2008 Sa Xmas Case Swap

[GMK]

Well - as this is my 1st AG wit and 1st AG Apricot Wit ....

Guess I should try one this weekend to see if it is good enough to go in the swap

Hope it is - I have brewed my 1st AG Anchor Steam Beer clone that is due out of primary this weekend as back up - but I don't have any more long necks.

 

[Murcluf]

Re: making comment on other peoples beers I'm taking this stance, if I have nothing positive to say I won't say anything at all. I'm of the mind that we should be encouraging each other to make better not knee capping each other at the throat. If you have a critisism of someone elses beer make it constructive ie. "I think your fermentation temp may have high as I'm getting alot of sulphur in the aroma" rather then going "your beer taste like crap" which I have seen in some swap tasting posts.

I'm very open to getting constuctive critisism on my beer it helps me make a better beer.

Want to give the Home Brew Guru a run for is money one day

 

[Frank]

Re: making comment on other peoples beers I'm taking this stance, if I have nothing positive to say I won't say anything at all. I'm of the mind that we should be encouraging each other to make better not knee capping each other at the throat. If you have a critisism of someone elses beer make it constructive ie. "I think your fermentation temp may have high as I'm getting alot of sulphur in the aroma" rather then going "your beer taste like crap" which I have seen in some swap tasting posts.
I'm very open to getting constuctive critisism on my beer it helps me make a better beer.
Want to give the Home Brew Guru a run for is money one day

I agree with this thought process.
This is my first case swap, and I am a little disappointed that it is not a **** fight for the first 24 brewers calling a place. I would not want anyone to be too affraid of putting a beer forward because they may get an absulte flogging. But as Wayne stated earlier if you are happy with the taste of your beer and put it forward, you should be ready for the praise or constructive critisism. A peer tasting like these are good to ensure the old Cellar Palate does not start to dominate your brewing process. As we all know, your mates will tell you that your most ***** beer you made is fantastic, just because you made it. I am more than happy for someone with more brewing experience and a fine tuned palate to give me a few pointers. And I am sure DrS needs a bit more competition for a gong at the next local beer show.

 

[Murcluf]

On another note I have been carefully releasing the pressure from my beer that "was" going to be in the case swap. This morning I opened a bottle that I had been chilling and all seems fine. That was one bottle though.Will bring others along just for tasting.

BYB

So you are in or out of the swap then mate, because I was hanging for your prize winning Inspector Pockets ESB

 

[Rustyc30]

Hi Guys

Just finished bottling my swap beers from the keg and end only getting 18.5 and not 19 so I have bottle a ESB that I had kegged up and some one will just get that instead. Guess that I maybe had one to many samples as it was CCing.

Cheers

Rusty

 

[buttersd70]

... so I have bottle a ESB that I had kegged up and some one will just get that instead.

You say that like it's a bad thing. I'll volunteer to jump on the grenade and drink an ESB if I must. Damn, another English beer..... :lol:

 

[drsmurto]

What Rusty failed to mention is that his Smoker is now sitting in my shed along with some charcoal and mesquite. This beast will be good for a quite a few kgs of meat at a time. I'm drooling just thinking about it and wondering whether i should take the scientific approach and do a test run before Saturday...... :lol:

I will be visiting the butcher to find a suitable piece(s) of meat to do the beast justice!

Supping on a bottle of my case swap beer. A little too carbed for a trad pommy bitter but its clear and tasting good. Hope it goes down well with everyone else.

Also dry hopped the golden ale last night in prep for the swap day.

WIll have that, a Munich Dunkel and a Dusseldorf Alt on tap.

Started the process that is mowing the lawn. Got the front done, will do a section each night before you lot get here. Dont want to give the brown snakes any more hiding spots......

