Whose sheets to which wind?

that voodoo, that you do?




Again with the Garage.

Louisiana Voodoo Queen. 

yes.  well...  I probably spoiled the first glass, with some lime...  haha...  what, am, i, like?  haaaaaaa....  well, it was delicious, obviously, or I wouldn't have done it.  Chocolate and lime are always good.  As is coffee, what, fucking after midnight?  Probably not.  But Louisiana Voodoo Queen is something else.  God.  no, Food of the gods.  So so so so tastey. so delicious, so, i cant stop with the sipping of you...  so, hmm, better watch out for this shit.  like, dont stupidly open it when you're already how many sheets to the wind?


Good goo, True Detective gets better and betterer

Wood Touche

was in the middle of really getting into an episode of True Detective and having just cleaned off an overly exuberant (difficult to pour-) Ulf's something, from a gilded Bear.  A 'baltic' porter, bit of smoked manuka; tasty.  For the money (2 for 10 bucks, due to the 'fizziness'), pretty much like buying someone's quite good homebrew.  Glad they didn't sell it at full price, you'd be rather disappointed if you weren't naive.  As for the fish and chips thereabouts? - completely mis-remembered.  not that good.  (But I wonder now if our fond memory of that particular fishshop was actually for the smoked fish they sell, which I do remember being pretty fucking good).

And now, whatever the time is, I've gone and embarked on a little something from those Project-ors from Te Garage.  Touch Wood.  Had opened and poured before I read the label.  First mistake: "...be very careful who you drink it with."  Hmmm...  Myself, unfortunately.  Unless you count people and animals that sleep.  But there's no bothering them, so yes - pretty much, myself.  Hope it all works out okay.  :-S  Look what it made me do:  (in public, ffs!)

Taking blog writing to an entirely different place.somewhere altogether else. So now, a double writing.  Oh, how pathetic.  Blogging?  you call this blogging?  writing something so infrequently that no one could ever possibly find it.  Then again, once it's on the web, under your name, it's there for as long as anyone can look for it.  Ever compressed into ever smaller spaces to be recalled from more difficultly as time proceeds.  But always there, stuck somewhere in silicon, i guess it was, once upon a time, something new and whizzy from now on tho, getting smaller and smaller, packed there.  Until all the power fails...

What do they say?  We're only ever a couple (or is it a few?) days from complete collapse - our urban society.  We cope fine with the odd disaster; insurance 'covering' it left right and centre(lr&c?), but if the whole lot went down at once?  All the power grids, across a continent.  I guess we'll see the US go soon enough whenever solar activity ramps up.  Or, are they watching us and how we respond to earthquakes and such?  Do any of our cultures/societies learn off the others in how to deal with disaster relief?  I know Chch did a shit job of a lot it, but pulled together to do an awesomely amazing job of other things.  Do we examine how every other place does it, ie copes?  Cos that's how we'll get through when EVERYTHING goes down.  Geography, it's all goddamn geography.

And for my day job, here I'm working for an organisation that is trying to stop the native biodiversity of this country from going into Collapse.  It's pretty much been on it's way for the last couple hundred years, but there's still so much to be saved.  I do what I can, but the place is a bit of a wreck.  I think we just all have to 'do what we can' and that's what DOC's asking people to do now.  All of us, living here on these sweet sweet isles need to pull finger and get killing!  In order: possums, rats, stoats, weasels, ferrets, hedgehogs, wasps, and finally mice.  Set whatever traps you can, kill any of them every time you see them.  See one on a trail somewhere?  Next time you go there, take a trap with you, set it and then go check it periodically.  If everybody who used the bush or other areas did this we could actually get somewhere towards a pest free NZ...  I think I just saw the light, and it IS actually possible.  HA!  yeah right.  Fucking kiwis.  We've become a stupid arsed laconical 'whatever' kinda nation.  There's not enough still into it.  Everyone's focussed on their own shit.

31 minutes left of my TD episode, best I subsume myself in that...
"your kids are the only thing that matters, Maddie.  They're the whole reason for this man-woman drama,"
"well, I'm sorry, what are you suggesting exactly?"
"Just that people fuck up - we age, men, women, it's not supposed to work except to make kids.  So, if you could imagine, Marty's behaviour as a matter of weakness, pain, - you'd see that it's not about you"
"So enter the day you duck under rationalisations same as any of 'em.  You musta been a great husband."
And he walks out.

