Small Swap - 6 X Longnecks In Syd - Anyone Keen?

[MVZOOM]

The wife and I had Phrak's Porter last night - I started on this one as I knew she'd like it, so would be more willing to try the rest.

Carbonation was fine! Not much head, but Co2 in beer was all good, to be honest it probably didn't need much more. I had chilled it more than when we'd had one prior, so it had a different flavour profile. As it got warmer, there was a lot more aromatic flavour. Very clear too, with minimal sludge at the bottom of the bottle (there's a bonus to less carbing sugar!).

Very nice!

Cheers - MIke

 

[Gulpa]

G'day Gulpa, cheers for the feedback! I'm glad you liked it

I completely understand what you're talking about re the sweetness. The beer has evolved (mutated? :blink: ) from what was originally planned - An American Pale Ale... But the unhopped Malt Extract was much darker than I expected, so it became an Amber Ale.. I was also playing around with different hop additions at different times, and didn't put quite enough bittering hop in, therefore the "sweetness".

If you're interested in the recipe and method, I'm happy to share

Regards,
Tim.

I would be interested. I want to make a few APA's when it warms up a bit.

Cheers,
Andrew.

 

[Gulpa]

I cracked the Winter warmer last night. Very nice. Great balance (as someone else said). Nice malty flavour. I sometimes find the alcohol sticks out a bit when the % goes up, but didnt have a problem with this one.

Cheers,
Andrew.

 

[Phrak]

Haha Thanks Phrak,
Here's the recipe free to buggerise round with and improve. <snip>

Thanks! I'll add it to my collection

<snip>Any hands up who's was who's?

The one with "APA" on the cap is mine

I had the APA last night. Poured expecting pale, but got dark amber! Still I'm not complaining, as it was bloody sensational. Nice toffee flavours. It was a shame to finish the bottle.

Cheers mate, I'm glad you liked it! Yeah I know about the colour - see my comments to Gulpa above ( http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=139939 )

Cheers,
Tim.

 

[petesbrew]

Haha Thanks Phrak,
Here's the recipe free to buggerise round with and improve. <snip>

Thanks! I'll add it to my collection

<snip>Any hands up who's was who's?

The one with "APA" on the cap is mine

I had the APA last night. Poured expecting pale, but got dark amber! Still I'm not complaining, as it was bloody sensational. Nice toffee flavours. It was a shame to finish the bottle.

Cheers mate, I'm glad you liked it! Yeah I know about the colour - see my comments to Gulpa above ( http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=139939 )

Cheers,
Tim.

Tim, can I grab that APA recipe off you sometime? It's a winner! Oh and what's the percentage? I felt very relaxed after it! :chug:

 

[MVZOOM]

Oh and BTW Gents;

The Little Lager needs at least 3 week's CC'ing. I cracked the keg last night and although the flavour is good (IMHO), it's as murky as the Murray.

So, please, if you will - leave that scraggily labled little loafing lager for later.

Cheers - Mike

 

[andrewl]

I forgot that Mike... Cracked it open earlier... Had a bit too much head while pouring (but you've just correcyed my stupid mistake) but other than that it was quite nice, easy drinker for the warmer months and the head lasted the whole glass... I think you might be onto something mate! :beer:

 

[Gulpa]

I cracked the rasberry blonde last night. This was the first time that Ive had a fruit beer so I dont really have anything to benchmark it against.

Lovely nose. Cascade was very well judged. I couldnt tell where it ended and the raspberry began. I found it a very light summery beer to drink that kind of creeps up on you. I would really enjoy this beer on a hot day.

Agree with Phrak regarding the chunks. Not a problem.

Cheers,
Andrew.

 

[Phrak]

I've added my recipe and method to the AHB recipes database:
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...&recipe=198

Any questions, I'm happy to answer

Enjoy!

 

[barls]

hey pete im glad you liked it, its one that always gets praise from others i wish i had a bottle of the strawberry clover honey blonde to give but unfortunately it just about gone. the current wheat one did smell good when i was mixing it up last week and i plan to transfer it this week while adding the rest of the kilo of raspberries(ie the 700g)
and ill see how it turns out, as its a bit darker than it should be due to the age of the wals wheat can.
i think we should do this again in a couple of months as im enjoying tasting others beers and getting their ideas and feedback.

 

[petesbrew]

Cracked open the Vanilla Bean Amber ale on Friday night. Stupidly I opened it straight from the fridge, so it was too cold to enjoy straight away. Once it warmed up a bit it was fantastic. Nice colour, great sweetness. I couldn't really taste any vanilla in it, but Barls you've inspired me!

Tried the Pale Ale, (I think it was AndrewL's) on Saturday. Mate this was great! Very refreshing, a great head, and a good kick! Went nicely with the Takeaway Thai.

 

[MVZOOM]

We cracked Mic's Ginger Beer last night - wow! Really great depth, flavour and kick to it, definately one of the nicest ginger beer's I've had. Would love the recipe (hint hint!).

Also had the 1.25l bottle of Steam Beer this weekend (apologies, can't recall who's it is - was it Insights??). Really crisp, with great mouthfeel and a nice malty aftertaste. It seemed quite bitter first up and then mellowed out somewhat - but I'd love to know how many IBU's it is? Overall a nice beer, would be great in the summer with a steak.

Cheers - Mike

 

[andrewl]

First off, thanks Pete (thinking of puting this one down for the summer months as there is only 2 bottles left ). Mike, the cali common (steam) beer was Thommos'.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[Gulpa]

Got stuck into a few on the weekend but havent had time to write them up yet.

