Beer 101

If you want to learn how to make great beer, or just want to refresh yourself to get into the swing of things for 2012, come to one of our Beginner Beer Brewing demos and learn all you need to make great tasting beers. We are holding a session at each of our locations throughout January and February (Details in the Demo's column to the right of screen) so please join us by booking your spot today! But hurry, places fill fast!

(Remember all events are listed on the website under the Activities tab - click here)

All Stores Closed – Tuesday, 31 January

On Tuesday, 31 January, all Brewers Choice stores will be closed for the day.  All our staff will be spending the day looking at ways to improve our service to you.  We will be looking at the results of our recent customer survey and addressing issues and feedback that have been provided through the year.  If you have any suggestions about how we can better serve you this year, drop into one of our stores and have a chat with the manager or send us an email.  We would love to hear your suggestions.

We will be returning to normal business hours on Wednesday.

Our apologies in advance for any inconvenience we may cause.

Staff Profile

Name: Ted Vokes
Position: Store Courier & Casual Store Manager
Star Sign: Taurus
Why do you love your job? I enjoy driving and when in store I like talking to customers who share my own interest
Favourite Brew: Dark beers, particularly German Styles
What are you doing when you’re not at work?Being semi retired, I find plenty to do around the house and garden – not to mention, brewing beer.
If you were a beer, which one would you be? Why?I’d be an IPA because it is light, refreshing and a good session beer.
Favourite quote: The cheapest car you’ll ever own, is the one you already own.

Good Beer Lunches - Hump Day

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. As a writer and a beer lover, Matt Kirkegaard thinks a taste of a beer is worth 1000 words.

No matter how well you write you can never capture the sublime experience of trying a great beer, nor change the perceptions of someone who has only ever tried the one style of beer. To try and explain a saison or an IPA or a Belgian tripel to someone who has only ever tried pale lagers is like trying to explain red, green and blue to someone who only sees black and white.

To teach people about beer, its flavours, its ingredients and its rich history, Matt and Ian Watson conduct the Good Beer Lunches, hosting regular beer and food matching events around Brisbane. The next event is Hump Day, where you can taste Murray's range of craft beers, learn about their story and enjoy some light food, all in the company of like minded beer lovers. Be sure to secure your place soon as they are filling up fast!  We personally recommend these events - you will enjoy it immensely!

(Check out the recipe below from Matt, as an example of Matt's prowess with beer and food.  Matt also designed the menu for the QHC beer and food matching dinner)

Little Creatures Pale Ale Clone Recipes

Little Creatures Pale Ale is one of the most popular beers for home brewers to try and clone. However, there is often varying opinions on how it should be done. So, Brewers Choice brings you an All Grain recipe for the beer, based on the older Little Creatues recipe using Chinook hops.  You can also copy the current style using galaxy hops instead.  We've also included Extract and Kit & Bits recipes too, so click on your link for a copy.

All Grain Recipe

Extract Recipe

Kit & Bits

Make sure you check out the Pale Ale, Prawns and Scallops recipe below, which would go wonderfully well with a recently brewed Little Creatures clone.

Beer + food recipe: Aus Pale Ale Sauteed Prawns and Scallops with Celeriac

This time of year is a good time to get together with friends on those balmy hot summer afternoons. It’s also the perfect time for enjoying lighter meals, salads, and cool refreshing beers, like Australian pale ales.

In this recipe we not only marinate the scallops and prawns in beer, we also boil the celeriac in it. This fills the kitchen with beautiful aromas. The celeriac purée can be cooked earlier in the day and then reheated just before serving. We used the Little Creatures Pale Ale that we brewed using the above recipe; but any full malt, Australian pale ale would also work perfectly.

Click here for Recipe

Spirits recipe - Irish Cream

There are many opinions on how to achieve a perfect Irish Cream, as close as possible to the major brands. So, we thought we'd let you in on how we do it here at Brewers Choice. This recipe uses ingredients that you can find in-store, so you can easily make the perfect Irish Cream to enjoy at home and to share with your friends! Click here for the recipe.

 

Caring for your yeast using a thermostat

There are many reasons on why you should use a better quality yeast when brewing (e.g. SAF or Liquid yeasts) - but mainly it's to get better tasting beers that are true to style. However, to achieve these high quality flavours, the yeast must be fermented at the correct temperatures, because yeast is a living organism that needs to be treated well to give a good result. To help you decide on which yeasts to use and how to care for them at proper temps during fermentation, we have written two short articles on SAF Yeasts and Brewing Thermostats.

 Using good yeasts is the easiest (and cheapest) way to significantly improve your beers.  Have a read and hopefully you'll be drinking even better tasting beer in no time!

Mention this article in store, or buy a thermostat through our webshop and get $10 off the price.