It's awesome that microbreweries around the country (Mt Goat, Red Hill, Holgate etc in Victoria) are increasingly trying their hands at brewing one-off batches of interesting beer styles. While they have their regular 'core beers' which provide cashflow to operate the brewery, it's these lesser brewed beers which is often where the real fun can be had and more breweries are doing more of this, more of the time. It's a real sign of the developing beer market and growing demand for such beers from punters like us..
Here's a new post from the Goat Blog about their new Belgian Strong Blonde:
This one made us all really nervous. Brewing Belgian Beer is every brewer’s Mt Everest; so tricky, so rewarding. We approached with due caution, trepidation - hell, fear! Bear with me for a little beer-nerd talk to explain…
At the heart of any beer is yeast - it’s the engine room. These little fellas do all the hard work. Brewers just feed it, water it, then take the glory. But yeast actually makes beer out of malt, hops and water. So we like to keep it happy. Now here’s the thing, Belgian yeast is fickle. Really high maintenance. It just doesn’t want to be happy. Its like it’s so sick of living in a cold, wet country that it just wants to get warm, not only warm, but in its own good time. Try to cool these little fellas or tell them what temperature to ferment at and you’ll get bitten on your hot liquor tank. We chose a high alcohol style (8.3%) that has it’s own issues - will it get there? What if doesn’t?
Why do we put up with it? Well, its Belgian. People who love Belgian Beer know - its all about the yeast.
Anyway enough of our problems, you’ve got your own. You’ve probably worked out that we tried one and we think it’s great…we’ve called her Rapunzel and she’s a Belgian Strong Blonde. Come in and try her for yourself.
We used Aussie Pilsener malt, German Hallertau hops, a funky, temperamental, high maintenance Belgian yeast and she’s 8.3%alc/vol.
As usual, there’s not much to go around.
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