Group Brew by Correspondence

[fungrel]

Mine is on medium French oak and is starting to really, really meld together well.

I thought the recipe tasted average when it was going into the keg but i spoke a little too soon. The aromatic malt has softened and there is zero presence of alcohol except for warming in the finish.

Will be good to swap a few.

 

[gone brewing]

I cc'd mine for just one week as I needed to get on with making some more. It has been in the bottle for 2 weeks so the other day I stuck one in the fridge and had a taste. I was very happy with the result, a lot of complex matly goodness in the aroma and taste with some soft, spicy hop flavour to balance it.

The only negative for me was a bit too much alcohol (perhaps with some higher alcohols) flavour coming through. It wasn't too overwhelming and I hope this will mellow out a bit with more age. Anyway, a bit of this isn't so unexpected in a beer that ended up around 7.5%. I think this came about due to the fermentation going off a bit too strongly in the early stages as I had dumped this onto a yeast cake from a previous batch.
:kooi:

 

[n87]

OK guys, we will have to start thinking about the meet to taste these beauties.

We can either do it as our first meet, alongside our first meet, or as a second meet

I think doing a first meet and beire de garde tasting may be a bit ambitious, I can imagine that the qty of beer may be a bit much...
The advantage of tasting them after the first meet is that it would let them all mature a little more, specially for the ones that decided to leave it till after the last minute (looking at you horse man).

What do you think? Prob should have a meet in Jan or early Feb, be it for this, or a general meet
I may have a few more people to come along aswell

 

[gone brewing]

Hey all

I don't mind having a bit of a sesh tasting all the beers. It'll be a big day of big beer but hey, always up for a challenge. It will also be good to swap a few and have a bit of quiet time tasting what I made against another brewer's efforts. I think you learn a lot that way.

Anyway, whether it's the first meeting in 2017 or some time later doesn't matter much to me. All good if it's later to allow some to finish off their beer the way they want to.

Cheers to everyone and have a Merry Christmas.
:kooi: :kooi: :kooi:

 

[mr_wibble]

Geeze, one my 3 bottles was leaking after I knocked it over in the cupboard (18 litres in keg).
I couldn't stop the Sssssss of the gas, so put it in the fridge this morning.

It does taste a bit young, well very young, but the ~8% AbV is rounding that out after half a glass.

 

[n87]

One of my stubbies dropped on the ground when I was transferring them to the lockup and got a chip, So it was quarantined and put into the fridge a couple of days before NYE.
Opened it with a friend.... Ima gonna have to make this one again.
Big malt hit, a tiny hint of the spicyness remaining. Alcohol (9.2%) not aparent, but giving it a nice body.
Cant wait for it to get a bit of age on it

 

[n87]

OK, So what does everyone think of March to break these bad boys open?

I also have a Bridge Roads and a Batch to sample alongside.

 

[gone brewing]

Sounds good.

 

[fungrel]

My first attempt at oaking beer... really should've bought a book or two before attempting.

Those that have played with wood, does oak mellow in time? will 2 months lagering shave off some of the intensity?

 

[mr_wibble]

I was thinking about putting a bottle in the Newcastle show.
But it is probably too early.

 

[n87]

I am planning on puttin mine in the Newcastle show too. Be interesting to compare the feedback

 

[fungrel]

I just sent mine into the Melbourne Brewer's contest. The 3 weeks of warm storage before the contest should mean that it hits peak at judging. That's the hope anyway.

 

[[email protected]]

Bit of an issue - took a bottle out to sample last Saturday, and it hadn't carbed up :|

I'm pretty confident in my bottling/priming process (maybe paranoid is a better word), so I doubt it's that. I'm always especially careful to mix in the sugar solution very thoroughly.
I see from my notes I have:

Carbonating with raw sugar: 153g (17L, 3 vols CO2, 24c)

So - it may be that the yeast doesn't like the "high" alcohol environment (finished at 1.005 which gives me 8.6%). Buuuuuutttt - it's not that high, is it.

Maybe it needs more time? Or the temperatures were wrong for bottle conditioning? (Garage temps, so would have been in the high 20s, low 30's).

Annoying and concerning. Maybe I'll try another bottle (aside from the lack of fizz, it was very promising, although not exciting)

 

[n87]

The question is... when did you bottle it?
I think mine took over 4 weeks to carb up. But mine is approaching 10%

 

[n87]

Prob better get the tasting meet organised... for nothing other than I am really excited to try them.

Dates in March:
5th
12th
19th
26th


Hopefully we can get everyone involved together, will be good!

 

[gone brewing]

I'm busy the 5th but OK otherwise.

 

[fungrel]

12th is looking to be out for me, rest are fine.

 

[n87]

So looking like late march

Dates still available:
19th
26th


As far as people participating, I know of:
n87
gone brewin
fungrel
Mr Wibble
endisnigh

Dubzie?
Nickstars?
Yogi Beer (still cubed AFIAK)

Will send out a msg to all, does anyone know of anyone else joining in?

 

[[email protected]]

Both of these are slightly up in the air at the moment - I'll have to wait a little longer to see how they work out....

On a good note, I tried another bottle the other day and it was well carbonated (phew)! Needs some age though....

 

[mr_wibble]

Yeah, I dunno. AFAIK i don't have a blocker on either of those dates.

cheers,
-kt