Drinking in the Sun WA Case Swap tasting notes

[Velu]

Review for Milk-Lizard84 - Lemon Saison
Saw it in the shed and the lid was bulging so thought I'd better cool it and drink, and glad I did! I liked it, good carbonation, long lasting head, nice fruity taste, clean and refreshing on the palate. Happy that I scored two from the swap so I get to drink it again.
Cheers Ned

 

[Velu]

Review for Major Arcana - Hop Hog American IPA clone
Tasted pretty good, good aroma, nice mouthfeel, a little bitterness kick at the end, followed by a fruity aftertaste.
Cheers Ned

 

[Milk-lizard84]

Mitch_76- Belgian Witbier
Really enjoyed this beer. Cracked it open just before hopping in the pool to cool off. Nicely balanced and super refreshing. Poured with great carbonation and nice and cloudy. Lightly spicy but very drinkable. Cheers

 

[dent]

Neanderthal - Byford Bomber

This bottle has been stored cold. Pours with a nice red hue, with some haze, plenty of carb. Good clean ferment. A decent amount of hops on the nose, certainly enough to get it over the mark. The dry, simple finish of this beer really makes it work. It is fairly bitter, but in a clean way that you're happy to have another bite of. Well done, a great beer.

 

[jyo]

Well, this concludes my tasting notes-

Neanderthal Byford Bomber
Highly carbed. This is a winning hop combo. Hop forward, is supported really well my the malt. I really enjoyed this beer. Cheers.


Milk lizard- Lemon saison
The 7% slowed me down a bit on New Year’s Eve, so my notes were garbled Nice, grainy pils malt, lemon flavour was just there. Very drinkable, cheers!


White lid with smudged writing-Mikeybycrikey?

I didn’t get to drink this beer properly. I had just cracked it and poured half of it when the cops came around to collect a statement from me (about some dickhead trying to run over kids in my street) so I put the glass back in the fridge. It sat there for an hour. Then took it out and had another mouthful and my little boy fell over and broke his finger, so 4 hours later I am back at home and drinking the rest of the bottle! Great colour, hazy but clears as it warms. Nice dark fruit aromas and flavours. Some slight spicy alcohol or sherry-like flavour (maybe slightly oxidised??)coming through which detracts a bit. Finishes pretty dry. Cheers.

OBIWAN IPA
Very low carb, but it holds a head. Some good caramel and biscuit flavours in this. Middle is full, and it finishes with some crispness, which is great. A bit hazy, but I’m used to that J It could be a bit a little cleaner, but overall a well-balanced, enjoyable IPA with good English esters. Cheers.

 

[dent]

You could have asked the cops to review the beer while they were waiting.

I'm having one of the old yellow bottle Milk Lizard Golden Ale from the last swap. It has kept pretty well - it pours nice and bright, with only a touch of age noticeable in the glass. Still a good pint!

 

[dent]

Velu - Dark Vienna Lager

I've been having a peek at this bottle every now and then to see if it has gotten any brighter, as it was hell hazy when it first arrived. It seemed a bit better today but, alas, it is still pretty hazy in the glass.

Overall this beer suffers from two things that really let it down - it is undercarbed and underbittered (or underattenuated). If it was only one of those it might not be so bad, but those factors work together to drag the beer down.

The ferment seems mostly OK, there doesn't seem to be any of the classic lager failures standing out.

With more more attenuation (best) or more bittering hops, this would be pretty good. The hard part (lager ferment) is sorted at least.

 

[Velu]

Cheers for the feedback Dent, does it come across as a little sweet? I wasn't sure if the sweetness I could taste before Christmas was was from the Vienna malt, from the bittering being too low or from the bottles not being carbed yet (i.e. A little bit of priming sugar left in there).
Cheers Ned

 

[jyo]

You could have asked the cops to review the beer while they were waiting.

I sat outside with him and after a few sideways glances I assured him it was my all grain brewery and not a meth lab. He just smiled and said "yeah I did see that"!

 

[Mitchlj73]

I sat outside with him and after a few sideways glances I assured him it was my all grain brewery and not a meth lab. He just smiled and said "yeah I did see that"!

But did you ask him if he was an "average" cop, like Lachie(my 10 year old son) did to a couple of cops down at Windy Harbour when we camping there?

It's funny due to him telling the cop that his grand father is one of the 2 police chaplains, so the sergeant emailed my father in law to explain what had happened, the same sergeant is also a key member of the police union, which the chaplains have a lot to do with, now most of the head Union guys know this cop as an "average" cop!

I think Lachlan meant "regular", but in hindsight "average" has a much better ring to it!

 

[dent]

Cheers for the feedback Dent, does it come across as a little sweet?

Yeah, that's the effect, too much balanced towards the malty-sweet end.

 

[Velu]

review for mikeybycrikey,
Unfortunately this one had a bulge in the cap so I put it in the fridge for a few weeks, but when I went to drink it it had no carbonation. Must have been a slight leak from the bulging cap.
I only drank a few mouthfuls but the hop flavour was nice!

 

[dent]

Mikey's Bitter

I got a couple bottles of this. One dead, dead flat that has been on the shelf the whole time. I think that one's had it. This one seemed to condition properly however.

Pours hazy as all hell as you can see.

This beer is an OK brew, but there isn't a lot going for it. There is nothing particularly appealing in the aroma or taste, it has a bit of a sour note, along with a bit of a yeasty esteryness that doesn't help it. The malt side is pretty flabby too.

A bit of a shame as I think this recipe could be a good beer with a cleaner ferment.

 

[dent]

Neanderthal - Byford Bomber (#2)

I reviewed this a while ago, but I cracked another bottle that has been stored cold for a couple months. I had some Sierra Nevada in a can yesterday - I reckon this is actually a better beer, with better hop aromatics and flavour clarity. About the same amount of haze.

Glad to be drinking it.