2009 Qld Xmas Case Swap

[FNQ Bunyip]

I won't be able to stay the night however as the missus is picking me up around 8 - 9pm

WTF ????? Come on Kelli its The QLD swap , let him have a big night out with the rest of us .... and breakfast ...


Cheers

 

[Fatgodzilla]

SERIOUS NOTE (OMG in the Qld Case Swap Thread ) for all intensive purposes the Swap was meant for your personal best beer, not an experimental beer and not your first AG but one you regularly brew and that stands out for you. Hence I won't be swapping this year until I am comfortable with my brewing and respect for all the good brewers that are participating in the swap.
Cheers Sully

As the self appointed case swap beer nazi for the NSW case swap scene (we have 3 a year), I endorse your comments Sully that the swap beer should be your best effort, regardless whether AG, K & K or a combination of both. However I disagree on the experimental side - for many a case swap people try to go outside their normal brewing regime and attempt something different. The point should be made that they should try the brews before submitting to the swap to ensure the brew was effective (I cringe when people say they bottled the beer the night before the swap - how do you know this is your best effort ?). I have rejected up to 5 attempted brews as not good enough to swap on an occasion and rarely swap the first effort.

If I can offer one point I don't like of the Qld swap its the usage of PET bottles - not on a galss v plastic issue but because I only have one box of plastics! I bottled my effort in August and think it a good brew and something you northerners will like. However if the brew was not up to standard, I'd have to tip out all that beer to refill them. And unless infected I hate to tip out beer !

Sully, I respect your decision and the guts it takes to admit that after all this time and with all your toys you are still a piss poor brewer. Just make sure you are at Sqyre's so I can preach to you my philosophy on beer brewing and beer karma and hopefully you will gain enlightenment on how to brew. Alternatively since I know where you live, I'll come stay a month next winter and show you how.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

HTFU Troy

 

[clarkey7]

Calendar cleared, money paid....Kegs full....

I'm ready...

PB

 

[bonj]

If I can offer one point I don't like of the Qld swap its the usage of PET bottles - not on a galss v plastic issue but because I only have one box of plastics! I bottled my effort in August and think it a good brew and something you northerners will like. However if the brew was not up to standard, I'd have to tip out all that beer to refill them. And unless infected I hate to tip out beer !

That's a bit of a cop-out in my opinion... it's only $12.87 for another box of 15 from BigW.... splash out and treat yourself. It's the cheapest carton of beer you'll buy in a long time.

The swap to me is all about your best effort... If you don't think your best effort is good enough Sully, then the swap is a good way to find out why.... that is provided that there are experienced brewers and tasters in the swap.

And before someone jumps me in a dark ally for not swapping myself, I'll outline my reasons below:

1. With a new baby and an extremely intensive 5 year old, I'm just not finding the time to brew for myself, let alone for the swap.
2. Every year there's always some f@%$-wit that raises the "Why can't we use glass? I don't like plastic... I want my mummy!" issue, and if I'm not in the swap, then I don't give a stuff what people use.... it's not my floor being mopped in the middle of the night.
3. I invariably end up tipping 1/4 of it out because of infections/off flavours/exploding bottles etc... what a waste.

 

[Sully]

Sorry guys, I didn't want to stir any debates.

Basically what I was to say is that I am not confident enough in my brewing techniques (read my rant post about my bloody brewery and you'll understand) and really haven't got a "best effort" to date to enter in the swap. I would feel bad for the poor fellas that get a half a$$ed effort by me when they offer up some quality beers. Next year will be a different story I'm hoping...

ON WITH THE FRIVOLOUS POSTS FFS!!!

 

[Henno]

As a complete noob to the swapping thing this is all very interesting. I readily admit I am a piss poor brewer and now I have seen the 'definition' of what we are supposed to be swapping ie your best effort and just quietly shitting myself. One thing I can manage to do though is bottle into glass without making bottle bombs. WTF is going on here? We go to all the trouble of making beer out of grain and your telling me we have had disasterous bottle bombs swapped in the past coz the guy can't measure his carb sugar out properly? This frankly amazes me.

As for the cost of the PET bottles I kind of agree with FatGodzilla here. I only had one box of PET and have now gone out and bought another one. I have bottled 27 golden ales 3 weeks ago and have little faith in the product. If I was allowed to submit glass I would have put down a hundred or so bottles and submitted my best batch. As it stands I will taste the golden tonight and if it is no good will pull out of the swap.

