Sandgroper Christmas Case 2006 Consumption

[sinkas]

Hi all,
Sorry about the crappy "SaisonWeizen", My glass bottled leftovers are well carbonated, however the beer suffers badly from the banal WY 3056 flavour profile that a couple of the other wheat beers in the case also did. This yeast stinks. Oh and the late addition of the Du Pont yeast seems to have done bugger all to assist.

 

[Tony M]

Case,
You will be pleased tha you will be famous for something. I googled "saisonweizen" and instead of the usual half million results, there was only one and it was you.

 

[Simon W]

LOL!
Theres a term for that(being the subject of a single hit), can't remember what it is tho.

EDIT: It's a 'googlewhack', serious! Rare indeed.

 

[sinkas]

Ah fame at last,
I have created a new, albeit toatally unappreciable, style of beer.
Ahead of my time?

 

[facter]

JasonY APA

Poured and the head is huge. Thick as. Fairly largely carbonated, not sure why that may be as everyone else is saying mildly cabed.

Very citrus aroma, quite grapefruit but i can definately detect some hints of ... is it pineapple? Definately. Very odd but great. A fairly heavy hop flavour and higher end bitterness, but its quite rounded. I can definately taste that citrus, and also that hint of pineapple (I swear top god its pineapple) - not sure what it is, but its different, and yet quite delicious. Thats a lot of hops, more so bordering on IPA amount id say! I love it but am glad that this is the last beer of the evening. The texture of this beer is quite thick however, and is very malty - id say maybe a touch over what id want in an APA.

Went well with a pie and sauce, and a ciggy. What more could a guy want though?

 

[Simon W]

Your not alone, I have tasted what I can only describe as 'pineapple' in brews with American hops. I've kept it to myself mostly, except for ausdb's wholebag brewday. Some of you might remember me mentioning pineapple in that amazing Double IPA Kook brought along.

 

[Asher]

GL's Green Tea Lager

Opened with little to no hiss. (I think the re-capped twist top was a bit loose).
Poured well with the usual tea haze. slightly browner than mine. Upon tasting I was greeted with a suprisingly solid malt backbone with little carbonic bite to hide behind. This balanced well with the bitterness, tea tannins and warming alcohol notes... The tea tang lingers long enough to make you crave another sip.
Nice drop Simon.

Asher for now

 

[roger mellie]

Smashed Santa Bitter

I read the blurb - brewed in the nick of time - could have fooled me - this is ready to go.

Excellent carbonation - on the lower side of the scale - perfect for the style. Head didnt last long but thats cool with me. Lovely biscuity, toffee, malty notes with a sweet finish. Divine aromas showed through when she warmed up - vanilla (stole that from Simon) and spice.

A commendable effort. Definitely not ordinary. Recipe pleeeeeese.

RM

 

[Asher]

AusDB's Smasher Santa Ordinary Bitter

Nice label.

Clear amber/coppper colour with reasonable head retention at best. Caramel roasty malt aromas followed by similar flavours with fruity notes. Nice hoppy finish but a little dry (mash temp?). Overall this beer has a great malty nose and hop flavour to boot. A hard thing to squeeze out of a lower OG style. The dry finish may not be to style but I bet it makes this beer hard to stop at just the one glass...

Asher for now

 

[JasonY]

Rainy Zephyr Pale Ale.
Appologies as I had had a few by the time I cracked this one. Slight haze from memory, aroma didn't have hops but kinda yeasty which was nice. Carbonation was spot on, tasted bloody great and I was wishing my keg had that in it. Top drop and my pick of the case to date.

Bavarian Suprise
Carbonation was pretty good I thought, aroma was nice spicy or something. Poured hazy. Flavour reminded me of a hint of the mint sauce you put on lamb? Did you put mint in this? I liked it, fairly dry finish. Keep thinking of mint?

 

[BigAl]

Rainy Zephyr Pale Ale

Its a rainy nite, so better crack the Rainy Zephyr.

Deep copper coloured, very slight chill haze (being really picky here), nicely carbonated, a thinish head, though it lasted all the way down the glass.
When i smelt it and had my first sip i could really taste the malt, almost a sweet smell. With continued drinking the bitterness tended to shine through. I think it was fairly well balanced in the end. It was fairly dry and drunk with a Pad thai it when down absolutey great.

A good easy drinking pale ale. Nice work, here's to Rainy Deebee. :beer:

 

[ausdb]

I read the blurb - brewed in the nick of time - could have fooled me - this is ready to go.
A commendable effort. Definitely not ordinary. Recipe pleeeeeese.

Clear amber/coppper colour with reasonable head retention at best. Caramel roasty malt aromas followed by similar flavours with fruity notes. Nice hoppy finish but a little dry (mash temp?). Overall this beer has a great malty nose and hop flavour to boot. A hard thing to squeeze out of a lower OG style. The dry finish may not be to style but I bet it makes this beer hard to stop at just the one glass...

Thanks guys, the recipe is now up and as you can see it really was slapped together at the last minute.

Note the database is missing Jaggery palm sugar so brown sugar was selected just make the OG correct. Asher I think the jaggery is what helps out with the dry finish and caramel aroma's flavours, the mash was about 67-68 at dough in and had dropped to 65C after about 90 minutes (but I didn't intend to mash that long). Colourwise I would have liked darker, I had drunk a bottle of Macs Sassy Red on the Friday night before and was looking for that sort of hue. I don't think that Carared adds all that much of a red tinge and would use more next time.

I am starting to like the 1332 yeast, nice and malty, drops pretty bright but doesn't give up the ghost and cling to the bottom like 1968 my old 'standard' yeast does. Yet SimonW had a different experience with it.

