Epic Clone again!

Well after the dismal no 27 we had to go for it again.  So today we try ...

Cooper Real Ale
500g Spray malt
1.1Kg Sugar
9g Southern Cross @ 60
16g Southern Cross @ 15
16g Southern Cross @ 5
1tsp Irish Moss @ 5

32g Southern Cross @ Secondary

OG = 1038!

European Lageur

Cooper European Lageur
500g Spray Malt
500g Sugar
7g Southern Cross @ 60
9g Southern Cross @ 15
11g Southern Cross @ 5
1tsp Irish Moss @ 5

OG - 1037

We had a good 22 so why not do it again?

Oh my oh my

That was a bad beer, a very bad beer. had a taste in it that just needed to be washed down with water, plenty of water.

Neither Gerry or myself could finish our glasses of beer. So we poured them down with the rest of the decanted bottle and went back to #26.

Such a sad brew it was.

Epic Watch Out!

That was an amazing brew. Our clone of a clone of an Epic ale number one was great as it was. We will show this off to all our friends. Wow.

Very hoppy, some good malt going on (from the grain) Truly a winner.

We were brewing today and I brought out the last of 23. The reason for this is that no. 23 went from amazing wow we love it, to why did we ever brew this in the first place? Dead bad not wroth drinking, but as it was all that we had we had no choice ... surely you understand.

And here we were figuring it was the grain we put in it. The grain seemed kind of end of life but we used it anyway and when we figured this out we had two beers in primaries with that very same grain! Sacre Blue!

So I may be slow but I think fast on my feet ... we had only one No 23 left and we were planning on drinking it that very same night! I told you were were out of beer. So I begged Gerry not to drink it. He didn't argue very hard as it was bad.

For we had to know if the beer got any better with age. For the two that were in the primary were either going to have to be drunk very fast and furious or just left alone for a while.

Boy am I glad we did this. For the beer turned great! Wow we loved 23 today right amount of hops, not too much but a good aroma to it. The malt was there but sutle. A good brew that is worth repeating.

And the good news is that our two with the grain would have a long shelf life assuming we just waited that month or so. Good thing we have a third without any grain in it to tie us over for that month or so :)

Wintermede

I spoke with the winemaker at Bemrose Estate today. He was a delightful guy who loves mede and enjoys running around to shows around New Zealand. We saw him at the Jousting festival in upper hutt. Matt has a good thing going, he was licensed to sell cups of mede ... yum.

Well this is what I learned ...

150g of raw honey per liter of fermented honey to sweeten the Wintermede.

1/10g of reconstituted skim milk powder per litre of above as finnings

(warm up the mede, stir vigorously while pouring the milk in)

He has a yeast which ferments out to 12.5% alcohol (I never asked him which one) so he doesn't have to use all the sorbates.

The wintermede uses some stronger honeys than the summermede which has 25g/honey per litre.

Remember this boy for your first racking of the mede is in one week!

Good to Ugly

It is not as nice as when we first had it. Cold and Wet

It is full bodied when you drink it, the aftertaste was unfortunate.

We think the grain may be at fault in this one which is quite annoying as we have used it in two other brews. Well the good news is that it didn't start to taste bad for a few weeks. So if we drink the stuff fermenting now fast we should be okay!

Clone of a clone of a clone of an Eipic Clone

Coopers Real Ale
400g of Spray Malt (DME)
1Kg of Dextrose
9g Southern Cross @ 60 Min
16g Southern Cross @ 10 Min
16g Southern Cross @ 1 Min
32g Southern Cross @ Racking for four days

SG at racking was 1.10

Clone of an Epic Clone

Okay finding what one needs down here in NZ can be frustrating from time to time ... with the exception of information the web is a beautiful place for that. I have found and plan on making an Epic IPA clone, but until we get all the ingredients (see first comment) I have to wait. Being the impatient man that I am I thought I would try something in line with my goal and learn.

Today I put down a clone of a clone. My research shows me that one can take an all grain recipe and with some simple multiplication change it to an extract recipe. I also figured out how to substitute Hops of various Alpha ratings. Taken together I was able to create a reasonable (I hope) facsimile of Epic IPA.