It's SO FUCKING GOOD!

interesting to watch this post...  methinks.   And there's always editing... :)

http://pileofgirls.com/Audio/Troy/crisp1.mp3

okay, so...

here we are back again.  Figure, seeing as i'm not brewing anything, but doing some quantum of enjoying other people's products, may i well speak a little about them?

8wired, some of my favourites, saison sauvin, hopwired, regulars, others.
yeasties, were up there, fallen a bit.  good tasting at poms.  hudawah was good. her majesty, spectacular. and again this year, finally trying. his maj.2011 really didnt do it for me.
liberty.  tasting, awesome.  other's?
nogno.  /'s thru the O's. yum.  #500 was spectacular - i got a bunch of people drinking that at Hashigo's.  heh heh, dont think any of us realised what hit us...
their collabo with 8wired and renaissance was the best ever, O for Awesome.  #100 in the cupboard,
epic.  truly epic, so good i had to buy the teeshirt.  hop zombie is off the chart.  love their regular pale ale as trusty go to, wish every bar carried it.  but Mayhem and Armageddon are two of my absolute favourites.
renaissance.  their MPA (marlborough pale) was awesome, alas, 8wired's basically taken their share of the market.  still really like their stonecutter.  the porter, meh, stout, nah, perfection, so so.
twisted.  a hopback tonight.  better this time than last.  definitely a return to.
raindog.  pangalacticgargleblaster is very good.  others with the rolleston eagle at tasting varied.  would try more.  works for twisted.
wanaka.  taken over something that was quite mediocre.  now starting to get out there and waaaay better..  tasting at poms.
cassels
3boys
emersons
mussel inn
garage project
dales
townsend
riwaka
Dead Good.  1.3L rigs from freshchoice nelson, yeah, baby.  good shit.
sprig and fern. meah
bears.  mapua?  nothing memorable,
eagles.  good, for something from someone in Rolleston's garage.

duvel.  enjoying one tonight.
rochfort.  tried the 10 in HashigoZ.  good, but tasted old.  travelled.
chimay.  enjoy this when i have it.  what's not to enjoy.

la trappe

Bottled Bock

9th of the 9th, the Earthquake Bock bottled yesterday. shoulda been ready day after the quake, but water was dubious, so bottling had to wait. 39x500ml Renaissance bottles. one Brakspear Triple bottle top broke off.


oh yeah, had checked the gravity a few days before, sitting at 1025 or so, but what the final reading was, ??

finally, another one...

bock this time. put down friday 27th Aug pm.

1.5kg Bock kit
1.8kg muntons light
~500g dextrose
~200g krystal, crushed in the mortar and pestle
bunch of hops from a Dunsandel garden
past expiry date Saflager yeast.

specific gravity 1050 or so.!

bubbling away nicely now. slightly strange smell, but i think its okay, not an 'off' smell. will bottle when ready, a few days away?.

yummy stout.

havent had time to put a brew down still... god, its getting a bit slack. definitely gonna do something when i'm back from Fiordland, to where i go next week.

had a stout (15.6) night before last, bloooody tasty...

hopefully the Peculiar is getting better... got one in the fridge right now.

Brews on hold.

Been a while since i put one down.

18.4 is good at moment.

consumed the very last of the last 16.2's last night, was mighty tasty brew, must put one of them down again...

3.1 a while back was a bit bread yeasty.

still have a few of last year's brews i need to get through.

no idea what my next one down will be...

OVER FIZZ

now all my lachouffes are way overly fizzy. dunno how it has happened, in that they were fine earlier, but the longer in the bottle, the more fizzy they've become. annoying, cos they dredge the yeast from the bottom spoiling the beer. barely manage to get half a bottle drinkable from them.



that said, i had an 8.4 last night that was beautiful. many of them have been overly fizzy too, so something must have been done right

Peculierly bottled... 20.9

Saturday night, 20.9.08, mostly 500ml bottles, i think there was about 2 or 3 x 750's and maybe 5 stubbies...


also, attempted to sample the most recent Lachouffe, lost the bottle to champagne overflow. either still a bit young, or thats how its gonna be, damnit all. i guess its the risk you run with the heavily sugar'd high alcohol content brews. in future i will prime with less sugar and hope the residuals in the pre-bottled beer will be enough. either that, or i pulled the plug on the brewing process too soon? but considering it sat for over 2 weeks and well and truly appeared to be done..? i dont know.

Theakston's a bit Peculier

Bought the makings of a Theakstons Old Peculier clone... put it down this night.

