2010 Adelaide, Mildura & Whyalla Case Swap Tasting Thread

[Hatchy]

Phil & I are drinking Boston's IPA now. I'm pretty happy that I somehow ended up with 4 bottles of it.

 

[Goofinder]

Phil & I are drinking Boston's IPA now. I'm pretty happy that I somehow ended up with 4 bottles of it.

I take it this means that everyone has taken their kegs home if you're on to the bottled stuff.

 

[Frank]

Phil & I are drinking Boston's IPA now. I'm pretty happy that I somehow ended up with 4 bottles of it.

As Phil and Hatchy have worked out, my beer was CPBF and ready to drink now.

 

[Goofinder]

As Phil and Hatchy have worked out, my beer was CPBF and ready to drink now.

Are there any other CPBF beers in the swap?

So far I've got Boston's, QB's and the one with the black cap which I am assuming is DrSmurto's in the fridge first.

 

[Hatchy]

Smurto's are the ones with the black caps, I'm pretty sure they're ready to go. Mine was bottled 18/10 & was tasting pretty good today when Phil & I had a glass. Kieren's beer was tasting damn tasty a fortnight ago & I can't imagine much has changed in the last couple of weeks.

 

[Hatchy]

I've just cracked 1 of Kieren's which is still tasting pretty good although as I reckon he's said somewhere it's starting to fade so probably best drunk sooner rather than later (I didn't take any encouragement to open one).

I'm not a BJCP judge so I hope no one takes any of my tasting notes too seriously. I'm getting a delicious fruity aroma but I reckon the aroma was fruitier & deliciouser* a fortnight ago. The clarity is awesome & it's really well balanced (in my opinion). Mrs Hatchy says it's smooth on the palate & has a nice aftertaste. My mates Mrs is having a glass but she's English & I can't understand her accent. She's smiling though.

Later on tonight will be Quantum Brewer's beer, the other one of Boston's that's cold & Awesome Fury's beer that's not only not ready to drink but was also frozen overnight on Saturday night.

* see what I mean about taking my tasting notes with a grain of salt, deliciouser isn't even a word.

 

[Hatchy]

I'm on Quantum's beer at the moment. It pours a good head but it didn't stick around long, that may be a dirty glass rather than anything to do with the beer though. I love the colour of this beer. I'm guessing there's not heaps of late hops in this one, not a heap of flavour or aroma but the bitterness is delicious. I'm thinking this may inspire me to do a beer only a 60 minute addition.

In unrelated news, I've run out of co2 AGAIN & it looks like Phil & I drank both of the beers Boston left in the fridge. Looks like I'm drinking Awesome Fury's (young) beer then going to bed after putting some more beers in the fridge.

If anyone's wondering about me hooking through all of these beers before anyone else has posted don't forget that I got twice as many beers as everyone else.

 

[raven19]

If anyone's wondering about me hooking through all of these beers before anyone else has posted don't forget that I got twice as many beers as everyone else.

I honestly dont think this will stop you mate.

I am suprised you don't have gills by now to be honest... :icon_cheers:

 

[Hatchy]

Fury's beer tastes like it was bottled on Friday in Mildura, travelled to Adelaide on Saturday morning, went in the freezer at some point (late) Saturday night & got forgotten about until some time on Sunday morning.

I really hope I've got another one of these inside because I reckon it'll be a pretty good beer once it's ready. The colour is more like what I was after from my amber ale but it tastes like it's been frozen though.

 

[Goofinder]

Fury's beer tastes like it was bottled on Friday in Mildura, travelled to Adelaide on Saturday morning, went in the freezer at some point (late) Saturday night & got forgotten about until some time on Sunday morning.

Sounds like it could have done with some glass hopping then.

 

[Hatchy]

The thought crossed my mind but I'm not sure I've got any hops left after Saturday night.

 

[drsmurto]

Had my first swap beer last night.

QBs Ruddles County Ale

Not sure what style we are giving feedback in. Didn't judge this against any BJCP style, i simply enjoyed it for what it was.

An exceptionally well made bitter.

Great aroma which combined subtle blackcurrant with some spice as well as nice fruity esters from the yeast and some malt and caramel. Good malt backbone and solid bitterness. So easy to drink. I only chilled it for 20 mins so it was quite warm and it went down very well. icon_drunk.gif

If i was to find some constructive criticism in there i would say it's carbed a tad too high but that could just be my personal preference. laugh.gif

A very good start to the case and I'd love to see the recipe Jono.

Yes, my beer has a black cap and quite possibly a label from a previous swap. To make things a tad more confusing the labels are other peoples! Classy i am. It was bottled via CPBF and its ready to drink now. Much lower in carbonation than you will expect so be aggressive when pouring it if you want to see a head on your beer. Very cloudy, apologies for that. Not up to my normal standards clarity wise but tasted good last night!

 

[Effect]

First one I had was on sunday with Hatchy - Boston's IPA.

Very very nice. My kind of beer. Perfect level of carb. Good whack of late hops. It seems that citra blends well with galaxy or at least I found that they both complimented one another. A very well brewed beer.

