JoKing's Blog – March 2009 Archive (4)

Schlammiger Roggen is German for Muddy Rye. I brewed this beer on Saturday - but was too hungover to be bothered with blogging it on Sunday! Here is the recipe: Original Gravity: 1.054 (1.046 - 1.056) Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (1.010 - 1.014) Color: 15.12 (14.0 - 19.0) Alcohol: 5.34% (4.5% - 6.0%) Bitterness: 18.4 (10.0 - 20.0) Ingredients: 2.5 kg Rye Malt 1.5 kg Munich Malt 1.3 kg German 2-row Pils .3 kg Caramunich® TYPE II .060 kg Carafa Special® TYPE III 28.0 g Tettnanger (5.2%) - added during… Continue

I didn't know quite how to start this blog, because I've built this beer up in my head over the last 7 months - as soon as I found out that Christina was pregnant. We took the test, it came back positive, and within minutes after I said "we're having a baby!" were the words "that's it - I'm brewing a Celebration Ale, we're having a party - and we'll crack the keg then!!!!" Well, the time has come. On a miserable Wednesday afternoon I made the managerial decision to leave work early and come… Continue

This photo was probably the best part of the brewday: i.e. before I had even started! So I had been planning a Dubbel for quite some time - about a month ago, Mike Neilson was kind enough to send me up some WyEast 3787 from one of his smack packs. Unfortunately, it leaked in transit and I only had about 5mls of smack pack juice to crank this beer. I started the propogation process by pitching the small amount of yeast into 500mls of 1.020 wort on the… Continue

New Zealand surely is paradise. I spent the last 2 weeks in Auckland making the most of my last few months as a non-parent, and generally trying as hard as I could to be irresponsible: considering that I am a role model to no-one... as yet.



So the fortnight kicked off a beauty at the Kumeu Festival. I had a reasonable hangover then, and I wrote a huge blog on it.



The next few days were somewhat… Continue