I'm still back.... Fridays!

Hi everyone. Today another Friday. Friday.... the only day of the week that has "thank god it's" in front of it on a regular basis. Well not for people who work behind a bar usually. I do find my self saying, dam I used to like Fridays. Working in a Government department we felt that working all the way till 5pm was a some super human effort. Off to the pub/boardroom for a drink or many before heading to town to meet friends. Now well I start at 5pm today which is not bad, you just walk into the beast of suits thirty for the taste of end of week freedom. If we are not crazy busy I usually ask how their day has been. The response, better now. Then you just smile back and think dam I will be here till midnight.

Have only been once in Sweden, was ok for a chain

But last weeks blog was the moaning blog. This week I will attempt to catch you up on some of the awesome things that have happened. For one thing I moved to an awesome place in Hataitai in Wellingtons hills that look over the sea and out to Shelly bay, home to an old army base. I have a small room but lots of room upstairs. We have 2 balconies, a fire place, a kitchen island (very helpful for brewing purposes). Cool flatmates, at the moment 3 English people, friends and a new random, all awesome people. You open a cupboard you will likely find some form of beer or brewing equipment in there. Since I work more nights than days I am often at home and able to read, brew, or spend too much time on facebook. So what has happened in the last 6 months that has been cool?

1. Christmas and new years was great to get a decent amount of time off work to catch up with family, went to my aunties farm in Masterton, hung out with the family for a few days, did some brewing, chilled out and did some reading. Was very nice.

2. Brewing, brewing and more brewing. Had some good feedback on a few of my brews and have had a lot of ideas of stuff that I will wont to make commercially one day. This is a good place to come to were I left off last time in a list of brews that I have made over the last few months. Here we go

• New Czechland Pilsner 5.3% : My first ever lagered beer. They are not easy to do, they take ages, but I have had many good comments about it. So the name comes from it having half Czech Saaz hops which give it spicy, earth characters and half New Zealand Hallertau Aroma hops. It has lagered for nearly 2 months and the fermentor even moved flats with me. What I liked about it is the clarity, nearly perfect (it is the beer I am holding in the article written about me). It was crisp and easy to drink, decent bitterness, but had a slight caramel flavors which are not really to style, it also had little nose as I did not at hops to the fermentor (dry hop). So with a few tweeks and a few more batches I think I can make a very enjoyable pilsner that people would be willing to buy.

•  5 Min Mot, pale ale 3.5%: My first attempt at a low alcohol beer. You know what some people have thought it is my best one yet.... I tried to make it come in at 4%, did not really turn out that way. It has Motueka hop additions every 5mins in the boil. I has good bitterness but amazing stone fruit flavours and aromas. You could enjoy great hoppy flavours all day long and still be able to not slur your words and faceplant on your way to the bathroom. Defiantly an interesting idea of something to do more of in the future. Everyday I have someone tell me that they do not make enough lower alcohol delicious beers. 

•  No New Pope imperial stout. 10.4%. This is a peated,smoked imperial stout. This was a mish mosh of different grains and sugars... you are allowed to put sugars in an imperial stout. This is used to boost the body without boosting the body. Well I have only tried one of these because it is so big and peaty that it needs to age for between 6months to a year before it is ready. It has a lot of toasted oats to increase the body. Would I make it this way again? no. A bit too much peat and not enough smoked malts. I split the batch and put half of it in with toasted oak that had been soaked in laphroaig whisky. So it is a smoked, peated, oaked oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout... a mouthful. Anyone get the name of the beer? well when the pope dies and they are voting on who the new pope will be, if there is no clear decision black smoked is released from the chimney. Well I thought it was cleaver haha. 

Ok so this took longer than usual. So next post will be on the amazingness of some beer festivals I have been to this year. I will also talk about some of my Wellington in a Pint beers. All going to plan there will be 13 of them.

Until next time. Enjoy your friday be you drinking working, or volunteering at the Great Australian beer festival. Dam I would love to be there now.

Andrew Childs BCA/LLBeer geek