Basically Bonj, I WANT MY MUMMY!

 

[winkle]

As a complete noob to the swapping thing this is all very interesting. I readily admit I am a piss poor brewer and now I have seen the 'definition' of what we are supposed to be swapping ie your best effort and just quietly shitting myself. One thing I can manage to do though is bottle into glass without making bottle bombs. WTF is going on here? We go to all the trouble of making beer out of grain and your telling me we have had disasterous bottle bombs swapped in the past coz the guy can't measure his carb sugar out properly? This frankly amazes me.

As for the cost of the PET bottles I kind of agree with FatGodzilla here. I only had one box of PET and have now gone out and bought another one. I have bottled 27 golden ales 3 weeks ago and have little faith in the product. If I was allowed to submit glass I would have put down a hundred or so bottles and submitted my best batch. As it stands I will taste the golden tonight and if it is no good will pull out of the swap.

Basically Bonj, I WANT MY MUMMY!

If it's no good, you've got time for plan b (brew another batch). I'm not all that confident of the triple brewed the day after my brewday (brewed by drunkards) but will bottle it up anyway and see, but have a batch of dubble as back-up beer. Is the triple my best beer? - probably not, but the last batch was bloody nice after conditioning.

 

[browndog]

As a complete noob to the swapping thing this is all very interesting. I readily admit I am a piss poor brewer and now I have seen the 'definition' of what we are supposed to be swapping ie your best effort and just quietly shitting myself. One thing I can manage to do though is bottle into glass without making bottle bombs. WTF is going on here? We go to all the trouble of making beer out of grain and your telling me we have had disasterous bottle bombs swapped in the past coz the guy can't measure his carb sugar out properly? This frankly amazes me.

As for the cost of the PET bottles I kind of agree with FatGodzilla here. I only had one box of PET and have now gone out and bought another one. I have bottled 27 golden ales 3 weeks ago and have little faith in the product. If I was allowed to submit glass I would have put down a hundred or so bottles and submitted my best batch. As it stands I will taste the golden tonight and if it is no good will pull out of the swap.

Basically Bonj, I WANT MY MUMMY!

Henno,
Many years ago it was agreed to use PET only after Pat sliced his hand distributing the bottles on swap day. Add to this, bottle bombs going off in your kitchen and the fact that king browns are pretty hard to get hold of these days and it's not nice to put your swap bottles in them and get a majority of PETs back. It is just more sensable to do it with PET.

cheers

Browndog

 

[bonj]

I understand your hesitation henno. Just remember though, that "your best effort" doesn't mean it has to be an award winning brew, and that the effort required to put down an AG brew generally precludes the likelihood of a slapped together brew, which is what we're trying to avoid. Too many times I've seen in other state's swap threads people saying that if an experimental brew doesn't work out, they'll just put it in the swap and make it someone else's problem. I've also seen new K&K brewers just throw together a brew with little effort, with the promise of getting AG brews in return.

 

[Scruffy]

Maybe I should join the swap?

 

[TidalPete]

Ahh, but they are better brewers perhaps?
They swap their beers in PROPER bottles with no fear of sending or receiving bottle bombs.

TP

A BITE AT LAST! :lol:

2. Every year there's always some f@%$-wit that raises the "Why can't we use glass? I don't like plastic... I want my mummy!" issue, and if I'm not in the swap, then I don't give a stuff what people use.... it's not my floor being mopped in the middle of the night.

If you are referring to me I've never been in the swap since the original at Woodhill (But lots of other swaps\sharing before & after using glass) when a lot of swappers cried, to quote you, "I want my mummy" after a bottle was DROPPED not overcarbed (I was one of the swap monitors that day) & ran to the nearest Woolies with $12.87 in their little hands.

3. I invariably end up tipping 1/4 of it out because of infections/off flavours/exploding bottles etc... what a waste.

I completely agree with you there mate & it's supposed to be their best effort? More reasons why a lot of us don't swap anymore.

I don't mind plastic bottles but glass is better which is why all the other states swap in glass as far as I am aware.
If a beer is brewed correctly there is no need to bottle in plastic as glass is perfectly safe unless you drop it of course which I personally never have in 15 years of brewing.

Looking forward to seeing you at the swap & sharing a beer or two. :icon_cheers:

TP

 

[Fatgodzilla]

I don't mind plastic bottles but glass is better which is why all the other states swap in glass as far as I am aware.
If a beer is brewed correctly there is no need to bottle in plastic as glass is perfectly safe unless you drop it of course which I personally never have in 15 years of brewing.

