Tropical Cyclone Alfred

Gambling that I’d get this brew-day completed before we lost power and water, I brewed this beer to make use of the copious rain and as a distraction from the howling winds during Tropical Cyclone Alfred (Brisbane, May 2025).

It produced an awesome beer. My favourite part is the colour which is best described as “Burnished Copper”. I’d recommend this (overly complicated) grain bill to put with any hops you like.

Importantly, the Shepherds Delight malt is only added for the very last 5 minutes of the mash.

As described here, the beer is very well balanced with sufficient malt sweetness to carry some pronounced bitterness. This was my first use of Mandarina Bavaria hops.

Overall, this beer is eminently drinkable. It is also really good to look at with the light casting a copper sheen as it passes through the crystal-clear beer.

I do routinely use Gelatin clearing (less than 5g Gelatin dissolved in 200mL in boiled water at 66 degrees C dripped onto the chilled beer surface after it has been sitting at -2 degrees C for 48 hours to induce a chill haze).

Extra detail: I used 1.6kg HoppyDays Superblend in this recipe. This contributed 1.36kg Pale malt, 0.192kg Vienna malt and 48g Chit malt) (Leaving only the 2.45 Kg American Ale malt, 0.346kg Vienna malt, 100g Wheat malt, 0.65kg Melanoidin malt and 50g Shephards Delight). Voyager Planet Vienna malt was used rather than the Schooner as listed here.

It’s a shame I’m likely to have to wait another 50 years until I can brew this beer again. Tropical cyclones don’t come this far south very regularly (for which I am grateful).