Glad I drank half of hatchy's one first - still got my swap bottle of boston's in the crate

Cheers
Phil

 

[jonocarroll]

QBs Ruddles County Ale

An exceptionally well made bitter.

Great aroma which combined subtle blackcurrant with some spice as well as nice fruity esters from the yeast and some malt and caramel. Good malt backbone and solid bitterness. So easy to drink. I only chilled it for 20 mins so it was quite warm and it went down very well. icon_drunk.gif

If i was to find some constructive criticism in there i would say it's carbed a tad too high but that could just be my personal preference. laugh.gif

Cheers! CC always most welcome, but in your case I suspect the fact it is carbed at all is a turn-off This is by far the lowest I've carbed a beer recently, but then I've become accustomed to IPAs.

I made another keg of this after tasting the swap version from the fermenter, so I'm enjoying this beer frequently. I need a handpump.

A very good start to the case and I'd love to see the recipe Jono.

I'll look at getting this one up on the DB sometime. I think the blackcurrant would be due to the Bramling Cross hops, and the esters from Wyeast London Ale 1028 fermented at ambient in September/October.

I think the general 'this is what I think' style of feedback is most useful here. If you happen to know that the beer was made 'to style' and you know what that 'should be' then feel free to comment, otherwise general notes and helpful criticisms are a big advantage of a swap like this.

I'll hopefully have a little time tonight to cool down a few of these and have a taste myself. Thoroughly looking forward to many of these.

 

[jbirbeck]

haven't managed to get my lot off raven yet but hopefully soon to get started on tasting. As an FYI my brew is ready to drink, choose one of the cooler days perhaps because is a Smoked Schwartz. Just RK on the lid.

 

[Kieren]

So, legham came over tonight and we tasted a few beers.

First my Litha to see how it was holding up - ok.

Next Smurto's Home grown Rye. Excellent - very reminiscent of the hand pump beer with a touch more hop aroma. A really nice head poured from about foot above the glass that laced the glass very nicely. A slightly sweet, estery (?) nose which carried through well on palate. Finish was fairly dry with a nice bitterness. A beautiful beer, something I would be stoked to brew anything even close to. What yeast did you use Smurto?

And next was Boston's AIPA. poured well, low carbed and didn't quite have the lasting head that Smurto's had. Aroma was a pleasant sweet floral citrus, some malt. Good firm bitterness. After a little warming the hops seemed to get a nice depth and blended better with the malt. A very nice AIPA - perhaps more east coast than west coast? It had similarities to Smurto's beer in the aroma and flavour that legham nor I could pin down but I guess at estery ferment flavours - which seemed to hold up the hops nicely.

My first attempt at beer critic, pretty poor but will practice with the rest of the swap case which is still in adelaide. I could only fit on 3 longnecks back on the plane - might have to get the rest couriered back to Whyalla.

 

[jonocarroll]

Boston's AIPA

I'm probably ruined for IPAs for a while, but this felt like more of an English IPA to me. First pour was brilliant with a good head. Lacing remained to the last drop. Clarity dropped off by the end of the bottle. Nose was subdued, but malt-forward with a subtle earthy hop presence with perhaps a slight hint of citrus (I haven't tried most of the hops on the label so I'm not sure which to attribute this to). I got some unfermented malt scents from this at first but they dropped off by the end of the bottle. This is in contradiction to the nice dryness, which in itself is in contradiction to the low hoppiness. Carbonation was quite low, for me too much so - more might have lifted the hops that I was expecting to find. The bubble size however is gorgeous, leading to a nice bit of creaminess. Palate has a nice bitterness that isn't too sharp and a good malt backbone and a moderate hop flavour that does build up (more than I had anticipated from the first sip). There's something ester-y coming through once it warms up properly that I'm not so sure about - conflicting with the hops perhaps.

A very drinkable low-hopped IPA. My best suggestion would be to bottle-condition this one for a couple of months to let the yeast clean up and push up the carbonation.

Cheers!

 

[Hatchy]

There's a mysterious champagne bottle in my fridge with a 37 on the cap & a longneck with what looks like a t but could be a y. Does anyone know where these came from? This is quite a change for me, normally I'm wondering where the beers gone, not where it's come from. I need to host more swaps.

 

[Kieren]

There's a mysterious champagne bottle in my fridge with a 37 on the cap & a longneck with what looks like a t but could be a y. Does anyone know where these came from? This is quite a change for me, normally I'm wondering where the beers gone, not where it's come from. I need to host more swaps.

The T is probably Thor.

 

[Frank]

I am yet to try any of the case swap beers, but plan on giving them a nudge soon. Glad to see a few enjoying mine already.

I am pretty sure the champagne bottle was from Diekomsa (Paul), can't remember what it is though.

There's a mysterious champagne bottle in my fridge with a 37 on the cap & a longneck with what looks like a t but could be a y. Does anyone know where these came from? This is quite a change for me, normally I'm wondering where the beers gone, not where it's come from. I need to host more swaps.