Hi Brewers,
A few months ago we floated the idea of BREWING A BEER FROM SCRATCH. And with the Brunswick Show 2022 Beer Competition fast approaching we had the crazy idea to enter it.
SHOCK! HORROR!! GASP!!!
No more of this CAN & KILO nonsense. FROM GRAIN TO GLASS this would be a time intensive process requiring patience and the competent use of electrical equipment.
We weren’t letting our COMPLETE LACK OF MASH BREWING EXPERIENCE get us down with this one either. If we’ve proved anything so far it’s that you can make a boatload of brewing mistakes and, against all odds, still turn out a quality end product.
But this is for a COMPETITION.
And damn if WHITE LINE FEVER isn’t flowing through our veins so much that we've already written our acceptance speeches.
So, strap yourselves in as we MILL SOME GRAIN and fire up the BREWZILLA because we’re making a NEIPA.
Why a NEIPA?
Mainly due to the time constraints we’re under. Our first day of brewing is August 8th, 2022. The competition judging is mid-September, so we need something we can get maturing in the keg pretty quickly.
The fact that Neipa’s are described as almost like “DRINKING FRESH FRUIT JUICE” is just a plus for us cocktail lovers.
We did NOT win.
We would however, like to pass on our CONGRATULATIONS to Joel, one of our awesome customers, who won BEST IN SHOW. His beer was on tap at the Brunswick Show and available at The Rose Hotel in Bunbury. Make sure you give it a try if you haven’t already.
So...we didn’t win. But with the benefit of hindsight and armed with the COMMENTS FROM ALL FIVE COMPETITION JUDGES, we’ve now been able to highlight the potential issues and RED FLAGS we had along the way and SHARE THEM WITH YOU.
We’re going to take this information and their constructive critiques and look to improve for next year.
DAY 1 - First things first - Instructions.
Dave has set us up with a recipe from the Brewfather app. We really want a fruity beer so he’s altered the recipe to suit what we would like.
This could potentially be our first mistake. We’ll see.
Time to mill 5kg of MARIS OTTER grain with 500g of ROLLED OATS.
No biggie there. The mill only takes a couple of minutes to run through the 5.5kg we need for our mash.
Neither Joce nor I have ever used a BREWZILLA before so Dave has set it up for us.
When we get into the kitchen the BREW BAG is in place, to help us remove the spent grain from the Brewzilla after boiling, the water is running and the temperature is set to a warm 50°.
Dave gives us a quick tutorial. It all seems fairly straightforward so it’s time to GET WET.
Joce pours the milled grain in slowly while I handle the hose, ensuring to wet it all down.
The BREWZILLA is attached to the tap and the water is filling up. We’re not sure how full it’s meant to get and our repeated questions to Dave about how we know when to turn off the tap fall on deaf ears.
After a few anxious minutes with one hand on the tap, concerned that we’re going to overflow, he decides to let us know that he’s already put the right amount of water in there and that the BREWZILLA actually has a nifty little design feature called a RECIRCULATING PUMP. *insert curse words here*
Once the grain is wet we set the timer and let it sit at temperature for 10 minutes.
Then we raise the temperature to 64°, wait till it gets up to temp then set the timer for another 40 minutes. It’s pretty much like any old night cooking dinner.
We come back and check it every 5-10 minutes because CLOGGED OATS are apparently our nemesis and can cause the water to raise and overflow. No one wants to be the one to have to clean that up.
20 minutes in we gently stir the mixture, being careful not to rip the brew bag. We lower the recirculation rate because it’s getting a little foamy.
At this temperature it’s too hot to use the hydrometer so we check the SG with the REFRACTOMETER. Currently 1.027. When the 40 minutes is up we increase the temperature to 78° for 10 minutes.
At this point the SG should be 1.044 and IT IS!!
