was in albany over the weekend and went to the pub on saturday.
i must say i was really disappointed. of the beers that were available on tap, 2 were undrinkable. :angry:
the pale ale tasted like it had just been kegged, it was so green, the bittering hops stuck out like dog's balls. plus it was really murky, i bet this had left the fermenter all of a day prior.
not deterred, i moved on to the pilsner - talk about a butterscotch cocktail. the diacetyl in this was so strong, you could smell it with the glass a good foot from your face.
i tried explaining to the bar staff what was wrong, but they weren't interested.
i'm not sure what is going on at this place but it looks like they either aren't letting the brews ferment through their natural course, not conditioning them or it's just poor quality control.
whistling jack, come on and hurry up with your brewery, tanglehead need the competition!
Been watching this thread and waiting for an opportune moment to reply (especially after reading the discussion on Grand Ridge)...
We have had some consistency issues with our English pale ale, especially in the last couple of months and mainly due to yeast health problems, (thanks Australia Post).
We have also been trying to improve the malt/hop balance and body.
My personal preference has always been for the bottle conditioned version over the filtered draught version and we have therefore stopped filtering the pale ale altogether. I feel the residual yeast gives the beer a better mouthfeel and body.
The batch described above was over 3 weeks old and the second half of a double batch that had been cold conditioned for at least 2 weeks. The batch after that, which is on now, and also available in bottles, is fermented using a different yeast strain and is a big improvement. Unfortunately it was not ready in time for the PRBS.
In regards to my pilsner, I am really concerned at the continual references on this forum to over the top diacetyl. I do everything I can within reason to reduce the production and increase the absorption of diacetyl during fermentation of this beer and it is generally lagered for 3-4 weeks before serving (all I can reasonably manage in my environment).
The batch refered to above is one that was also sent to Melbourne for the AIBA, and would have been greener than the beer hughman tasted. It didn't win any medals, but of the 5 judges who tasted it, there was only one mention of "slight diacetyl" in the notes. The main comments were that it was "too thin" and "not bitter enough" for the pilsner class it was entered in.
The pale malt we use has a slight honey flavour and maybe this is what is being mistaken for excessive diacetyl?
Each to their own, I had a German travel agent customer on the weekend who absolutely hated my hefeweizen (gold medal, 2008 PRBS) but said the pilsner was the "best beer he had tasted in Australia"!
In regards to "Old White Hart", my (very) limited edition 9.1% barleywine. This beer was brewed in February 2007 and is the result of 4 fermentations. It is an all-grain beer (no extract) and we had to boil for 6 hours to get the sugar concentration we needed. The starting gravity was a whopping 30 plato (1.120). The beer was hand bottled and we only ended up with 1000 x 330ml stubbies to last us until we brew the next one. The excise, due to the high alcohol content, was excessive, and had to be paid up front, as soon as the beer was to be bottled. We didn't start selling the beer until it had been conditioned for 6 months and it didn't really start to develop its flavours until after 12.
Beers like this are not cheap to brew and package. its not a beer you go and buy a 6-pack of, unless you are planning to drink one now and cellar the rest.
If you want Australian brewers to produce beers like this, in the current excise regime, you need pay for them.
I kept the price $15/bottle as low as I could and its still questionable whether I make any money off this beer. (not that I am directly comparing my beer with Thomas Hardy, but I think that is priced at $20/250ml bottle). So far, it has received 2 bronze and 1 silver medal, not bad for my first effort, surely?
Allan
Tanglehead