I have just brewed a 55L batch of Smashed Sant MKII and tweaked the grain bill to make it a bit darker and also loaded the hops up to 35IBU using Styrians instead of Northdowns and with 100g of Styrians/EKG's in the hopback at the end. I have split fermented with 3 yeasts WY1332, TT yeast and some WLP023 Burton (which did not take off so got a packet of windsor thrown in). I will bring some along to the next WCB meeting to compare.

 

[BigAl]

Ashes Bavarian Surprise

Nice psst on opening the bottle. Hint of hop aroma, halletau maybe?, slight lager sulfer smell, must be the pale lager!
good carbonation, light body, crisp, well balanced, very tasty, great beer for a hot perth afternoon like this weekend.

 

[facter]

Hill Billy


woooo doggy! Bit of a feisty carb on this one, would have been perfect on a weizen but not so great here, had to de-froth a few times. Pretty neutral flavour, had a slightly apple taste to the one I had - not hugely evident but just in the back of the profile. No real hop background but anice bitterness - it was fairly chill here tonight, and im thiking ot would be a nice neutral hot weather beer than anthing else. Not a top favorite so far, but I finished it off and could have gone another.

 

[mika]

Fletch weizen

I'd had a few by this stage. Seemed like a really nice beer, not much head though. Think it needed to be stirred up before I poured it, I could smell a nice Coriander flavour when pouring but didn't really come thru in the taste.
A nice easy drinking beer though and I could have sunk a few more

Vlad's Pale Ale

Had this the other night. Nice clean tatsing beer with a fairly low carbonation level, not that it detracts from the beer at all. I did notice a weird after taste that I couldn't identify. Nothing bad, in fact it gave the beer a character of it's own, The missus suggested it was a smoke flavour but I'm not sure that's the right description.

December Fest

Once more, the bottle's empty and I don't know what happened to it :huh: Does this mean I have a drinking problem ? h34r:
I seem to recall thinking it wasn't much like the HofBrau version I had a couple of months before, but still nothing that you'd pour down the sink. Apart from that..sorry Tony...I got nothing.

 

[deebee]

I was waiting to see if anyone died of botulism or claimed to taste DMS in my beer, but we are all still alive and one or two of you enjoyed my beer, so here goes.

It was brewed with the no chill method. h34r:

 

[mika]

Didn't I mention my time in the emergency room being dosed on antibiotics. I'm sure I mentioned almost throwing up due to the DMS taste.
....No ? Oh well...maybe it doesn't matter how it's chilled then

 

[Goat]

OK, here goes. I cracked a few last night...

Fallen Angel Bo Pils
the first thing I have to remind myself is to read the fine print ! I just assumed that it was force carbonated, not bottle conditioned. As a result there was some unwitting agitation of the bottle which resulted in a fairly cloudy presentation. There was also a fairly prominent yeast bite to it. Trying to screen that yeast flavour out, the beer - as one would expect - was refined and clean tasting, well carbonated if a little darker than one would expect. I'm not sure that the BJCP guidelines were strictly adhered to with beauty, but the beer was great.

Vlad's Transylvanian Pale Ale
Poured with an orangey golden colour, with a slight haze and well carbonated leaving a solid head all the way to the bottom of the glass. Powerful hop taste on first sip which reminded me of grape seed tanins (like when you bite int one when eating a grape). This was followed by a very smooth almost creamy (wheat?) mouth feel and lovely malt in the background. Enjoyed this beer a lot.

Rainy Zephyr Pale Ale
Sensational beer - my pick so far. Poured darkish for a "pale" ale. Carbonation was spot on creating a good head which lasted and laced down the glass. Nice and distinct hop flavours give way to a beautiful sweet, rich maltiness, with considerable bitterness on the roof of my mouth a lingering long after. If this had less hops it would make a sensational Belgian/trappist with those raisiny malty complex flavours. I really liked this beer, a fitting testament to a great friend.

 

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

Dezemberfest

A nice light tan colour, moderate carb with firm head that thinned out but stayed the distance. Malty on the nose with a full malty mouthfeel and taste to match and enough hop to balance and add some length. Very enjoyable and would benefit from a longer lagering priod.

Smashed Santa

Cloudy orangey colour, nice head that thins out. Bit of a toasty aroma and not much hop. Full bodied with a bit of a spicey note, I picked Styrians but was wrong again. In view of the mash temps used I would have increased the frogs bladders by about 25% to give that bit more je ne sais qoui.

Whistlingjacks Hefeweizen

Nice carb, thick head that eventually left. Golden haze colour, clove aroma and in the first taste. The beer cleared to almost a krystal on warming up, not sure what this suggests, a protein rest for the wheat? or the yeast characteristics, dunno really. Still liked it though.

Als Saaz B

Well carbed, thick rocky head that persists, yellow straw colour, huge hop aroma.
Full bodied and malty, very well balanced. The most enjoyable so far, and I'd be very happy to brew a lager like this.

 

[roger mellie]

Cases Faded Curtains

I would never criticise a fellow homebrewers beer - but this had absolutely no carbonation so subsequently I think its unfair to judge on that basis.

Goats Wit for Brains

Interesting... Lovely tight white head - Initially I got the mouldy oranges that I class as desirable - subsequent aroma changed somewhat to candy floss/toffee notes. Malty to the finish and a beer that has a lingering taste that I cant identify - like bubble gum but I cant put a name to it. Refreshing beer - liked it a lot - just dont think I 'got it'.

I have never made a belgian wit - keen to give it a try - what yeast did you use??

RM