Nsw Ahb Xmas Case 2005 - Consumption

[berapnopod]

homebrewworld.com's Porter

Aroma: hoppy aroma is dominant with a hint of harshness and a faint whiff of something I can't place, but reminds me of the ocean. A little underlying malt.

Appearance: Dark brown/black - opaque. Medium tan head of fine bubble supported by medium/high carbonation.

Flavour: Smooth malty flavour up front with an underlying bitterness that balances out the beer well. Finish is lightly dry and lightly bitter. Right at the end there is a subtle drying out of the mouth that is almost harsh and toffee-like, but not to significant to be bad. The "seaside" aroma doesn't translate into a flavour.

Mouthfeel: meidum to med/full body. medium high carbonation gives a carbonation bite and a bit of a foamy mouth. Definite alcohol warmth, which I think is probably the reason for the final bit of dryness in the flavour description. Very smooth texture.

Overall: Yes, there is some odd sort of aroma in there, and I have no idea what it is, but if I had to guess, it smells more like either a hop ot a yeast byproduct. Other than that its a good porter - this aroma doesn't persist into the flavour, at least not that I can detect. Good hop bitterness supports the smooth malty flavours.

Berp.

 

[berapnopod]

Weizguy's Weisse

Aroma: Somewhat cheesy aroma upfront, with a hint of sourness, and strong fruityness.

Appearance: Straw colour, hazy and a very fine head that forms a thin ring around the glass. Sorry about this, Weizguy, I put your beer in the fridge about a week before reading your post that its ready, so its come out undercarbonated for me.

Flavour: Light and sour, as it should be. Cheesy aroma persists as a flavour as well. I think the sourness can be stronger than this. Good fruity esters give the beer a nice twist. Bitterness is very low (as it should be) and right in the back. Finish is very clean and dry, but as I mentioned, could be a bit more mouth puckering. Just a hint of grains in the flavour too.

Mouthfeel: Very light body - again, as it should be. Not enough effervescence (my fault).

Overall: This is a good example of the very difficult to make Berliner Weisse style. It has a good clean sourness to it, although I would have liked more. Wish I had left it longer outside the fridge to get a better carbonation on it. The cheesy aroma and flavour do detract from the beer, though. I believe this is either isovaleric acid or butyric acid. They're produced either from using old hops (unlikely in this case) or having a wet mash at around 30-40C for a long time. So I think it comes from the mash. I don't know too much about how to make a Berliner Weisse, and I don't know whether the cheesy aroma/flavour will dissipate with time. So I can't really suggest a way around it. It seems puzzling that cheesy flavours are not seen in the commercial examples, but we're always told that Berliner Weisses use a sour mash. So I don't know how they do it.

Enough babbling, great beer all the same and my hat is off to you for tackling something as difficult as this.

Berp.

 

[berto]

Weizguy's Weisse

Had this one last night. Interesting... :lol:
I shouyldnt have read the other reports first. I dont like cheese. So the smell had me turned of before i started. Still seemed a little low carbed .No head retention.
Nice light colour. Was a touch thicker than i was expecting. had a syrupy sort of skin over the top it seemed when you poured it.

Was actually easy drinking, and left your palette clean. Could easily take the next mouthful. But not somehting i think i would brew, but good to try i think

 

[berapnopod]

Merry Christmas to all. And because of the special day, I thought I would try out...

Hopsta's Belgian Golden Strong Ale

Aroma: Candy aroma with a bit of hops. Good ester profile and some alcohol detected in the nose.

Appearance: Thick head of off-white, fine bubbles supported by very high carbonation. Brilliant clarity, beautiful golden colour.

Flavour: Strong esters prevail. Pow! A big punch of alcohol! Creamy malt flavour and a hint of toffee with medium/low hop bitterness in the background, as it should be. Finish is strongly alcoholic and dry, with a lingering bitterness. Some solventy character evident right at the end.

Mouthfeel: Medium/full body, high carbonation lends a bite as well as a bit of a foamy mouth. The alcohol is very warming and provides a dominant character for the beer.
There's a touch of hotness in there as well, which suggests higher alcohols.

Overall: An assertively alcoholic belgian beer. The hops are in the right place. The malt is in the right place. There's a good deal of attenuation in there and some sugar hints, as I would expect from a good belgian beer. The carbonation is a bit on the high side, even for this style, but I don't think it detracts from the beer. I do think the alcohol side of things is high though. By that I don't mean 9.5% is too high, but theres an element of solvents and higher alcohols that lead to the hotness at the end and tend to make the beer alcohol dominated. This is usually attributed to high fermentation temperatures. I know Belgians are supposed to be fermented at higher temps than other ales, o this might be a choice of yeast strain. I am not familiar with WLP570, so don't know how it does at higher temps.

