It's been a slow cold winter

Howdy folks

I'm back, it's been a very slow winter on the beer front for me, brewing has come to a standstill and I have not had any beer interesting enough to write about. But that's all about to change spring seems to be finally arriving and in the next few weeks i should be building my hop garden, brewing is also going to make a comeback, things are looking good for a brew to be done next weekend woo hoo.

Apart from the beer scene things have been hectic for me a few friends have returned from abroad, I've been actively involved on my facebook page and I've got a new dog to go walking with (hopefully this will offset the onslaught of the keg i call my belly).

Anyway I just wanted to say to everyone that i'm back and expect to hear a lot more from me in the near future, everything from hop growing to dog training and of course everything i can write about good beer and brewing, oh yeah and there should be a return of the Drishane brewery day trips as well. happy days!

Cheers

Provide me with a choice or Dammit i won't go into your Pub

Howdy Folks

this weeks Blog is about the selection of beers (or lack thereof) in two of my local pubs, these pubs are not worlds apart, they are just a 200m walk from each other, their clientele are approximately in the same age and wage bracket, yet one pub refuses to bring in the beer i have been asking for with years lets call this pub 2 with the other pub being pub 1, it's not too much of a request, all i want is some bottles of a wheat beer for summer drinking.

It is not the lack of beer that annoys me today, what annoys me today is the fact that Pub 2 have been refusing my request for approximately five years without even flinching, so i then moved to pub 1 who after the relatively small time frame of about two months have brought in two widely available wheat beers in the form of Paulaner and Erdinger. this has led to me now exclusively drinking in pub 1 for at least six months, it has been mutually beneficial for both I and the pub owner who is very pleased with the sale of Paulaner.

Here is the really annoying bit, the owner of pub 2 has been stopping me in the street asking why i do not frequent his bar any more, when i tell him in plain English he says "i can't sell that here nobody would buy it" My face fills with rage every time, Why ask me? if he knows why i don't drink there and is unwilling to do anything about it!!!!

Sorry about the rant,

BTW both of these pubs are in east cork, i will not name them here on principle, if you wish to find out who they are please feel free to e-mail me.

CHEERS

KEITH

No posts recently, sorry about that.

I will be back posting regularly soon.

a combination of work, family commitments and brewing have got in the way o my posting.
thank you all for your patience, i will be back posting soon.

CHEERS

Keith

Belgians!! Born in the USA?

Tonight folks im gonna drink two Belgians who hail from the USA, I've been lucky enough to get my hands on two Belgian style ales produced by Goose Island, the first one I'm having is Matilda 2009 bottled on the 1/4/09 as the americans would write it.

Appearance: honey like in colour, with a lovely head that disappears quite quickly.

Smell: typically belgian tones with some banana and orange in there, mainly banana.

Taste: sweet with not too much hop character. ( i couldn't even notice the alc content even though it is 7%)

Mouthfeel: has plenty of carbonation that is not immediately noticeable from looking at the beer (no head) it is light and very enjoyable, i would definitely drink this again.

My second beer of the night is again from Goose Island, Pere Jacques 2009 is a very nice beer made in the style of a Belgian dubbel,

Apperance: a reddish amber colour, lighter than most belgian dubbels that i've had. slight tan head to begin with which once again Quickly disappears to leave just a little few patches of bubble where the carbonation is rising.

Smell: once again a very belgian scent with ripe summer fruits and banana evident with a hint of malt at the end.

Taste:Much the same as the scent although it is evident that this beer is more alcholic @ 9% than the last.

Mouthfeel: similar to the previous beer with plenty of carbonation, this beer is more chewy with a stronger and heavier feel than Matilda. nt particularly what i lke in a dubbel but it is very drinkable all the same.

CHEERS

i'm still alive (after the Munster Meet)

OK i know i've not been blogging enough recently or ever for that matter, the reason for this is that between work, the hour long commute each way, various deliveries my boss asks me to do, family errands to be run, babysitting my nephew and of course drinking beer with the lads.

