I just got emailed this one and found the need to share.  Whilst they are drinking what is most likely a shit beer, it’s probably better that it is because I would hate to see good beer getting wasted like that…

Ok, so I read an article this morning by Steve Corona (CTO @ Twitpic) about giving up Social Media for 30 days and it struck a chord.  You can read the article here.  http://stevecorona.com/how-30-days-without-social-media-changed-my-life
So rather than doing the usual thing of waiting till the end of the month for this kind of adventure or waiting till the time is right, I am going to have a crack at this starting today. now. right now… (well almost)

The plan is to switch off social media for 30 days.  Delete the twitter & facebook apps from my iPhone and iPad, log out of facebook on my laptop & desktop and maybe even get my partner to change the password.  The plan is to remove myself from the daily flotsam and jetsam of micro-blogging contributors.  Reduce the noise and hopefully allow myself to get a bit of clarity.  Remove the chatter and allow thoughts to develop fully.

It doesn’t mean I wont contribute on these platforms, but if I do it will be via syndication; ie. I post a blog and it auto posts to twitter and facebook – and hopefully this will be in some more meaningful way than my usual idle banter.  If you see a post from me on Twitter or Facebook, hopefully it will be because I have posted something on my blog rather than me caving in and logging back in.

Now I may falter, weaken and succumb to the temptation that is the constant 24hr instant gratification that is social media, and I am hoping that my friends will stand by me and tell me to get off social media and stay the course of the project.

If you need to get in touch with me, or feel like you are missing my input on something important, there will still be ways to get in touch.  You could always email me, call me or do something crazy like arrange to catch up for a coffee or lunch.  If you don’t have those details, you should be able to get in touch with my via this site.

This should be interesting.  Giddy up!

First crack at creating a pumpkin spiced ale. Freestyled it based on what was in the cupboard. After tasting it, clearly not enough pumpkin. After chats and reading it was suggested to try dry hopping it with pumpkin. Seems like a good idea.

The pumpkin was roasted for an hour or so before being added to the mix. Also added some demerera to mix to correct the recipe, as i didn’t have it handy at the time.

Also testing out t-shirts to insulate the kegs. Protect them from light-strike and give slightly more temperature insulation. It’s a theory. Lets see if it works.

The final test relates to agitating the fermenter to bring the yeast back into action. @carrywater suggested this one. I needed it because the Pumpkin Ale had slowed on fermentation and i wanted to see if agitating the brew would bring the yeast back into action to deal with the new elements I was adding. I also gave the Ginger brew a shake to see if that might give it a bit more activity to dry it out. Always experimenting…

Tags: beer, craftbeer, homebrew

Just saw this on the FastCoDesign website Very cool. For the full article, head to : http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662364/infographic-of-the-day-your-complete-guide-to-beer

This is one of those moments of things just happening at the right time. I was having a conversation with one of the crew from @WyeastLab about… well… yeast… and they mentioned catching up at @anhcthree . when they mentioned this I checked the website, and there was no mention of a 2012 ANHC (Australian National Homebrewers Conference). I hit up the website and sent them an email asking if there was to be another ANHC, and got a quick response from Jeff saying he was just updating the website.

So huzzah, http://www.anhc.com.au was announced today and the site is now live.

Check it out here… http://www.anhc.com.au/index.php/8-news/14-and-we-re-back

Folks who know me will understand some of my fascination with slow food, slow cooking and homebrew & craftbeer. Something that has evolved out of this is an exploration of the world of smokers and smoking. I’ve had a smoker since Christmas and have been running through some serious experiments attempting to understand the world of smoking meats.


So on a recent trip to Molalla, OR (USA) I was stoked to discover that the folk I was staying with were avid smokers, and had been running their current smoker for the last 15 years. Inspired, and armed with some tried and true Oregonian recipes, I have returned inspired to crank up my smoker and give it a hiding.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: slowfood, smoker

I spotted a tweet by Ben from Bridge Road Brewery earlier pointing to the changes in the exise refund for breweries.  Just thought I should repost the actual excerpt for folks interested in the changes.

RT @NakedNed: Excise relief for all brewers, = benefit to small craft brewers http://www.budget.gov.au/2012-13/content/bp2/html/bp2_revenue-09.htm

> excerpt from http://www.budget.gov.au/2012-13/content/bp2/html/bp2_revenue-09.htm

Extending the microbreweries excise refund scheme

Revenue ($m)

The Government will extend the current microbreweries excise refund scheme by increasing the maximum refund amount from $10,000 to $30,000 and removing the current production eligibility threshold of 30,000 litres of beer, with effect from 1 July 2012. The amendments will allow breweries to receive an excise refund of 60 per cent of excise paid, up to a maximum amount of $30,000 per financial year. They will also ensure that the refund does not penalise successful local breweries as they expand their production.

This measure is estimated to have a cost to revenue of $10.0 million over the forward estimates period.

Serious props to the lads over at http://www.northernbrewer.com/ for this very informative video.  Covers all the steps, and some good tips that I had not thought of.

So I had been in LA for the night, and none of my meetings (the real reason I am in the USA) had come through, so I was at a loose end.  Fortunately the international jetsetter @beermule suggested that if I had a car, I should jump in the car and head on down to Newport Beach. He also put me in touch with @BrewCoBrewer Derek who is the Brewer at @NBbrewco

At this stage I was keen to get out of Hollywood so I jumped in the rental and trekked down to Newport Beach.  It was only about 45mins in traffic so it seemed I had managed to avoid the infamous LA traffic that everyone complains about.  Derek was kind enough to give me a tour of their brewery and then take the time to talk me through a tasting flight of their beers.  It is always cool to be able to chat with the brewer while you are drinking their beer. I particularly enjoyed the Village Idiot IPA & the Me So Hoppy Double IPA, though the absolute standout of the set was the One Step Beyond Sour.  Every taste was a mouth puckering moment, but I just couldn’t stop drinking it.  Such an epic beer, and worth the drive just for that.

If you have time while you are in LA, its worth a drive down to Newport Beach to check out the selection at Newport Beach Brewing Company.  They don’t bottle their beers so you can only drink them on site but I didn’t mind so much as the suitcase was already full of beer I am not sure of how to get back to Australia…

Cheers for Derek for showing me around.  You can find out more about @NBBrewCo at http://www.newportbeachbrewingcompany.com/

Oh, on the way back I decided to drop by Newport Beach.  The folks were way too pretty for me…