I think I am focussing on the alcoholic content too much on this one (I tend to pick out one attribute in a beer and spend half my time talking about it). I have nearly finished a glass, so you can guess at how accurate my appraisal will be now. I don't want to focus on it too much, I think this is a great beer, Hopsta. Maybe a tweak is in order for perfection though.

Berp.

PS. Hoo boy! I am enjoying this one. Not looking forward to cooking xmas dinner though.

 

[PostModern]

Celebrated Christmas with a few Christmas case beers. Here's my feedback:


Borret's Mild
This was a nice dark mild with a good malt backbone despite the low OG. Nice peaty flavour from the yeast. I found the yeast presence a little bit dominating, but as I sipped thru the glass, it grew on me. Was a great beer to cool down with on Xmas eve, after preparing some Xmas food. It was a little too "characterful" for the Mrs.

Doc's Kolsch
A really refreshing beer. The colour is interesting, darker than I thought it would be, but a nice coppery hue. The taste was a great balance between malt and hops for so highly bittered a beer. Mrs PoMo and myself both enjoyed this immensely.

Berapnopod's Wit
I had this beer while preparing Xmas lunch. Love the pale colour and refreshing drop of wit. I thought the corriander and orange were a little subdued, but I'm basing that on having tasted very few different wits, and I was taste testing some reasonably flavourful dishes at the time. It poured nicely and had a nice firm head that lasted well down the glass. Great beer.

Pint of Lager's Viena Lager
Had this mid afternoon while pretty merry on beer and wine, so my impressions are sort of clouded. The beer was nice and clean to drink, despite the haze. This didn't detract from the taste, as I'm quite accustomed to hazy beer. I enjoyed this brew a lot.

Kungy's Amarillo American Pale Ale
Nice strong brew with pronounced Amarillo hops. I'm starting to like these hops since tasting this and Sam's Aust Golden Ale. I could still taste the malt underneath the big hops up front and sure noticed the alcohol kick too. Had this beer between courses at our arvo Xmas feast. Very nice drop.


It sounds like I spent two days cooking eating and drinking beer... hmmm, that's what I did do Thanks to the Christmas case contributers for a great way to enjoy "special" homebrew at Christmas!

 

[berapnopod]

Berto's Wheat

Aroma: A hint of chlorophenols. Some wheat aroma, a little toffee malt aroma, a little clovey aroma. Not much in the way of banana esters (I heard WLP380 is a low ester producer). Just a bit of alcohol in the nose.

Appearance: Golden colour, hazy/cloudy with a thick off-white head of medium to fine bubbles supported by high appareant carbonation in the beer.

Flavour: Wheaty flavour overall, balanced with subtle supporting bitterness. Theres a little bit of clove phenols in there as you would expect for a hefewiezen, but no banana.
Finish is dry and quite hot, suggesting the presence of higher alcohols - a result of the high fermentation temperature.

Mouthfeel: Thin body - suprisingly thin considering the flavour levels. I'm thinking I might be perceiving a thin body because of the hotness in the beer which dries out your mouth quickly. Carbonation is medium/high, which is as it should be. Some alcohol warmth present.

Overall: This wheat beer has many elements in the right place, but a few subtle oddities. The main one is the hotness which dries your mouth out at the end of each gulp. I think this is because of a high fermentation temperature. I *think* the body is also unusually thin, how was the attenuation? There's a good wheat flavour in here and some clovey phenols, plus maybe a touch of banana esters, but I would have liked to have the last two stronger. There is a hint of chlorophenols in the nose - at least that is what I am perceiving it as, and I am prepared for someone else to tell me its a very low level infection. The carbonation, colour and cloudiness are all spot on. If I may be so bold as to say the following: I think you can make great improvements to the flavour, including maltiness and clove esters by performing a decoction. In fact, a triple decoction works great. I have tried this a couple of times and both hefes turned out very close to the originals. Perhaps a short cut (at least for the maltiness) is to use melanoidin malt.

Getting carried away again.

Its a nice beer berto - thanks!

Berp.

 

[nifty]

Hi everyone

Well, I've finally had a chance to taste some of the xmas case beers, amd I must say, I'm excited (not Big Kev excited but almost).

I've never tasted another homebrewers' beer until now so it's great to see what I should be aiming for and compare the beers I've been brewing with the xmas case samples. Now I know what my beers should taste like and I'm looking forward to trying other styles of beer, a lot I've never tried before.

I don't have any experience with different types or styles of beer so I'll just make a few remarks about them.

Jase's apa - this was my first ever non nifty homebrew. Once the head settled down it was a very nice beer.

Kungy's 12 Ceasars APA - great beer, love the amarillo. It sounded a bit gassy when I opened it, but poured ok.Very nice.

Berapnopod's AstroBeer - this is the first wit beer I have ever tasted and I liked it. I really enjoyed the pale colour and delicate flavour (does that sound right ?).