 

[homekegger1]

If you need me to grab a good piece of meat let me know. I may be able to get some good pork of my uncle(Pork butcher) but I will need to ask and may have to pay in beer. - NO PROMISES

Cheers

HK

 

[Rustyc30]

Bit of pork goes very well on the smoker just have to keep in mind that with a roast on the smoker you cook it at between 110-125 deg so if its a big one it can take a while. There is all so a butcher on O.G road that will do 5kg of Baby back ribs for $20 It's just a little wholesale place with a tiny shop front and you have to have an idea of what you want but always good value (5kg of ribs is about 10-12 racks)

Drsmurto i would be disappointed if it didn't get a whirl before the day hope that it gets some good use on the day and over Christmas. Even if you just do some snags on it as a dry run. Forgot to tell you if you get any big peices of charcoal(over fist size) break them up a bit just makes getting a constant temp easier

Butters now the pressure is on don't know if it's will stand up to a true ESB lover you'll have to give me some feed back if you do get it, I've only done a few ESB's so be gentle

 

[domonsura]

Well....when it comes to the BBQ's that will be there..............I've been messing around with a little project....goes nicely with beer as far as I'm concerned....

I like to call it 'THE PIG', because it's an ugly *******, but my god it does an amazing job of food (well so far anyway). It's a charcoal BBQ that's sort of based around a number of different ovens I've seen while working as a chef.
Just a bit of fun really, I love charcoal cooking but it took too long and cost too much charcoal for me so I had to make something that was quicker to be useable and used less fuel. Those who know me may also recognise one of my past projects.....

Still experimenting with it, but so far it manages about 180 -200 deg C and can be adjusted down to about 85 deg C by trimming the airflow for longer cooking times. Uses roughly a cup of charcoal per hour of cooking, easy to light (has a small well for metho attached to the bottom of the burner tubes to be used to light the charcoal), I've had some good results with almost everything I've tried....even overnight roast eggs are alright unsure.gif (I had to try it, I had bacon slow cooking overnight ready for the morning)

Here's some 'in use' shots...

The 100mm 'can' that holds the charcoal.

Balsamic injected & garlic plugged rump & rosemary rubbed garlic plugged rump.

Breakfast, set down to 85 degrees for overnight. Totally forgot to take an after shot though

The plan ins to be able to use it as a fish smoker too.

I'll be bringing this up to the case swap, it can run all day and we can keep dropping skewers of marinated chicken in there as required

Rusty - we scored some of those ribs the other week, I'll be dropping a pile of them into some Honey & Hoi sin marinade to go into the new BBQ in a couple of days....happy times

 

[KHB]

Food is looking like a step up this time from roaring forties pizzas!!

 

[peas_and_corn]

This swap I'll be bottling from the keg, so it *might* be a little undercarbed, since I haven't done it before (a little experimenting with my setup going on right now)- it will also mean that you will be able to open it straight away.

 

[drsmurto]

Damn all that food looks good Wayne. :icon_drool2:

Nice to have a few chefs and/or ex-chefs along. Looks like being a bit gourmet, love it!

Just a reminder that if you do want my address you need to PM me. If you can find Mt Torrens you will easily be able to find my place, i live on 1 of a handful of streets in the town and i will put signs out to let you know where it is. My neighbours have been warned altho one did say we cant possibly make more noise than their teenage kids i take as a challenge......

So with 2 smokers and a bbq it looks like being an all day grazing affair. Perfect! just make sure you bring along meat that is suited to this style of cooking. No Rusty, i wont be putting snags on the smoker but maybe a few thick chops or other cuts of meat that still has the bone in.

Craig (and everyone) - any large chunks of meat (preferably on the bone) will be well received. I plan on grabbing a leg of lamb for eating by late arvo and some snags for early eating. As long as everyone brings along enough for themselves we will be sorted.

Show of hands please for all the salad makers? My partner and i will be out on Friday night for a work xmas do so wont be able to be doing any prep work the night before. Any help with salad would be greatly appreciated. I will make some of my vampire repelling tsatsiki and a big bowl of hummus for nibbles.

Hopefully everyone has bedding organised. If a tent is needed i can provide one but wont put it up unless someone actually plans on sleeping in it.

And lastly, people bringing kegs - could you please bring a picnic tap or equiv. A few extras would be handy. First person here gets to have it on tap along with 2 of mine. I will be able to keep several kegs cool during the day.

