Yup, it looks like my next two brews will be the Cooper’s Australian Pale Ale by popular demand! Seems that a lot of my friends just love the taste of this kit.  I myself thinks that the taste is quite okay but it is nothing spectacular. Sure, it is easy to drink and extremely refreshing but I guess I am a little bit choosy. I like my beers with more flavour and most importantly, body. It is not to say I don’t like light beers, in actual fact I love light beers. I enjoy a glass of Carlsberg as anyone else (in Singapore) but after drinking craft beers, I know that I am missing out on a lot of other great tasting beers.You could say that I have higher taste for beer? Hahahaha!

Anyways, the next brew recipe will be pretty standard. The Cooper’s Australian Pale Ale Beer Ingredient Kit and the Cooper’s Beer Enhancer 2 (BE2) plus a little Pride of Ringwood hops for flavouring. Either that or some Cascade hops. You can never go wrong with Cascades in Ales. The problem with this is that I need to add some malt extract first before I can add the hops. It has something to do with the hops extraction thingy. The Cooper’s Beer Enhancer 2 is a mix of dextrose, Malto-dextrin and Light Dry Malt Extract. So I am afraid that the sugars will darken too much if I add the BE2 in the beginning of the boil. I don’t want a darker colour for my beer if I could help it. Everyone complains and whines when the beer turns up dark and sometimes it really gets on my nerves. Anyways, I think I will just do a 10 minutes boil with about half the BE2 added at the beginning of the boil and the rest at the end of the boil. Something like the late malt extract addition concept.

And one of the other complains of the Australian Pale Ale I had done was that it was weak and lacks the kick. I thought I got a alcohol content of about 3% but apparently it is still quite low for my friends. I am wondering whether to add 2 packs of BE2 into the brew instead of just one. Or I could possibly add in another 500g of light malt extract? However, adding the malt extract could dilute the flavour from the beer ingredient kit, so I am at odds. I am also thinking of topping up with less water so that the alcoholic content would increase without losing any of the flavours or bitterness. Well, we will see how.

Yes, finally the day has arrived - Hoegaarden Clone Brew Day! And this is no a normal brew as this recipe requires some spices which needs to be prepared first. The spices include Coriander seeds, cumin seeds as well as some orange peel, which I have substituted for orange zest (the orangey skin of the fruit). And advise from experts, I have heat up the Coriander and the cumin seeds (till it smells aromatic) before crushing them. As you guys know, Hoegaarden is a spice beer so we are indeed adding some very weird spices. The base of the beer is still wheat beer which I have used Morgan’s Golden Sheaf Wheat Beer as well as the Master Blend Liquid Wheat Malt Extract.

The recipe are as follows:

1. Morgan’s Golden Sheaf Wheat Beer Kit (1.7kg)
2. Morgan’s Liquid Wheat Malt Extract (Master Blend) 1kg
3. Cooper’s Brew Enhancer 2 (Dextrose, Malto-dextrin & Light Dry Malt Extract)
4. Orange Zest (Fresh) from 2 oranges, 10 mins
5. Coriander Seeds (Roasted and cracked) 20g, 10 mins
6. Cumins Seeds (Roasted and cracked) 2g, 10 mins
7. Nottingham Ale Yeast
8. Yeast nutrients

Well, I had skipped the Saaz hops this time because I feel that the spices are way more important than the hops since I believe that they are the ones which contributes more to the flavour of the beer rather than the hops. Anyway, I have read that the Cumin seeds are actually very important to get as close as possible to the real taste of the beer. But Cumin seeds has a very pungent smell and taste, so I have only added about 2g (estimated) into the brew. Hopefully, it won’t be too overpowering and spoil the taste. Okay, I ask it is now time for the pictures!

The 20g of Coriander seeds. I have this at home, so I was lucky. I also have the Cumin seeds.

Both the Coriander and the Cumin seeds are able to be crushed by my mortar and pestle. Do note that I have heated a pan with both the seeds and waited till they start cracking and popping before putting them in the mortar. I was told that by doing this, the smell and the flavours would be further enhanced. I am really keeping my fingers cross that it does.

After I have done my best to pound the seeds. The idea is not to grind them into powder but just to crush the seeds and to expose them. This way, the flavours from the seeds can more easily be absorbed during the boiling process or so I was told.

