Carbon Julia takes 3rd!

Following 4 weeks of anticipation the results of the NSW Amateur Brewing Competition are in... and the Amber Ale (aka Carbon Julia) took 3rd overall in the Bitter Ale class!




Each class was judged by 3 judges in a blind taste test and scored on the Australian Amateur Brewing Championship guidelines AABC Style Guidelines ... which are in turn based on the BJCP guidelines.  Here are the preliminary results (official results will be posted later, and yes they spelled my name wrong)...

Sadly the Stout placed 18th overall (out of 19).  I would have expected the opposite result given the focus group testing that was done prior to the event.  I suspect the carbonation in the Stout is what let the judges down - yet I still think it's one of the best I've brewed and it tastes great.  Just means more bottles to enjoy with friends (if you're lucky)!

 When I have the judges comments will post them. 

Coffee Stout

Time to try a brew that I've not done before - Stout.  And to make it special I'm going to make it a coffee stout using award winning coffee from our friend's at Forsyth's. 

Again we'll start with a Dave's Stove Top kit - Irish Stout.  The kit came with both liquid and dry malt extracts, Crystal & Chocolate malts and roast barley.  Hops are Target and East Kent Goldings with a Safale 04 yeast.

Out of the box

Rogo's Stove Top setup

Got the boil going, trying to get to 70C for steeping of the grains.  Really didn't take too long and once it got to 70C I added 2L of water to a second pot to do some sparging of the grains after they were done.  And the tool this time was using the floating themo - how easy.

Steeping with floating thermo

As the steep was on, the 2L in the other pot was boiling so I turned it off to let it cool to 70C.  On the steep the main burner even at low was a little too much so I kept turning it off and on to try and maintain the temp. 

Once the steep was done it was time to sprage, and again the home setup was the best.  Wound the grain sack above the stove and it was all good.

Grain sack floating above the stove

Grains done

With the grains done it was time to start the boil and add the extracts.  Everything was good except with the extra sparge water the level was too high and after adding all the dry extract it boiled over!  Had to shut the gas off.  With the heat gone the boil came down and things settled enough to fire it back up and keep things in control.  It was just the initial hit of the dry malt. 

With things under control I got things ready for the cool down.  Though this time I thought I'd try something different which was cooling the wort in the tub, rather then the wash basin.  This worked great - the stock pot just floated in the tub!  And although the water wasn't as cold as I wanted it, it was a much easier and cleaner way to cool the wort down. 

Stock pot floating in the tub

Notice the heat from the stock pot making waves

Though I could never get it cooler than about 31C, and I got impatient cause the water from the tap was only about 25C, tub at 29C... it wasn't going to get any cooler anytime soon so it was time to add it to the carboy.

Added it to the carboy and temp came to 28C.  Again impatient so I pitched the yeast, gave it a good minute shake and put the airlock on.  All in all a good brew and the coffee to come in the secondary fermentation.

OG = 1.047.  This was a little low for me but I attribute it to some of the dry extract not getting into the brew and also filtering most of the boil.

OG - 1.047

Captain's Log
230 - start
235 - 7 carafes to pot... looks to be about 2 fingers below handles ....49 cups = 11.59 l = 3 gallon
236 - cover on, waiting 100F
241 - 50C (120F)
242 - put 2l of water ready for 70C temp for sparge
244 - 60C, 140F
248 - 68C
250 - 73C, burner off start other pot on high
252 - grains in
254 - burner on again, up to 72, burner off...
257 - one for the doctor
302 - looking good.  boil on other pot done... shut off heat
305 - burner on, burner off to keep the 70C
310 - on target, realized separating irish moss and hops didnt need to!
319 - sparge done.. awesome setup!
321 - burner on - wiating for boil
323 - 75C, got primary ready in bathroom
328 - 84C
331 - 90C
333 - 92C
336 - done adding LME
338 - 95C
343 - in, overflow!
350 - under control.   rolling boil on low-mid
351 - cleaning grain bag
402 - all clean - going good
418 - add moss
421 - add hops, added 4 carafes to primary
426 - going good
429 - filling tub
436 - stop boil
439 - xfer to tub, stop tub fill
445 - 65C
449 - 50C
453 - 50C, Only 25C water from the tap
455 - 47C, 29C ambient
458 - 43C
501 - 40C
505 - 37C
510 - 35C
513 - 33C
515 - 32C
518 - 32C
528 - 31C
529 - no longer waiting, combining, became 28C.
535 - still 28 C - adding about 4 cups water - gets to about 1/3 up the way on the top rung
548 - sealed, claenup start
630 - claenup finished
631 - OG: 1047

665 g Grain A
1046 g Dry Malt
1500 g Liquid Malt
9g hops

Bottling Day

After a few weeks in the secondary it was time to bottle.  I wanted to do it last week in time for Australia Day (Jan 26th) but we're here now so live in the moment right.

