2008 Sa Xmas In July Case Swap - Tastings/recipes

[GMK]

There is some black treacle....125gms

Dont know why some are gushing...

OG was 1115
FG was approx 1015

1056 yeast.

 

[Adamt]

Just another reminder... I opened one of my Belgians tonight... not carbonated quite well enough yet. To be honest the bottle is like a well synthesised culture of banana ester! I think it will do better with at least a month at decent conditioning temperature to carbonate and hopefully balance out a bit...

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

Just another reminder... I opened one of my Belgians tonight... not carbonated quite well enough yet. To be honest the bottle is like a well synthesised culture of banana ester! I think it will do better with at least a month at decent conditioning temperature to carbonate and hopefully balance out a bit...

Ditto here as well.Found the one you brought along, still in the fridge. Needs a lot of carbing still. Yes very banana and sweetish. Will put it in a warm place or leave it in my cellar and forget about it.


BYB

 

[drsmurto]

Been drinkingthe case swap exclusively this week.

BenH's Alt is sublime.
Domonsuras choccy soldier is smooth as silk but i already knew that cos we did a keg swap and i got to drink 19L of it

Then onto the porters.
BYB - nice one altho its maybe a tad green? Not as smooth as i would expect but the flavours are all good.

KHB - this one was smooth and very easy to drink. Recipe?

Homekeggers - not too sure about this one. It was a fair way over carbed for style (IMO) and had a residual after taste? If i didnt know better i would suspect its a kit beer but its not. Anyone else got any thoughts on it?

Then i cracked opened Choppadoos volcanic FES. Think once it stopped gushing i got half a tallie out of it and i enjoyed it a lot. Think i need the recipe for this one.

Then i attacked Jazmans contirbution which i assume is a smoked porter? Not as smoked as i had expected. But still a nice easy drinking beer.

Slightly OT, but i discovered a bottle of BYBs hobgoblin that i was on tap at the swap and emtpied that one in record time. Nice work on that one Andy.

Oh, i did havbe one of MikeE (??) porter and enjoyed that one too altho i did get a taste of it at the swap!

Have left myself the big beasts for the weekend (and Rustys Scottish Ale which i will leave till the date on the bottle).

Enjoying these beers!
Cheers
DrSmurto

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

Unfortunatlely I had programmed in to taste some case swap beers while on annual leave but I ended up at Ackland St Ceallars at St Kilda Currently on a wireless conection trying to decide which one of the 300 or so f**cking beers I want to delve into. Better check my wallet first!!


BYB

 

[homekegger1]

Well Boys, over the week I too have made my way through most of the case.

So here goes,

DrSmurto, Really liked the mild. As Adam said it certainly didn't taste mild. Would make a great session beer. Well done. Sorry my beer disappointed. Not sure what the prob was, but thanks for your honesty. Perhaps I added too much sugar for Carb. As for the aftertaste, not sure.

MIkeoz - Absolutely loved this. Heavy as buggery though. Made me think twice about following up with any more beers. Very tastey indeed. I just hope the hobgoblin I have brewing comes out half as good, as mine will be half the alc. Cheers

~Mike - Have tried both your porters, and both went done well. A very easy drinking beer for this cold weather.

KHB - Top effort mate a good porter. Had it as my first beer tonight. Was happy with it. Tasted nice, with a good balance of choc and roast.

BYB - Another nice Porter. What can I say, very easy drinking. Certainly could stomach a few more of these.

Jazman - Tried your first one when I had a blocked head, and never really noticed the smoked flavour, however when I tried the second a few days later it was there. A nice subtle smoke flavour. For me it wasn't fantastic, but that is because I am not huge on smoked beer. Glad to have tried it though. For the most part the beer tasted nice.

Chopperdoo - FES - Must say I was really happy with this beer. I like a good strong flavored stout in the middle of winter and this fit the bill. I must be the luckiest man on earth because it did not gush or froth up for me. Neither did any of GMK's I guess I am just lucky. This was a good drinking beer in the cold of winter.

GMK - You know what I thought of your x-mas in a bottle, and just so you know, it did not gush out.

As for the rest, I am yet to try them, they are the ones with a longer life span in the bottle.

I must say, I enjoy these swaps because I get to try different beers from different blokes. For me it is about the variety of a bunch of fellow brewers. Thanks to all that contributed.

