Greetings from Antarctica

[Tsubodai]

Hi everyone,

 

So, I have the role of brew-master for the winter team at Davis Station, Antarctica, and was looking for a little feedback and a few ideas. So far, this summer, we have brewed over 4000L of home brew, all using Coopers kits. I have pretty much an unlimited supply of Coopers Kits, Brown/Raw/White sugar and lots of other non-perishable type ingredients.

 

Other than the stock standard K&K we do in up to 180L fermenters, I have done a ton of experiments with toucan brews and used up all my hops. I had a lot of grains I used up for stouts for the winter too, so I could age them several months. I have OS Lager, Draught, Real Ale, Dark Ale and Stout kits in pretty much unlimited supply (literally a couple of pallet loads), a lot of different adjuncts, canned fruits etc, no hops left, 750g roasted Barley, 750g flaked barley and 2.5kg Lactose.

 

So, the point of this post is to ask, if you had unlimited amounts of Coopers kits and those ingredients, what would you brew?

 

[King Ruddager]

Easy: Toucan Stout/Dark

[Tsubodai]

Hi,

 

yeah I've done a Stout/DA with a couple of recipes;

 

with 500g Oatmeal, 250g Crystal 120, 250g Flaked Barley, 150g Roasted Barley, 150g Chocolate malt, 150g Lactose. Also with 400g Lactose and a lot of EKG, plain Stout/DA with 500g Brown sugar, Brown Sugar and lesser amounts of the grains, have also done the Russian Imperial with the Lager can too.

 

I've done toucan Lagers, Draughts, a 40L batch of 2 x Draught and 2 x Real Ale with 250g of crystal and roasted Barley plus brown sugar, toucan Dark Ale with Lager, toucan Real Ale, a Dark Ale Bochet Braggot, Stout/Lager 1:3 (Dark Lager), Stout/Draught 1:4 and others I can't think of right now.

 

Anything anyone wanted to try out but not willing to buy the kits for it? I could do a 100L+ batch with two of every OS kit; Lager, Draught, Real Ale, Dark Ale and Stout haha! I wonder how that would go.

[BassBeer]

WOW! hahaha wish I had that resource to make beer, im stuck to a single batch every 3-4weeks of 23L hahaha

[Beeblebrox]

I'd probably go with a Draught, with some raw sugar & roasted barley, just to see what it would turn out like; that or the OS Lager, which is a fairly bland blank canvas that could do with something special to give it a bit more character.

Bummer that you've used up all your hops, but with plenty of other supplies, you've certainly got enough there to tinker with & still come up with some memorable brews.

 

Cheers.

[ICzed]

Greetings!

 

The first thing that comes to would be a variation of the SMOTY Ale

 

1 x OS Dark Ale

1 x OS Draught

150 g Crystal

150 g Chocolate Malt

per 23 litre batch.

 

Cheers + beers,

Mark!

[Magnaman]

G'day Tsubodai, the first thing as "Brew-master" is to make a note for greater amounts and varieties of hops and specialty grains for subsequent "Brew-masters" benefit.

 

Are there records kept of what is brewed and recipes used?

What are the popular brews of your captive audience?

How is a"Brew-master" chosen? Short straw? Thrown in the deep end?

 

What no English Bitter?

 

I would be thinking themes, brew ahead to match.

 

Sorry not much help.

 

Cheers.

 

 

[Tsubodai]

Well, I did bring down almost a kilo each of cascade and EKG, but we have to pay for that ourselves, they only supply K&K, not specialty grains or hops. No Hops left, like I said, about 4000L brewed already. Some of the grains left.

 

Unfortunately ICZed, I'm out of chocolate malt, but I'll substitute with roasted and try that one. I did do a Dark Ale with Lager and Honey and it was quite good so I'm liking that idea.

 

There are homebrew records dating back at least 30 years! The variety of tastes is very broad, but if its in the fridge and cold, it will be consumed, haha! Lager is, of course, the most popular. I've also been making Ciders for those that like them, we have Black Rock kits but the resulting cider is very dry, not to my tastes (and taking six weeks in primary). Also Coopers Ginger Beer which is quite good, too bad it contains no ginger. The brew-master is chosen by the station leader before coming down, you have to put your hand up for it.

 

Last season, the guys didn't brew much, so when we turned up we had very little stock of home brew so it took ages to get all the bottles filled and things aged a bit, we were drinking it faster than we could brew it. We have 2800 long necks on station. Since the Summer team is going home in a week, the population on station will halve so it will not be so hectic brew wise.

 

The last few weeks, I've been doing a lot of stouts to put away for winter, Braggots and Mead for the mid winter Medieval nights, thinking about Octoberfest etc so yeah, themes.

