King's Royal Red Bitter

The gentleman at Noble Grape recommended making a batch of King's Royal Red Bitter. I had made three previous red's before this, a Festa Brew Red Ale, a Canadian Red and Rory's Irish Red Ale.

Review

After the first week of bottling the Royal Red I had a taste. It was not finished as the carbonation still hadn't surfaced yet, however the taste of the beer was very smooth and not too bitter.

Two weeks after the bottling I attempted another taste and the carbonation is more evident. I have a feeling in a few more weeks time that this beer will really shine. As you can see from the photo there is very little head. The beer is very smooth and bitter enough to enjoy it through the late summer and fall. It has a bit of a fruity taste to it which balances the bitterness.


Conclusion

TBD

Cascade West Coast Pale Ale

Another Noble Grape kit.

Description

West Coast Pale Ale is different enough from its British cousin to have gained its own designation as a classic style. Golden in colour, this crips, clean beer has a floral aroma from the distinctly North American Cascade hops. Unlike British pale ales, string fermentation characteristics (esters) are not a hallmark of this style. Serve cold, 36-45 deg F.

Ingredients

300 g dextrin malt (crushed)
300 g light crystal malt (crushed)

3.5 kg light liquid unhopped malt extract

54 g Cascade hops (30 min boil)
20 g Cascade hops (8 min flavour)
55 g Cascade hops (1 min finish)

WYeast American


Brewing

I steeped the grains this time for 25 min just for the hell of it. Added all the malt extract at the beginning of the boil. I followed the recipe as listed above.

Review

I was on the West Coast of British Columbia for a few weeks while this beer was sitting in the bottles back home on the East Coast. After trying numberous craft beers on the West Coast I was really excited to come home and try this out. 4 Weeks after this was bottled I finally decided to drink a bottle and it was fantastic.

Conclusion

This is my most favourite recipe I've made to date.

Rating

8/10

Chechoslovakian Pilsner

The best example of this classic is the famous Pilsner Urquell. This original style from Pilsen is golden in colour, malty, clean with the soft assertion of the famous Czech Saaz Hops (pronounced zots). It is about 4.5% alc/vol.

Ingredients

250 g dextrin (cara-pils) malt
3 kg light liquid unhopped malt extract

72 g Saaz Hops (30 min boil)
20 g Saaz Hops (8 min flavour)
60 g Saaz Hops (1 min finish)

WYeast Czech Pilsner


Brewing

This was an interesting brew. The wort smelled like tomato soup before adding the hops. After boiling the wort I racked it into the primary fermenter. As you can see the mixture is caramel in colour.



Rating

7/10

Rob & Erik's Not So Ordinary Bitter

This deliciously, lighter style British bitter took 2nd place at the 2009 Garrison Brewery Brew-Off'. This is impressive considering it is an extract based recipe competing against many all grain bitters. It is light in colour with moderate bitterness and a distinct grassy aroma. Delicious bitter to enjoy through the summer months.

Ingredients

Original Gravity 1.040.
Final Gravity 1.008

200 g light crystal malt (crushed)
270 g amber malt (crushed)
270 g flaked corn

2.9 kg light unhopped malt extract

28 g Northern Brewer Hops (30min Boiling Hops)
20 g Fuggles (8 min Flavour)
28 g East Kent Goldings (1 min Finish)

WYeast British Ale

Review

I wasn't really sure to expect from this beer as I haven't drank many bitters in the past. It was a bit too carbonated for my liking. I believe I used 3/4 cups of priming sugar but I can't remember. The beer was also a bit heavy compared to other bitters I've had, however the flavour was fantastic.

Rating

7/10

Irish Honey Red Ale

This recipe which is found on homebrewtalk.com caught my eye so I decided to try it out. The total cost was $56 + tax from Noble Grape.