Cheers

HK

 

[KHB]

Thanks for the feedback guys.
Heres the recipie for ya DrSmurto


BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Robust Porter Version 2 XMAS in July Swap 08
Brewer: Ben Sparks
Asst Brewer:
Style: Robust Porter
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 32.27 L
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 53.2 EBC
Estimated IBU: 25.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.50 kg Pale Malt, Ale (Barrett Burston) (5.9 EBC)Grain 67.31 %
1.00 kg Munich I (Weyermann) (14.0 EBC) Grain 19.23 %
0.40 kg Caramalt (Joe White) (49.3 EBC) Grain 7.69 %
0.25 kg Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (1000.8 EBGrain 4.81 %
0.05 kg Black Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (1300.2 EBC) Grain 0.96 %
20.00 gm Pride of Ringwood [9.00 %] (60 min) Hops 19.8 IBU
20.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (15 min) Hops 5.5 IBU
20.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.50 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs British Ale (Wyeast Labs #1098) [Starter 1Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 5.20 kg
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 13.57 L of water at 81.4 C 66.0 C
Hold mash at 66.0 C for 60 min
-- Drain Mash Tun
-- Batch Sparge Round 1: Sparge with 12.51 L of 75.6 C water.
-- Batch Sparge Round 2: Sparge with 12.51 L of 75.6 C water.
-- Batch Sparge Round 3: Sparge with 0.89 L of 75.6 C water.
-- Add water to achieve boil volume of 32.27 L
-- Estimated Pre-boil Gravity is: 1.039 SG with all grains/extracts added

Pitched the 1098 with 1.5lt starter

Also was at Beerbellys yesterday and saw the DrSmurto Golden ale kit bagged up!!

 

[Adamt]

BYB's Porter:

Well I haven't had a beer for about a week (and I'm on holidays!)

Pours nice and clear, dark dark brown, smallish head. No aroma up my schnoz. Choccy up front, fairly dry and a strong black/roasted malt flavour, quite an astringent finish. Hop bitterness is there at a good level for me. I am not a big fan of dry porters/stouts usually, I despise Guinness and this is much higher in the flavour stakes than Guinness to me.

Not really my cup of tea unfortunately, but there's nothing wrong with it!

Cheers.
Adam

 

[Adamt]

Jazman's Smoked Porter:

First impressions from the pour was a citrussy smell, what's the bet there's NZ hops in it?

Pours with a niceish head, dark brown. Taste is a bit choccy, a little bit of NZish hop flavour and a whomp of smoked bacon in the finish. Some mouthfuls I had more of the hop flavour and some were pure bacon.

Which smoked malt and how much of it did you use? (%) This is a good amount of smokiness!

Cheers.
Adam

 

[drsmurto]

Had my 3rd (and last) bottle of BenH's Alt last night.

Damn i love this beer.

I have 25L of Alt lagering away at the moment - if it turns out half as nice i will be very happy.

Hopefully i can have it on tap when you drop in to pick up your case swap beers - Stammtisch?

 

[Jazman]

about 34% wey smoked

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

Tried the Choppadoo Porter yesterday. MMMMM something was night right there I took his advice and opened it outside.

BYB

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

about 34% wey smoked

Thats a ship load of bacon :wacko: Can't wait to try mine.

BYB

 

[peas_and_corn]

Choppadoo's FES- after a lot of warnings regarding the carbonation on this thing, I opened it outside and it wasn't a gusher. Better safe than sorry, though. Poured into the glass it had crazy head going, so I suppose that it was close to being a gusher but not quite there. Maybe I was a lucky one. After waiting for the head to go down, I had a taste. This one's a strong one- I like it that way. Quite nice, with a solid flavour behind it.

 

[peas_and_corn]

BYB's Porter: This is quite nice. Admittedly it's a bit of a step down in crazy flavour when compared to Choppadoo's contribution, but this isn't to disparage it. There's a lot going for this beer- quite complex, char, smoke and syrupy flavours. I'm enjoying this quite thoroughly right now. Do you have the recipe posted anywhere? I'd certainly like to make something like this at one point.

 

[Adamt]

Homekegger's Porter

Big billowy head, fruity aroma. This left a massive furry lace about 0.5cm thick on the edge of the glass... amazing! Not overly roasty, medium body and a fruity finish.

There's been plenty of porters in this case, all of them good. This is definitely one of them!

Cheers Craig

 

[drsmurto]

Bugger! I must have tasted Homekeggers Porter when i was still suffering the after effects of the cold. Pity i dont have another one to re-taste..... any left Craig?

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

Choppadoo Porter - I ended up not getting to much of this one by the time it had finished climbing out of the bottle.

Dr Smurto Mild- Very flavoursome, nice body and some nice flavoured notes of roast and chocolate coming through. I did like it, along with the neighbour. 3.5%??

Rustyc30 Cross Winds Scottish Ale- - Had this one last night after work. Do I sense some Styrian hops?? Nice flavour could have done with a little more something for body. Bloody nice head retention a little white foam all the way to the end. Still had no problem knocking it down though. Oh just noticed the best after date 7/8/08

BYB

 

[Rustyc30]

I opened one over the weekend and thought the same wanted a bit more body. I mash high or thought I did but on checking my temp probe I think that it is out by a few deg so might be the issue might up the cara as well next time as well to get a bit more body. Thanks for the feed back

 

[drsmurto]

Does that mean your beer is ok to drink now Rusty?

What about yours Adam?

Apart from that i have GMKs, Dave RIS and that rocket fuel of MickOzs.

I need a beer to keep me warm this evening, or at least thats the excuse i will be using!