the first wort hop has made all the difference to this beer. A good bitterness level but without the harshness you can sometimes get from POR. Yum, I’m going to get another one (or two)!!!

Home Grown Hops

I have finally taken the plunge into growing my own hops at home. On the weekend I planted two Pride of Ringwood rhizomes in pots and can’t wait to see them grow! To be honest, it is more for the novelty value at the moment but who knows….will post some pictures later when they start to take off.

20 September 2009 – Woo hoo rhizomes have sprouted and we’re away! Here is a picture of the largest shoot.

13 October 2009 – Ok were are starting to see some growth now! I have built three wires up to the roof of the house, and one of the bines has taken off up one of them. I have been watering every few days and fertilised a couple of days ago as well.

Refractometer

Happy Fathers Day to all the Dad’s out there. I was lucky enough to get a brand new refractometer to replace the dodgy hydrometer’s I seem to break every 2 brews on average Nice little piece of kit, that I ordered from Hong Kong on ebay for only $25! A fraction of the cost of the ones you can buy from the home brew stores and exactly the same model. Delivered in less than 2 weeks. Can’t wait to try it out next brew day. Here is a link to the one I bought for those interested…

http://tinyurl.com/n2f82l