Home Brew Forum

Using a variant on Aleman's OP recipe (thanks Aleman!):

4.33 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter
0.41 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt
0.15 kg Wheat malt (you can't get torrified in NZ)
0.14 kg Chocolate Malt
0.08 kg Carafa III
19.00 gm Goldings, NZ [5.00 %] (90 min)
28.30 gm Green Bullet [13.50 %] (90 min) - apparently add raisin/orange flavour. sounds good.
0.28 kg Brown Sugar, Dark (50.0 SRM) Sugar (45 mins)
14.00 gm Goldings, NZ [5.00 %] (0 min)


1 Pkg Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale
1 Pkg Windsor(Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale - trying a mix of two for a change!

In NZ, all hops are pellets. Before I left UK I asked you chaps about straining pellet much from wort and you gave some valuable ideas. Not managed to implement the mesh solution yet as it turns out 1m2 of mesh is 100 bucks. Gulp.
So ended up straining the beer through a grain bag from the Richie's mash tun/boiler, which I'd never seen reason to use before. Probably introduced a dozen infections...
Beer now in the new (recycled fridge) fermentation cabinet employing the ATC 800 (pics to follow)
The fridge is a revelation as I can get beer at the temp I want...but the lack of filtration is doing me nut!

Turned out rather too bitter. The Green Bullet is very bitter compared to challenger. Also Bairds Malt, imported from Scotland. the Diastatic power seems much less than the Warminster Malt from Farborough HB shop...all the beers to date brewed here in NZ have been rather thin.

Oh I promised pics of the kegerator..


CO2 cylinder shipped from UK and refilled at fire extinguisher place.


Enough room for a fermenter and two kegs. Result!

Nice fridge setup. Not sure I like the look of the shelf holding the fermenter though - doesn't look all that strong.

Give the beer time and I'm sure the extra bitterness will mellow out.

btw, if you do want whole hops you could order them from craftbrewer in Oz - I know some people on here have had them delivered to the UK so I doubt the postage would be much to you...

thanks for the positive vibes there Tom!

I think I'll be leaving this for several months. The dark brown sugar added mid-way through the boil and the hop bitterness predominate. Really a bit of an ugly duckling right now.
Trying something a wee bit simpler this weekend...Sam Smiths Old Brewery Bitter...only with local Motueka (NZ) hops, which are a Saaz derivative, and with Goldings. Wish me luck..

Toast wrote:I think I'll be leaving this for several months. The dark brown sugar added mid-way through the boil and the hop bitterness predominate. Really a bit of an ugly duckling right now.

... would it be worth blending it with something less bitter? ... several months would be beyond my patience

You might be pleasantly surprised after a few months, I'd leave it if you can. Good luck on your SSOBB. Nice fridge aswell but with space at a premium does she really need 2 bottles of wine in there?