Looking forward to seeing you at the swap & sharing a beer or two. :icon_cheers:

TP

Happy to follow the rules of plastic v glass bottles and as said, I had some 30 plastic bottles anyway, just thought I'd say my piece and accept the Qld reasoning 100%. You guys are getting plastic, no worries ! Will make less noise on the 1000 km drive north anyway !

I for one do not think glass is better or worse than plastic - just got more glass so can substitute "poorer" swap beers without throwing out beer. Thought I explained that !

I don't care if I get a kit beer in a swap, providing its the best the bloke can do. Some past kit efforts have been great stuff - better than my AGs at times. To be frank, I'd often prefer someone to make a decent kit beer from time to time to remind you IT CAN BE DONE. The point is, these blokes are on the upward learning curve and moving from K & K to extract or / then AG.

Just over two years ago I was a K & K man and only found AG existed when I got broadband internet ! I'm sure my first efforts were relatively ordinary, but they were my best efforts and I was proud of them then.

Anyway, looking forward to the drive north, the beer, the comraderie and sex with a goat.

 

[daemon]

Sully and others not swapping, don't be afraid of the beer you brew. I'm far from an experienced brewer and I actually see the swap as an opportunity to get some feedback. The brew for the last QLD case swap was still in single digits for the number of AG brews that I'd ever completed, but I was still willing to give it a go. Not only did I receive some invaluable feedback but experienced a number of other brews to compare against, critique and learn from. They weren't all perfect (most were very good) but that didn't worry me in the slightest. I enjoy learning about beer and some were superb (Winkle's UXB and BribeG's Green Dragon were my favourites).

My case swap beer is about to start fermenting shortly, which I'm sure will turn out just fine. I'll be looking forward to the feedback and welcome any constructive criticism that will help improve my brewing.

 

[Henno]

I may be being selfish but I have a few hundred glass bottles and bugger all PET. I have a split double batch of a TTL clone down at the moment half with 1187 ringwood and the other half with the Proculture wood ale yeast from Gryphon, these have potential to be rip snorters. The idea of pouring out my boring old JSGA that is unbearably cloudy for some reason to make some PET bottles empty when I have loads of glass bottles is somewhat shitting me.

I may bring the TTL in a keg and swap the lesser beer. Am I right in assuming that the reason for the ban on the evil glass is because Pat is basically a clumsy *******?

 

[Scruffy]

How does a swop work then?

So if there's 30 blokes at the swop, you make 30 bottles of your #1 export dogs bolloxs - then give one of your bottles to each of the other 29 blokes whilst drinking your 30th bottle...?

...or do you find the most attractive man at the swop and give him all your beer...


...just askin'

...for the newbs... h34r:

 

[scoundrel]

why not drink the stuff that your happy with and put the beers your not in swap so you actually get some feedback on them? otherwise wats the point aside from hereing someone say say **** thats a good beer? get feedback on you duds and make them good next time. but maybe im wrong dunno just my 2c. 98% of the beers in swap are probably going to be the brewers best efforts, whether it be AG or K&K.

 

[Ross]

I may be being selfish but I have a few hundred glass bottles and bugger all PET. I have a split double batch of a TTL clone down at the moment half with 1187 ringwood and the other half with the Proculture wood ale yeast from Gryphon, these have potential to be rip snorters. The idea of pouring out my boring old JSGA that is unbearably cloudy for some reason to make some PET bottles empty when I have loads of glass bottles is somewhat shitting me.

I may bring the TTL in a keg and swap the lesser beer. Am I right in assuming that the reason for the ban on the evil glass is because Pat is basically a clumsy *******?

why not drink the stuff that your happy with and put the beers your not in swap so you actually get some feedback on them?

......and you wonder why people aren't fighting for swap places h34r:

+++

I'm in the fortunate position to swap beers with people every day of the week in the shop, so the actual swap has little interest - But really looking forward to tasting the offerings on the day - Getting excited

Cheers Ross

 

[winkle]

I won't give any brewers a bottle of something that I'm not happy with, any substandard stuff I usually force myself to drink so I don't do (insert error here) ever again .
By all means get feedback on problematic beers, just don't put them in the swap - its all about sharing GOOD beers :beer: .
Froggy does a Pale Ale that is K&K and it is great.

 

[Fents]

maybe you all should stop swapping all together and just call it an AHB xmas pissup would probably be easier and less cat fights.