Article: Boiling Your Brew - The Reasons Why

My tenth obligatory article for the Suite101 site is a no-brainer: the many reasons for boiling the wort.
Slightly ironic considering one of my recent home brews was boil-free....

Article: Noble Hop Varieties and Substitutes for Home Brewing

My latest contribution to Suite101 is a quick article on the noble hop varieties, and possible non-noble substitutes.

http://beer-brewing.suite101.com/article.cfm/noble-hop-varieties-and-substitutes-for-home-brewing

Article: Using Hops in Home Brewing

At this risk of writing about the bleeding obvious, I decided to pen my next Suite 101 article on hops. My latest brewing endeavours got me thinking about the different ways of late & dry hopping, so I did a bit of reading up on different methods, and wrote a quick 600 words.

http://beer-brewing.suite101.com/article.cfm/using-hops-in-home-brewing

I just love the "Randall"; locally, I think the Wig & Pen in Canberra has rigged one up on occasion. Perhaps others around the country too.  It's not a particularly good option for the home brewer. Firstly you need a lot of hop flowers to make it viable, and some space, and all the connectors from serving tank to the tap. And it needs to be big enough for the beer to hang around long enough to pick up the volatile oils.  But then the beer needs to be rechilled before serving.

Oh well, I like the concept; I won't be building one in the near future, however.

Article: Beer and Brewery tour of NSW Coast

To complement the article on breweries of NSW inland, I completed the following article over the weekend.

http://beers.suite101.com/article.cfm/beer-and-brewery-tour-of-the-new-south-wales-coast

Article: American Beer success at 2010 AIBA

My latest article for Suite101 is here http://beers.suite101.com/article.cfm/american-beers-succeed-in-australian-international-beer-awards.

The article is targeted more at the American reader, who may or may not be aware of their countrymen's craft brewing success outside of the US.

For Australian readers, it's more just for interest's sake, as so many of the American medal-winning beers are not exported to Australia. I think only Rogue Ales & Great Divide beers are available, and then only from premium beer outlets such as Slowbeer, Purvis, International Beer Shop, and Platinum Cellars.

Oh, there is of course Samuel Adams Boston Lager. It won a Bronze in the European Lager (Packaged) category. But The Boston Beer Company won 30 medals, from 36 beers submitted. You would think that they could perhaps see their way to exporting some of these others ?

Article: 2010 Australian International Beer Awards Trophy Winners

In this article I profile the winning breweries and beers from the 2010 AIBA.

http://beers.suite101.com/article.cfm/2010-australian-international-beer-awards-trophy-winners

Sadly, I have yet try the majority of those discussed. It is not a rule that beers submitted to this competition must also be available in Australia. Although frustrating for beer lovers in Australia, it works to the advantage of Australian brewers (Redoak for example) who have tasted overseas competition success.
 
The full results of the competition can be found here: http://www.beerawards.com/pdfs/AIBA_COR_V2.pdf

Article: Boutique Beers of Montréal in Australia

My latest article for Suite101 is about the Dieu du Ciel beers from my previous blog:

http://beers.suite101.com/article.cfm/boutique-beers-of-montreal-in-australia

Article: Brewery Tour of Inland New South Wales

Here I talk about those small breweries that are operating away from the big cities and the coast. It includes a brief overview of William Bull, Mudgee Brewing, Hunter Brewing, Bluetoungue, Goulburn, Scharers, and Infusion.

http://beers.suite101.com/article.cfm/brewery-tour-of-inland-new-south-wales

It could be argued that Infusion is not quite rural.... sure it's just off busy Narellan Road in Campbelltown. But as it's quite close to Picton, (and quite different too), I felt bracketing them together was appropriate.

Next article will hopefully be on the coastal, non-Sydney breweries of NSW.

THE GREAT AUSSIE BEER BOOK

Article: Beer and Brewery Guide to Sydney City

My first article for Suite101 has been success published:

Beer and brewery guide to Sydney City.

I expect there will be some chargrin that I included Manly, but not Darlinghurst. I'll probably write about the Local Taphouse in greater detail later.