Then we realise we read the screen wrong and it wasn’t up to temperature yet and we have to wait another 10 minutes. But we don’t care because the SG is still the same. #winning
After a stressful 90+ minutes THE MASH IS DONE.
Next step, SPARGE.
We lift the malt pipe out of the juices and pour an extra 10L of water @78° through the BREW BAG to
get the last of the sugars out of the mash. We let it drain and remove the brew bag with the spent grain.
GRAIN TASTE TEST.
You can do a simple IODINE TEST to check if the mash is complete. With a few drops in the wort if there are any unconverted starches it will quickly turn black/dark-blue.
Alternatively if you chew on a little spent grain at this point, like we did, you should notice the grain is no longer sweet at all.
We’re aiming for a 7% beer so we’re very happy about this.
Current gravity 1.036
Next we add 1kg of Briess WHEAT MALT (Sugar) to the mix.
Gravity is now 1.050
We increase the temperature to 101° to ensure it boils and add a few drops of ANTI FOAMING AGENT.
Once we’re at boiling point we turn off the recirculation pump.
We add 15g of BRAVO HOPS and let it boil for 45 minutes. Then add 25g of ZAMBA HOPS and boil for a further 15 minutes.
We then use a cooling coil to quickly reduce the temperature back down to 80°. It’s a bit fiddly and uses a fair bit of water but it’s effective.
Once it’s at temperature we let it sit for 10 minutes. And then it’s time for MORE HOPS.
We add 25g of BRU-1 and wait for 10 minutes.
Then, to be able to pitch the yeast, we add the cooling coil again and reduce the temperature to 20°.
Once we reach temperature we transfer the wort to the fermenter.
We’re using the FERMZILLA 30L pressure fermenter. The clear vessel allows you to see each stage of fermentation so we set it up in the front of the shop for our customers to check out.
Current check of the SG shows 1.058
We’re happy with the temperature so we pitch the yeast, MANGROVE JACKS HOP HEAD (M66), and set up the pressure fermenter with a HOP BONG KIT that will let us easily DRY HOP on days 3 and 5.
Next step is clean up.
At this point we’ve been at it for 5 HOURS.
When we checked the fermenter at 5pm, approx 3 hours into the ferment, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WAS HAPPENING.
What do you do when fermenting fails to start?
YOU ADD ANOTHER YEAST and hope for the best!!!!!!!
Day 2.
We have flow. We have movement. We have a beautiful toasted marshmallow looking coloured foam at the top of our wort. That means we have FERMENTATION!
Day 3.
Time to DRY HOP.
We now add 75g of ZAMBA HOPS to the HOP BONG, allow some CO2 into the chamber, purge the oxygen out the top and drop the hops into the fermenter. Easy.
Day 5.
Fermentation has STALLED OUT AT 1020. At this stage it will probably be a lower ABV of approx 6%.
TASTE TEST – The fruity flavour has DISAPPEARED.
The BITTER is most definitely still there. It currently has a hazy, murky look which is a characteristic of a NEIPA.
At this point we’re disappointed in the flavour. We wanted a super fruity beer so after much discussion we’re going to ADD MORE HOPS.
125g of BRU-1 goes into the HOP BONG and into our brew.
This is the THIRD TIME we’ve altered the recipe. And we’re now at a total of 265g of hops.
Day 8.
FINAL GRAVITY 1.016
FINAL ABV 5.5%
This is definitely lower than we expected when we started out. It’s not as high as a Neipa should be.
TASTE TEST - It’s still not super flavourful, despite the copious amount of hops we’ve put in. Definitely malt forward. We’re hoping the flavour will change with carbonation once we get it in the keg.
And then WHOOPSIES! We almost EXPLODE THE PRESSURE FERMENTER when we do the transfer.
We accidentally mixed the gas and liquid connections to the keg and blew CO2 back into the pressure fermenter.
One second we were looking at the beautiful toasted marshmallow and pistachio coloured hop foam, the next we were watching the foam expand, violently splattering itself to the entire inside of the vessel as the
gas looked for a weak spot to escape from.