The grater. Sort of like a cheese grater but this one is much finer which resulted in very little zest but they are very fine. Not too sure whether this is a good thing or not. A finer zest will surely give out more flavours, but there could also be more off-flavours given off during the boiling as well. Yes, I am a bit worried.

My mandarin orange. I used the zest from 2 oranges. Due to the fineness of the grater and the quality of the orange skin, it was very hard work to get the zest off the orange. Took me about 25 minutes in total to grate those two oranges. My arms and fingers are aching now.

So much work, so little zest. That’s all the zest I got from the two Mandarin oranges. Next time I think I will just go and buy some dried Bitter orange peel from the grocery store. Or perhaps just buy a bigger grater and save me a lot of trouble and arm pains.

Those are the Coriander seeds, Cumin seeds as well as the orange zest all in hop bags. Actually they are tea bags which I will later skilfully tied up with some needle and thread.

Well, all the ingredients for making the Hoegaarden Clone. You can see the 2 cans of Wheat Malt Extract and Wheat beer kit, as well as the Cooper’s Brew Enhancer 2 (milky white stuff) and yeast nutrients (the three tea bags are the Coriander seeds, Cumin seeds as well as the orange zest).

That’s the boiling of the Coriander seeds, Cumin seeds and the orange zest. As you can see, I have not add any malt extract during this time as I don’t want to the darken the malt and hence make the beer darker than it should be. However, I have read a lot of bad things about boiling without any malt extract, especially that the grassy flavours that comes out during the boil. Also, most recipes timings for the boil is for those with the malt extract added into the wort. So I am afraid that I might have boiled them too long.

That’s the Master Blend Wheat Malt Extract. This has a lift-up lid.

Oh my god! It’s so dark! Looks like it completely black in colour! My Hoegaarden clone experiment has gone completely wrong! Nobody’s going to believe that my brew is a Hoegaarden clone since Wheat beers are normally white in colour. But what can I do that this stage? I have no choice but to continue making the wort and hope for the best. Perhaps my friends will start to like a black Hoegaarden?

Hoohoohoo! From adding the Wheat Malt Extract to the wort. Again, it looks really too dark for a Hoegaarden clone.

Now, it’s open the Morgan’s Golden Sheaf Wheat Beer Kit and again hope that it is not black in colour. You got to use a can opener to open up the can, unlike the Morgan’s Malt Extract. Don’t know why they don’t just provide a lift-up lid as well. Probably they would like to give you a little more work when you open up the can.

Well, we were all wrong. It is indeed blackish in colour! I am very disappointed by all this. The seller will definitely get a nasty ear-full from me about the cans they brought in! But as I said earlier, no choice but to continue ahead.

Looks like I am making stout from this view. Looks worse than my Blue Mountain Lager. I think I am going to cry.

After adding the Brew Enhancer 2. Hey, at least it looks creamy now and you can’t see the colour of the wort!

These are the yeast slurry I got from my previous brew. They are Nottingham Ale Yeast. If you ask me, they look like pieces of ice cream. If I were to add some M&Ms and perhaps some nuts and chocolate chips, I am sure many of us would think that they are ice cream. Coffee ice cream anyone?

Wow, so many Ice Mountain mineral water bottles! They are used to fill up the fermenter to the 23 litre mark. I had put them in the fridge prior to using them so that I don’t need to use a ice bath to cool down my wort. Just pour the cold mineral water into the fermenter with the hot wort to cool it down to pitching temperature. Would work better if I had ice instead but my freezer was too full to put any big ice packs.

Well, that’s 23 litres of Hoegaarden Clone brew for you. And it is at 24 °C, suitable for me to pitch my yeast. Unlike my previous brew which I had to wait about 4-5 hours for my wort to cool down, this time I used more cold water to get the wort down to pitching temperature.

To make it easier for me to pitch the yeast, I had added some water and mix the yeast with the water. After mixing the yeast, I pitch it to the wort.

Well, after pitching the yeast, I closed the fermenter, added the airlock and then it is done. Yes, I am very disappointed with the colour of the brew, but what is done is done. However, I think I gained a lot of experience doing this one. It is definitely a bit unique in terms of brewing because of the use of spices. And I realized that you should not use liquid malt extracts if you are planning to make a light coloured beer because most of the liquid malt extract will darken with age. And the ones that I had were really really dark. Dark enough to scare away several of my friends from drinking.

