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India Pale Ale (IPA) as legend has it was invented because the journey beer took from Britain to the colonies in India was too harsh on regular beers so the amount of hops added to the ale was increased and the recipe changed to increase the alcohol content slightly. This combination helped the beer weather the long trip a lot better and gavethe new style its name - IPA.

Ingredients

• 1 tin Thomas Coopers IPA
• 1 packet yeast (included with  tin above)
• 1 packet of Morgans finishing hops - Goldings variety
• 1 kilo of Munton’s light dry malt
• 1 mug of raw cane sugar

Preparation

Preparation was straightforward for this kit brew but I did take the special step of preparing the yeast properly. Thirty minutes before pitching the wort I added the yeast to a small, warm, pre-boiled mug of water with a few teaspoons of the light dry malt. This was then covered up, left for fifteen minutes and stirred before leaving it another fifteen minutes and added to the wort.

The finishing hops were also prepared thirty minutes before the rest of the ingredients were added to the fermenter.  The hop bag, which is rather like a teabag, was simply steeped in hot boiled water for thirty minutes and covered up.

The content of the tin was then added to the fermenter with two litres of boiling water. The dry malt and raw sugar was then slowly stirred in. The fermenter was filled up to the 23 litre mark with cold tap water. The final steps were to add the hop  bag and the water it was steeped in and pour the now bubbling away yeast into the mix.

After taking a specific gravity reading the original gravity came out to be 1052.

Outcome

The brew began bubbling vigorously but not aggressively within the first twelve hours. After five days it had settled down and I took another reading. Two days later it was ready to bottle with a final gravity of 1009. With this reading it should be 6.1% alcohol. Perfect for a pale ale.

Tasting

Since this beer was looking so good in theory I was keen to try it out and within three days of bottling it I couldn’t resist and cracked open my first. Suffice to say I was not disappointed, although still young and very harsh due to the large amount of hops I could detect the fruitiness of a well brewed ale.

A month on, I’ve almost run out as it’s been a hit. The harshness has all but dissolved away and what we’re left with is a brew that has a very fruity aroma, quite a bite and a slightly malty after taste.

Some say there are two types of homebrew - the one where people ask for more and the type where when offered more people politely decline. This was definitely the former.

I finally took the plunge this week and did what every Australian male has to do one time or another during his life and that is make my own home brew.

I picked up a kit from Dave’s Home Brew in North Sydney for a shade under $90. The amount of beer that can be made from this initial kit, which includes all the ingredients, would cost you $100 from the bottle shop so it’s worth a try. Even if you do need to hold your nose every time you drink your first brew.

So on Saturday evening I cleaned and sanitised all the equipment then panicked. As every brewer knows the enemy of the brew is germs and my nose was leaking and I was coughing after a pretty nasty cold.  Having to mix everything up in the bathroom as well didn’t help my confidence levels. Regardless I moved on and mixed the batch up - what will hopefully become a nice pilsener. The kit used was a Morgan’s Golden Saaz Pilsener.

Fermentation

After mixing the batch up and sealing the bucket all there was to do was to wait for some bubbling action through the airlock. I waited and waited and come Sunday there was no action to speak of, except for the occasional bubble every twenty minutes. Once again I was panicking. By Sunday evening though the airlock was bubbling away which continued through until Tuesday evening when it stopped again.

After reading through the forums on the net I decided Wednesday evening to crack open the bucket and take a reading using the hydrometer. This reading was 1011 which according the hydrometer markings is a finished beer. The colour is a bright yellow and slightly cloudy with a fair amount of carbonation even though bottling and secondary fermentation is meant to achieve carbonation.

Tomorrow I’ll take another reading and if it’s the same then it’s time to bottle. Finding 30 750 ml bottles is going to be a challenge though. My collection currently stands at two. Luckily I have a friend who may be able to help out.

Bottling

It’s Saturday, exactly a week after I mixed up the brew and it seems to have finished.

As it turned out my friend didn’t have anywhere near enough standard sized bottles. So I forked out $36 for 30 PET plastic homebrew bottles. So it looks like I’m going to at least have to brew two batches to make it a worthwhile investment. Given the ingredients for the next batch should run to about $30 I’ll probably just break even.

I took another reading of Specific Gravity (SG) this time the proper way by using the valve at the bottom of the bucket. Allowing 100 mls or so to drain off then taking the reading from another couple of hundred mls. I knew I was going to get different readings because the last was taken from the top and this time it appears to be 1014 (a little high for a finished beer). I don’t know how much I trust these readings as getting an accurate reading with this equipment is like trying to get a cat to sit still. The hydrometer just keeps bobbing about and sticking to the edges of the test tube.