Any how i have decided to write up a blog now on what i remember from the recent Munster ICB tasting session in the Bierhaus Cork. All started well on the evening about half past seven on the 26th June 2009 i and one of the drishane brewery crew Morgan arrived @ The Bierhaus, Here we met several members of the ICB Munster Branch including, Wallicebiy + Brother, Taf, Neils, Ger Cork, Rebel, Paudie and Peter form The Franciscan Well dropped by aswell (if i've missed anybody Sorry but i was probably too inebriated to remember you being there). the session was great, there was a fine selection of beers on show from the homebrewers and Ger Cork brought along some v nice craft brews aswell. there were some stand out beers for me, I really liked Wallicebiy's Shed stout, and Taf's Cider was v nice too (sorry can't say the same for the cranberry drink), as always Neils arrived with some V tasty and V strong Beer (needless to say i loved it).

the evening was peppered with random chatter and some good info on homebrewing techniques, thanks rebel, Wallicebiy, and Peter from The Well for this. all in all i had a great (read Drunken) night, Thanks to everyone involved who organises events such as these I.E. Rebel, Ger Cork, Dave from The Bierhaus and thanks to everyone for coming along to make the night such a success. Cheers Everyone

that's it from me until next time.

Cheers

What should i do?

planning on brewing either of these tomorrow sunday the 14th june 09, both very similar APA's

1.

4.75kg maris otter pale malt
0.10kg crystal malt
0.20kg Honey
16g Centennial whole hops Approx 10% @60
50g Cascade whole hops approx 5.5% @15
50g Cascade hhole hops approx 5.5% @5

Safale s-04 yeast


2.


3.54kg maris otter pale malt
0.04kg crystal malt
0.88kg Honey
23g Centennial whole hops Approx 10% @60
15g Cascade whole hops approx 5.5% @15
15g Cascade hhole hops approx 5.5% @1

Safale s-04 yeast



has anyone any suggestions or opinions on which i should do?

Drishane Brewery: Happy Dog Series, Wagging Tail Ale

Hey Folks, Welcome back.

This blog post is about my very first all-grain beer and the first in a series of beers from the Drishane Brewery, the series is called "Happy Dog" (just in case you couldn't tell from the title). the series is inspired by my next door neighbours dog who last week quickly drank my last beer on a sunny afternoon, worse again it did this while i was busy inside getting a ball to throw for it. one pint of paulaner later and that was one happy dog :).

Wagging Tail Ale is a relatively simple ale and it all begins with the mash, my grist consisted of:

4.5kg of Maris Otter

0.5kg of medium Crystal

these grains were mashed into 14 Litres of water @ 72 Degrees C which left me with @ 67 Degrees C, it was a single infusion mash which lasted for 60 Min, after this i sparged with 9 litres of water @ approx 75 Degrees C.

I was left with a pre boil gravity of 1.050

i was plagued by stuck mashes and sparges because of the bad design of the manifold in my mash tun.

then the boiling began.

it was a 60 Min boil with 4 separate hop additions these were:

28g of Centennial 10.4% @60 Min

16g of Centennial 10.4% @45 Min

50g of Spalt select pellets 1.5% @10 Min

50g of Spalt select pellets 1.5% @5 Min

after a very vigorous boil i ended up with Approx 19 Litres of Wort and a gravity of 1.059

this wort was fermented with Safale S04 Yeast for four weeks and ended up with a gravity of 1.012

I Bottled this with ordinary Household sugar (104g) and ended up with 31 500ml bottles of beer, much of this loss of volume is down to not using hop socks and having to leave beer behind in each vessel to avoid having hops in my bottles (a rookie mistake)

I'm really hoping that this will turn out well and hopefully it will be well received by my long suffering Guinea pigs, i mean esteemed beer tasters (the lads).

thanks for reading my post

CHEERS