Beer bloggers in South Africa
The Scandinavian beer bloggers recently joined together and started up the Scandinavian Beer Writers Association.They are fed up with the way beer is presented in media and want to do something about it together. I am now a proud member of that organization. That inspired me to write an article and link to other beer bloggers in South Africa.
Beer bloggers unite is a social network site/initiative for beer bloggers. It is not as active as I expected but it is a good start.
If you want to read more about beer in South Africa I would suggest you to follow these bloggers:
Nich Mulgrew – Suip! (http://www.suipexclamation.co.za/)
David James Martin – The Beer bru (http://thebeerbru.com)
Steven Hawes – Brewers Beast (http://brewersbeast.tumblr.com/)
Lucy Corne – http://www.lucycorne.com/
Gerhard Potgieter – DIY Beer (http://www.diybeer.co.za/)
Rouvanne and Jamie – The Beer Garden SA (http://thebeergardensa.wordpress.com/)
Julian, Sebastian and Ryan – The Beerboys (http://thebeerboys.co.za)
Harper – The Beginner Brewer (http://www.beginnerbrewer.com/ )
Worts and All – http://www.wortsandall.co.za/
Let me know if there are more bloggers out there that I do not know about.
Paulaner is closing there businness in Cape Town
I just read th
e sad news that Paulaner is closing there business in Cape Town. The brewmaster Wolfgang Ködel is a really talented brewer. If you need to know anything about weissbier he is the person to talk to. I do not know what will happen know but I hope that they will continue somewhere else in the city. If you have a brewery and need a brewmaster I would suggest you give Wolfgang a call.
Good luck in the future and brew on!
More about blending
I wrote earlier about blending beers. I think it is a good way to learn more about beers and to create new flavours. It does not have to be beers of different styles. Brewdog and Mikkeler recently released the beer ” I Hardcore You ” which is a dry hopped blend between ” Hardcore IPA (ABV 9,2 %)” from Brewdog and ” I beat yoU (9,75 %) ” from Mikkeler. Both beers are Double IPA’s and also brewed at Brewdog in Scotland. Cooperation between brewers has become a trend (at least in Europe) so called collaboration beers.
It would be nice to see cooperations between some SA craft breweries as well.
1000 or Zero IBU
Brewers more or less compete in brewing beer with the highest International Bitter Unit (IBU). In 2010 the Danish brewer Mikkeller brewed a beer with a theoretical IBU of 1000 (named Mikkeller 1000 IBU). There are more or less a physical limit to how much bitterness a beer can contain. According to Mikkeller 6½ kilogram of alpha-acid extract and 10 kilograms of simcoe-pellets was used per 1000 liters of beer! If you are not a brewer I can tell you it is a lot.
Last year the small Swedish brewery Slottskällan brewed a beer with a theoretical IBU of 0. The beer is named, you guessed it, Zero. It is a light hazy amber beer with a small white head an aroma of malt, caramel and grapefruit. The taste is medium bitter. The IBU is measured to 87 and it is a really nice and dry beer.
Thank you Urban and Maarten for a great experiment!
Blending beer
Why should you try to blend different beer styles and is it really OK to do so?
First of all! Many beers are already blended. Brewers blend different batches of beer to make it more consistent and sometimes to create new flavors. Beer styles like Geuze is a blend in itself. So off course it is OK to blend beers at home as well. As a homebrewer this is a good way to explore and to create new beers. Some advise from the Swedish brewradio/TV.
* Keep notes on how you blend in order to adjust and to be able to recreate.
* Use weight rather then volume
* Have an idea what you want to create ie ad some smoke flavors to a sweet lager or weissbier …
A blend that I like is 70% Weiss and 30% Smoke beer.
Have a look at this excellent beer blending video from the Swedish Brewradio/TV.
SBR-TV Blending from SBR TV on Vimeo.
Homebru 