The Beer Thread

Rakuten is the best. But I only use it if one store has plenty I want, so it comes in one package with one postage charge. My favourite was called Sake no Taniguchi or びあマ, but they jacked up all their prices. Usually if there’s something I really want and can’t get to a store in town I’ll go on Rakuten.

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Exactly.

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ありがとうございます!

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That’s cool. I wonder if they curate it or just chuck em in randomly.

Nah it’s all planned. 2 Birds promoted their day 1 beer today. Looking forward to tomoz!

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Any suggestions for lager or pilsener in the craft brew category?

Pretty much over IPA, Double IPA, India IPA, American IPA, XIPA, Session IPA,

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I’m a big Pilsner and German lager fan but I’m not local so don’t know much, but I was reading that Hop Nation have a good new lager called The Silly Season. Not traditional, more hoppy.

I took a six-pack of Hawkers Pils to a bbq last summer, no bells and whistles, just a solid well-made beer.

As for imports, Firestone Walker’s Pivo Pils is a fave, but only if the price is good and it’s fresh. Same for Victory Prima Pils, or Trumer Pils. Super fresh Pilsner Urquell on tap is gold.

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Enigma Pils from Bridge Road Brewers is a nice drop.

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Nice.

And don’t get me wrong, love an IPA, and so many to choose from.

But sometimes you want have a beer you can guzzle.

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I bought a box of Balter Pilsner the other week which went down a treat. It’s a shame there’s only 16 in the box.

Day 2.

Quiet Deeds Pale.

I’ve never really been a lover of Pale’s. They just seem to lack a little bit of something. This follows the same thinking. Nice enough without any wow factor.

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Day 1 in the Carwyn Canvent was a 3 Ravens Juicy Brut, Brut NEIPA.
Juicy, triple dry hopped, tropical bomb. Lots of oats and titricale in the boil so smooth almost creamy mouthfeel and crisp finish. Pic to follow later.

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I use robobrew, It does a good job, Grainfather I think is more better, but much pricier.
I havent looked at the Gen 3 robobrew, I have the original gen 1. Sparging is harder if you dont have someone to put the bracket on when you lift the grains container out, other than that, the process is easy.
Grainfather has a re circulation pump that helps keep temp consistent during mash.
I just set mine about 2 deg higher for mash, then wrap an insulation blanket around the vessel to soak the grains.
Only trouble I have is that the chiller that comes with it takes a fair while. I think the main reason is that the d-base water temp here in qld is pretty high. I have tried a few things, but what I end up doing is let it get to 30 deg, then I put the wort into the fermenter then into the fridge and add the yeast the next morning. Hasnt really done anything to the end result.
One really good thing I like about robo brew is how easy it is to clean. I’ll take a look at the new gen ones

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Robobrew and Grainfather shouldn’t really be compared in reality, they’re vastly different units. I’d love a Grainfather, but they’re just too exxy for my brewing kit budget so I’ll be settling for the Robobrew Gen 3.

There are different things people do to help bring the temp down faster. Mate of mine has a simple spatula that he puts in his power drill. The extra circulation of the wort helps chill down the last ~10c reasonably quickly. Also I’ve heard of folks switch the chiller feed to a bin full of iced water which also can help to bring the temp down that last ~10c quickly.

I’ll be looking at extra immersion chiller and boiler options when I load up in the new year.

Yeah I tried to make a copper coil through an esky , helped a bit, but wasnt worth the hassle of getting ice. I really haven’t noticed any difference to just get it down as qucik and close as possible to lower, then bang it in the fridge. I have a temperature set probe so the fridge can be set to the 19 deg or whatever.
I dont like the idea of sticking anything extra into the wort so as to increase the risk of infection IMO.
Get it into the fermenter as quick as practicle seems to work for me.
I might also look at cubing. That way I can have more wort ready to go into fermented to keep dat supply up, so as soon as I keg one batch, I have another ready to roll into the fermeter.

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Speaking of brewing… Bottle and Brew day this weekend!
Rye IPA and Galaxy Pale Ale to go in the bottle and Mulberry Choc Double Stout and Mosaic IPA to be put down thereafter. So many empty bottles just wasting space…

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Hops in ya ■■■■■■■ face!

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I’ve been working the last few days and on a string of nights coming up so I’ll have 7 to catch up on come Sunday. Woohoo! I did check out today’s and it was a trifle IPA. Looking forward to that one.

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Glorious day in Melbourne. Perfect afternoon for a nice brew under the tree.

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Almost 3.5 hours into a slow cook of a lamb shoulder on the Weber. Picked up a few beers on the way home.

First up was a Hayama English bitter from Kamakura Brewery, a stone’s throw from my joint. Not bad. Slightly hoppy. An easy to drink session beer. Went down well, but I wanted something else & went with a Guinness Extra Stout, which hit the spot nicely.

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