Sydney water had a bit of mishap with a water main bursting down the road in Moore Park leaving the pub without water. This caused all in attendance to turn to beer for their hydration but with so many fantastic brews on offer this was hardly a punishment. The beauty of the event is it brings a such a wide variety of homebrewers together with a wide range of skillsets and experience to together to talk shop and enjoy each others work.

Some of the Beers brought by brewers to share included:

The IPA Class

Beer Name: N/A
Brewer: Kelly Eyres
Style: IPA

Vital Stats:

• 7.1% Alcohol
• Around 70 IBU
• 11 SRM

Ingredients:
Maris Otter
Vienna
Munich
Crystal
Special B
Jade Hops
Amarillo Hops
Simcoe Hops
Centennial Hops
Motueka Hops
White Labs California Ale Yeast
Notes:
I didn’t get a chance to try Kelly’s IPA before she ran out although it won the IPA class for the night so it must have been a very tasty drop.

Beer Name: Master Williams Celebratory Ale
Brewer: Michael Hodge
Style: IPA

Vital Stats:

• 5.5% Alcohol
• 44.6 IBU
• 10.2 SRM

Ingredients:
Pale Liquid Extract
Wheat Liquid Extract
Amber liquid Extract
Crystal Malt
Amarillo
Coopers Ale Yeast

Notes:
Very nice and easy drinking, brewed to celebrate his son’s first birthday.

Beer Name: Wignall IPA
Brewer: Glenn Wignall
Style: IPA
Vital Stats:

• 7.75% Alcohol
• 64 IBU
• 25 EBC

Ingredients:
Pale malt
Wheat
Caramalt
Chinook Hops
Amarillo Hops

Open Class

Beer Name: Little Creatures
Brewer: David Irving
Style: Light Amber Ale

Ingredients:
Coopers Pale Ale Tin
Pale Malt
Cascade Hops

Notes:
This is what brewshare is all about, this beer was only David’s second attempt at brewing and tasted fantastic.

Beer Name: The Cornish & The Irish Red Rabbit
Brewer: Stephen Cornish
Style: Irish Red Ale
Vital Stats:

• 4.4% Alcohol
• 23.2 IBU
• 32.6 EBC

Ingredients:
Marris Otter
Munich
Caramalt
Crystal
Roasted Fuggles
EK Goldings
White Labs WLP-004 Irish Ale Yeast

Notes:
The yeast seemed to give this beer a quite interesting twang toward the back of the palate that after a few sips kept driving you to have a another mouthful.

Beer Name: Beer 37
Brewer: Paul Evans
Style: English Bitter

Vital Stats:

• 4.2% Alcohol

Ingredients:
Coopers English Bitter Tin
Amber Malt
Grain Enhancer
Fuggles Hops
East Kent Goldings Hops

Notes:
Strong banana aroma on the nose, very well balanced on the palate all in all a nice beer.

Beer Name: Nutjob Farmer Brown
Brewer: Anthony Mills
Style: Northern English Brown Ale

Vital Stats:

• 4.95% Alcohol
• 25.5 IBU
• 28 EBC

Ingredients:
Golden Promise
Brown Malt
Golden Naked Oats
Amber Malt
Light DME
Challenger Hops
E.K Goldings Hops
Safale S04 Yeast
Chestnuts
Hazelnuts
Hazelnut Essence

Notes:

I had originally brewed for the IPA category but the hop load wasn’t what I was expecting and the Galaxy hops gave the beer a overly fruity off balanced sort of taste.

So I knocked up this brew for the night in its place, which up until a week ago the hazelnut was still coming over too strong for my liking. Everyone who tasted it seemed to enjoy though and it ended up being voted the winner of the open class for the night so it redeemed itself in the long run.

The theme for the next Brewshare is Wheat Beers with the date set for the 23^th November 2010, tickets are $10 per person and are already on sale here.

Related: Stout / Porter Brewshare @ The Local Taphouse

Oak Imperial Stout

Ben Buxton

Vitals
8.5% Alcohol

Ingredients

Caramalt, Crystal malt, roasted barley

Chinook & Cascade hops

Irish Ale & Whitelabs super high gravity

Notes:

This brew sat on bourboned oak chips for 3 weeks. This added a great level of complexity and also help smooth it out, even at 8.5% this brew was pretty easy drinking.

Pret a Porter

Peter Philip

Vitals

4.8% Alcohol

30 IBU

35 SRM

Ingredients

Pale malt, flaked barley, black barley, caraamber and chocolate malt

East Kent Goldings

Safale S-04

Notes:

This brew was transferred from keg to plastics bottles which I think result in a loss of the aroma. Although what it lacked in the smell it more than made up with in taste very smooth and easy to drink.

German Dark Ale

Greg Hughes

Vitals

none provided

Ingredients

Light malt extract, black grain

Northern Brewer & Hallertau Hops

European Ale Yeast

Notes:

Awesome aroma I think I am a sucker for anything with Hallertau in it, on the palate  very tasty and easy drinking.

The Governor

Michael Hodge

Vitals

8.5% Alcohol

53 IBU

Ingredients

Light malt extract, roasted barley, crystal grain, caramalt, roasted wattle seeds

Perle & Hallertau Hops

Lager yeast

Notes:

This was possibly my favourite beer of the night, packed full of flavour. The roasted wattle seeds added a great uniqueness to this brew, on the palate Cherries and raisins shone though balanced perfectly balanced with the heat from the alcohol.

