Nsw Xmas In July 2006 Case Consumption

[berapnopod]

Schmick's ESB

Very nice label(s), Schmick!

Aroma: Light malty nose with some alcohol and light esters. A bit of hops in there too.

Appearance: Very thin head - a crescent aronud the edge of the glass. Clear. Red/Brown - a little dark for an ESB.

Flavour: An excellent balcance of malt and hop flavour striaght away. Lots of esters give it a good flavour too.
Quite chewy (I know thats not very helpful, but there you go). Finish is bitter, dry and again chewy. Theres a hint of diacetyl which is giving a nice round sweet finish to the beer. Toffee eventually comes through too.

Mouthfeel: Medium/full body. Carbonation is high and does give a foamy mouth, which detracts from the enjoyment of the beer. Some alcohol warmth.

Overall: An excellent ESB, Schmick! I thinkit has great balance in its ingredients. The only minor flaw I found is that its a bit too gassy in the mouth. But overall beautiful beer!


Berp.

 

[nifty]

Well, i had a nice surprise last night.

I was going through my beer fridge checking out what yeasts and beers were up the back, and I came across Hopsta's Belgium from the Xmas 2005 case. It was a bit like homebrew archaeology. I don't know how i missed it for all this time, but what a bonus.

It poured crystal clear, with a beautiful copper colour. I don't know anything about Belgium beers, but I enjoyed this one. It almost had a port type feel to it.

Anyway, after drinking one of my 750ml steams and then this one, I certainly slept well.

Thanks

p.s. sorry, I posted this here because the Xmas in 2005 case thread was locked.

 

[T.D.]

The last couple of nights I have been on a bit of a wheat beer bender. Well, not really a bender given it was only two longnecks but its a hell of a lot more than I would usually have! Anyway, I tried Duff's Dunkelweizen and Weizguy's Berliner Weisse. I thoroughly enjoyed both. As I hinted to before I am not usually a huge fan of wheat beers, but I must say I am starting to come around to why so many people are obsessed with them. I am not going to fluff on too much about the specific flavours and aromas of the beers because of my lack of experience with the styles. But the Berliner weisse was probably one of the best summer beer styles I can imagine. It was light but I definitely wouldn't have picked 2.8%. Would go down beautifully out in the sun on a summer afternoon. Duff's beer was all class too. I really like this style. I may make one of these soon in my new found appreciation of wheat beers.

Thanks guys for showing me how nice a wheat beer can be! :beer:

I also had Kungy's AIPA which I thought was a great beer. I spun it out over the entire night. It is very similar to some of the IPAs I have tried from some of the North American micros. I made one recently that was also very similar and funnily enough it also used Cascade, Centennial and Chinook! oth this beer and the one I made had a funny flavour to it which may not be a really bad thing, but if I could get rid of it I would. I think it may just be a combination of high alcohol and high bitterness - gives it a bit of a "tang", that I could do without. Anyway, it was a bloody nice beer.

I think tonight I will be having Thommo's Californian Common.

 

[berapnopod]

Thommo's Californian Common

Aroma: Light hoppy aroma. Also some candy in there. A bit of malt too, but overall, low aroma.

Appearance: Very thin head. Light brown and clear.

Flavour: Flavour is hop dominated with the malt just underneath - an excellent balance. There is a candy suar complexity, which might be from a light crystal malt. Adds a nice touch! Finish is moderately/strongly bitter, and dry. Low esters, as would be expected

Mouthfeel: Medium/light body. Some astringency detected. I'm guessing from the hops.

Overall: A very well made and clean beer. Fits the style well and is very enjoyable as a session beer. Pakcs a good deal of flavour into a light and crisp beer. Great beer Thommo!


Berp.

 

[Tony]

Well i didnt get in on the xmas case thing this time but i will next time for sure.

I tried one of weizguys berliner weisse's last night and it was a great beer.

