We've been pretty disorganised recently and as a result I'm not entirely sure if we've already written about this one. But I'm too lazy to bother checking so fuck it, here's the dl on the Ginger Binger.
Ginger Binger is the name we gave our very first batch of GB. We used a Coopers GB kit, same as the G-Bomb, and only one kilo of sugar. The result was almost exactly the same as the G-Bomb, (a decent tasting ginger beer that is, perhaps, a bit on the sweet side) only it was 3.5% instead of the regular gentleman's 5.
We served it up at my party (in the bathtub) seeing as we knew it was impressive and we wouldn't lament the loss of alcohol. Suffice to say everyone loved it.
Anyway it's doubtful we'll make it again seeing as for about $1 more we can make it regular strength with almost exactly the same taste... and we like being drunk.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Look at all our beer!
Pictures of our BEER!
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Thursday, July 2, 2009
Wild Beery, why embracing your creative side is not necessarily a good thing
Hey guys
As you may guess from the name the recipe for Wild Beery included, yep you guessed it, berries. We used a Wander Draught kit and, in order to zest it up a little Boden and I decided to add something a little extra as a surprise for the other guys.
Now I want to make it clear from the outset that we took every precaution. We used frozen packet berries (which as far as we have researched is just as steril as canned food) which we boiled in water before pouring through a strainer to avoid both bacteria and bits. We then added some yeast nutrient (which was just the Wander kit yeast boiled down for eight minutes) and 1.3kg of sugar.
The result, much to our distress and bemusement, was a beer that tasted even more like battery acid than Corona (yes Corona fans, I hate you all). Seriously, we had trouble giving this beer away. We finally had to wait until everyone at my party was so pissed from decent brews that they couldn't taste the difference. We still have a few bottles of it left but it's safe to say that they'll either be poured down the drain or given to our mate Tim, who is essentially a dumpster of filth anyway.
As you may guess from the name the recipe for Wild Beery included, yep you guessed it, berries. We used a Wander Draught kit and, in order to zest it up a little Boden and I decided to add something a little extra as a surprise for the other guys.
Now I want to make it clear from the outset that we took every precaution. We used frozen packet berries (which as far as we have researched is just as steril as canned food) which we boiled in water before pouring through a strainer to avoid both bacteria and bits. We then added some yeast nutrient (which was just the Wander kit yeast boiled down for eight minutes) and 1.3kg of sugar.
The result, much to our distress and bemusement, was a beer that tasted even more like battery acid than Corona (yes Corona fans, I hate you all). Seriously, we had trouble giving this beer away. We finally had to wait until everyone at my party was so pissed from decent brews that they couldn't taste the difference. We still have a few bottles of it left but it's safe to say that they'll either be poured down the drain or given to our mate Tim, who is essentially a dumpster of filth anyway.
Apple Pieder - the beer that's also pie.
Hi everyone,
Here is one of our early experiments (read also Failures).
Basically it was a fantastic idea that just didn't pan out as we hoped. Like most of our other ideas for new brews we will probably try it again because, while the execution was wrong the idea is still sound.
Boden and Alex were making a cider and had the fantastic idea of putting cinnamon in the brew to make it taste like apple pie. What they didn't research first was whether or not you should put cinnamon in a beer. Turns out that you shouldn't, at least, not as much as they did.
Cinnamon is an anti-yeast agent which either kills or slows down yeast. What this meant for our brew was that it tasted great, if a little too cinnamony, but was barely alcoholic. It also didn't have any bubbles. It wasn't horrible to drink, a little weird but not horrible... until the yeast found its feet again.
What happened was that the cinnamon was in sufficient quantities in the vat to kill the yeast until there was only a very small amount of yeast left. The bi-product was a viscous brown sludge that sat on top of the cider in the vat (it was horrible by all accounts, but I will leave actual descriptions to Alex and Bobo). When we removed the cider from the vat (and the sludge) the yeast was freed from the cinnamon. It took a while but, once in the bottle with the sugar drops it began to multiply...
We almost got our first explosive bottles. Had we left them much longer they totally would have covered our living room in living cider. As it was we had already drank most of them by the weekend so that the ten that were left weren't too hard to deal with. Alex noticed a trend while he was opening them, being that they all almost took his head off when he popped the top. He quickly deduced why and opened them all, allowing them to do their thing in the sink and then he drank what was left.