Ready to bottle

As with the IPA I racked from the secondary back to the primary with the sugar mix.  The new kitchen scale does wonders with helping measure the priming sugar.  For this bottling I used 100g.

Bottling away, just a little more to go

Overall bottled 53 beers... mmm!

APA - 2nd Ferment

After 12 days in the primary time to move APA into the new home.

Moving day - out of primary into secondary

Everything went smooth again.  Easy using the auto-siphon on top of the counter moving it into the secondary.  A note on the fermentation temps, they were typically in the 23-25 range, a little warm by most standards.

Experiment - dry hopped during primary fermentation..

Also for this APA I put the dry hop pellet bag into the primary fermentation.  Looking back should have done this for the secondary rather than primary.  Will be a test for next time.  In most of the forums and other material is supports the dry hopping at the secondary fermentation... which I knew but I'd already opened the outer sealing bag and thought let's give it a shot.

The taste was moderate... I thought the would have been much more hoppiness in the brew, and there was more than the previous batches so it was a win albeit small.

SG at the secondary rack was 1.014, making this a 5.5% so far. 

Pale American

Following the success of the IPA I decided it was time to get back into it.  Need to brew something for summer here.  Catching some waves (still to do), relaxing on the beach and enjoying some home brew in January.  Certainly Australia in January is a special place and has special needs for beer.

So I took a chance back at Dave's and picked up the APA kit with a few extra ingredients.  Most of the kit was dry malt, which was a bit of a surprise.  Hops were still in plastic baggies other than the finishing hops, so similar concerns on the ingredients but we'll give it a go.

A lite steeping process but was great with the setup using the handles above the kettle with the steeping bag.  So cool... I love it. (and yes that is pizza in the lower right of the frame)

Steeping bag above

And most of the boil was through fine.  No dramas.  Fun watching all the malt take up....

All the malt added

At the end of the day everything went fine with the exception of cooling the wort.  It took a lot longer than last batch and I believe it's because the cold water is generally hotter due to the summer.  It just didn't seem as cold to cool and it took far too long.  I got impatient and added the wort back into the carboy and pitched the yeast.   WHAT!?  I pitched the yeast directly without checking the temp...!  This was a complete oversight and complacency on my part.  Liz was coming back from girls night and I just wanted to get it finished, but made the mistake.  I'm estimating it was about 84F when I pitched it.

Luckily when I checked the next day it was starting to ferment... and about 24 hours later it was clear this didn't have too bad of an impact.

Anyway it's up and going, OG was 1.056

740: boil on... getting to steep 30C
746: 42C
752: 66C
753: begin steep - pot is in the middle of the burners, 71C moving off burner alltogethre
804: steeping still... steady at 69C
816: - off steep, up to boil. lid on   
825: - 90+C.... bringing to boil then adding the dry malt extract
834: boil on!
919:
920: - pitched hops "bag 2"
934: - bag 1
949: ....
1112: OG 1.056

Thanksgiving Test

The IPA has had a few more weeks to develop, and in that time things have gotten much better.  The taste is naturally more smooth and has much more fermentation to it.  It's developed well and ready for some field testing.

I brought it to Tim and Jen's Thanksgiving Day get together.  Tim and Jen are our expat friends in Manly and had setup a Thanksgiving get together for fellow Americans and also our Aussie friends.  In thanks I brought 13 bottles of the brew (still unnamed) in honor of the 13 colonies. 

Our friends were curious what the non-labeled bottle was ... Tim coined "Joe Beer" which struck a chord through the night.  Once people knew it was beer and it was on-limits they sampled.   And seemingly enjoyed!  In fact there was only one remaining by the end of the night (and no... it wasn't me having 12 myself!).  Joe-Beer was an unofficial success with requests for more.  A photo from the night that Tim snapped with a few of the friends imbibing...  

Aussie Birthday First Taste

G'day - it's birthday time so what better way to celebrate than with the first taste of the home brew.  I've patiently waited since August (arguably before then) to taste the first down-unda brew.

I have been very concerned about the brew - the ingredients didn't seem as fresh as ones in the states and the recipe seemed a bit off.  I'd done my own tweaks to try and get it close and it has seemingly held.


So, still young in the bottle I gave it a "fair go". 

Good signs of bottle fermentation, suds were coming to the top, albeit lightly.  Color was generally clear and my fear about the bottle caps and the different bottles themselves were lifted.  Success!

But how was the taste?  Taste was surprisingly good!  It was heavily caramel and rich in flavor.  The hops and yeast could have been different as it didn't seem IPA ish... but it did have a unique taste like an English pale ale with a darker twist.  And it was good :)

Great way to start the birthday and spring season off!