Definatly a style i will try to brew when i get back on my brewing feet.

cheers

 

[Duff]

NSW Brewers,

Hopefully we should have something ready to go for any interested parties for an end of year case by the second week of September. Just gathering some thoughts from several parties....

Stay tuned, and NO this is not a call to arms :excl:

 

[MHB]

Weizguys Berliner Weissen

I happened to get hold of one of the bonus bottles of Weisguys Berliner Weisen. I am not really a big fan of wheat beer in general; I think that this is partly because by the time we see them most examples are well past their prime.
This was a surprising change and a beer I would be happy to drink again.
Young, fresh clean with just enough of a sour edge to refresh the pallet and leave it ready for another sip, for a beer with a remarkably low 2.5% ABV there is no shortage of body or flavour.

A beer to be proud of

Next time I get my hands on a bottle I will make sure I have some raspberry syrup, Berliners have bean adding Raspberry to this type of beer for a long time - I want to find out why.
If you have a bottle left, try the first glass, then get the yeast into suspension before you pour the second, makes a big difference and explains why this family are called white beers.

MHB

 

[Trent]

Gday all
I tried Gough's Dry Irish Stout the other night, and absolutely loved it. It had a perfect tan head that lasted the whole glass, and it was just like drinking the style guidelines. I guess his "experiment" to find out if a dry stout can be made by the way Ray Daniels recommends proved affirmative. I hope that makes sense, I am TERRIBLY hungover (the host at last nights party was giving me snifter after snifter of Benedictine). Anyway, it wasnt too roasty or anything, well balanced, and a stout I would be bloody proud of.
All the best
Trent

 

[Gough]

Gday all
I tried Gough's Dry Irish Stout the other night, and absolutely loved it. It had a perfect tan head that lasted the whole glass, and it was just like drinking the style guidelines. I guess his "experiment" to find out if a dry stout can be made by the way Ray Daniels recommends proved affirmative. I hope that makes sense, I am TERRIBLY hungover (the host at last nights party was giving me snifter after snifter of Benedictine). Anyway, it wasnt too roasty or anything, well balanced, and a stout I would be bloody proud of.
All the best
Trent

Thanks mate, I appreciate the feedback. It was a really interesting experiment, and if nothing else I've now got a nice quaffing 4% ABV stout with flavour. Good ol' Daniels, I should never have doubted him :lol:

Shawn.

 

[Ross]

Sounds really nice Gough - Have you posted a recipe for it?

cheers Ross

 

[Gough]

Sounds really nice Gough - Have you posted a recipe for it?

cheers Ross

I haven't Ross, partially because it is not really my recipe as such, and partially because it is just so simple. It was the idea of 10% roast barley in a 1040 (or in this case 1042) OG beer with around 40 IBU that made us look at it and think "that's gunna taste WAY too roasty" which is why we brewed it as an experiment. I'd heard others saying it was the way to go but for some reason the roast always scared me off. Silly really... The result isn't anything really exciting, but it is a nice easy drinking dry stout that at 4% you could have a few pints of with no worries whatsoever.

FWIW the recipe Warren and I ended up brewing, based on the Daniels quote was:

Recipe: Pogue Mahone
Brewer: Shawn Sherlock/Warren White
Style: Dry Stout
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 25.00 L
Boil Size: 36.13 L
Estimated OG: 1.042 SG
Estimated Color: 77.3 EBC
Estimated IBU: 39.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.91 kg TF Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt (5.9 EBC) Grain 82.0 %
0.48 kg JWM Roast Barley (1400.7 EBC) Grain 10.0 %
0.38 kg TF Flaked Barley (0.0 EBC) Grain 8.0 %
78.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [4.50%] (60 min) Hops 39.0 IBU
0.54 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) Yeast-Ale


Single infusion mash at 67 degrees. Simplest recipe in the case I'd reckon

Shawn.

 

[warrenlw63]

Yep.