 

Anyone want to see the brewery here? I'm having an End-of-Summer brewing party down there (take advantage of all the labour while its still here to wash bottles and bottle beers) so I could post some photos if anyone is keen.

 

Still keen to hear any weird ideas to try!

 

Cheers!

[TehCrucible]

Anyone want to see the brewery here?

 

Hell yes I do.

 

I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that there's someone brewing 4000L of beer in Antarctica...

[Magnaman]

G'day Tsubodia, Thank's for the info, great stuff and I'm sure all of us here would like to see the brewry in all it's glory.

 

I was thinking that even without hops the brews here Strong, maybe just the thing to add a little anti-freeze to all the crew down there.

 

The "brew A" and the "Strong Ale #2" should be good.

 

Cheers.

[ben 10]

Hey! Thanks for posting, and PLEASE share some pics, that would be great.

What is your actual job down there?

[Beerlust]

Hi Tsubodai!

 

I too would enjoy seeing some pics of your brewery. The whole notion of brewing beer down there just sounds fascinating!

 

On the recipe idea front, do you have any Coopers Australian Pale Ale amongst the kits down there?

 

Cheers,

 

Lusty.

[Tsubodai]

I have organised an end of summer brewing/bottle cleaning session tonight, in a couple of hours, so I'll take some shots and post them up for all to see. We have about 500 bottles to wash and 280L to bottle. Then we'll put down, say, 360L or more, for the winter stocks.

 

My actual job title is an Expedition Mechanic, pretty much a diesel mechanic but they just call us diesos.

 

Yeah, I did a variation on that Strong Ale #2 by accident and its my fav brew ever and its so simple. It's 2 x Draught cans, 175g Lactose, 20g Cascade dry hopped into secondary, 20L batch. When I get back to the world, that is going to be my go-to brew for ages I reckon haha.

 

The kits we have are OS Lager, Draught, Real Ale, Dark Ale and Stout.

 

 

[Man N Brew]

Tsubodai.... Mate you are the real deal!

 

I'm a diesel/heavy earthmoving fitter by trade..... From what I've seen, guys with a background like ours think they can fix/do anything! For this reason I've been setting up my in house brewery "Man N Brew" which includes an STC-1000 temp control box I knocked up, an old Kelvinator for my FV cooler, (Needed in sunny Queensland, Antarctica.... Not so much???) and I somehow convinced my minister of love and war that it was a good idea for me to build a walk in wardrobe in the rumpus room to keep all my brew gear in! I've done all the framework, gyprock, plaster and doors etc myself... Needless to say I'm fairly proud of how it's all coming together, so much so I was thinking last night about starting a thread asking fellow Brewers to post picks of their setups.....

 

Can't wait to see your brewery... Maybe your picks could start the trend!

 

One more thing.... What is the percentage split between being a dieso and a brewmaster? Sounds like the machine maintanence comes in a close second???

 

Cheers, Lachy.

[CanuckDownUnder]

Awesome, I would love to see some pics of this setup!

 

If I was stationed in Antarctica, first off it would remind me too much of home, but more importantly I would be brewing lots of Russian Imperial Stout. Easily the best of the straight up can recipes I have made and a perfect winter drink.

[Tsubodai]

So, we got into it last night, washed about 500 long necks and bottled 230L. Then after work this morning, we put down 120L each of Draught, Lager and Real Ale, 60L of Ginger Beer and a 20L toucan of Dark Ale and Draught with a small partial mash of 150g Roasted Barley and 250g flaked barley with 500g brown sugar. So, 440L is a pretty good morning hehe!

 

Here's some pics of the setup here and the team helping out.

 

 

New brews put down today and all the bottles washed in the rack!

 

[Beerlust]

Good stuff Tsubodai!

 

Pictures 5 & 6: Airlock symphony! Eat that you glad wrap boys!

 

Picture 7: What is that plant hanging from the ceiling?

 

& my personal favourite...

 

Picture 4: Everyone in the room working away all expect that one guy standing in the middle of the picture with a pint! He's obviously just a visiting shareholder! Haha!

 

440 litres. Not a bad days work.

 

Cheers,

 

Beerlust.

[Magnaman]

Thank's for the pictures of brewing life down south, the scale is hard to understand but the story in pictures explains so much, enjoy.

 

 

Cheers.

[PB2]

Tsubodai, that looks like a huge amount of work and clutter! Have they ever considered moving to kegs? Perhaps gas bottles are an issue? However, naturally conditioned beer in kegs would significantly reduce the amount of gas required.

Also, retailers like CraftBrewer offer liquid hop - a little goes a long way.

[antiphile]

Of course, I can't work out why you don't hook up a dog sled and pop over to McMurdo Station and ask to borrow a cup of hops. You might have to take a few cut lunches and a really large tin of Pal, but think of the beer.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Dang, that's a pretty epic scale in homebrewing terms! I knew someone would comment on all those airlocks Lusty

 

I'd imagine kegs would make things a lot easier if they can be used there though, and take up a lot less space than 2500 bottles!