Tim's Brown - Really enjoyed this one.

Gough's Amber Ale - The first couple of sips tasted like honey? Anyway a great beer.

Trent's Porter - smoooooth. A lot smoother than I make. Wish I had more of these. Actually I wish I had more of all these beers

So, I'm looking forward to getting stuck into the rest of them.

Many thanks to eveyone that made this happen and to all the contributors.

cheers

nifty

 

[PostModern]

Hi Nifty,

I did a dark fridge lucky dip into the Xmas case last night and came up with your bottle of "Some Sort of Aussie Pale Ale". I drank it right after a bottle of Coopers Sparkling. I really enjoyed your beer. Nice hint of hops, with the distinctive Aussie PA palate. Nice and smooth and clean. Enjoyed it heaps. I will definately be brewing a copy of this soon. The only complaint - needs more dog.

 

[berto]

Berto's Wheat

Aroma: A hint of chlorophenols. Some wheat aroma, a little toffee malt aroma, a little clovey aroma. Not much in the way of banana esters (I heard WLP380 is a low ester producer). Just a bit of alcohol in the nose.

Appearance: Golden colour, hazy/cloudy with a thick off-white head of medium to fine bubbles supported by high appareant carbonation in the beer.

Flavour: Wheaty flavour overall, balanced with subtle supporting bitterness. Theres a little bit of clove phenols in there as you would expect for a hefewiezen, but no banana.
Finish is dry and quite hot, suggesting the presence of higher alcohols - a result of the high fermentation temperature.

Mouthfeel: Thin body - suprisingly thin considering the flavour levels. I'm thinking I might be perceiving a thin body because of the hotness in the beer which dries out your mouth quickly. Carbonation is medium/high, which is as it should be. Some alcohol warmth present.

Overall: This wheat beer has many elements in the right place, but a few subtle oddities. The main one is the hotness which dries your mouth out at the end of each gulp. I think this is because of a high fermentation temperature. I *think* the body is also unusually thin, how was the attenuation? There's a good wheat flavour in here and some clovey phenols, plus maybe a touch of banana esters, but I would have liked to have the last two stronger. There is a hint of chlorophenols in the nose - at least that is what I am perceiving it as, and I am prepared for someone else to tell me its a very low level infection. The carbonation, colour and cloudiness are all spot on. If I may be so bold as to say the following: I think you can make great improvements to the flavour, including maltiness and clove esters by performing a decoction. In fact, a triple decoction works great. I have tried this a couple of times and both hefes turned out very close to the originals. Perhaps a short cut (at least for the maltiness) is to use melanoidin malt.

Getting carried away again.

Its a nice beer berto - thanks!

Berp.

[post="99532"][/post]​

Well I'd say youre pretty right with a lot of what youve picked up there. Fermentation temp was fairly high due to unexpected fridge problems whilst away. Attenuation seemed alright. Was at 1.014 when bottled so im not sure about the thinness of it. I tried to mash at a lower temp though to try and overcome some thicker brews which have come out. This is only a partial brew however so ill give some of the other things a whirl now im pretty much gonna be AG.
About to do a search on a decoction mash as ive got a pretty ordinary tun and see this as a way of overcoming heat loss and wrong temperatures.

 

[berto]

Kungys 12 Caesars amarillo APA

Poured quite heady and was surging from the bottom of the glass. May have been a little overcarbed i suspect.

Nice light colour. Held its head for ages. had to fight through the bloody thing to get to the beer. Very strong hop aroma. First taste, and BANG. Yeah theres some hops in there. Its the hoppiest beer ive had. ever.

After the shock of the first few mouthfuls, you get very accustomed to it. Wonderful taste from the amarillo. Just gotta use mine up now.

Im not into all this beerspeak, but seemed there was a good malt/hop balance with a smooth transitions between taste with a lingering hop taste left in the mouth.

Top beer Kungy. Something i think i might try and replicate.

Cheers, Rob

 

[berto]

Duff's Kolsch

Poured the best of anything ive had yet. Perfect carb. levels for my pouring style. nice 10-15mm head with tiny little bubbles much like you would expect on a stout, but with a much thinner body.

Colour seemed pretty similar to Doc's, maybe a bit lighter. All i have to compare it to. Unfortunately im not taking pics to compare them all. Maybe i should start photogrpahing each of the beers i pour to compare.

Extremely malty character. i get an aftertaste of a lolly from when i was a kid but dont know what it is. Beautiful beer though. Once again comparing to docs, there is a huge difference in bittering. Not too sure on personal preference only having 1 of each to compare.

Could possibly do with a little more hop flavour up front, but thats more of a personal preference thing. Also a possible side effect of having a hoppy APA immediately beforehand.

Fantastic beer Duff.

