Christmas Lotto 2014

[Ciderman]

Kolsch by Bridges

This was one of the standouts of the lotto this far. Brewed perfectly to style. Light citrus notes with big malt profile. Shame I had to share this one...

 

[Ciderman]

Saison by Paulyman
6% ABV

This did pour clearer but I accidentally poured the last bit of beer with the yeast in so it went a bit cloudy. This was really overcarbed but had some nice spicy fruity flavours. Haven't tried a lot of saisons but this seemed a lot bigger, full bodied than others I have tried.

 

[Ciderman]

So far I've had 13 beers from 10 different Brewers, still waiting on Kingy, Toolio666, Eagleburger, Nibbo and Yum Beer. I'm having some time off the booze so no rush, but letting you guys know just in case you think the postman might have helped himself to something you've sent!

 

[Bridges]

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1421708076.919608.jpg

Kolsch by Bridges

This was one of the standouts of the lotto this far. Brewed perfectly to style. Light citrus notes with big malt profile. Shame I had to share this one...

Only half a dozen bottles of this left now, definitely a good drop for summer. Thanks for the kind words and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

 

[chubbytaxman]

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1421707648.347957.jpg

Mead by Barls
16.2% ABV

To be honest I've never tried a mead in my life so it's hard to compare it to anything. The honey flavour was there but not overpowering like I expected. It was pretty sweet but overall I thought it was nicely balanced. It took me a few goes to finish this one!

A 16% ... Phew ... Enough to blow ya sox off :lol:

Not surprised it took a while to get through the bottle ...
Sounds awesome though :icon_drool2:

 

[sp0rk]

I've FINALLY gotten a chance to bottle up a couple of beers, ended up going with my 7.4% ABV Baltic Porter
I'll be posting them off this afternoon or tomorrow, sorry again for the delay gents

 

[Judanero]

Schoey Belgian Pale



Pours a crystal clear golden colour, with a small but lasting head.

Light bodied, slight floral aroma, subdued but lovely balanced Belgian that I could easily have enjoyed several of.

 

[Judanero]

MadPierre06 Cream Ale



Pours a light golden/ straw colour, small head remains the entire pint.

Light bodied, slight floral/fruity aroma, smooth/creamy mouthfeel, low hops and low malt, really clean ale.

First time I've had a cream ale so I have no basis for comparison, but I really enjoyed it.. this one would be welcome at any BBQ.

 

[Judanero]

Grainer Ginger Beer



Golden, fizzy, sweet but not cloying, reminiscent of a "Bunderberg" ginger beer.

Mrs Jud had a taste and said "Oh so you didn't make this one? Why don't you ever make any like this? I like this, you should make one like this."

NB- She has tasted at least three of my gingers and I've never got any praise!

 

[Judanero]

Mosto ESB (Single hopped with Challenger 4.5% abv 33 IBU)




Pours an amber coloured, cloudy/hazy pint with a small but lasting head.

Aroma is hard to describe - floral/earthy? Full bodied and it has a "dusty" (maybe earthy) taste, it is a different ESB to what I've had previously but it grew on me as the pint went on.

I've never played with challenger before (as far as I can recall without consulting my brew log) so keen to have a go including that in something coming up (I've got some Burton IPA yeast that I was going to use with EKG so maybe some challenger is calling as well).

Tasty beverage.


Come on Aussies!

 

[mosto]

Cheers Judanero, thanks for the feedback,

I had some floccing issues with this one. I used S04, and it's not the first time I've had it fail to floc out on me. Poured cloudy right the way through the keg.

This was one of my 'Hop Discovery' brews. Relatively same grist, using a hop I haven't brewed with each brew. I do a bittering a charge to around 30 IBU, then cube hop and dry hop. The Challenger was interesting. Tasty enough but don't think I'll use it as a late addition again. I've marked it down as a decent bittering hop, smooth bitterness and I think you'd still pick up some flavour from a 60min addition. So much so, that I've actually got a version of Dr Smurto's Landlord fermenting away at present, which uses Challenger instead of Fuggles as the bittering hop, with EKG and Styrians as the late additions as per his recipe. Used Thames Valley 1275 instead of S04 though, to avoid the cloudiness issues.

Glad you enjoyed it.

 

[barls]

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1421707648.347957.jpg

Mead by Barls
16.2% ABV

To be honest I've never tried a mead in my life so it's hard to compare it to anything. The honey flavour was there but not overpowering like I expected. It was pretty sweet but overall I thought it was nicely balanced. It took me a few goes to finish this one!

its a very delicate balance in there. glad you got through it

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1421307965.183050.jpg

Barley Wine by Barls

An absolute beast of a beer. Probably more of an experience than a beer, incredible depth of malt with hops still coming through after being bottled almost a year ago. I have no idea of alcohol but there was no hiding it, I feel like I just drank a bottle of port!

its a very different beer to what you would expect. its about a 13% beer but it still needs some ageing as it was designed to last for a long time as its the beer i brewed for my daughters 18th. she is two.