Basically Shawn and myself brewed beers with identicial grainbills and hops. Only difference being that I used a different yeast. I used Wyeast 1335 (Brit Ale II). Pitched at 13 degrees and fermented at 15 degrees. Clean but character robbing ... We swapped respective bottles. I found that it was a perfect experiment for differing yeasts at opposite ends of the temperature spectrum.

Mine came out very drinkable but probably too clean and uninteresting for anything more than mindless quaffing and probably suffered a little from subdued roast h34r: . It actually quite bored me after a while. All that said a very clean beer with very few faults.

Pogue Mahone. (Shawn's) had a little (read pinch) more definied roastiness and noticeable fruitiness from higher pitching and fermentation temps. which made it a more interesting beer and had my mind working through the bottle. I enjoyed it a lot.

Good project and I'd urge any other brewers to do similar things and compare notes. It's quite worthwhile. :beerbang:

Warren -

 

[Weizguy]

Pogue Mahone
Shawn,

Without too much detail, I found your beer quite drinkable with a very dry finish.
As it's not one of my fave styles, I have little to compare against. IIRC, I could taste hops and esters and the beer was quite complex, which is admirable at that alc %.
Certainly a worthy case member.

Keith (TBG)'s Foreign Extra Stout

I got one of the backup beers, and it's a little whopper. Having consumed 2/3 of the bottle, I thought I might put finger to keyboard and report.

The colour is opaque and brown. There is a persistent ring of foam which has followed me for too long (drinking delay due to long phone call). The aroma is roast, choc, coffee and alcohol and a hint of butter (almost masked by the other smells).
Medium-high body and smooth velvety mouthfeel, with a slightly oily aftertaste, which is quite allowable for this style. The flavour is all the above, with sweetness followed by a firm English hop bitterness, which lingers with hand-in-hand with the burnt roast flavr. Nice sipping beer, even at 19C now.

I first sampled a middy from the bottle a few weeks back (prob about 5, actually) and it was not as well integrated as it is now.

Quite a nice beer, and I'd like to hear from anyone else who received one of these.

One last job here. I thought that I might mention the Berliner Weisse (brewed by me) which I sampled at MHB the other night with Mark and Tony. This beer is quite nice right now, so go to it. I noticed the "white beer" colour when Mark disturbed the yeast after first pouring a clear beer. There was so much more flavour when the yeast was added. However, I'd caution everyone against disturbing theyeast without tasting the "clear beer" first. Not a bad job and certainly milder in acidity than the 2 previous Berliners I made.
PoMo, do you have an opinion? I know the last beer was filthy, but this one is quite fair, if not superb.
Prob wouldn't get far in a competition coz people (beer judges) don't have any experience of, nor understand the style. I enterd my first Berliner in a comp and was advised by three alleged beer judges that it was "infected". Hell yes! Din't they read the style guidelines. The beer was deliberately contaminated with lactobacillus. If it wasn't used, the beer wouldn't be sour. OK Seth, deep breath. It's gone now. The judges determination shall not be subject to review.

Anyway, drink the Berliner Weisse. Enjoy it or not, I don't care...just tell me either way.

Beerz
Seth out

 

[Josh]

Seth,

Had the Berliner Weiss tonight. Very nice. I could drink tht lall night Feeling fantsastic after a good seesion on the Xmas in JKuly case. I'll post when I'm alomosty done tinguiht.

 

[Trent]

Seth
They said the beer was infected?!? That'll teach ya to put it in at a school fete . Are you at liberty to say which comp it was, and if not was it BJCP, where they should have known the style at least, or was it somewhere else? I can just imagine em after the comp "I cant believe all the bad brewers out there. EVERY beer in the Flanders red, brown, Berliner and Lambic categories were all infected. Guess they just dont know enough about sanitation" :lol:
Dont worry mate, if I judge it this year, I will make sure to put that on your sheet for nostalgic purposes...
All the best
Trent

 

[berapnopod]

Weizguy's Berliner Sauer Weisse

Aroma: The major aroma is a phenolic wheat character. I also smelt a bit of rubber when I opened the bottle, which is yeast autolysis.Next sniff gives me more wheat aroma with spiciness. Other than that, the aroma is clean.

