Here is a great video of a beer production line filmed by tech blog gizmodo. The beer is named Arvo and is a new product by the Australian wine people behind the currently very popular Yellowtail brand. Jump on their link below to read the full story or watch the video of production line above.
Posts under ‘Brewing’
Hoppsy visit Hallertau
About half an hour’s drive out of Auckland along State Highway no 16 is the lovely rural area of Riverhead. The area has plenty of farmland, vineyards and fruit producers. We came across a great little brewbar and restaurant which had an incredible range of quality beers called Hallertau. They produced beers using the traditional artisan processes with nothing other than water, yeast, hops and barley and rainwater. The brewers produce four regular beers and a range of seasonable brews, we were lucky enough to try a few of them including the Copper Tart or No 3 beer which as the name suggests is a red ale with a very tasty caramel and chocolaty taste. Delicious. Their Statesman Beer or No 2 was a very rich pale ale which had a fairly bitey hops kick. They also did a nice Kolsch style beer called Luxe or No 1 which had some delightful fruity aromas and aftertastes and plenty of character. The venue had great food, there was a as they called it grazing menu in the bar area with a range of tasty treats and more of a restaurant style menu in the main part of the complex. The beer has been recognised by many leading critics in New Zealand and due to the small quantities produced is pretty hard to get outside the brewery but several places around Auckland are stocking it as a boutique craft brew.
Hoppsy visits the Tui Brewery in NZ
We had a wonderful afternoon visiting the Tui brewery and headquarters in Mangatainoka New Zealand, which is a short drive from Palmerston North on the North Island. What an awesome little set up the guys have, it is fantastic. Set amongst farmland the historic Tui tower can be seen for miles so there’s no problem finding it. There’s an amazing welcoming centre complete with bar and giftshop, plenty of outdoor seating and a huge expanse of grass to enjoy a beer or meal. The bar features some pretty interesting drops of beer too, not only do they serve the Tui we have come to love on our Beer tour of New Zealand but they also stock a couple of beers not sold anywhere else- so it’s pretty special. Tui offer tours of the brewery which is amazing, seeing how they produce beer from the freshest of ingredients. The friendly staff not only show you behind the scenes of the brewing process they end the tour as all good tours should end finishes with a taste of their tasty brews you even get to take home a Tui glass- how good is that!
Brew one of Australia’s finest at Home
Coopers is one of Australia’s great brewers and now you can make their magnificent beers at home with this great microbrew kit we found in the USA. The kit comes with everything you need to make beer. There’s the brew tub, all the plumbing, spoons thermometers the lot. All you need to do is mix the supplied ingredients add some water then wait for the brew to bubble away and turn into beer. Then when ready bottle it in the bottles supplied and keep for a little while and before you know it, you will be drinking your very own Coopers Beer. Doesn’t sound too hard does it- well there’s an easy to follow DVD and book just to make it easier. This kit is a great kit for people starting out brewing and is sure to start what will be a rewarding and fun hobby making beer at a fraction of the price of the packaged stuff. For more details
What are hops?
The Hops Cone
Many beers contain hops, they do two very important things to the beer, firstly give it some flavor, hops add a bit of bitterness to the beer and give it a fruity and herbal aroma. The hops also acts as a natural preservative helping the beer keep longer. The hops are actually female flower pods which look like cones from the hop plant called Humulus Lupulus. The plant is a close relation to the Cannabis hemp plant and grows on what is called a bine which is a bit like a vine but has hairs to aid its climbing. The plants grow very fast with it’s shoots growing up to several inches a day. One of the most popular strains of hops are grown in the Hallertau Valley in Germany, other large produces are the USA, the Czech Republic and China. Hops are added to the beer in different ways but we will touch on that in a later story along with a story on some of the popular types of hops – Hallertau, Saaz, Tettnag and Splat .
Brew yourself a Spicy Ghost
Cascade Spicy Ghost Kit
Cascade the famous beer from Hobart, Tasmania now a subsidiary of the Foster’s Group has launched a wonderful range of premium brewing kits, where you can make some pretty tasty beer in your own home. One of our favorites is the Spicy Ghost Draught which has a real zesty spicy taste. The kits make 23 litres and all you need to do is add water and a kilo of sugars to the supplied can of extracts and yeast and a few weeks later you will be drinking a great beer. Cascade has a great range of beers to choose including a Chocolate Mahogany Porter, a pale ale and Golden Harvest Lager all which bring back some of the tastes of the Brewery’s long heritage dating back to 1824.
Its all in the yeast
Yeast
Yeast has been used for thousands of years to brew beer, but it wasn’t until the mid 1850′s when French scientist Louis Pasteur discovered that yeast converted sugars to produce alcohol, before then brewers must have just thought the production of alcohol was magic. The yeast used in beer really changes the taste and the length the beer takes to brew. There are thousands of strains and the big breweries are very protective of their yeast cultures, with many cultivating them for hundreds of years. As there is natural yeast in the air it is very easy to contaminate your yeast with other strains. There are two main types of brewers yeast, top fermenting and bottom fermenting- the difference is where the yeast ferments, bottom fermenting tends to ferment at the bottom of the barrel were the other at the top making a foamy top on the wort. Bottom fermenters are usually used to produce lager style beers while many of the darker or higher alcohol beers tend to use the top fermenters which usually brew the beer a bit sweeter or fruitier
Bottle your Mr Beer brew
Last week we featured the Mr Brew Beer Kit, and by all accounts plenty of our readers took up the great offer and bought one of the kits. Well now you are going to need somewhere to put your brew, because it only takes about 2 weeks before you need to bottle. Here’s a cheap and easy way, with the Mr Beer Deluxe Bottling System. There are eight one litre PET plastic bottles, caps and even lables everything you need for a batch of Mr Beer, you just cant go wrong. Before you know it you will be driniking your very own beer…How cool is that!
It’s Mr Beer..That name again is Mr Beer!
How’s this for a great micro brew kit, its got everything you need and it looks so cool! The clever fermentation chamber is shaped like a old wooden barrel and would look great on any bar. The kit has everything you need to brew your first beer, you just need to mix the ingredients and ad water. Then in only 2 weeks you can be drinking your first brew. The kit is reusable you just need to purchase a new starter kit. It’s a great way to drink good quality beer at a fraction of the cost and best of all it’s something you have made your self- what a way to impress your friends. This item can only be shipped within the USA but other regions should get down to their local brew shop and see what type of kits they have- they are sure to have something great to get you started. Happy Brewing!
Bottling your home brew
If you have been following our home brew series you would have guessed we are about to talk about bottling this week. Your standard home brew kit will produce enough beer to fill approx 48 330ml bottles often known as the stubbie or longneck. We chose this size for two reasons, 1. it is pretty easy to get suitable bottles around this size and 2. it a nice size to drink out of if the need be. In Australia a few years back most home brewers liked to use the 750ml size king brown, these have fallen out of favor as the king browns sold by Australian breweries has switched to twist tops.
