New Brunswick Craft Brewers Association
Uncategorized Boards => General => Topic started by: TomFogarty on February 23, 2012, 04:42:07 PM
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Didn't know there was a beer club around here, but the boys at Noble Grape mentioned it so I thought I'd look you guys up!
I've been brewing for less than a year but I caught the bug right away, I also just recently started to brew with all grain. I'm in my second year of chemical engineering at UNB so it's tough to find time to brew, but I do my best. I've been doing mostly Belgian style beers most would say I love to drink tar), but I'm playing around a bit with some scottish pale ales and rauchbiers as well.
I can't wait to get to know some of you and share some tips and tricks! I'm always game to try a new beers, or swap for a sample of some homebrew. Don't be shy, drop me a line sometime
Cheers,
Tom
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Welcome to the club!
We've got some guys here that have an interest in Belgain beers: Sdixon, Richard, and to some extent Duncan. They can probably give you some style specific advice.
We meet bi-weekly and you are welcome to attend, sample the brews.
What kind of system do you use?
I encourage you especially to come to the March 17 meeting, we will be having a bunch of guys brewing on different systems and maybe a BBQ.
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So the business card I gave them didn't go to waste! Great to hear, and welcome Tom :)
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That would be awesome! I may or may not have a batch of imperial stout ready by then... Where and when will you guys be meeting?
As far as a "system" I'm not doing anything to fancy. My mashtun is a camping cooler and I just use a cotton cloth to filter the grist, I don't have a grain mill so I crush it in a blender since I always buy in bulk (probably not the greatest method). I'm fortunate enough to have found a bottle exchange back home that collects Grolsch bottles and sells them to me cheap, so I've got a few hundred of them that I just reuse. Just picked up another hundred and change of the vintage ones, so I'm looking forward to filling them up. Eventually I may get into kegging, but once again, finances put a crutch on equipment.
I've got a turbo 500 boiler that I use for my boils, but I'm not a huge fan of it... the element is much hotter than it has to be, and the fuse trips easily and doesn't last. I warrantied the last one and I'm having another shipped in, but after this goes I'd like to upgrade.
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Dean will be interested to try your Imperial stout; I know he's gunning for a recipe at the moment.
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This was really a shot in the dark; I hadn't even seen an all grain recipe for stout when I threw this one together. I just wanted to see what kind of a handle I have on the ingredients and not copy off anyone else.
I imagine it's still going to be a touch young since I'm only bottling it this week but the flavour profile is acceptable. Bit on the sweeter side; I used a bit of dark crystal and honey malt... but that's just the Belgian influence pulling through!
It was originally intended to be a barley wine (16% ABV; re-pitch with a champagne yeast and some malt extract after primary) but unfortunately my boiler decided to konk out just as the boil was starting so I didn't want to risk wasting money on more ingredients if there's a chance of infection. Seems okay though
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I Forgot to mention: we don't post meeting locations in public, but we'll let you know ahead of time via PM where they are.
Roughly speaking though they are every second Saturday at 2pm, often at members' homes, in or near Fredericton
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Understandable, that sounds perfectly reasonable. I look forward to it!
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Welcome Tom!
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Welcome! :drink:
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Welcome Tom!
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Hey Tom,
I finished Civil Eng last year and am doing some grad school now at UNB
welcome to the group!
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Welcome Tom!
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Welcome Tom. Yep there are a few of us interested in Belgian style beer as Kyle pointed out. I know Brew is also dabbling in the Belgian space as well and has a Trippel fermenting that I can't wait to try :-) I would love to share experiences with you. I'm currently very happy with Wyeasts Belgian Ardennes 3522 yeast BTW. There is a great deal of brewing knowledge amongst the member here and a great bunch of guys as well. Very eclectic bunch, but I think that is what makes it interesting ;-) I hope to see you at an upcoming meeting.
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I haven't had the chance to try out many of Wyeasts strains, but I did have a go with their trappist high gravity for the imperial stout I just brewed. It seems to have done a fantastic job; good flavours and next to no lag time. Very good attenuation
I look forward to getting some feedback on some of my brews if I can dig some up to bring by! Shame St patty's day can't come sooner, I look forward to meeting some fellow brewers
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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.
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PS - We need more Belgian fans to balance against the hopheads in this club ;-)
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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!
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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.
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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!
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meh, we'll convert him to a hop lover soon enough.
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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!
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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.
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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
:frazzled:
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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
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Can't say that I have, but I'm always up to try a new brew
What exactly would becoming a full member entail?
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Are there many single malt lovers on here? **edited**
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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 (http://nbcba.org/forum/index.php?topic=848.0) <- here infact)... :).
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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!
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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
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Hopyard is fantastic
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you can still have a balanced IPA @ 120 IBU's, you just need to up the malt bill a tiny bit.
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Fair enough. I suppose I can honestly say I haven't had as much experience with IPAs so I should give it a shot before I start to make assumptions. I'll keep a couple of old socks on hand, just in case 8-)
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you can still have a balanced IPA @ 120 IBU's, you just need to up the malt bill a tiny bit.
DFH 120 is case in point. I hear it's actually kind of sweet for 120ish IBUs.
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you can still have a balanced IPA @ 120 IBU's, you just need to up the malt bill a tiny bit.
DFH 120 is case in point. I hear it's actually kind of sweet for 120ish IBUs.
The Fall version was very malty and sweet, perfectly balanced and almost no perceptible alcohol.
This Winter version seems less malty to me, and more alcohol taste, but it's younger than the fall was when we tasted it.
But, you'll be able to tell for yourself...Tomorrow!
JQ
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I look forward to it! By the way, is there any sense in packing up any beer to share at some point through the afternoon, or will all of our sampling be done on tour.