[Tsubodai]

10 points if you can pick the rest of the plants in the brewery! They are all fake too btw ;)

 

Yeah, we have 6 kegs right now, I reckon we should totally be doing all keg brewing, but for some reason, a vast majority of people in the Australian Antarctic Division want to stay with bottles. It would be far less work to just have 30 kegs. The gas is not the drama, we have tons of C02 bottles, people just don't like change. Until I got here, the keg fridge went unused for the previous season.

 

It is a LOT of work to clean so many bottles and then fill them with beer, for example, it took us 2hrs the other day with all those people. Admittedly, many hands make light work and its a good social event, washing and bottling (and drinking ) but I have to agree that kegs would be better. It would reduce the clutter by a great margin also, but we have to make do with what we have as that is the only space that is at a reasonable temperature with which to brew, a little hot admittedly (in the summer) and has the space free.

 

Honestly, if I come down here again, I'll buy a couple of bulk lots of hops. Oh, and good news, after a clean up down there, I found a Bargara Blonde AG kit and a bunch of other speciality grains hidden away in a box from a previous year. Here's hoping they are still ok, it's incredibly dry humidity wise, so fingers crossed.

 

Cheers!

 

 

[Tsubodai]

G'Day fellas! I thought I'd resurrect this thread because I am back at Davis Station in Antarctica and wanted to share the brewing with you all.

 

I got back here several weeks ago and sadly the home brew situation is not good. Many variables like poor sanitation and bad recipes (not even following K&K instructions) and old kits have added up to the brews all being woeful (imo) in my absence. I'm no expert, but I know I can do better.

 

I have tipped out many many litres of wort that were fermenting when I got here because they were just bad and also hundreds of bottles of beer. It's a tragedy of epic proportions! I also went through the Coopers Kit stock and found that there were boxes of kits dating back to 2010 that people were reluctant to discard because its beer. So, for science, I brewed some of these up to see and the results are as you would expect. A bit out of date is OK, but that far, is dreadful. The 2010 OS Lager came out near the same color as a 2017 OS Real Ale with 300g of C120 in it.

I brewed kits that were a couple years out of date last time, but the stock was not being rotated correctly, so, I have ended up throwing out a ton (literally) of Coopers kits and getting the ones still in date. I shed a tear for what could have been.

 

I got to work restocking the station;

180L OS Lager

120L Mid Strength OS Lager

120L Mid Strength OS Draught

120L Coopers Ginger Beer/ Black Rock Cider Hybrid (its quite good and popular)

60L Dark Lager (Tettnang)

60L Light OS Draught (Galaxy)

60L Coopers Ginger Beer

40L Toucan Black Rock Cider fermented with Coopers Ale yeast

40L OS Stout/Dark Ale toucan (Fuggles)

40L OS Draught toucan (Mosaic, Motueka, Amarillo)

20L Bourbon Barrel Porter (Devils Half Ruby Porter)

20L Red Ale (Enigma, OS Real Ale)

20L Julebryg (Saaz, OS Lager)

20L Belgian Crystal Ale (OS Real Ale)

20L Schwarzbier (Saaz, OS Lager)

16L Belgian Honey Trippel (OS Lager)

 

Every usable fermenter is full! So around 900L of beer in fermentation.

 

This time I am fully prepared with all manner of specialty grains, base malts, extracts and yeasts as well as a lot of hops to see me though. No running out this time. I brought 15 boxes of gear with me this time, 4 boxes of clothes and 11 boxes of home brew supplies haha! A mate managed to get Hop Producers Australia to give us a kilo of their 2016 hop cones to use too; Topaz, Enigma, Galaxy and Ella. I've already dry hopped with some and its damn good, the freshest I've ever got my hands on.

 

I organised a bottling session tomorrow to empty some of these fermenters as the brews are done so I'll put up some more photos of the crew at work.

 

I have saved the yeast cake from the Belgian Honey Trippel in a 5L conical flask. I used it for the Belgian Crystal Ale too and its still going strong so I think I'll try it out in a OS Dark Ale with some Amber LME, Dark Candi sugar and (Hop suggestions please, Willamette?) as an experiment.

 

Feels good to be back!

 

[joolbag]

Tsubodai I hadn't seen this thread from last year, thanks for reviving it. A great read and loved the photos. What an experience to be stationed in Antarctica. Keen to hear how your brews turn out.

 

The crew stationed there are VERY lucky that you have come back to save them from crap beer (and themselves!)

[Morrie]

Tsubodai - I like what you're doing mate. It must feel like you are in brew heaven there. Can't wait for more pics.

 

Cheers

Morrie