Recipe Info

• Type: Partial Mash
• Batch Size: 6 gal
• Original Gravity: 1.06 (guess based on late honey add.)
• Final Gravity: 1.008
• IBU: ?
• Boil Time: 60 min
• Color: Garnet Red

Original Ingredients

• Malt 8lbs. Pale Liquid malt Extract
• 2lbs Raw Clover Honey
• Grain(s) 1.5lbs 120L Crystal
• 1.5lb Belgian Special B
• 1lb Flaked Rye
• 1oz Cluster (Boil 60 min)
• 1oz Cluster (30 min)
• 1oz Cascade, 6%, (30 min)
• 1 oz Cascade (last 10 min)
• Yeast White Labs Irish Ale Yeast
  

Actual Ingredients

Noble Grape didn't have some of the ingredients so I substituted some of them

• 2lbs Raw Clover Honey -> 2lbs Nova Scotian Non-Pasturized Honey
• 1lb Flaked Rye -> 0.3kg Malted Rye
• 2oz Cluster hops -> 2oz Galena Hops

Brewing

Brewed on August 23, 2009

Day 1

The liquid yeast manufacture date was mid June so I let the yeast prepare for a day before I did the boil. Thus the yeast was started on August 22.

Day 2

Began steeping the grains for approximately 20 minutes. Smell of the steep was very strong with a hint of chocolate smell.


After the steep was completed I brought the water to a boil while adding only 3/4 of the malted rye. Added the hops as per schedule and topped it off with the remaining 1/4 of the malted rye at the last 5 min of the boil.

At the end of the boil I cooled the pot and transfered it to the primary fermenter. The boil pot contained a significant amount of grains leftover which I dumped in the compost. This is the first recipe where it was mostly grain-based so I'm not sure if this is common or not. Hopefully dumping the grains won't affect the outcome of the beer.

After about 1.5 days I added the honey. The honey was added to 4 cups of water and pasteurize in the oven at 180 degrees for 3 hours. I didn't have a big enough casserole dish to heat 12 cups of water and I also didn't think that the primary would fit 12 cups. Hopefully it doesn't screw up the beer.



Review

I really screwed up on this recipe. Substituting the Cluster hops for Galena was a really bad decision. The Galena hops made the beer taste very grassy and there is virtually no honey taste in the beer at all. The color was really dark, almost similar to a really dark brown ale with a tint of red.

Conclusion

I am really disappointed with this beer, however I am eager to try it again with the correct ingredients. Never again will I substitute hops unless I get approval from other master brewers.

Oktoberfest Lager

Purchased an Oktoberfest Lager from The Noble Grape in Cole Harbour.

Description

This is a clean, amber lager with deceiving strength (5.5-6%). Historically, it was made in March, and drank in late September as a festbier. Cold conditioning (lagering) helps to bring out the crispness of a true lager. It has relatively how hop bitterness with a malty aroma. It should be drunk with German sausage & sauerkraut for maximum enjoyment. Serve cool. (40-50 degrees F). O.G. 1.054

Ingredients

• 50 g chocolate malt (crushed)
• 270 g light crystal malt (crushed)
• 300 g minuch malt (crushed)
• 300 g vienna malt (crushed)
• 3.3kg light liquid unhopped malt extract
• 42 g Tettnanger hops (boil 30min)
• Liquid Bavarian Strain yeast

Brewing

Should be ready for lagering in a few weeks. Once completed I will post my results.

I should mention this isn't the first kit I've made, however it is the first kit I have documented.



Review

This is the first Oktoberfest that I've brewed. This is a great fall beer that has a little malt flavour and is smooth going down. This beer really came through after about a month after it was bottled. Although it is a nice beer it wasn't very bold and had more of a lagerish style taste to it which made it seem a bit watered down.

Conclusion

I would buy this beer again however I would first like to try and make some other Oktoberfest beers to compare as this one seemed to have a bit of a watered down taste. It would be a much bolder beer if it had more malt flavour.

Windows Search 4.0 Sucks

So I downloaded Windows Search 4.0 as it promised to solve all my searching problems. Pfft, yeah right, as if Microsoft understands what its consumers problems are!

Well right from the get go the search didn't work. I was really annoyed that I couldn't simply type in the name of file I wanted to search and press "Go". Instead I am confronted with too many options which the average user like me doesn't care. Furthermore any folder I search in it requires me to index the folder!



Furthermore any folder I search in it requires me to index the folder! OK so I guess this isn't so bad. Where is the button to enable indexing? Oops! There isn't one! Instead it forces you to open another windows explorer shell and check off all the folders you want to index. But wait, what if I am just learning computers and I have no freakin' idea what indexing means. Thank god I am not!



But wait there's more!. ARGGHH that stupid dog is back. Didn't I take him out back like old yeller and annihilate him a few years back when I first installed windows XP. Looks like old yeller came back from the dead.



Good job to all those Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers who can't build a simple user interface containing a one text field search feature.