Appearance: Straw colour, very thin head. The clarity is excellent. I know you mentioned its a good idea to ge a bit of the yeast in, so thats what I'll do with the second pint. But the following is for the first (clear one)

Flavour: Assertive sour flavour hits you first. Good clean lactic sourness - not acetic. There is a little graininess in the initial flavour, but thats about it. The finish is a bit more complex with the spicy wheat flavour coming through. Bitterness appears negligible.

Mouthfeel: Light body with medium/low carbonation. A touch of astringency at the finish. Could this be extraction of tannins during the mash? In any case, its not a major part of the beer.

Overall: Weizguy, this is a great beer! I think you've done an excellent job on the BW style! One minor gripe would be that there could be a bit more flavour in there. The other is that I agree with you that it could be more sour. At the moment, it is a very pleasant, easy drinking beer (assuming you like sour beers), more sourness and flavour (eg. malt) would give it more character.

When I add some yeast sediment to the beer, I don't get a significant change in flavour.

Weizguy, you mentioned you had problems with a homebrew comp and one of your BW's. If it was the NSW homebrew comp. please PM me. I tried to PM you a day or so ago on the issue, but couldn't get through.



Berp.

 

[berapnopod]

Chilled's Pale Australian Lager

Aroma: Light Pride of Ringwood hop aroma. No esters, or anything ele for that matter. Very clean.

Appearance: Fine head of medium/karge sized bubbles, dissipating rather quickly.Light gold colour. Clear.

Flavour: There's an initial bitterness in there that stays all the way through the drink to the end. Rather unusual to get that first. The flavour is overall muted and balanced towards the hop side slightly. Very clean beer, as a lager should be. Some slickness on the tongue, which I am putting down to DMS. Finish has the lingering slickness, but is also bitter and crisp.

Mouthfeel: Medium Body. Carbonation feels low, but is probably appropriate for the style. No perceptible alcohol warmth, as it should be.

Overall: This is an excellent example of the style. Very easy drinking. It is well brewed, and the recipe hits the mark well with nothing standing out as wrong in this beer. Nice one, Chilled!


Berp.

 

[Chilled]

Sorry for my conspicious abscence. Have been on a strict diet (no beer type....ouch) since getting my case and then developed a major cold for the past three weeks. So I have not had any of the Xmas case yet...yipeee all those great beers still to taste. Don't know that my judging abilities are up to those of the past posts but will add any 'general' comments if I feel that they can contribute.
Thanks to TD (finally posted the recipe), Trent and berapnopod for your feedback on my entry. Being new to the game it has been great to get independant 'qualified' feed back.

Cheeers

Chilled

 

[KoNG]

I've had quite a few of the beers over the last week or so, but havent been able to take any notes. All have been great as you would expect.!! Goughs stout was very nice as was Kieths porter... of the group i've had lately, the one that stood out was weiz's berliner... i wish i'd had it on the weekend in the middle of the day (i had it at 11pm last friday).. it was a great beer and quite distinct, i didnt really think it was too sour.. so all good.
I've nearly finished the case, getting closer to stusters dubbel.. which is last on my list.

Rock on Xmas case :beerbang:
KoNG

 

[Doc]

The good news for me is that the warm up beer was a Weinehepstephaner Dunkel HefeWeizen. So this beer had the precidence set.

Duff's DunkelWeizen
Good pour, not over carbonated. Maybe a little low on carb. Nice inital head that disapated after a couple of minutes. Probably on the lighter end of the dunkel colour scale, but still a nice medium brown. Nice clarity.
Hint of alcohol in the aroma. A malt driven beer. Some interesting phenols in the flavour. Not off putting, but adding complexity.
Overall a very drinkable DunkelWeizen. I'm enjoying it immensely.

Now off to read other reviews of the beer.

Doc