All Posts in Brewing
In January I set forth with my partner Sara on an epic 6-week cycling trip across Middle Earth, and while we sampled some tasty beer, our trip was admittedly less about "hoppy drank" and more about escaping the depressive horror of a bone-chilling Canadian winter. Oh, that and finding Hobbit meat. They were not home.
"Where is all the Hobbit meat?", wondered Sara.
Fortunately, before returning home we did manage to score a kilogram worth of New Zealand's highly regarded and sought after Riwaka hops - a hop variety that's currently unavailable in North America (unless you're exceedingly well-connected).
Note: post updated March 10th, 2018 with batch 2 revision and notes.
Writing to you live from Silly Sir Brewery/a tiny apartment somewhere in Toronto it's me again - here to share with you the fantastic learnings we had drinking beer and visiting breweries in Berlin and Munich, Germany. Yes: we went to Weihenstephan and and sampled fresh Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier and yes, it was the best part of the trip.
Most Malaysians go absolutely crazy for this perplexing, stinky fruit called durian. Its creamy fruit centre is encased in a hard, spiky shell, and its distinctive sulphuric stink immediately envelops its surroundings in a foul, garbage-like wave of offence. It is said that consuming alcohol and durians together will result in an instant death. Sara's younger cousin insisted that I not drink any beer while consuming the controversial fruit as I'd immediately keel over and die.
I was skeptical. Being the experimental brewer that I am, I bet against this notion and almost took it as a challenge. 'I'll show you!' I thought, 'I'll even craft a durian beer to in order to falsify this silly myth!' (though I'd give it to the suckers in my local homebrew club to try first, of course, just in case).
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- Silly Sir Taps
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- Silly Sir Tap Pour
Top o' the mornin' to yeh! Or evenin'... ♩ Lar-de-dar-de-diddle de-dum de-dee! ♩ *clicks heels in the air*
*ahem* excuse me... sorry. I sometimes (err...often) get carried away. I was typing in an Irish accent if you didn't follow. I hope you read it that way. If not, I'll give you five seconds to go back and read it again with an Irish voice in your head... Done? Good. The Irish always seem so chipper, with St. Paddy's Day finally here, there's much to be chipper about. For instance, Silly Sir Brewing Co. (a.k.a. me) is proud to announce the release of it's second Irish Red ale: Klifferd the Big Red Ale. It's big, it's Irish, and it's a whole lot of deliciousness capped and trapped in a bottle.
Rapidly chillin' the wort with copper coils
Man, I've typed so much, yet said so little. Alright, let's get down to brass tacks, shall we?
Giggle Splash is my first attempt at a highly aromatic American IPA. American IPAs are marked by their bright, citrusy hop aromas, and high bitterness. Giggle Splash sits at around 57 International Bitterness Units (IBU) which is considered moderate according official guidelines. For comparison, Budweiser and Molson Canadian sit at around 10 IBU or so (plus or minus a few units). So yes, it's quite hoppy.