 

[Goofinder]

Show of hands please for all the salad makers? My partner and i will be out on Friday night for a work xmas do so wont be able to be doing any prep work the night before. Any help with salad would be greatly appreciated. I will make some of my vampire repelling tsatsiki and a big bowl of hummus for nibbles.

I'll bring a salad of some sort, whatever the resident cook feels like making. I think she's planning on doing a batch of baklava as well. Will also grab the requisite dead animals to bring along too.

Had a bottle of my swap beer the other night and it's good to go. I reckon it tastes alright, but I'm no expert so hopefully it goes down ok.

 

[Murcluf]

I'll bring a couple of salads most likely a coleslaw and potato salad

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

I'll bring a couple of salads most likely a coleslaw and potato salad

Is'nt that original I am sure I could have thought of a more gourmet title. Mine will be some type of chinese salad.

BYB

 

[Adamt]

I've really got no excuses to not bring anything - I'm on uni holidays and aren't working.

I think I might bring some "jerky", not the smoked kind but the dried kind.

I'll also probably bring my (2/3 full) keg of Flying Spaghetti Monster Tribute Ale, which is a portery stout kinda thing. It's yumbo, and it seems the weather will be pretty coolish so it should go down a treat. Forecast at the moment for Adelaide is 19 with a few showers.

 

[buttersd70]

I'll bring a salad of some sort, don't know exactly what.

Sods law has come into play....I had a run of so many batches of beer coming out exactly as they were meant to, that I was overdue for a fail....and sods law states that it had to be the one and only beer that really matters...the swap beer. :angry:

At the moment, I'm waiting for a standard bitter to drop bright in the keg. A couple more days, and it should be good to go (tastes fine, but nothing particularly special or inspiring).... so I will retaste the swap beer later in the week, and if needs be, bottle from the keg, and use that instead. It will be far from my best, but should be OK for what it is. (muckey tasted a sample of the one I'm not happy with, and reckons that I'm just being too picky.)

 

[drsmurto]

I've really got no excuses to not bring anything - I'm on uni holidays and aren't working.

I think I might bring some "jerky", not the smoked kind but the dried kind.

I'll also probably bring my (2/3 full) keg of Flying Spaghetti Monster Tribute Ale, which is a portery stout kinda thing. It's yumbo, and it seems the weather will be pretty coolish so it should go down a treat. Forecast at the moment for Adelaide is 19 with a few showers.

19 down in the plains mate, brass monkey weather up in the hills. :lol: It was fecken freezing up here last night, almost lit the fire so you will need either a jumper of sorts and/or a bloody well insulated beer blanket! Altho with the various charcoal bbqs cranking we should be ok!

Stout/porter will actually work very well IMO and i am actually very curious to see what spaghetti in a beer does.

Butters - i bet you are being way too harsh, my beer is far from my best Landlord to my tastes and i was tempted to do the same and hold it back and bottle the Dunkel from the keg but bugger it. Its still a good beer, its just not my best IMO. We can crack a few bottles of both on the day and see.

Good to see the salads coming. My partner will make her mozarella, tomato and pasta salad. :icon_drool2: and prob a simple tossed salad.

Now i just need to make some fancy labels or dust of the masking tape...... Decisions.

 

[youngy]

Just finished cleaning the bottles on Sunday, now I remembered why I purchased kegs.....

The beer that I will be bottling is a house lager I was experimenting with. The swap beer did not make it (sav lager) due to the lager fridge dying, thus turning my fermentation fridge into lagering fridge. Also I went to transfer it from the cube to the fermenter I walked away for a little while to come back to 7L of unfermented beer on the ground, at least 16L of fermenting beer is better than 0L.

The House Lager is keg carbonated and will be transfered this week, so it should be drunk soon.

So we only need 19 Long necks in the end? (hopefully my mates did not drink to much/any out of this keg)

Also I am trying to make the swap, but I have 2 kids (26 months and 3 months). So it depends if the wife is willing to drop me off and pick me up.

Youngy