AABC in Adelaide This weekend
I have been quiet for the last couple of weeks and I apologise for that. My day job has been getting in the way more than I would like. I have been running all over the riverland regions of SA and VIC. I have managed to find the odd good beer but not really a lot to report.
This weekend though AABC(Australian Amateur Brewing Championship) is being judged in Adelaide. While beer judging isn’t an exciting thing to watch there are some events around that may be worth checking out. First up on Thursday is a get to know you session at The Wheaty. This is just an informal get together. If you want to talk beer and brewing with a bunch of hatdcore geeks this will be the place to be. On Friday evening the party will be moving to Brewboys with more beers and a bbq too. Should be a fun night and it’s just within walking distance for me so I may have to treat myself to a couple.
On Saturday it’s time for the presentation and Club Night. You have to registered to get into Club Night but if you can get in it’s usually a great party. Home brewers from around the country will bring along their beer and serve it for everyone else. There are so many great beers and it’s such a great environment. If you can find a way in take it. All the details for the weekend can be found here.
Get There!
Support Your Local Brewery Adelaide
When was the last time you visited one of the local breweries? There are a few to chose from located in and around our fair city. Whilst they don’t all have their own venues there are some that do and they serve some very good beer. The only way to get more good beer out to the public is to support the people that make and serve it. Who can you have more of an impact on than the small local breweries.
East of the city or in the Hills then go for a visit to the Lobethal Bierhaus. On top of some amazing beer, try the double hopped IPA, they have their own restaurant with really great food. If you are a brewing geek the hardware is even on display for you to swoon over while enjoying a pint. In the central or West of the city then head down to Brewboys. Thursday through Sunday you will find Simon down there serving his beer and quite often a band playing. Brewboys also have a ton of special events through the year and there is certain to be one that appeals to you. If you are down South then why not visit McLaren Vale Beer Company or Goodiesons, both located in McLaren Vale. You can even go a little further down to the beach and stop in for an Ale overlooking the now flowing Murray River at Steam Exchange. If you are in the North of the city head out to the Barossa on the weekend and have a taste at Barossa Brewing Company in Grenock.
All this is right on your door step Adelaide. Take advantage of it this weekend and have some great craft beer. Get There!
The Big Shed
So my first article about Big Shed is up at Brews news. Head on over and check it out. Have a good look around the site while you are there. Lots of good in depth articles and industry news to read.
Brewing in the Big Shed
A new brewery is starting up in Adelaide. It’s run by three local guys who are passionate about beer and very keen on their brewing. I was lucky enough to catch up with the guys the other night and have a bit of a chat about what they are up to.
I’m going to turn this into a series of articles over at Brews News. First article should be up soon. The guys are in the first stages so I’m going to be following their march toward their first release. I’m hoping for it to be an interesting journey. In the meantime follow the guys on twitter at @bigshedbeer. I will post here when the articles start going up at Brews News.
Around the Breweries
Time for a bit of an update on the local breweries. There hasn’t been a lot of news recently from the local breweries. Brewboys are still doing a lot of events but there hasn’t been a lot of news from the others. The degustation dinner at Lobethal was a great night but I haven’t heard anything else form the for a while. Brewboys have the Blue Mandarin band coming up on Saturday the 19th with the release of one of their single keg beers so that should be a good night. I’m not certain if they are doing curry again but I sure hope they are.
Beard and Brau have been making a bit more noise and getting out infront of the local beer public. They have recently been involved in a few functions at the Wheaty. Their excellent stout has been featured with a number of ingredients in the hoppinator. First up they had it with rose petals which produced very interesting results. Next up there was a combination of coffee, vanilla beans and cocoa nibs. That was a great combination and added some really interesting flavour to an already excellent beer. I’m hoping to see more of their beers on tap at the Wheaty. Everything I have had from Beard and Brau was exceptional. I had the chance to talk to brewer Chris briefly at the Wheatsheaf and he seems like a really top guy.
I have also been looking around at some pubs other than the Wheaty. Unfortunately it’s still a pretty sa state of affairs out there. A couple of venues are making some attempts but nothing serious and worth writing about at the moment. If you know of other venues with a good range of great beers please let me know.
Other than that there hasn’t been a huge amount going on. Everyone seems to be plugging away through summer and selling a whole lot of beer which is a great thing. Plan is to get out and make some more visits over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I have some more interesting stories from the road for you soon.
Beer/Brewing 101 Fermentation
Intro
Ingredients
The Brewing Process
Malting and Mashing
The Boil and Beyond
The previous articles have gotten us to the point of getting our wort into the fermenter. This is where the magic start and we turn hopped sugary liquid into beer. This is when it technically becomes beer. Once again I will give this a good overview to impart a good understanding without trying to get too technical. At the end of the last article we had chilled the wort and transferred it into the fermenter so we will pick things up from there.
Once the chilled wort is in the fermenter we want to get it sealed from the outside air, in most cases, and get the yeast pitched into it. This is to prevent getting infections in the beer. Many types of wild yeast and bacteria are carried through the air and can spoil the beer. If they get in and take hold they will cause spontaneous fermentation and produce off flavours in almost all cases. There are beers that are made this way, Lambics, intentionally but this is not a common method. The other exception to this is beer produced in open fermenters. This relies on pitching active yeasty quickly so it takes hold before wild yeasts and bacteria can take hold. Open ferments are often done in sterile/sanitary room with filtered air like Anchor Brewery do.
Once the yeast is in the wort it can take anything from a couple of hours to a couple of days before you can see the action starting to happen. Depending on the yeast you wil see varying sizes of foam, called krausen, on top of the, what we can now call, beer. This is the result of the activity of the yeast. As they eat the sugars they produce C02 and alcohol. A typical ale fermentation will take 3-7 days and a lager 1-2 weeks. During the fermentation the brewer will take measurements with a hydrometer or refractometer to check how much sugar is left to be fermented. Once enough of the sugars have been eaten the beer may be filtered or put into additional steps for conditioning. A normal conditioning would involve dropping the beer to very ow temperatures for a period of time. This helps to drop out yeast and other things in the beer and also helps it condition faster. At this stage hops may also be added into the fermenter to get even more hop aroma. This is called dry hopping and is typically used in beers like IPAs.
Once fermentation and any conditioning is completed it’s time to package the beer. The two main packages are kegs and bottles. At this stage there is one main decision left to be made. Natural or forced carbonation? Natural carbonation requires the addition of extra sugars into the package. The remaining yeast in the beer will ferment this leaving C02 in the finished beer. Forced carbonation involves forcing C02 from an external source into the beer. If natural carbonation is used it will normally take around two weeks until the beer is ready.
That is fermentation and completes the brewing process. For my next series I may run through major beer styles. I hope you have enjoyed these posts.