1.8kg Munton's Scottish Heavy Ale
882g soft brown sugar
500g dark unhopped spraymalt (dry)
412g Dextrose
18g fuggles hops
Safale yeast

calculates out to a 7 percenter...

for priming bottles, will use blackstrap molasses, 100g with water to 300ml. then leave for a good while before sampling...

bottled, finally. 28.8

last night, usual couple hours, only had 32 caps left, so had to do all the 750s i could, and did 3 Grolsche poptops, and the 2 330s were Fischer d'Alsace botts.

22 x 500ml
12 x 750ml
2 x 330ml
1 x 640ml

la chouffe!

pretty much forgotten about this, but i think it'll be about ready to bottle... must do it either tonight or tomorrow night, or have to leave til sunday or monday...

was a slow one to get going, hope its gonna be okay...

Lachouffe, strike 2

trying this one again. put down on Saturday night in record time, less than it took Sonic Youth's Sister LP to play.

Munton's Premium Pilsner,
blackrock light malt
light unhopped dried malt, 500g
900g dextrose
8g Saaz hops pellets (all i had left...)
Saflager yeast.

weirdly tho, it hasnt started bubbling yet. either that or the seal on the top of the barrel isnt up to it. same recipe as last time, except that i used a light dried malt and a tin of light, instead of two tins, and less hops cos this was the last.

tasty...

Lachouffe is still really good.
John came over and had a tasting a couple fridays back. he liked that best too. the rest are all a bit so so.

oh, and the stout is pretty good now.

must get another Lachouffe down soon.

Lachouffe, first taste...

one word. De-fucking-licious.

i'm SO gonna make another batch of this one. its turned out like one of the better LaTrappe's, maybe the Blonde or the Tripel even. its got a really good mouth feel, taste, effervescence, body. and its only just 4 weeks old... wicked...

fastest stout in the east... 15.6

well! put down tuesday, and by saturday it'd stopped bubbling. very fast to start tho, plus double the yeast, and not a huge amount of sugars, so.. anyway, bottled last night, 15/6 into all 500ml bottles (including all my nice Renaissance bottles), except for 6 x 330ml and 3 x 640ml bottles...

Swtchbrewskr's Oatmeal Stout

Put down last night...

1.7kg Coopers Stout Kit
300g Chocolate Malt
150g Black Malt
250g Rolled Oats
1kg Dextrose
15g Saaz Hops pellets
Muntons Premium Yeast
Coopers kit yeast...

First time trying with mixed yeast strains, wonder how it'll turn out. first time i've not followed anyone elses recipe...
bubbling away nicely already at 22 degrees... bottling...?
and according to the Brewcraft Calculator, this will only be about a 5.7% beer... i shoulda gotten a light malt extract to boost it... too late now i guess.

oatmeal

its winter, its time for stout. should made some a month or two ago, in order that it be ready to drink now, but i didnt, so not much i can do about it.

its experiment time. been reading Oatmeal stout recipes, and they all require a stout kit, some roasted barley, chocolate and black malts, some hops, and ale yeasts. i've got a whole bunch of yeasts left over from previous kits, at least one of which is a good munton's one. all i'm gonna need to get is a stout kit and maybe some light malt... this week i think it'll be.


And, i scored bottles galore... emailed Renaissance Brewery, Blenhiem, and said i liked their bottles, and where could i get some, and they emailed back saying, send us 11 bucks and we'll send ya a couple of cases. as it happened a friend was up there for a weekend, so he dropped in and they gave them to him! so, thats 12 litres of my next brew capacity in Renaissance Elemental Porter bottles... nice! like the Brakspear bottles, they have a good lip in the neck that retains sediment very nicely in the pour.

Lachouffe again. 29.5

Bottled, last night, 29th May. usual two hours or so. followed a piece of advice i'd noticed on the Bodensatz site, whereby once the bottles were filled, i just placed the lids on them on the bench, and then continued filling the rest of the bottles. at the end, once all were filled, then i got to work with the capper. the reason being, the active live beer is producing CO2 and allowing it to sit for a period of time before sealing allows the CO2 to displace some of the air in the space at the top of the bottle. doubt there'll be much difference, but it actually made the bottling process smoother, in that i was focussed on sanitising, rinsing, sugaring, filling about 8 to 10 bottles at a time, and not having the capping process in the middle. perhaps a thing to do in future will be to move the barrel a few hours before bottling, up onto the bench and that way save all that wandering back and forth. will update this post later with numbers of bottles... lots more stubbies than i'd estimated.