Monday 9 June 2014

Saturday 7th June -- Big Brewery Day

Trilemma Craft Brewers continue to smash things out of the park. We had a massive day in the brewery, made loads of great beer, drank some beer, and even managed a visit to Spotlight. We were in the shed until 8:30pm , and the true believers came back the next day to do the dishes.

Michael and I happened to pay a visit to Cavalier Brewery a couple of weeks ago and it sparked a few good ideas. Most of those came after we had drunk the $33 pint, but hey, they're great ideas nonetheless. The biggest one was the possibility to move into a commercial operation. Seems these smaller craft breweries have cottoned on to the fact that the hipsters want to make their own beer. So they're renting out their fermenters to the common folk. I reckon in 12 months time, you'll be seeing some TCB on the shelves of Dan Murphy. Or not! Nae Bovver!

New developments in the brewing process were ... um ... developing.

We are trying our hand at cultivating yeast. Yeast ain't cheap. If we can make our own, then our beer is cheaper. Hooray for cheap beer.

We did a fair bit of dry-hopping for the IPA. The aromas coming out of the fermenter were quite fruity and pungent. Looking forward to trying this beer.

We think we want to start learning more about malts and grains. The book we use only gives us so much information. Maybe we've outgrown this book. 



The day started in "Grape and Grain" and the exciting purchase of another beaker.

From there, we popped into Spotlight to get some more voile. Chris snuck across the road to Bunnings for a couple of sausages from the local primary school stall

Back in the brewery by 1pm and time to fill the pot

This is Pippa. She's the brewery dog

Wrapping the pot in Lucy's doona to keep it warm. Lucy's got plenty going on right now to keep her warm.

Apparently wrapping it with the cable makes it better.

We popped into Carwyn Cellars to collect some brew day beers. Ben was drawing tap beer from his new bar into bottles. We couldn't resist and this was the first of many.

Gear!

The great news was that the Porter was ready to take home.

This is the stash split three ways. Wanna come over for a beer?

Ben's job is to wash the bottles

He loves it. (He may not really love it)

Michael was moving the IPA into the clean keg from the fermenter

Lovely IPA

Brewery #selfie! lol 

Go you good thing

Sah Indie!

This was a delicious beer! Only Chris knows, because he was the only man good enough to drink it (all)

Bottle Tree

The mash is on the boil. We're making an ESB today

Ben is a very handsome man

Check the temperature

check it

check it ...

aaaarrrggghh!!!!

I don't know what this is?

The mash is at a steady 67 degrees

time to twist it off

Tie it off

Pose for the photo

got it

and squeeze out all the liquid into the pot

Hops are added at the start of the boil. Or the end. I'd finished that bottle of beer by now, I think

The steam was rising

It was getting late

The sugar was turned into a syrup

Michael thought he'd try a few beers today

Can you tell?

Beer

But we got all the IPA into the bottles. Ben had gone home by now. No IPA for him

Okay, maybe some IPA for him

Chris thought he'd label the IPA as an ESB. Fucktard!

Time to get the ESB wort out of the pot

Check out the whirlpool

Slow and steady, straight into the fermenter

So we thought we'd try to cultivate our own yeast

In our brand new beaker (Luke no doubt has the scientific name for this apparatus)

To make yeast, first you need some yeast.

and add it to the beaker

add some of the wort so the yeast has food

give it a shake

put on a bubbler

Maybe Michael needs another beer by now

And here is all our lovely beer. The IPA in the bottles. The ESB in the fermenter. And the yeast in the beaker.

Beaker

Next day, back in the brewery

Gotta check the gravity of the ESB. Holding steady at 1045 OG

Hi Pippa