Not very sure what the correct name should be. Is it Pilsener? Pilsner? Seems that everyone is having their own opinion which is the correct spelling. I was told by some of the Australian brewers that the correct name should be Pilsener. But it seems that the Americans don’t agree. They claim the correct spelling should be Pilsener. But who really cares? As long as it tastes great, I am all for it.

For my Pilsener, it has been in the bottle for 2 weeks and in the fermenter for 3 weeks. I opened it this morning and have taken a few photos of it. Please take a look below.

Very nice looking head. I would have expected more of a finer foam (head) from the beer but it seems that the Cooper’s Kits usually have such bigger bubbles. Not too sure why, but at least it is not as bad as my first brew, the Australian Pale Ale. Those bubbles look like they have been blown from a machine. However, it is surprising that that Australian Pale Ale managed to retain the head longer than this Pilsener I made. Perhaps it is the glass that I am using? One of the best thing is that the fizz (head retention) stays for a long time in this beer. Again, it could have something to do with the glass I am using.

The actual beer! The colour looks (dark) golden and very clear. You can’t really see it from this picture but if you put it in front of a light, you can see that it is very clear without any sediment or cloudiness. However, I expected a much lighter colour beer, considering that I am using the Pilsener malt which had a very low colouring rating but it turned out darker. Perhaps it is due to the Cooper’s Pilsenser Kit. The colour from the goo in the can looked dark indeed. Well, at least it is not as dark as the Morgan’s Blue Mountain Lager which I had brewed previously. That really was dark. More amber than anything you would expect from the word golden. However, it is true that extract or kit beers will always be darker than those brews done from all-grains methods.

Now for the taste! First of all, it was a lot spicier than I had expected. But the spiciness was not over-powering, at least not to my taste but some people would find it really spicy if they seldom drink such “spicy” beers. Perhaps I had added a little too much Saaz hops into the brew. When I was brewing this beer about a month back, I actually could smell the Saaz hops more than the malt flavours. So….what to do, it has already happened. For the aftertaste, I think it will really go down well with my friends. Although I can feel the dryness of the beer, the aftertaste is not too tart nor spicy (one would say this is not a good point) and it is actually quite delicious. I am sure that my friends would be asking for more after the first sip as I feel that it is easy to drink. Perhaps I should have used less malt and a little dextrose to lighten the beer but still maintain the alcohol. The body was a bit too strong for a Pilsener.

Well, I was thinking of what to do with my Morgan’s Golden Sheaf Wheat Beer kit and I was thinking, why not a Hoegaarden clone? I mean, it’s wheat beer as well. Not too sure what Morgan adds to their beer kit, but if I could get the approximate amount of spices, it could work well. Basically it’s wheat beer plus coriander seeds and orange peel. I already have coriander seeds so I just need to heat them up and crack them (easy enough) and get a grater and grate some orange zest.

The original recipe calls for Bitter Dried Orange Peel, but I think that the orange zest will do just fine. Plus I have some small amount of Saaz hops which should make the beer even tastier! Well, I know that this recipe will not taste exactly like the Hoegaarden original beers, but it should come close. And most definitely, the colour will not be there, since I am using mainly extract which will make the beer darker. Hoegaarden is called White beer for a reason! But other than that, I believe that the taste should at least assemble the Horgaarden beer which we all love and enjoy.

The recipe are as follows:

1. Morgan’s Golden Sheaf Wheat Beer Kit (1.7kg)
2. Morgan’s Liquid Wheat Malt Extract (Master Blend) 1kg
3. Cooper’s Brew Enhancer 2 (Dextrose, Malto-dextrin & Light Dry Malt Extract)
4. Saaz Hops (5g), 10 mins
5. Orange Zest (Fresh) 3g, 10 mins
6. Coriander Seeds (Heated and cracked) 5g, 10 mins
7. Nottingham Ale Yeast
8. Yeast nutrients

As you can see I didn’t use a Wheat beer yeast. Well, I don’t have any and I guess since I am doing this tomorrow, I don’t have the time to get the necessary yeast. And even if I have a Wheat yeast, it won’t really help because for the Hoegaarden, they use a different type of yeast. I believe that Wyeast has a strain which is a very close match to the Hoegaarden variety.