Lucky for us Dave caught the mistake and shut it down before anything dangerous happened. He fixed the issue, filled our keg and then left us alone to scrape out the splattered hops now plastered to the inside of the fermenter like glue.
Day 12.
TASTE TEST – Honestly, it was better than we thought it was going to be. The bitter after taste is no longer over-powering all the flavours and there's a faint hint of fruit showing through.
Hopefully as it matures the fruity flavour will improve.
Day 15.
TASTE TEST – The first glass from the keg is milky. The second has a clear haze and a full head. No fruity flavours are coming through at all. The bitter taste isn’t going anywhere either.
It’s seriously disappointing.
There’s always the potential for us to add a different hop or even sneak in a PUNCHY ESSENCE before we finalise our entry. We aren’t sure yet. We need some time to think.
Day 24.
We’ve decided not to introduce another hop flavour into the mix. But we make one last ditch effort at getting this beer where we want it.
So, we add ANOTHER 100g of ZAMBA HOPS using a HOP BOMB in the keg. We’re willing to try just about anything to get some good flavour.
This is now the FOURTH TIME we’ve altered the recipe. And we’re now at a total of 365g of hops.
This is one expensive beer.
Day 29.
We remove the hop bomb and leave it to settle. At this point we’re just crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.
We’ve been working at this NEIPA for a full month and ABV is now sitting around 5%.
Technically it’s a HAZY IPA.
So, our NEIPA has been christened THE NOPA and we’ll be entering it into the competition as a HAZY.
FINAL TASTE TEST - To our surprise, as a beer it’s okay. It’s not as fruity as we wanted and there is definitely a lingering bitterness. But overall it’s PERFECTLY DRINKABLE.
We’ve obviously had several issues but for our first attempt at a MASH BEER we’re pretty proud of it.
There’s nothing we can do now except bottle some up and send it in to be judged.
BECAUSE THE COMPETITION IS WHY WE’RE HERE.
We all know we didn’t win, but how did we actually do?
Well, the judges have spoken. In terms of the four areas of grading, our HAZY IPA (NOPA) got varying responses but overall it did not bring the house down.
Judge 1 - 27/50
Judge 2 - 18/50
Judge 3 - 25/50
Judge 4 - 27/50
Judge 5 - 20/50
AROMA - The consensus was that, despite 365g of hops, we are still lacking in hop aroma. There are also vegetal notes (slight taste of cabbage or broccoli), possibly from an unhealthy yeast or the result of adding so many hops.
APPEARANCE - The consensus was the haze is borderline acceptable and there was decent head retention.
FLAVOUR - The consensus was the bitterness is overriding the fruit flavours. The vegetal notes are an issue.
MOUTHFEEL - The consensus was that the bitterness is lingering. The carbonation is okay. And one judge said it is “cloying”. (We googled that one as pertaining to beer and it means that it’s out of balance - they’re not wrong.)
OVERALL IMPRESSION - The consensus was that there are a few flavour faults and the aroma is a little off. Some good feedback was to look at our yeast health and ways to improve its vitality and viability.
Looking back at our RED FLAGS, these comments are valid.
1. We had yeast issues.
2. The amount of hops we used, especially those left in the keg after the final hop bomb, likely contributed to the vegetal notes.
3. We didn’t hit our target ABV. Possibly due to unconverted starches in our grain.
4. The shelf-life was terrible, quickly turning undrinkable within weeks.
So our Neipa, turned Nopa, was actually a NO-GO-PA!
There’s a lot of lessons to be learned here and we aren’t giving up.
If anything this has spurred us on to do better next year.
Rest assured that there’ll be a bit more planning involved and less fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants brewing.
Until next time brewers,
Joce & Sharm
P.S Keep an eye on our Facebook page because next up we’re making a BELGIAN WIT BEER and it's gonna be PINK!
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