Andrewl's Pale ale - Great stuff. This is what I want to drink in summer on a hot day. Recipe would be appreciated.

Barls Honey Amber - First time Ive had a honey beer. I could definately taste the honey. Im not sure that I like the honey flavours in beer.

benhobbs' IPA - Too cold to start. But as it warmed up I really like this. Nice complex malty flavours balanced by bitterness. Classy winter sipper. Very disappointed I only had one bottle. Recipe would be appreciated.

Phrak's Porter - Nice roasty flavours. I thought it was quite similar to my porter, possibly just a bit lighter. I like it.


Only got a few more to go now. This has been a great experience as it would have taken me more than a year to brew and try all these styles if I was brewing them myself. The quality of beer has been better than I thought it would be. Its great to see what others do. I definately know what sort of beers I want to try to brew now which is what I really wanted to get out of this.

And I agree with Barls. We should do this again soon.

Cheers,
Andrew.

 

[petesbrew]

Got stuck into a few on the weekend but havent had time to write them up yet.

Andrewl's Pale ale - Great stuff. This is what I want to drink in summer on a hot day. Recipe would be appreciated.

Barls Honey Amber - First time Ive had a honey beer. I could definately taste the honey. Im not sure that I like the honey flavours in beer.

benhobbs' IPA - Too cold to start. But as it warmed up I really like this. Nice complex malty flavours balanced by bitterness. Classy winter sipper. Very disappointed I only had one bottle. Recipe would be appreciated.

Phrak's Porter - Nice roasty flavours. I thought it was quite similar to my porter, possibly just a bit lighter. I like it.


Only got a few more to go now. This has been a great experience as it would have taken me more than a year to brew and try all these styles if I was brewing them myself. The quality of beer has been better than I thought it would be. Its great to see what others do. I definately know what sort of beers I want to try to brew now which is what I really wanted to get out of this.

And I agree with Barls. We should do this again soon.

Cheers,
Andrew.

Totally agree here, the 6 pack swap is easy to manage (apart from the leftover bottles that left everyone confused!)
Glad you liked the raspberry blonde too, Gulpa. Got just under a slab's worth left of it, which will be waiting to crack open when my wife pops out our 1st kid.
Looking forward to trying your Porter this weekend.

 

[MVZOOM]

Probably a bit cheeky and not the done thing - however finally cracked a PET bottle of my own Winter Warmer last night. Worth the wait - it'd been brewing since Feb I think!

It'd carbed quite a bit in the bottle, however there wasn't much head at all. It certainly didn't retain the head or lace much down the glass.

Colour was spot on to what I hoped for, deep amber / red. Clarity was very good also, with some chill haze - once it had warmed up it was perfectly clear (you get that after Primary / secondary / cube storage and then bottling!).

Taste - thick mouthfeel with too much carbonation. Once I let it warm a bit, the co2 dissapated somewhat and more flavour came through. Heavy mouthfeel, big malt taste and a hint of the banana esthers, with a slightly alchohol tinged after taste.

IMHO Almost porter'ish, without the fruity charactoristics. A lot less phynol (spell?) and banana taste than was warned about, it was certainly there, but really pushed into the background. I think that's because I fermented at 16deg, whereas it would have been a lot more pronounced if I'd gone any higher.

I'm pleased with the result. It's different from Coopers Sparkling - a lot less cloying (ie.. Sparkling really has that big banana flavour, which I'm becoming less and less tolerant of). Keg is due to be cracked soon, so I'll probably be sick of it soon!

Cheers - Mike

 

[andrewl]

Thanks Andrew for the rap! Last night I tried your Porter, beautiful roast flavour to begin with and was left with a great malty flavour afterwards. Nice mouthfeel and also just the right amount of carbonation too I think. Tonight I cracked open Thommos' Steam Beer (proudly sponsered by the folks at Coca Cola ), Also, another great drop, I love the lemony nose that you've produced and also the all round citrusy taste of the beer. An easy summer guzzler!

Andrew, recipe as follows:

1.7k Morgans Blue Mountain Lager
1k TCB Brew Booster
24g Cascade (steeped - 10 mins)
Safale S-04

Average Temp: 18deg

Primary: 8 days

Bulk Primed and straight into bottles, leave for as long as possible.

Your comment on it is exactly what I was after, a nice easy beer to drink on those hot summer arvo's/nights. I will be putting another batch down soon for that reason.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[Boozy the clown]

Sorry everybody for dropping off the face of the earth and not keeping up with the timing of the mini swap. The beer is all bottled though! :unsure:

Me and the missus had little boozy no.2 and work, well work gets in the way of my life sometimes... :huh:

But smallest boozy is doing great, work sucks and the beer is tasting good

 

[Phrak]

No worries Boozy, I'm sure there'll be another one soon enough

Glad to hear that the little one is doing well.

 

[Boozy the clown]

Well the upside to my delay was that the beers were cold conditioned for about 6 weeks.

The ESB bavarian wheat has come out noice, nothing like it should though... I used WLP838 and dry hopped with Hallertau. So it vaguely tastes like a wheat, is clear and I think nicely hoppy.
The stout is good, the liqourice stout was bottled last - too young too drink, the missus likes the honey lager.

Double hooping the ESB was a stuff up, i meant to put the hops in the honey lager - turned out to be a good mistake.