What we will probably do next time (a while down the track) is put a very small amount of cinnamon in and see what happens. Hopefully a lesser amount of cinnamon will have lesser effects and therefore allow the yeast more maturation in the vat.
I will leave off here because I don't actually know exactly how many sticks of cinnamon were used, but I am sure that Bobo can add the actual ingredients list in an edit later.
Word to the wise: don't overuse spices in your beers. It can kill the yeast.. which can then come back like some sort of alcohol zombie and blow up your house.
Tastes like: pie. truthfully. A little too much cinnamon but... pie.
Better than: not much. Off apple juice? (I am sure Alex will disagree with me)
Not as good as: plain ole cider of the bought variety, the first one we made: Colonel Jesus' Fruity Temptation
edit: Fixed Tom's spelling -Boden
Here is one of our early experiments (read also Failures).
Basically it was a fantastic idea that just didn't pan out as we hoped. Like most of our other ideas for new brews we will probably try it again because, while the execution was wrong the idea is still sound.
Boden and Alex were making a cider and had the fantastic idea of putting cinnamon in the brew to make it taste like apple pie. What they didn't research first was whether or not you should put cinnamon in a beer. Turns out that you shouldn't, at least, not as much as they did.
Cinnamon is an anti-yeast agent which either kills or slows down yeast. What this meant for our brew was that it tasted great, if a little too cinnamony, but was barely alcoholic. It also didn't have any bubbles. It wasn't horrible to drink, a little weird but not horrible... until the yeast found its feet again.
What happened was that the cinnamon was in sufficient quantities in the vat to kill the yeast until there was only a very small amount of yeast left. The bi-product was a viscous brown sludge that sat on top of the cider in the vat (it was horrible by all accounts, but I will leave actual descriptions to Alex and Bobo). When we removed the cider from the vat (and the sludge) the yeast was freed from the cinnamon. It took a while but, once in the bottle with the sugar drops it began to multiply...
We almost got our first explosive bottles. Had we left them much longer they totally would have covered our living room in living cider. As it was we had already drank most of them by the weekend so that the ten that were left weren't too hard to deal with. Alex noticed a trend while he was opening them, being that they all almost took his head off when he popped the top. He quickly deduced why and opened them all, allowing them to do their thing in the sink and then he drank what was left.
What we will probably do next time (a while down the track) is put a very small amount of cinnamon in and see what happens. Hopefully a lesser amount of cinnamon will have lesser effects and therefore allow the yeast more maturation in the vat.
I will leave off here because I don't actually know exactly how many sticks of cinnamon were used, but I am sure that Bobo can add the actual ingredients list in an edit later.
Word to the wise: don't overuse spices in your beers. It can kill the yeast.. which can then come back like some sort of alcohol zombie and blow up your house.
Tastes like: pie. truthfully. A little too much cinnamon but... pie.
Better than: not much. Off apple juice? (I am sure Alex will disagree with me)
Not as good as: plain ole cider of the bought variety, the first one we made: Colonel Jesus' Fruity Temptation
edit: Fixed Tom's spelling -Boden
Alex's PARTY!
We totally stocked an entire party with homebrew the other night. Alex's 23rd was a smashing success. Lots of drunken louts, lots of great conversations, stories tall and short, music and all round good times. Not a single bad time was had by all.
We drank: Centrelink, Wild Beery, Ginger Binger, G-Bomb, Apple Pieder, Wanderbrau and Rock your Bock Off. Of these brews none are now left which means we can rate them.
As Alex said, shout out to all those who were at the party, please comment on A the party and B the brews. If you have any great photo's of the night we would love to put them up as well.
Stay tuned and thanks for turning up!
Tom
We drank: Centrelink, Wild Beery, Ginger Binger, G-Bomb, Apple Pieder, Wanderbrau and Rock your Bock Off. Of these brews none are now left which means we can rate them.
As Alex said, shout out to all those who were at the party, please comment on A the party and B the brews. If you have any great photo's of the night we would love to put them up as well.
Stay tuned and thanks for turning up!
Tom
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