Nsw Xmas Case 2007 - Consumption

[Trent]

#3 Fatgodzilla's All American Ale
Mate, this one poured absolutely beautiful, great colour, on the pale end for a pale ale, but really nice looking, and smelt bloody excellent. PLenty of american hops in there, I think the simcoe stood out the most for me, as I love that hop.
I hate to say it, but drinking it was a little disappointing after such a lovely aroma. The hops didnt seem to be there much at all, and right at the end was a flavour that reminded me of antiseptic. It was not overpowering at all, but it was there, I even got the wife to confirm it for me. The bitterness was good, and the body was bloody brilliant, it was an very nice beer, aside from the antiseptic/phenolic aftertaste that seemed to scrub the hops out of the flavour (much like the maligned house infection that forced me to tip many of my latest beers).
It was, as I said, a background flavour, but it really detracted from the beer for me. I am quite prepared to assume it is a one bottle thing, I cannot for sure say it was an infection, but it seemed like a mild case to me.
Thanks for sharing, and I hope that no-one else finds the same fault in their bottle, as it seemed like a really good beer otherwise.
All the best
Trent

 

[Fatgodzilla]

Beerslayer # 17 - Australian Pale

Watched the first day of the second test at the SCG. What a conflict. The same as this beer which I pulled out as Symonds & Hogg approached centuries. Half way through the first glass I thought - eureka !! This is a beer I want on tap as my standard ale. Bitterness level excellent. Perfect for my taste. But as the beer wore on, the malty sweetness kept coming along a little too strong. Not huge, but it really overpowered the hops towards the end of the bottle. Solution : (without me knowing the answer) either adjust the malts balance / crystal if used or even the yeast to make this a drier drop. Anyone else feel this way or am I talking out of my arse ? Cos I can see here the basis of what I want - now I just got to get it !

thanks Beerslayer !

 

[Trent]

#5 Gulpa's Pale Ale
Pours a beautiful crystal clear amber colour, with a dense white head that dissipates to a thin white head that lasts.
Aroma is caramelly malt, but not much hops, along with a moderate sourness that suggests infection. For the record there was also a light ring around the neck at the fill line, which suggests either an infection, or priming with DME.
Bitterness is medium, with some caramelly malt, though the sour flavour takes over, and suppresses any hop flavours, and alot of the malt. Pity, cause the appearance is great, carbonation is spot on (maybe a little high, but I have found that with my infected beers). Sorry that it happened to a case swap beer, but it tastes very similar to my recent house infection. I tried EVERYTHING to rid myself of it, and the only thing that worked was replacing all of my plastic fermenters. If you have had this bug more than once, I suggest you do the same. Its not cheap, but much more sensible when ya consider the cost of ingredients and hours that go into a regular brew.
I look forward to your next contribution, as everything else with the beer seemed spot on.
Thanks for sharing
Trent

 

[Trent]

#15 (18) Goatherders Czech dark Lager
Poured pitche black with a tan head that held fairly well. Crystal clear when held to light, with ruby highlights. Didnt take too much notice of the aroma, but the flavour was quite clean and crisp, with a solid roasty element to it. Nice maltiness and bitterness, roastiness lingered long into the aftertaste. I have never had a dark czech lager before, but this is quite a good version of what I think it would be like. If anything, I would like a little more flavour hops, and a little less roastiness (as in just use carafa instead of any choc's, or use less carafa if there was no other dark malts in there), but otherwise, this was a beer that I couldn't redally fault. Good work, Scott, and thanks for sharing.
All the best
Trent

 

[Tony]

10. Brewer - Blond Lager.
Poured a nice blond, pale golden colour. perfect carb, nice head retentiuon.

Smelt and tasted of hot firmentation. That dirty fruity taste you get you firment too hot. Not infected of anything like that. This was a well made beer let down by something simple as far as i can see. Please corext me if im wrong. I have used a lot of lager yeasts including WLP 830 and it was a lot cleaner that this. This tasted like it was fermented at 18 deg with the lager yeast.

Im sorry mate but this hot yeast character really dominated the beer for me. I drank the first glass and noticed it got worse as the beer heated up. I drank the second glass real quick, skulles half as it was warmimg and going down hill.

I would be interested to know firmention temps and tequiniques for this beer, The beer was great with a nice light pils malt character and ballanced hops. Just it tasted odd....... and to me it was hot yeast. I really want to know what the story is with this beer. for my knowledg and to help you make a better beer. you can brew..... just one little let down.

cheers

 

[Steve]

9 - Steve (ACT) - Nelsons ******* Ale (Nottingham) - Medium-sized head that lingered for some time. Wonderfully clear copper coloured appearance. Citrus and stone fruit aromas backed by strong peach and plum flavours. Malt sweetness and hop biterness is perfectly balanced. SENSATIONAL!!!! A shame there's only ony bottle!! Tremendous sample Steve!! Will have to have a go with the Nelson.