I read that there are people who use cumin seeds as well. Not too sure about that as I didn’t taste any cumin taste in my Hoegaarden. How about you?

Yes, I have finally decided to switch from using PET bottles to using glass bottles to bottle my beer. I just got my Twin Level Capper (S$45) to cap my glass bottles. I think it’s quite a good investment. In the past when I was using PET bottles, I use the screw top plastic caps. They were easy and reusable. However, the biggest problem with screw top bottles is that after screwing like 10 bottles, your hands start to feel raw. And when you are doing the bottling, you will tend to get some beer into your hands and this makes it even worse. And imagine you have to really tighten the caps hard so that the carbon dioxide will not escape. Ouch, doing it for a few times already and I think it’s a good time to change, just for the sake of my hands. Now with the capper, I think life would be much easier. All you have to do is to place the cap on the Twin Level Capper’s magnetic holder, position the Capper on the bottle and then put down both the handles. Sounds tough? Well, it shouldn’t be. A lot of brewers do it this way and I am sure that they are just as lazy as me.

The main reason why I didn’t use glass bottles previously is because I am afraid of bottle bombs. This happens if you overcarbonate your beer (by adding to much sugar) or if you bottle your wort/beer too early. And bottle bombs are very dangerous as broken glass can cause a lot of damage to your hands. I have read that some brewers had large gashes on their hands due to these bottle bombs. Anyway the Cooper’s microbrewing kit comes with PET bottles. So I used them in the beginning. Now, I think I am experienced enough to start using glass bottles. Oh, and I have the priming scoop, which gives me a very accurate amount of sugar to put in per bottle. Hopefully, I won’t get any bottle bombs in my cupboard where I store the beers.

I have been going around my neighbourhood collecting beer bottles. One of my favourite places is our local coffee shop. They have a lot of Tiger beer bottles sitting in crates outside waiting to be thrown into the rubbish bin. So I grabbed them before they were discarded. The good thing about this coffee shop is that they have people to serve them beer. The customer seldom handle the beer themselves. So with this, I am quite certain these bottles are clean and free of cigarette butts. Anyway, once I get the bottles home, I will usually soak them in bleach to sanitize the bottle as well as remove the labels. So far, I have collected about 16 640ml bottles already. Not bad for less than a week’s work, don’t you say? And it’s completely free! Don’t need to spend money on glass bottles for S$1 each. Better spend the money on higher quality malts.

Again, I have to disappoint you guys. I had said that my next brew will be the Apfelwein but again circumstances have forced me to change and now I will be brewing another 2 different beers. One would be a Wheat beer while the other a Draught for my friends. I had told them that I have plans for a cider (that’s the Apfelwein) but they had wanted beers to be ready by the middle of next month for a party or something. So, if I were to make the Apfelwein, it would be way too late and I won’t be ready. I believe that the Apfelwein takes about 4 weeks to complete fermentation so during that time, my fermenter would be out of commission. And when the fermentation is complete, I won’t have enough time to do the Wheat beer and the Draught for my friends for their party.

So I ditch my plans for the Apfelwein and will be doing a Wheat beer first and then the Draught. Actually they wanted only Wheat beer, but my online supplier has offers for a package of both a Wheat beer and a Draught. And the price is just S$60 for the package and it comes with 1kg of Dextrose and 1Kg of liquid Wheat malt. Well, those ingredients make for a very light-alcoholic session beer, just what my friends need for their party. I also got myself a twin level capper and caps as I will be going for glass bottles now. I got my glass bottles from the coffee shop downstairs.They have a lot of these bottles lying around and whenever I have the opportunity I would grab one or two bottles. I would normally choose the Tiger beer bottles as they are the easiest to remove the labels, plus they are plentiful in Singapore. Just soak them in water (or a little bleach) for about 30 minutes and the labels come off when you run your fingers over them. Cool!

Well, here are the photos of what I have purchased for this beer.

That’s the Morgan’s Golden Sheaf Wheat Beer. It’s an awarding winning recipe, so I expect good things from this. Hopefully, the colour won’t be dark like the Blue Mountain Lager which actually scared a lot of my friends off. Let’s keep our fingers cross. I may even be doing a Hoegaarden Clone! Just need to add Corriander seeds and orange rinds, Wheat Malt and some Dextrose.