171g of Crystal Malt steeped for 30 minutes

Bring tea to a boil

add 1 Can of Coopers Ale and bring to boil again

add 1Kg of Dextrose and bring to a boil again

add 9g of Southern Cross for 60 minutes

add 15g of Southern Cross for 10 minutes

add 1/2tsp of IRish MOss

add 15g of Southern Cross for 1 minute

Put in primary with water

Let cool ... a long time took overnight

Pitch yeast

OG=1035

add 30g of Southern Cross in secondary for 4 days (have not done this yet!)

Mead

2 Kilo a real nice honey

2 US gallons of water

2 3/4 tsp citric acid

2 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient

EC-1118 yeast

Boil honey and half the water for 30 minutes

Skim off all the foam

Add the rest of the water

Let wait to cool to room temperature

pitch yeast

OG 1085

Another attempt at something grand ...

1.7Kg of a Coopers Kit

125g of Crystal Malt Steeped for 30 minutes

525g of Sugar

1Kg of Spray Malt

18g of Motueka at Start

11g of Southern Cross at End

1tsp of Irish Moss

OG 1045

Hoppy brew

Coopers Lager 1.75Kg

500g Spray Malt

500g Sugar

Start 45m End

Motueka 14g 14g 14g

Irish Moss 3/4tsp

Viva Mexico

We put down a Corrona knock off.

One can of Cooper Cervesa

500g of Spray Malt

30g of Perle Hops at full boil (A 6.25)

Go through the usual gyrations forgot to record the OG :)

and

5 gallons of beer fermenting at Gerry's house ...

Fine Lemon Wine

Well today I made my first batch of Fine Lemon Wine.

I put in two liters of fresh squeezed lemon juice

3189 + 315 grams of sugar

2 grams of tartaric acid

Water to 22 Liters

Yeast from a riesling I just racked

4 tsp of yeast nutrient

3/4tsp of tannin

Came to a SG of 1065 tossed the yeast and watched it ferment!

I will keep an eye on it once it reaches 1005 I will put in another liter of lemon juice and two more tsp of yeast nutrient and then rack to a secondary a few days later.

Reflections on brewing

I suppose sometime I ought to think about this. I have in my house right now:

Cider - Bulk storage ready to bottle anytime I want to

Cab/Merlot - Just put into the secondary, bubbling nicely

Riesling - Just put in the secondary, starting to bubble

Sugar Wash - Started yesterday

Lemon Wine - Pitched the yeast about 10 minutes ago

Add to that in one imperial gallon carboys:

Kiwi - Ready to bottle anytime I want to

Lavender - Just put in secondary three days ago

And I am wanting to start a wisteria wine...

Various

Took some readings today:

Lavender SG - 1.06+

Cab-Merlot - 1.04+

Riesling - 1.05+

Lavender Wine

Today I made Lavender wine!

1Kg Sugar

2LT Water

85 Lavender Flowers (2 stems I forgot to remove)

1 Lemon squeezed

1/8 tsp of Tannin

1 tsp of Yeast Nutrient

Boil the water put in the lemon and sugar. Poor over Lavender flowers, Tannin, and nutrient.

Let cool.

Add 2LT of fermenting white wine of your choice (I had a riesling going at the time.)

Top up to 4.250 in primary.

Starting Gravity - 1040! Oh my that is not right.

So I added some more water, and some more water, and some more water. I have the SG down to 1010 which I think is too high as well. God knows how much liquid is in the primary right now, I expect I have somewhere near 6LT. It tastes pretty good sweet and full of lavender.

Lessons learned. Don't wing it calculate it! I followed a recipe for 3.8LT and up scaled it to 4.5LT by adding 10% more sugar and lavender flowers.

Tasting Note

Well well well. You don't need all that candy sugar and hops to have a belgian flavor. All you need is some yeast from a bottle of Chimay Blue.

This (both the Chimay, and Number 17) is a great beer. I wish I could say that it was something that I had done, but truth be known with the exception of using that cup of yeast siphoned off from No. 16 I have been keeping in the fridge I did nothing different than one of our bog standard beers.

The beer itself is dark amber in color, light, and has a wonderful effervescence. More to come as it ages ...

Tasting note ...

Well well well that was good. So very very good. Kind of one dimensional but definitely in the belgian camp. I can't wait for another 6 weeks as it was only two weeks in the bottle.