Currently (virtually) attending a guest lecture by Dr. Daniel Kerruish, group microbiologist at Diageo, on pasteurisation.

He is suggesting that pasteurisation for small craft breweries is very much ‘a cherry on top’ and due to the volume of hops used and relative high ABV of craft beers, so long as hygiene practices are properly maintained then pasteurisation isn’t really required.

Pasteurisation tends to be restrictively expensive for small breweries and the technology tends to be power hungry so not great for a sustainability focussed brewery.

First lecture of new semester today, up to 2.5 hours long.. Not sure how likely it will be that I can watch and work every Monday afternoon but we’ll see.

On the plus side, hopefully I’ll find out details about both of the mid-semester assignments today and make a start on researching them.

My first attempt at an 80 shilling type beer has been a bit disappointing, possibly due to the replacement malts that I had to use.. and it seems to be a beer that really needs mixed gas.. not doing so well on CO2..

.. it’s drinkable, there are the sort of caramel notes you might expect but they are far too subtle.. might have been better with marris otter but there was none in stock at the brewstore..

..deciding whether or not to switch recipes before I place my order this evening for the first brew of 2021.

明けましておめでとうございます.. when the time comes for you.

Happy Hogmanay until then.

Been playing in the snow with Islay a fair bit today which has been fun but despite being somewhat Nordic, I really can’t stand the cold!

I’m not great with too much heat either (like Japanese summers) which is less than ideal.

Give me a lukewarm, dreich, rainy, Autumnal day any day.. yes, I am Scottish and also yes, that does describe the vast majority of Scottish days!

Last night Islay told her mum, “it’s OK, I’m a big girl, night night” enabling Sakino to leave the bedroom before she fell asleep. After months of coaching by myself, this was a breakthrough moment.

When she woke up this morning, I gave her a big hug and told her how proud I was of her for being a brave girl as she recounted the story.

.. then spent 35 minutes trying to convince her to eat some breakfast to no avail!

Rollercoaster!

After a shockingly exhausting four mile trek, pulling a trolley carrying a reasonably heavy gas canister.. I now have my CO2 bottle refilled and at a bargain price!

I wish I had known about Lothian Supply Co. before as it would have cost me £50 less for the initial purchase of the same gas bottle as compared to the brewstore in Edinburgh! The top up was only £5!

Once feeling has returned toy wrists, I’ll hook it up to my kegerator and hopefully, so long as I didn’t completely decompress the keg before noticing my lack of gas, I’ll be pouring a glass of delicious Imperial stout in a few hours time!

Cyberpunk 2077 purchased.. but will not be downloaded before I submit my final assignment of my beverage microbiology and biochemistry course..

For my first recipe based homebrew I’m going for a Scottish Export type beer.. ordering each of the ingredients is far more fun than ordering a premade mystery box!

I received my mark for the second assignment of my first course and whilst I didn’t quite reach the lofty heights of my first mark, I’m happy with a 2nd tier ‘A’!

So, for anyone interested in how kōji is used in the production of saké, here is my poster on the topic .

It is somewhat wordy for a poster and not a gleaming example of topnotch graphical design, and I was marked down for this, but I like words.. so…

Special thanks go to my friend ‘on the inside’ and 後輩, Andrew Russell who works at Imada Shuzō saké brewery (今田酒造) in Akitsu (安芸津), Hiroshima and who owns the Origin Sake blog .