Cherry Fever Stout

Sam Haldane

Vitals

6.5% Alcohol

30 IBU

60 SRM

Ingredients

Light & Dark DME, Medium crystal, black malt, roasted barley

Northern Brewer & Willamette hops

Wyeast #1272 (American Ale 2)

Notes:

Very rich the cherries combined perfectly with the stouts richness to produce something akin to a Cherry Ripe in liquid form.

Kobushi Black Dragon

Jesse Hopwood

Vitals

6.75% Alcohol

Ingredients

Liquid caramel extract, light DME, Chocolate, pale, crystal and carafa I malts

Perle, East Kent Goldings, Chinook, Saaz and Northern Brewer hops

Safale US yeast

Notes:

This beer definitely didn’t leave you wanting for taste. The extensive use of different hop varieties gave a hug level of complexity.

Coco Coconut Stout

Anthony Mills

Vitals:

5.89% Alcohol

36.5 IBU

70.6 EBC

Ingredients

Thomas Fawcett Golden Promise – Chocolate malt, Simpsons Golden naked oats, black malt, Weyerman Caraamber, Bairds Maris Otter, Light and dark DME

Challenger and Fuggles hops

Wyeast #1028 (London Ale)

Coconut meat, 1 vanilla bean, 90ml Malibu rum, Cocoa beans

Notes:

This was my own entry into the comp, and it did alot better than I expected it came second and won me a yeast voucher from Daves homebrew store in North Sydney. The first few weeks in the bottle the vanilla was overpowering to the point it I was going to write it off as a dud brew given time to age though this died down to a more subtle level, I couldn’t really taste the coconut although most people said they could.

Related: IPA Brewshare @ The Local Taphouse

Fortunately for the home brewer it is extremely easy and cheap to make a batch to enjoy. Coopers and Brigalow both sell Ginger beer extracts in kit form, although some people have told me they find the finished product’s taste a bit funny on the palate. Personally I haven’t tried either, i have never seen the point when the ingredients to make your Ginger beer from scratch can be located so cheaply and easily at your nearest supermarket.
If you don’t have some already, you will need to get yourself some brewing gear to make Ginger beer. A fermenter, hydrometer and some sterilizing powder is about all you need to get started, these can be purchased from any home brew store (find one near you here), and will cost you around $40 all up. Another option is buying a Coopers brew kit from Big W these are around $70 last time i looked, contain a few extras and have everything to get the budding home brewer up and brewing in no time.

Once you have the necessary equipment you will also need to get:

• 1 Packet generic ale yeast or ginger beer yeast
• 3 Lemons
• 2 Limes
• 60 grams Cream of tartar (baking section of the supermarket)
• 2kg Brown sugar
• 150 grams of freshly grated Ginger root

Making the beer:
First zest the lemons and limes (thinly cut off the very outer coloured edge of the skin) in a pot with 3 liters of water on the stove. Bring the pot of water to the boil and then add the cream of tartar, the ginger and the sugar. Stir until the sugar is fully dissolved then turn off the heat and pour into your sterilized fermenter. Juice the lemons and the limes and add to the fermenter along with 15 liters of cold tap water.
Stir the mix in the fermenter thoroughly, sprinkle your satchel of yeast on top stir again.
Seal up your fermenter and put it somewhere in the house that is around 18 – 25 degrees Celsius. The temperature where the fermenter is going to be doesn’t have to be spot on but try and avoid places where the temperature is likely to fluctuate a lot during the day i.e near sunny windows etc.
The airlock on the fermenter should start bubbling around 16 – 32 hours later, and will continue to ferment happily for around the next 8 days (exact time will vary depending on the ambient temperature and exact yeast used). When the airlock appears to have stopped bubbling take a hydrometer reading wait 48 hours and then repeat if both readings were the same you are now ready to bottle. If your hydrometer readings differed wait a few days and repeat the testing process again as your beer is still fermenting.

Bottling your brew:
Bottling is easily the most time consuming part of the brewing process and for one fermenter, sterilizing the bottles, filling, priming and capping will take around 1 1/2 – 2 hours of time.
First you need to sterilize enough empty bottles (375mL Stubbies or 700mL longnecks work best) to hold your brew. You now need to add some more sugar to the fermenter so your beer will end up fizzy. If you stuck to the recipe and have exactly 18L of beer you will need to dissolve 150 grams of sugar in 500mL of water and cool add to your fermenter and stir.
Fill all your bottles and cap, then put them aside for 1 – 2 weeks to prime before chilling and drinking.
I personally prefer this brew better when the ginger flavours are nice and fresh with some bite so don’t worry about leaving it to age for an extended period before drinking.

Troubleshooting your brew

The fermenter airlock never started bubbling:
Check the temperature where the fermenter is the yeast may just be dormant due to the cold, try moving the fermenter somewhere warmer.
Did you add the yeast to the fermenter after adding the cold water? The Yeast will be killed if its added while the temperature is too high. If you suspect you have killed the yeast buy another satchel and add it to the fermenter, if your lucky you can recover from this mistake.

Beer not fizzy when you open a bottle:
Did you remember to prime your brew with sugar? Secondary fermentation in the bottle is necessary to gas your beer. Not much that can be done to fix this mistake as the beer is already in the bottles. It is still alcoholic and perfectly fine to drink so its not a total loss.

Bottles of beer exploding:
You either primed with too much sugar or didn’t wait until the fermentation was completely finished before bottling. Be sure never to bottle if the hydrometer reading is above 1.012.

Ginger beer smells and tastes bad:
When it comes to brewing cleanliness is number one! Some sort of bacteria has no doubt made itself at home in your brew. Throw the beer out and start again making sure everything your ginger beer comes in contact with is sterile first.