Thanks Guys

Glad you like it Peve. After reading all these reviews im tonguing to taste some.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Stuster]

Glad you like it Peve. After reading all these reviews im tonguing to taste some.

Cheers
Steve

Won't be long till I'm down your way, Steve. Hang on in there.

 

[Steve]

Won't be long till I'm down your way, Steve. Hang on in there.

You just give me a hoy young fella! Since moving house and going to WA i havent brewed since 24 Nov - IM ALL OUT OF HB

Cheers
Steve

 

[Tony]

Tried a few today. Was painting my daughters bedroom so started at lunch time and just finnishing up now.

First up:

24. MVZoom Clayton Koelsch.
Poured nice and clear, great carb and a lovley rich golder colour. Fluffy white head thet held well.
It had a nice sweet malt character and bitterness was there and ballanced the beer perfectly for style. I thought it was an ok koelsch except for the yeast character. Like it had been firmented a bit too hot or left on yeast too long. It wasnt overly strong and i didnt have any trouble drinking both glasses but it was there.
Other than that... great beer mate.

Next up:

21. Thommo - Cream Ale.
Mate...... after tasting this i went to the BJCP guidelines to refresh my memory on what a cream ale should be. This was not it. It tasted more like a saison brewed at 30 deg c. It was very hazy, almost milky, poured with a nice head and carb was good, but as soon as i smelt it i knew something was wrong. It had a really funky "hot yeast" character. Not an infection as far as i know.... well not one i have had. I gave it to my wife to try and she pulled a funny face on sniffing it and handed it back. my brother tried it as well and went for a jatz.
A Cream ale should be a light refreshing, clear, clean, crisp ale brewed with lots of sugar and corn. This beer was a bit heavily bodied, hazy and way to funky to be right. Im sorry Thommo..... i had to tip it out.

Last for the night:

23. Monkeybusiness - Stout.

Poured it and it was a bit flat. very low carb. Not sure if this was intended to create the whole nitrogen type feel in the mouth but i think this beer needed more carb to lighten it a tad. Black, smooth roast aroma and flavour. VEEEEERY smooth! A tad sweet, not quite cloying but close. The low carb contributed to this though. beer is malt dominated and its very nice. clean, well made beer, just a bit more gas would have made it something very special. Well dont mate.

Cheers

 

[Tony]

5. Gulpa - Pale Ale.
Poured a nice clear deep golden to orange colour, Some fresh hops in there that i enjoyed, smooth beer with a refreshing bitterness, held a good head and was carbed perfectly. Once again a slight yeasty character but it did not detract form the beer too much. I must be very sensative to this character in beer because it sticks out when ever i come accross it.
Nice beer mate.... thanks.

cheers

 

[Trent]

Oops
After a slightly embarrasing post onto the wrong thread.... here is my review for



#26 n00ch's Foreign Export
Obviously poured a nice colour of jet black, was pretty much opaque, and had a nice tan head that lasted... right up until I got stuck into my home made sausage roll and bbq sauce!
Roasty, chocolatey aroma with a hint of licorice, and more than a hint of fruitiness from the esters. Lovely chocolatey roast flavour, with a late note of licorice, medium-high bitterness, and plenty of fruity esters. I finishes a bit dry, but still sweet enough to fall into the tropical spectrum of the style (and allow the fruitiness!).
Quite a tasty beer, I really, really enjoyed it, though you DID manage to make me swallow part of a hop flower, ya *******! Apart from that, it was an excellent beer, thanks for sharing.
All the best
Trent

 

[Trent]

#21 Thommo's Cream Ale
This beer poured very cloudy, and my first sniff showed it was extremely phenolic, band-aids and medicnal aroma's abounded. I tried a sip, and got the same medicinal phenols, and had to tip it out, I am afraid.
After reading Tony's review, I fear my bottle is not an isolated incident, but can only conclude it is an infection. The only other possible explanation I can think of is if you cleaned your bottles with bleach water, and didnt rinse them out properly? But, the extremely cloudy appearance suggests that there are plenty of yeast at work in that beer, and are probably some kind of wild yeast. I could be wrong, as the carbonation wasnt overly high, but I would just pay attention to sanitation (obviously), and I look forward to your next case's contribution. Everyone gets infections at some stage, just sorry it happened in a case swap for ya.
All the best
Trent

 

[Fatgodzilla]

#13 - Floppinab's Bitter

Dark brown in colour with a nice ruby hue in the light, almost into porter territory. The beer is brilliantly clear and holds a great head. Lots of burnt toffee notes on the nose. The sweet dark malts follow through in the flavour with hardly a trace of roast. The bitterness and mouthfeel are perfect for the style, as is the carbonation. Top shelf beer thanks floppinab, reminds me a lot of Theakston's Old Peculiar. Wonderful drinking.