You’re not really meant to bottle while you’re getting different SG figures but it’s been a week with the brew at a pretty constant 22C and it tastes ready. In fact it’s tasting pretty good now. It’s got quite a malty flavour and not as hoppy or metallic as I was expecting from a Pilsner.

Update: I’m holding off on bottling and will check the SG again in a few days. The general consensus on the interwebs is that the SG is far too high. Plus after moving the bucket a bit and letting it settle down it bubbled a bit more so I think it’s just taking its time.

The Saturday after

It’s been two weeks now since I “pitched” my brew and since checking on Wednesday the SG has remained at 1011. Still high but it’s time to go. After spending a couple of hours cleaning the kitchen and sanitising the bottles I bottled most of it. Except for a spare I kept to refrigerate and drink that night. Boy did that give me nightmares, but that may be because it was too young. I’m hoping once the minimum of a week is up I can try a fully carbonated beer that doesn’t taste like a lollypop and won’t leave me wondering what those dreams were about the next day.

More updates in a week or two when it’s time to crack open the finished product.

The drinking

Two weeks after bottling the beer it has matured enough to drink. Pouring the chilled beer shows it is well carbonated but has almost no head. It is slightly cloudy and has a very rich sugary yellow colour.

It smells like beer, slightly yeasty.

Given my un-trained palate I would say it tastes caramelish with a slight medicinal taste (I suspect idophor sanitiser). There are hints of ginger. The aftertaste is very much like apple.

Although the alcohol level seems quite low I’m very happy. I can drink a couple of  bottles without having nightmares or feeling ill the next day. Time to brew my second batch soon.

I am addicted to patience, also known as solitaire. One type in particular - klondike. The easiest of all the varieties of solitaire.

This game only requires basic problem solving skills but it is incredibly frustrating. You will find yourself having to give up on games a couple of moves from a win because the one card you needed was under that stack and there’s nowhere to move that king because a lone two sits there taunting you.

I play it on my mobile every time I have a spare minute. I feel as if I’m wasting my life but in reality the time would simply be wasted meditating or day dreaming.

The question I guess I’ve been coming around to is this - why do we continue to perservere at tasks that frustrate us? Is it merely a human trait or does your cat feel frustrated when it can’t quite reach that bench? Why does she keep trying?  Does your dog become frustrated when you won’t take the 20th hint that he wants to go walkies?

Are you the reader frustrated that I almost always leave my blog entries with an open end?

If you know me then you know that I rant on a bit about Sculpture by the Sea. Even though I love it to death and think it does great things for Sydney’s cultural desert - it does have its issues. Issues like exclusionism and over corporatisation. Take this chap’s plight as an example.

People have asked me - “Why don’t you set up your own show then?”. Well, I’m too lazy. Ok no, I’m not motivated enough to jump through all the hoops it would require. Mainly around permissions to use sites and the logistics of promoting the event.

What if one could install a virtual exhibition in a public place?

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I’ve finally finished my first roll of super 8 and Nanolab have processed and telecined it for me.  Richard from Nanolab was really helpful and even gave me some tips to improve things on the next lot of film.  Here’s the film in all its 3:30 glory. More info after the players.

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Finally..I’ve finished my first roll of 8mm film. I know I said I’d do this film in one continuous roll but I cheated a bit so I’m rolling over two. I still plan on doing the entire movie on the equivalent of one roll though.

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I’ve embarked on a project to document Sydney in the closing days of 2008. It will be filmed on 8mm film in a number of locations in and around the central business district (CBD).

The primary aim of the movie is to document what Sydney looks like in 2008. What wasn’t there in the heyday of the 8mm format and how it has changed since. By using this old film stock I hope to, rather contradictorily, show Sydney in a timeless fashion, in a medium that hasn’t changed for almost 50 years.

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Yes people it’s back on. Spring, open air, the ocean and sculptures. What could be better?

For those of you who don’t know Sculpture By the Sea is an annual event held in spring every year in Sydney.  Hundreds of sculptures are placed along the famous Bondi to Bronte seaside walk and hundreds of thousands of people come to look at them over a period of two weeks.

For Sydney siders this has to be the biggest art event of the year. Especially for such a superficial city as ours.

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In this series I will be attempting to document my progress with the making of a painting. The painting is just the latest in a series that have been centred around a silhouette of a cow. Why I obsess about cows on colourful backgrounds I do not know, so I’ll leave that until another time.

I will break down the process of painting into steps and analyse each of them. (more…)