The back of the Morgan’s Golden Sheaf Wheat Beer can. Some instructions about making the beer which I never read.

Due on the 3rd of October. Good, at least I know it is still okay.

Yes, that’s the Morgan’s Stockman’s Draught. This is a very good party drink as all Draught beers are. Not too strong and surely it will go down easy with casual drinkers at a party. However, I am also very worried about the resulting colour of the brew. If it turns out too dark then it could be a major problem to get people to drink the beer. People will just be put off by the colour.

The back of the Morgan’s Stockman’s Draught.

The due date on the bottom of the can. Those are my toes on the left.

Hoot! That’s the liquid Wheat Malt that will go with the Wheat Beer Kit. Yummy, one kg of Wheat malt ready to be turned to even better tasting beer! I am really keeping my fingers cross that the colour of the Wheat Malt is okay. However, it may be that only barley malts that darken due to age and the Wheat Malt is still okay in terms of colour? We can only hope. However, we all know that the Wheat Malt is actually about 1/3 wheat and the rest is still from barley. So….

The back of the Morgan’s Master Blend Wheat Malt. This can expires in August unlike the two beer kits which expires in October. That’s one of the reasons why I am doing the Wheat Beer first. Actually, I should be doing the Draught first as the Wheat Beer doesn’t benefit from aging unlike barley based beers. However, I think it is better to ensure the freshness of the Wheat Malt and do it first.

That’s the dextrose. For that alcoholic kick we all love so much. However, I think adding too much can really water down the beer. Perhaps just half for the Draught?

That’s the Twin Level Capper. What you do is place the cap on the magnet on the capper, put the capper slot on the glass bottle top and then push down both the handles. This little plastic tool makes the capping very easy. Of course, there are better ones which I cannot afford currently. It’s a bench capper but I think that this will do until I have the money to buy better equipment.

It actually looks like some sort of ancient torturing device. Scary.

Yo, those are the caps for the bottles. You place them on the capper.

Well guys, hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I have enjoyed posting them. I will also be posting the actually brew itself soon. I think it will be next week when I do the Wheat beer. Yes, with full pictures!

As you guys know, I have upgraded from using bleach to do my sanitizing to using Iodophor. Well, I actually wanted to use Star San which every brewer was raving about but my supplier gave me Iodophor instead. So I am currently using Iodophor to do my sanitizing, but I have to say, it is great as a sanitizer. And it is much cheaper too (compared to Star San). It cost about S$4 for a 70ml bottle. You need to mix just 1ml of Iodophor to 500ml of water for it to be effective. Anyway, you don’t have to be so exact. Just ensure that the solution is amber in colour and your sanitizier is still effective. Plus, the Iodophor just needs about 2 minutes of contact time with the surface to get rid of the nasties. I normally just use a spray bottle which I got from my local hardware store and spray the entire solution on my brewing equipment. Let it stay on for 5 minutes and then attempt to dry it.

At first I was worried about the smell and how it will affect the taste of my beer. But surprisingly, it didn’t smell as bad as I expected and it (as the solution) didn’t have any taste at all. My brew tasted fine even when I didn’t rinse off the sanitizer afterwards. Not too sure what they did, but Iodine (the main sanitizing ingredient in Iodophor) usually smells damn bad and probably taste even worse. And, yes, there was no infection for the brew I just did. For that, I am glad.

I am surprised that a lot of brewers prefer Star San to Iodophor. Perhaps it is because Iodophor might stain their equipment. But if the correct concentration is used or if you don’t soak it for an excessive period of time, I don’t think there will be any staining. Well, from what I can see my equipment seems stain-free and the only smell is the beer smell. I can’t get rid of the beer smell from my brewing equipment, especially the fermenter.

And this time I will be really brewing it. Yes, I know that a few weeks back I said that I will brew the Apfelwein but instead I brewed another batch of beer. Yes, sorry about that but those are requested by my friends and I had no choice. It’s sad that they don’t drink cider. But not to worry, I will be weening them towards it soon enough. However, from what I have read, this Apfelwein is somewhat a very delicious drink with a lot of kick in the end. And the females love it too. Something of a plus when you are doing your own brewing as the wife or the girlfriend would not be gunning for you when you dirty the kitchen or when you are spending hours in the kitchen instead of accompanying them.