 

[madpierre06]

Thanks for the feedback judanero, glad you enjoyed it. There were a couple 'wing it' moments in the brew, I'll post details in the recipe thread.

 

[Kumamoto_Ken]

Back after a couple of weeks and after two days on the Hume listening to the 6 CDs of 'The Day My Bum Went Psycho' (daughter's audiobook Xmas present) back-to-back I was ready to drink review.

SKB's Australian Pale Ale was just the thing too, a wonderfully refreshing beer. Golden colour with a dense head that persisted. Dry finish.
Had more hop aroma than I was expecting, which isn't a complaint, but was certainly a diff hop variety to the classic POR of the style (according to the AABC style guidelines anyway).

Another really good beer.

 

[Kumamoto_Ken]

JYO's Belgian Blonde. The photo is hopeless but the beer was superb (and hazy).
I have a Belgian Blonde on my 'To Do' list and if I can produce anything like this I'd be very happy.

Spicy nose. Fruity esters with a very minor touch of alcohol warmth (more pronounced with the second and third glasses as it warmed up a bit). Well carbed although the head tended to fade...this was possibly the fault of the wine glass (they don't get cleaned with the same care as the beer glasses).

Terrific beer.

 

[Grainer]

Grainer Ginger Beer

Grainer_GB.jpg

Golden, fizzy, sweet but not cloying, reminiscent of a "Bunderberg" ginger beer.

Mrs Jud had a taste and said "Oh so you didn't make this one? Why don't you ever make any like this? I like this, you should make one like this."

NB- She has tasted at least three of my gingers and I've never got any praise!

Glad she liked it .. it was one of my first ever beers.. about 2 + years ago.. I have been saving a few bottles for special occasions..pretty sure you got the one that had a bit of honey in it.

thanks again.. can't remember what other bottle you got !

 

[skb]

Back after a couple of weeks and after two days on the Hume listening to the 6 CDs of 'The Day My Bum Went Psycho' (daughter's audiobook Xmas present) back-to-back I was ready to drink review.

SKB's Australian Pale Ale was just the thing too, a wonderfully refreshing beer. Golden colour with a dense head that persisted. Dry finish.
Had more hop aroma than I was expecting, which isn't a complaint, but was certainly a diff hop variety to the classic POR of the style (according to the AABC style guidelines anyway).

Another really good beer.

Glad you liked it.. the hops are a mix of Amarillo and Galaxy ... was going to be an IPA but the kettle broke so a rapid change so it is at the hoppy end of the PA scale..

So an accidental beer, but now one of my regular ones as I find it refreshing, and a lot of end of boil hops.

 

[Kumamoto_Ken]

Orange Wheat by skb.

Another very drinkable beer. I never quite worked out whether the range was colour or whether there was orange zest in there. I didn't think it looked orange when I poured but it does look more orange than I remembered in the pic. I didn't really get any orange notes if there was zest, but maybe that's my palate.

It was clearer than any of the wheats I've done, maybe related to the yeast, or possibly to the fact nearly all my beers are cloudy!

Very slight banana aroma, and some classic spicy/tart wheat flavour.

Good beer.

 

[Kumamoto_Ken]

ESB by jyo.

Two beers sent by jyo, even though only one was due, top effort. I'll have to pay that forward in the Xmas in July lotto.

The ESB was really good. I had this late after a 'few' other drinks and was unable to write was too lazy to make detailed notes.
I do remember the perfect head, really dense and very persistent. Great malt flavour and good hop bitterness.
The hop aroma seemed different to my ESB (although I've only done one), interested to know the hop schedule.

All beers I've reviewed have been great, and this was no exception.

Special mention to the red herring of having an oatmeal stout label on the bottle!

 

[Kumamoto_Ken]

Cream Ale by Seehuusen.

First time I've tasted this style (that I'm aware of). Seehuusen did make a note that 20% of the grist was corn. He also noted that I should pour carefully...advice I unfortunately ignored/forgot.
I read up on the AABC style guidelines and this seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

Pale colour, good head, high carbonation.

Neither malt nor hops dominant. I did get the slight corny flavour (to style).

Clean, light, crisp. A great thirst quencher.

As an added bonus there were 10 permanent markers thrown into the Postpak. Apparently the Postmaster decided there was so much room left in the Postpak that he'd add some goodies of his own.
Only 5 off the markers actually work, but 5 out of 10 ain't bad (especially when they're a postal bonus).