]#13 - Floppinab's Bitter
Opened last night at end of a session drinking APAs so thought I needed a change. The dark colour surprised me (was expecting something lighter) but impressed me (like my darkens I do). I was eating sausages off the bbq and washing them down with this lovely drop. Visually a stunning beer - magnificent head that stayed throughout the drink. It tasted as good as it looked - nice malty taste without being sweet. I have had very few English bitters so this one is now my standard setter - if it's as good as Gav's, it's good. Certainly something to aspire to in future brews. Thanks mate.

 

[m_peve]

Just a quick one. Sorry for the brevity

16. HomeBrewWorld.com- American P.A. - A medium head that disapeared fairly quickly (was probably my glass though).
A good balance between the hop bitterness and malt though I couldn't find much in the way of citrusy flavours and
aromas which is (for me) what makes an APA. Maybe more late American hops??? Thanks homebrew!!

 

[m_peve]

Keith - Australian Farmhouse Ale - with extra alcohol, Wyeast 3711 VSS French Saison
Poured with a thin head that hung around for a while before disappearing. Wonderful clear copper colour. A
very pleasant and refreshing drop that I'm enjoying during a break from unpacking the holiday van. The
extra alcohol is perhaps a downside because now I just feel like settling in to watch the cricket rather
than more unloading. Just kidding!! A top drop Keith!!! Thanks Muchly!!

 

[m_peve]

20 Trents Brown Porter. -

Thin head that didn't last long. It poured a Ruby red which may need to be a little more toward brown for the style. I got some chocolate in the aroma but less roastiness than I expected. A medium body with an abundance of sweet caramelly flavours that don't overpower. They are balanced well by hop bitterness. I haven't tried one of the commercial examples listed in the BJCP guidelines so it's impossible to make direct comparisons but it is a fantastic beer that I could certainly drink on a regular basis. Thanks Trent!!!!.

Pete

 

[Fatgodzilla]

10. Brewer - Blond Lager.
Poured a nice blond, pale golden colour. perfect carb, nice head retentiuon.

Smelt and tasted of hot firmentation. That dirty fruity taste you get you firment too hot. Not infected of anything like that. This was a well made beer let down by something simple as far as i can see. Please corext me if im wrong. I have used a lot of lager yeasts including WLP 830 and it was a lot cleaner that this. This tasted like it was fermented at 18 deg with the lager yeast.

Im sorry mate but this hot yeast character really dominated the beer for me. I drank the first glass and noticed it got worse as the beer heated up. I drank the second glass real quick, skulles half as it was warmimg and going down hill.

I would be interested to know firmention temps and tequiniques for this beer, The beer was great with a nice light pils malt character and ballanced hops. Just it tasted odd....... and to me it was hot yeast. I really want to know what the story is with this beer. for my knowledg and to help you make a better beer. you can brew..... just one little let down.

cheers

10. Brewer - Blond Lager.

Cracked the bottle after another session on someone else's VB (though the unexpected couple of Johnny Walker Blacks redeemed the session). Have no idea on the corrrectness of Tony's comments about the yeast and brew temperature but he's a far more experienced palate than mine. I love reading comments like his in that it opens my eyes to a reason why a brew might taste like it does. I'm way too novice into my judging of beers, so will limlt my commennts to the obvious.

Brewer - that's an enjoyable brew. Typing deep into the second glass of the bottle, I find this drinkable and enjoyable. If this was on tap at my local .... a schooner of Brewer's Blonde please. Yes, I'd buy a six pack if in my bottle - o.

 

[kabooby]

On Saturday Pumpy, Hogan, Myself and 2 mates managed to get through all bottles with a couple of jugs of my APA, Dunkelweizen, and stout thrown in.

Sorry for the lack of reviews on all the beers but a score out of 10 is the best we managed.

I rated Tony's sheepshager as my best beer. I have never had a beer with 66 IBU before and was suprised it was so balanced. I have had beers with less IBU's before and found them to be to bitter. Great Job and a great beer

It was a good day.

Kabooby

 

[Fatgodzilla]

On Saturday Pumpy, Hogan, Myself and 2 mates managed to get through all bottles with a couple of jugs of my APA, Dunkelweizen, and stout thrown in.

Sorry for the lack of reviews on all the beers but a score out of 10 is the best we managed.

I rated Tony's sheepshager as my best beer. I have never had a beer with 66 IBU before and was suprised it was so balanced. I have had beers with less IBU's before and found them to be to bitter. Great Job and a great beer

It was a good day.

Kabooby

And the scores ? Where are they ?

 

[kabooby]

They got thrown out in the clean up. Besides I realy woundnt want to post scores without some sort of review to avoid the risk of offending someone