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!