 

[berto]

Trents porter
Poured well with a thick head which disappeared quite quickly. Extremely dark. What i initially expected from a porter before hombreworlds beer.

No massive smell when sniffed.

Took a sip, and WOW. Huge roasty flavour. Extremely powerful, but not a lot of hop flavour there to back it up. Not that i could detect anyway. Was all roasty for mine.

still, a very nice beer. Something i could sit and drink quite easily, but not on a night this damn hot. Feels like its 40 degrees.

 

[berapnopod]

Postmodern Porter

Aroma: Light malty aroma with some faint english hops.Medium/low esters. Otherwise clean

Appearance: Excellent clarity. Very fine head forms a thin ring around glass. Dark red/brown colour.

Flavour: A very complex mouthful! Start is smooth and malty with underlying hop flavour, then comes an assertive bitterness that lasts through until the end. The finish is dry and bitter and has a very good alcohol warmth a few seconds after swallowing.
There are subtle toasted grain notes in there as well as a bit of caramel. Mild hop flavours. Just a slight touch of sourness.

Mouthfeel: Medium/full body. Carbonation is high for this style and gives a carbonation bite, which also might be responsible for the slight sour tinge. Good alcohol warmth which shows no signs of hotness, but just a warmth that builds up in your cheast and envelops your head (I like that feeling .

Overall: A beautiful brown porter, thanks PostModern! The malt flavour is subtle and well balanced with the hop flavour. The beer overall appears to be well crafted. It goes down very easily and has a nice warming feeling at the end. I really don't have any criticism of this beer except for the lack of head, which could always be my glass or lips or whatever. Excellent stuff, PostModern!

Berp.

 

[sosman]

Postmodern Porter
...

[post="99903"][/post]​

And of course being a porter of the Postmodern kind, I expect to see entirely different experiences from other individuals.

 

[PostModern]

sos, every taster will have his own expeience on the creation. Hopefully most of them will think "Porter"

Berp, thanks for your comments. I'm chuffed. I was worried earlier in this thread that it was under-primed, but you are right, a touch too much CO2. I enjoyed my second glass from the Xmas case last night more as it was a little bit flatter. A bit too bitter, tho, hey?

Gough's Cleanskin Amber Ale
Got this beer in the glass right now. It's a little cold, so the chill haze is extremely evident. It has a colour I associate straight away with Amber ales, which heightened my anticipation of the beer. The hops are up front but pleasant. Willamette is a great hop for this style. Nice beer definately balanced towards the hops. Looking forward to sipping it warmed up.

EDIT:

Looking forward to sipping it warmed up.

Damn. It didn't last that long. Wish I had another.

 

[Gough]

Thanks PoMo, glad you liked it. Definitely drinks (and looks :lol: ) a little better a bit warmer, say 10 degreesish, and the malt comes out a bit more as well, but this time of year in the weather we are having at the moment, a cold beer is a good beer. I like Willamette in general and especially in this style so threw a few in...

Thanks again,

Shawn.

 

[Doc]

Kungy's Twelve Caesars Brewery Amarillo American Pale Ale

Perfect beer for a nice hot arvo (41 degC).
Great pppfttt on opening the bottle.
Great pour with great long lasting tight white head.
Very clear and pale appearance.
Fantastic Amarillo aroma.
I'm really enjoying it as I love hoppy beers.
My only comment would be to add some Melonoidin or Munich to give it even more of a malty body, but I guess then it would be as easy drinking would it
Top beer Kungy.

Beers,
Doc

 

[pint of lager]

Help!

My Christmas case had a minor hiccuph on it's journey, some of the bottles had a diesel shower. They had a wash with some solvent to remove the diesel, then a rinse. All labels were still legible when I put them away. Today, I discover one is now impossible to read.

The crown seal is gold with no identifying marks.

The label is a white stick on, rectangular in shape with sharp, not rounded corners. 37mm by 105mm. There appears to be some orange texta markings.

Does anyone recognise this bottle?

 

[Doc]

At least they were still intact.
That would be Berto's Wheat beer.

Beers,
Doc

 

[berapnopod]

Kong's Benchong Mild Summer Ale

First, a question, Kong... How did you cap this one? Do you need a special capper and/or caps for these bottles?

Aroma: Strong citrusy hop character - almost like grapefruit. Can't get much else in the nose. It poured foamy.

Appearance: Thick lasting head of large bubbles supported by high carbonation. Clear. Straw colour.

Flavour: Hop dominated flavour as well. Some underlying malt in there too to give it a good balance to a bitter beer. Finish is decidedly bitter, hoppy and dry.

Mouthfeel: medium/light body. high carbonation gives a slight carbonation bite. Slight hint of hotness and alcohol warmth.

Overall: A very refreshing hoppy beer. I like the low alcohol in this one and certainly does make a summer ale. Apologies for the quick cutoff, dinner time.

Berp.