Brew Number 5

With a ripe pineapple (and slightly overripe grapefruit) lying in wait, I was primed to brew with fruit today. But then @BeerLabSA chewed through their backlog of orders like a 1st post-lockdown pizza and voila! Fresh, proper ingredients. #LockdownBrew 🧵 A wee step up from the SMASH from the last few weekend, but just a slight variation on the theme. …

Lockdown Brew Number 3 Ingredients

Brew Number 3

#QuartineBrew No.3 – SMASH, using the last of my supplies; ale malt, Southern Promise, bread yeast. Doing just a single step mash today. Put to bed at 64.5C in the awesome @WonderbagSA, which does an incredible job of holding temps. This time the mash is in there for 75 mins, so let's see how it holds… 75 mins later and …

Basic Setup for Small-batch Homebrewing

Basic Setup for Small-batch Homebrewing

I haven’t brewed in a little over a year, and it took being confined to home (and yes, running out of beer) to fall in love with my basic setup for small-batch homebrewing again. Turns out my current kitchen, and a few non-brewing bits and bops we acquired over the last year, has made brewing considerably easier than I remember. …

A list of homebrewing clubs in South Africa - CraftBru Tours

Homebrewing Clubs

Scratch the itch of a craft beer bug bite, by joining a homebrewing club. But where oh where in South Africa can you find such a thing? Your Brother in Beer went digging.

Padas River Oatmeal Stout

Tasting: Padas River Oatmeal Stout

Padas River Oatmeal Stout has been in the bottle for just about a week now, but I couldn’t resist and uncorked the first one last night. Named for a muddy river in Borneo, which is as exhilarating as it is brown and foamy, the stout sure does live up to its name.

Homebrewed KickAss IPA v1 Tasting - Rocky head needs tweaking. Aiming for creamy.

Home-brewed KickAss IPA Tasting

I “test tasted” nearly my entire little nano-batch of half-matured KickAss IPA and almost exclusively by myself, save for 1 bottle that I gave to a friend for feedback. Not a great strategy for #IPADay, but at least there’s something else in the fermenter…

Robust Porter Tasting, from the CraftBru Homebrewing Anals

My Home-brewed Robust Porter Tasting

After much of almost exclusively my own anticipation, I finally cracked opened one the recently-brewed Robust Porters for a tasting. Aside from the fact that it’s the first dark beer I’ve ever brewed, it’s also my first all-grain result.

A very vigorous fermentation, laced with lots of hops

Bottling the KickAss IPA

I firmly believe there are no such things as mistakes; only lessons. All Grain Brew #2 certainly taught me a few hops specific lessons. As a novice beer adventurer I have no shame in admitting and, in fact, feel obligated to record these lessons, lest I have to learn them more than once.