Friday, February 25, 2011
This deserves a post. It's starting to feel like madness, but I'm making my first step back to working in hospitals today. It's not official, of course - at some point in life, I rather think that having the luxury of leisure time starts being valuable above a lot of other things. Anyway, I'm just helping out for 9 days. Doing a friend a personal favour if you will, with good remuneration. Just got the patient list via email ... alas. =(
Also officially received my freedom back, on the 22nd.
Wenky
7:23 AM
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Sunday, February 06, 2011
Ah ha, my favourite part of the brew - tasting notes again. The stout and IPA were all but wiped out over CNY. I realised that different people have a different preference to the style of beers. Here's a quick list for reference.
Those who dig hops:
Dad
Brother in law
Those who dig malt:
Father in law
Younger brother in law
Yx's 5th uncle
For me, I love my witbiers. Wei helped out with the last batch of orange honey wheat. Fermentation was in 2 parts - the first 24hrs there was bubbling and all, but after it settled down prematurely, I added a pinch of Fermaid-K and gave the fermenter a shake, and the result was EXPLOSIVE. I suspect this was due to the addition of honey. The yeast probably preferentially ate up the simple sugars from the honey first (the lazy beasts ..) and subsequently started using up the oligo- and polysaccharides from the wheat wort. Anyway, the entire fermentation took 6 days, with a few shakes now and then. The fermentation was so vigorous, I actually harvested the krausen off the top for another batch.
Initially the wort's colour was a horrid dark brown due to the rewa-rewa honey, but post-fermentation colour is approximately 4-5 SRM. Initial nose was yeasty, but this settled down significantly 1 day after bottling. Taste was, as expected, phenolic - lots of banana and some clove-like esters, with no discernible bitterness. I suspect this batch won't last too long in the fridge. My only grouse is the colour. I'm shooting for 2-3 SRM next time by using a lighter-coloured honey. Also, the orange zest was NOT significant. We added the zests of 2 oranges; next time, we'll use 5.
I actually washed the yeast cake, and brewed a second batch just half an hour ago- this time, I'm doing a quick-and-dirty one using 1 can of Cooper's wheat kit plus 1kg dried wheat extract, with no added spices. This kit-and-kilo batch took just 45 mins to complete. Amount of ice was 5L, boil volume 4L, topped up to 23L with starting temperature of 20C at these proportions - perfect!
I'll probably stick to these 3 styles for all future brewdays. An IPA, a wheat, and a stout.
Wenky
9:23 AM
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