More fresh meat from Fredericton!

[sdixon]

Well, I can assure you, I will be very happy to sample your beer for you ;-) If I'm not mistaken, Brew also used a Trappist High Gravity yeast from Wyeast. Brew is that correct? Tom, you may also be interested in the yeast library you could have access to as a full member. Some of the yeast strains include: Belgian Ale (Wyeast 1214), Kolsch (Wyeast 2565), Saison (Wyeast 3711) and I have an Allagash Brewery yeast cultured ready to add to the library and a Belgian Ardennes (Wyeast 3522) that is fermenting and I will also wash to add to the library. Creating starters from slants is very easy as long as you are careful with sanitation. Anyway, I'm sure you will have lot's of possibilities and lot's of fun.

[sdixon]

PS - We need more Belgian fans to balance against the hopheads in this club ;-)

[TomFogarty]

I'll have to try that out sometime. I did try to re-culture the yeast from a bottle of La Trappe earlier in my brewing career, but I severely underpitched (I didn't fully understand the process at this point) and ended up with a wild fermentation. It had some pretty funky off flavours- and not the good kind! I poured most of the batch out, but I saved a case to try in another few months just to see what happens. Maybe I can get some pointers on bottle cultures, I'm guessing there are a few people on here that have had some experience with it!

[sdixon]

Yes, there are a number of very knowledgeable people on that front (Thomas, Richard, Kyle, Brew + others). I have had some successful experience as well with creating cultures and starters from bottle conditioned beers as well. Most recently I have created successful starters from Allagash Dubbel and Allagash White. **edited**. I personally learned a lot from Thomas (Microbiologist PhD candidate), but have much to learn still.

[brew]

Hi yes sdix that is right, my Tripel (going to keg it Sunday, hope it turns out OK) used the 3787 trappist high grav. Thomas has it now and is going to make slants with it so it will be in the library (I think the 3787 and 3711 are next on his list).

Glad to have another non-hopazoidal maniac with us!

[Thomas]

meh, we'll convert him to a hop lover soon enough.

[jamie_savoie]

Welcome Tom, I'm new here too

one advice I can give you is invest in a proper mill!  I did my first 2 batch using a blender while I was waiting for my victoria mill to arrive.  It made a HUGE improvement in mash plus you save lots of time!

[Kyle]

I've found the Barley Crusher to be a good value, its $140 retail in Canada, or cheaper in the US. I`ve had mine for about a year and run ALOT of grain through it.

[sdixon]

IPAs get you the best of both worlds anyway, you can have the hoppiness and if you don't like that all you have to do is strain it through a sweaty wool sock and you have a fine belgian

 

[TomFogarty]

I'll definitely have to check out that grain crusher, I just have to save up some cash. It would help if I stopped spending it all on ingredients....
I do actually enjoy hoppy beers, but not insanely bitter IPAs. A personal favourite from this category is Brooklyn Lager (anyone else have this one before?) since it balances the malt and hops perfectly. Not too bitter, very aromatic and a mildly complex flavour. That's something I wouldn't mind trying at some point down the road

[TomFogarty]

Can't say that I have, but I'm always up to try a new brew
What exactly would becoming a full member entail?

[TomFogarty]

Are there many single malt lovers on here? **edited**

[HappyHax0r]

Tom: becoming a full member entails sending your membership dues to Brew or any of the rest of the exec (Richard, or Kyle also works) in some way that they can get it to Brew, or coming to a meeting and handing him your dues in person .

I do believe there's a paypal method of sending your dues directly on this site (in the forums, right viewtopic.php?f=2&t=848 <- here infact)... .

[TomFogarty]

Looks like my card's not going to be accepted online... stupid prepaid credit.
I'll be sure to bring my wallet on the 17th then!

[TomFogarty]

Tomorrow sounds good to me, if it's not too far for me to walk. Just let me know the details and I'll see what I can do about making it