Fox Grande Reserve

My Blue-label Chimay-style brew, the Fox Grande Reserve, requires almost 8kg of light dry malt extract. I incrementally add malt to my new 20L brew-pot and weigh it using bathroom scales. This process is conducted outside now. The malt is a fine powder and wherever it lands, you may end up with a sticky, (probably tasty) surface.

From Chimay

My helpful assistant stirs the pot. Full power from the biggest element brings the pot to the boil. After this point, a rolling boil is maintained using 45% power.

From Chimay

Having removed the grain bag with its contents of spent chocolate malt and fuggles hops, I pour the contents of the pot into my 60L fermenter with a few ice-cubes and supplement the liquid with tap water to generate a total volume of 50L.

From Chimay

Having pitched the K-97 wheat-beer yeast, Jen inserts the airlock. This is one of our most elaborate brews; It incorporates almost a kilogram of honey and one-and-a-half kilograms of brown sugar. Thankfully, we are able to prepare this brew on a grand scale. With a carton of blue-label Chimay retailing at over $200 per case of 12 x 750mL longnecks,¹ this brew represents over $1000 worth of high-quality hand-crafted beer!

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A big boy

Jen presented me with a 20L stock pot in which I concocted my first double-batch of beer. For 50L of beer, I used 6kg of light dry malt, 150g crystal grain, 100g chocolate grain, 130g Fuggles hops and S-04 Safale yeast. Cost-wise, that's $42 + $1.50 + $0.65 + $6.80 + $3.75 + $2 postage = $56.70. This equates to a cost of about $11 per case of beer.

Most of the components of this brew were acquired from Jayne Lynn from BettABrew Beer & Wine Making Supplies in Parkwood, Queensland. Jayne offered me a better deal on the postage if I purchased materials in bulk. As such, I placed a joint order on behalf of Phil, Mix, Jen and I. Here's what we received:

$280.00 : 2 x 20 kg light dry malt extract
$26.00 : 1 x 500 g cascade hop plugs
$23.50 : 1 x 450 g fuggles hop plugs
$59.00 : 1 x HDPE 60 litre fermenter, bung and airlock
$11.85 : 3 x Saflager S23 yeast
$11.25 : 3 x Safale S-04 yeast
$7.90 : 2 x Saflager W-34/70 yeast
$15.00 : postage
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$434.50 : total
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I recall now that I will need an adhesive thermometer and another tap but Big W will likely satisfy these requirements.