Monks & Dragons

More beer reviews today.
Trappistes Rochefort:

The term trappist brewed refers to beers that have been made in or originated from monasterys in and around Germany.
So lets not beat around the bushell. Some of the best beers in the world are made by monks! Why? In days gone by the church realised that vows of silence and poverty wasn't drawing the crowds like it used to. So the powers that be or were, decided that fermentation of grain and grape was an act of god not yeast. Thus the monastery was saved. Whilst those of little prospect were able to get nightly shit faced in the name of god; being free of sin if not hang over. So delivered into silence, prayer, poverty, and brewing, the brotherhood of old began a fermentation the likes of witch none had ever seen befor nor are likely to see again.

As for the reveiwed beer:

A classic trappist beer but adding a nice twist or two.

A rich dark golden brown when held against light. Showing a foamy head that fades thinly to the rim, enduring thanks to a medium size but slow to rise bead.

In the mouth it started malty and tasting of ripe wheat, at back was subtle vanilla bean. The taste was crisp but sweet.

On the nose it was; Yeasty, with malt and toffie flavors leading to passionfruit and lollie banana aromas. Whilst the hops imparted a cut grass and peach fragrence that reminded me of spring.

Warmly finished by toffied malt and a cool breath of alcohol. This beer is a classic Australian winter brew. My recomenation for serveing would be in a brandy balloon at around 10C.

Gulden Drack:

Excellent Easy Beer.

The average home brew kit calls for a can of malt hop extract and sugar. But with the addition of a few cheap ingredents you can go from:
"It's not great beer, but it gets me pissed so I'll drink it". To...
"Shit mate, this is one of the best beers I've ever tasted"!


1 tin of Cascade Spicey Ghost draught malt hop extract. $13.50
1kg of light dry malt extract. $7.50
2X 250g bags of roasted cracked wheet or barly grain malt. 2X $2.50
15g cryo sealed bag of cascade dryed hop pellets. $2.50
Total cost = $28.50AU


Note: The hop plant is closely related to cannabis. (Hops stink like pot). When hop pellets are used to make beer it smells like 50 pounds of hydro are being baged up for distribution. So open a window and turn on the extrator fan if this aroma offends the pellet.

To make the 'wort' (This is the term given to unfermented beer).

In a large stainless, (copper if you can afford it) pot bring 2lt of the best freshest water you can get your hands on to the boil. Add half (7g) of the hops, the grain, and the dry malt to the water. Reduce to a very slow simmer and let cook/steep for about 2 hours stiring occationally. After this time add the rest of the hops. Splitting the hops works like this:

When you boil hops for an hour or more the floral fragrence disapates leaveing the bitter tannins that contribute to the flavor profile. Boiling for less than an hour means that the bitter tannins don't have a chance to infuse but floral flavors and aromas can impart themself.

In a seperate pot immerse the can of malt hops in water just off the boil, about 90C is good. let stand for 30 minutes. Now remove the can from the pot. Carefully open it and add the contents to the simmering hop malt grain mixture. Make sure as much of the cans contents as possible is added. You may wish to rince the can with a bit of boiling water to get at the last dregs. Bring the water in the pot that the can was in to the boil and chuck a strainer in. The strainer is needed in a minute to remove the bits from the wort. Boiling it will make sure it's sterile, a must when makeing beer.

Now place the strainer over the top of your sterile and pre rinsed fermenter. Pour the wort consentrate through the strainer so as to sepperate the grain and hops. Now rince, or sparge as it's known in beer makeing jibe the grain and hops that were caught in the strainer. To do this just run some water through the strainer untill it runs more or less clear. This will wash out the last and best of the flavors into the wort. Remove the strainer, top up to the desired level with water. The quality of the water used in makeing beer is very important, fresh soft spring water is best. If you cant get that just use the best water you've got. Don't be fooled into thinking that the flavor of the beer will hide the taste of bad water, it won't, it will taste even worse. Add yeast. Seal the fermenter and let the magic fermentation happen.

If all goes well, at 25C the wort will have transformed into beer after about 8 days. Bottle your beer according to normal sterile conditions. To prime your bottles, (add sugars to aid in carbonation) I prefer to use raw sugar.

With about 3 or 4 months of bottle conditioning you can marvel at the stunning improvement in your brewing skills. All thanks to the added goodness of grains and hops. Note the complicated floral nose, the supurb mouth feel, the hop malt counter balance, fine beading, and sustained head.

And it gets you sloshed.

It's getting into winter at my place, I love winter, it's not hot for a change. Winter brings heaps of yummy things to my table. One of my favourites is mushrooms. This time of year when it finally rains mushrooms seem to spring up over night. The above picture is of several local varieties. Don't ask for names coz I got no f'n clue. All I know is they taste great, and nobody tripped out.

Got Knife

It's Autumn, around my place it's my favourite time of year. The leaves turn colour, it's rains, (drought my way), it's cold, I get to cook winter food.

A pic of two of my kids in the new fallen leaves.
Kid chuck some leaves.

Some knifes I will use to cook winter food.

Close up.

Leg of duck, boned and stuffed with pork & fennel. Wrapped in Wagu proscutto.

To cook they were placed in a kettle BBQ at medium heat for 50 minutes.

Chiselled Out Fenchner!

I love to cook. I also love the right tool for the job.
Today I went to a knife expo held by the knifemakers guild of Australia.
At one of the stalls I found this jem. A chisel ground (left side) Japanise inspired kitchen knife.
Spec: Chisel grind half tang. Total length 29cm. Blade length 16.5cm. Grip one peice Jarra, (farmed in W.A). Metal= 440C stainless tempered to hardness 58 Rockwell.
Hand made by knifemaker Fenchner.
Smith Fenchner is mostly renouned for his Japanese sorwds. On the odd ocation he is known to turn out a kitchen knife. This is a fine example.
At home the knife is a pleasure to use. The weight is spread 60/40 in favor of the blade. Most often I prefer 50/50 split, but the foward weighted blade atacks the food and suits the grind well.

Signed Fenchner.

The Tribute

I love to brew my own beer. With about two hours work each week I can drink myself stupid for no more than three buck a night. (Try doing that at the pub!)
I mention this because the local home brew shop also sells a good range of beer. The only problen is that the bloke who run the show is a pom, so the English beers are everywhere, but he's abit stingy on the Geman stuff.
Lucky for me that the poms make a shit load of good beer.
Unlike the Germans, the English prefer their beer profiles to favor the malt characteristics, while the krouts like their hoppy diversity to be upfrount.
This brings us to St Austell brewery and 'Tribute. The Ale Of Cornwall.'
Haveing never been to Cornwall It's hard to talk about the beer there. But if this fine brew is anything to go by. Where's my passport?
I bought this beer coz it was comming over abit wintery. However, one sip of this beauty and it was straight back to summer. Really and truely a very drinkable beer! A plesant amber ale with a small but sustained head of medium grain formed by a small but brisk bead. The upfrount malt was light but complex. Warm butter, cut grass, and jasmin were prevelent. Hop wise the beer was perfectly balanced. I liked the citrusy aromas. But I felt that a more bitter finish would have made for a better ending.

On the front lable they said this:
A delightfully delicious and drinkable beer that captures the essential character of cornwall.

On the back they said:
Pale amber in colour. Tribute is a moreishly drinkable beer with delicious full-bodied malt flavours and a citrus aroma. Brewed using cornish spring water, cornish gold and maris otter malts, with a hand picked blend of aromatic hops. - It is truely the ale of Cornwall.