Monday, December 19, 2011

Fruli

OK, 3 days in and the Imperial Fruli no longer needs a blow off. In fact, it seems to have exhausted itself. No point in adding restart because it's done it's thing. I had a sniff and it's definitely boozy with some strawberries also. It was at that time that I decided to actually try a Fruli. Whoah! not subtle at all. Sev seems to be enjoying it but this is not really a beer as far as I can see. It's a cloudy pink colour with a thin white head. Aroma of artificial strawberry sweets and caramel. Similar flavours with a sweet and tangy fruit tingle finish. Definitely not my thing but I can see there is a market... As for Imperial Fruli. 2 weeks in secondary with or without beechwood will tell...

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Frozen Donut 2


So tonight we bottle another tribute beer. Based loosely on the Frozen Donut DIPA recipe brewed in honour of Sev's grandmother on her birthday. This IPA is again quite floral and hoppy with a nice amount of bitterness. Two weeks of dry-hopping has really upped the aroma. A small beer was also bottled last weekend from the final run-off from this mash. The small beer is a Belgian Bitter and really packs a punch. Both beers are 6.6%, with the Belgian Bitter gaining a few points from Belgian candi sugar and candied fruit peel in the boil. Both tasting good so far but time for the arduous rinsing of bottles...

Pumpkin Ale





I thought I'd put up a few pics of our first pumpkin ale, brewed for a Halloween party last year. This was a partial mash brew which included roasted spiced pumpkin, malt extract and Nelson Sauvin hops. It turned out a treat. So we repeated it this year but this time it was all-grain. 4L was then racked into a demijohn on shredded candied ginger for another week. This years batch is about ready to drink and promises to be another good one : )

Imperial Fruli


On Friday night, I decided to make an impromptu beer from fermentables in my kitchen. I had a tub of frozen prepared strawberries that I was wanting to use and so started raiding the cupboards. I came up with a jar and a bit of maple syrup, some blossom honey, a decent amount of Belgian candi sugar and the majority of a 500g bag of extra pale malt. Checking to make sure I could ferment this bad boy on the night, I found a packet of dry restart yeast and some yeast nutrient (handily!)

The challenge, to make an Imperial Fruli from the above household items. All went well and I managed an OG of 1.08, so I should theoretically have a 10% beer on my hands. I think it has definite potential to be rancid, however, it should at least be interesting. The first night I rigged up a blow-off and left the 1 gallon demijohn in the sink in case it went crazy. It was fairly slow to start but once the heating belt was applied the next morning it really took off. It's now day 2 and the beer is fermenting away nicely...