My Favourite Craftbeers

Very hard to select my favourite craftbeers, as I seem to like so many.
Also there are so many different styles and mood determines the style you feel like on a particular day.
From my personal ratings here are my current favourite craftbeers.

Pale Ales, IPA, APS

EPIC Armageddon

8 Wired - Hopwired (NZ)

Union Jack IPA (Firestone Walker - USA)
Tuatara APA

Dark Beers, Stouts and Porters
Holgate Empress (Australia)
Holgate Temptress (Australia)
Wild Thing - Murrays Brewery (Australia)

Mikkeller - Beer Geek Breakfast (Denmark)
Dark Force (Imperial Stout) - Norway

Red Hill - Imperial Stout (Australia)
Dieu du Ciel Aphrodisiaque - Vanilla, Coffee, Chocolate Stout (Canada)
Three Boys Oyster Stout (New Zealand)

Beer Blogs, Craftbeer news and Craftbeer Websites

CraftyPint - http://craftypint.com/
Brilliant website and newsletters about Australian Craft breweries and new craftbeer releases

Ozbrewnews - http://www.brewsnews.com.au

Beermen TV - http://beermen.tv/
Beermen TV is a great Video Podcast, and the "Hair of the Dog Breakfast" each year (as part of GABF) is magnificent!

64 Bottles of Beer on the Wall http://64bottlesofbeeronthewall.wordpress.com/
This blog has great beer reviews

The Wobby Thong - http://www.thewobblythong.com/

Beer Bureau - http://beerbureau.com/

Aussie Beer TV - http://aussiebeertv.com.au/
Video of Australian craftbeer scene

Eat, Drink, Stagger - http://eatdrinkstagger.com/

Some of my favourite Victorian Breweries

I try to visit and support as many breweries as possible. As I live in Victoria, I obviously visit more breweries in my home state. When travelling I try to visit other more distant breweries. In July I visited Murrays Brewery in Port Stevens (NSW). I think their beer selection (especially their higher ABV beers) were brilliant!

Here are some of the Victorian Breweries I have enjoyed visiting

Jamieson Brewery - favourite beer "The Beast IPA".

 




Redhill Brewery - favourite beer "Imperial Stout"

Bridge Road Brewery (Beechworth) - favourite beers - all!!!











Mornington Penninsula Brewery
 







Tooborac Brewery

Coldstream Brewery
True South Brewery
Hargreaves Hill Brewery

Buffalo Brewery

2Brothers Brewery

Bright Brewery
Sweetwater Brewery

Boyntons Brewery
Echuca Brewery

Grand Ridge  Brewery
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Holgate Brewery - I love their beer but yet to visit the brewery in Woodend. It is on the list.
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Union Jack IPA Homebrew

After listening to The Jamil Show "You Can Brew It" podcast, I decided to brew the Firestone Walker "Union Jack" clone

On Thursday, 30th  July I made a yeast starter on my new stirplate
Stared at 1035. Ended at 1010

On the 1st August 2011, I started the brew.

The brew session started at 8.30 The method I use is all grain, "Brew in a Bag".
Four grains for this brew.
6240gm Joe White, Traditional Ale
900gm Weyermann Munich Light
380gm Weyermann Carapils
100gm Joe White Cara

Hops
28 gm Nugget for 90 minutes for bittering
18gm each of Cascade and Columbus at 30 minutes for flavour
50gm each of Cascade and Columbus at flame out/whirlpool
There will be 2 dry hop additions

Day 4 of fermentation - 44gm each Cascade and Columbus
Day 7 of fermentation 30gm Cascade and Columbus plus 14 gm of each Simcoe and Amarillo

Boiling the Wort before hop additions

Brew Day

Mashing the grain - 60 minutes at 63 degrees Celcius

Doing the Mash 60 mins @ 63 then 10 mins at 68.5

Boiling the wort with hops

The beer is in the fermenter. Wyeast 1056