Grand Ridge Brewery - Supershine

This is the Gippsland brewery’s extra strong ale, and by that its not your poncey 7% but a whacking great 11%. On pouring its a dark burnt wood colour, with light carbonation almost as if the bubbles are fighting through the liquid to escape. The potency of this could be seen by one line of bubbles zipping around as though they had drunk some of the ale and had forgotten which way gravity works!

The first sip is a powerful one. Malt and caramel with a punch in the mouth and a treacle syrup aroma.

In the mouth it is smooth and interestingly sweet. Oddly enough this beer makes me think of roasting a chunk of meat as it would make an excellent accompaniment to some beer or lamb.

At £2.40 a 330ml bottle it sounds a ‘doable’ price, however out here where bottles are usually $3 it is over double the usual figure paid. I bought four bottles, the aim being to add the other three to the collection and try them in the coming years as at 11% it ought to do well.

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Current Home Brew Status

NOB Beer is the name given to ‘Nick and Rob’ Brewery about here in Brisbane Australia. We have created a few brews so far, so as it is the birth of BeerBlog I thought I would get everyone up to speed on whats in the fermenter and the garage!

Winter Ale

Ingredients:
1 can of nut brown ale
1kg morgans caramalt
15g fuggles hops pellets
1 packet of goldings hops
1 packet safle yeast (ended up using kit ale yeast)

Bottled: 25th July
Notes: When we kicked this off the yeast died due to being in contact with hot water, so we repitched some fresh a couple of days later. We have called this one a ‘Darger’ as it is not overly full bodied and a tad over carbonated so it is more of a dark lager! Personally I blame the yeast! It has a nice nutty / caramel taste to it but we intend on leaving it a couple of months at least before trying another.

Cerveza

Ingredients:
1 can black rock mexican cerveza
500g light dried malt
500g dextrose
12g saaz hops
250g carapils grain
1pack of finings
1 packet saflager yeast (ended up using kit yeast)

Bottled: Sat 28th , ended up FG 1.012
Notes: On bottling we thought this was quite cloudy and had an odd taste. We have since started racking from this brew onwards, likewise this was filled with water from a shower head (!) so I am not entirely convinced this will be drinkable when we crack it open.

First Pilsner

Ingredients:
1.7kg Black Rock Pilsner Export
1.5k Morgans unhopped pale malt extract (liquid)
50g saaz hops pellets.
saflager w34/70 yeast

Bottled: kicked off 28th July… OG 1.034ish FG: 1.10ish ended up bottling after a few days of racking on the 12th August.
Notes: This has promise as it is the first one we racked and tasted great even before bottling. We have lightly carbonated it and are tempted to enter into a show

Munich Lager
Ingredients:
Brewcraft Premier Imperial Munich Lager 1.5kg
Brewcraft Brewblend No.15
Hops (need to check notes)

Bottled: June 24th was the momentous day we started brewing. Bottled on the 30th June.
Notes: This was our first beer brewed, and now one and a half months later it has matured into something quite tasty.

The aim with NOB beer was to kick off a batch every few weeks to ensure we have a constant supply of tasty beer, while learning the skills needed to become uber brewers. Currently we are still using kits and even then making the odd mistake, but over time we hope to conquer the dark arts of ale.

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Thomas Hardy Ales - 1993 Vintage

Along with my previous post on imperial stout I have been intrigued by bottle conditioned ‘vintage’ ales, and one that seems quite popular is Thomas Hardy by Eldridge Pope. Not being one to shy away from trying something new I jumped on to Google and had a dig around to find out what the story behind them is and where I can get a bottle.

1968 was the fortieth anniversary of the death of author Thomas Hardy and to commemorate this event Eldridge Pope brewers concocted a brew that reflected Hardy’s description of an ale. The ale itself was designed to be a big one from the outset; matured for nine months in oak sherry casks at a ABV of 12%, along with it being designed to be kept for a long time and improve with age.

The 1968 run was a one off until 1974 when the idea was revived and then was brewed every year until 1999 , at which point it ceased until takeover by the Americans…!

After being enthralled by tales of this mystical liquid I traced a few blokes looking to sell the odd bottle, with prices ranging from £10 to £100 depending on age. I was told to try Ebay for some more, which is where I was lucky enough to spot almost-a-case (23 bottles) of 1993 Ale being sold as a job lot which I promptly snaffled up for £73 inc P&P.

The case, and a bottle. £3.20 each I-thank-thee!

I am currently out in Brisbane Australia and this ale is being looked after at the North Wales hideaway so in late September I hope to have the first tasting as at 14 years old it ought to be close to being in its prime!

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Fruit Pilsner

Previously I along with Chief Co-Brewer Nick kicked off a promising pilsner using the following:

• 1.7Kg Black rock Pilsner
• 1.5Kg Morgans Unhopped Pale Malt Extract
• 50g Saaz Hop Pellets
• Saflager w34/70 Yeast.

We did a boil up and fermented for about two weeks then racked for five days, the taste before racking was excellent and the taste before bottling was fantastic. Sadly the local homebrew shop is all out of Saaz hops so we are having to delay the next batch.

Over the next few days we are going to try and find a new homebrew supplier as the current bloke is hardly Mr Customer Service. Infact it is probably the single worst experiance I have had while buying something, topped off today by not being aware of his own stock and general ongoing rudeness.

Aside from that, the aim is to create a similar style pilsner (perhaps bang up the OG to give it abit more of a kick) however try and rack it over some fruit - probably strawberries or raspberries. I will keep you posted on how this goes , plus the inital tastings of the first Pilsner.

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Courage Russian Imperial Stout

Going along with my recent Stonch inspired splurge I recently paid £14.38 (inc P&P) for this:

It is a 1972 unopened bottle of Courage Imperial Russian Stout,  which I bought to try a taste test. It does worry me that it is 35 years old and by breaking the seal the stout will be finishing its journey through time - assuming it has not turned to kitchen cleaner!

The idea behind such stouts was that they were high in alcohol and loaded with hops to ensure they kept well for the long baltic journey during the 18th century. In theory this beer ought to age for around 15-20 years, so it will be interesting to see if it has coped and what the taste is like.

Over here on Allaboutbeer.com there is an interesting article about russian / baltic stouts, well worth a read!

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Welcome to BeerBlog.co.uk

Evening All!

So this is BeerBlog , all shiny contentless and probably with the odd bug. I have set this up as my personal blog started becoming very beer oriantated due to various homebrews and beer tastings being documented.

I am not a ‘ticker’ as such, but if there is an interesting beer on tap I will try it. A ticker without a list if you will

Hopefully this blog will be interesting to read as I dive into a beer related adventure around the world and blogasphere. There are a few posts I will be making this evening which were ready for my personal site, and over time I will move over some reviews to BeerBlog.co.uk so a complete archive of tastings can be found in one place.

Cheers!

Rob.

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