If you would like the recipe, please take a look at my old post. It’s based on Edwort’s recipe(from Homebrewtalk.com) but instead I will be using Fuji Apple Juice. I am sure that it will turn out great as I always liked Fuji apples. They are much sweeter and aromatic compared to other apples. Hopefully, it will turn out just as sweet (or at least more sweet) instead of a dry hard cider which a lot of people had said it would. Oh, adding sugar to the “brew” will not help as it wll just ferment out and give it more alcohol.

Have any of you tried before this very easy but award winning recipe? All you have to do is to get all your apple juice (must not have any preservatives), add in some sugar and then the yeast. Leave it for about 4 weeks or so to ferment out and you are done. No need to do any boiling, mashing, steeping, avoiding boilovers and whatever. Just add juice. Nothing can be simpler than that. And if all goes well, I think I will be doing more of this.

Yes, I broke my hydrometer. How did it happen? Well, I was washing my hydrometer which comes in a jar. Apparently, the cover for this jar isn’t exactly tightly fitted with the jar. So I poured water into the jar along with the hydrometer inside and then, perhaps due to the way I was holding the jar, the cover gave way and the hydrometer dropped onto the floor. It broke into a million pieces. Note that the hydrometer is made of glass, so it stood no chance when it dropped onto the floor. Of course, I spent the entire 15 minutes going around looking for little pieces of broken glass which could pose a threat to my family’s feet.

What a waste. And why is it always so fragile? I now have to go and buy another hydrometer which cost about 18 bucks. This is probably the most important instrument for brewing beer. You can’t brew beer without it. It will tell you how much alcohol is there in your beer. And it can be used to figure out whether your brew’s fermentation is done or not. If the hydrometer reading is constant for 3 days running, then the brew should have completed fermentation and you can bottle your beer. You can also use it to play “light saber” with your fellow brewers if you so desire. However, you may need to “mod” the hydrometer to add a neon light to mimic it accurately.

If only someone designed a plastic hydrometer which will not break so easily. It should be possible to make a hydrometer from plastic as I think the hydrometer depends on the weight and the surface area and not on the material.

Well if you are into brewing with beer kits, you will be glad to know that Homebrew Singapore has brought in several new stocks of Morgan’s Kits. They are the Queenslander and the Chairman’s selection series from Morgan’s. This is certainly good news for brewers like me who depends on kits to make our brew. And with this, we will have a wider selection of beer kits to choose from. Furthermore, if you purchase it now, you will be guaranteed that the stocks are fresh, an important factor when you are brewing beer as fresh malt extract will taste better.

Anyway, if you are interested, the below are the types of new Morgan’s kits available at Homebrew Singapore. You can find more information at their website, including the pricing. It’s always good to visit the websites of our local online homebrew stores and checking out which new stuff has came in.

Chairman’s Selection

1. Chairman’s Selection Corte’s Cerveza
2. Chairman’s Selection Mulloy’s Irish Stout
3. Chairman’s Selection Scharl’s European Lager
4. Chairman’s Selection Bishops English Bitter

Queenslander

1. Queenslander Gold
2. Queenslander Bitter
3. Queenslander Lager

The Chairman’s Selection should be the premium range for Morgan’s. They come with some high quality yeast which I can’t find much information on. And of course, the prices will reflect that. But it’s just a few bucks more than the other series, so I think I will be trying them out soon enough. They really look very tempting. However I am currently looking at Queenslander Gold, which should good very well when drinking with friends. It is supposed to be something of a lower alcohol but is extremely refreshing. Hey, what can I say, session beers are my thing.

I wonder anyone drank before Corte’s Cerveza style beers before? Looks like it is getting more popular with beer drinkers these days. I am definitely not a stout drinker and lagers will be pretty difficult for me to do in our warm climate. It is just too bad that the extremely popular Morgan’s Blue Mountain Lager is still not available at Homebrew. Let’s hope that Homebrew will start bringing in stocks for my favourite beer kit soon. I am pretty sure that there are a lot of other fans of the Blue Mountain Lager out there clamoring for it.