Tasting Notes - Vic July 2007 Swap

[AUHEAMIC]

Well I said in the main Vic July 2007 case swap thread that I wasn't going to start this tasting notes thread until tomorrow but I couldnt help myself. I'm sitting here grinning from ear to ear after my first taste . So here it goes.

1. Peels - Cream ale - Labeled Cream Ale by Peels - Ready to drink
2. DarkFaerytale - Smoked Ale - ready to drink, goes good with just about any sort of meat - "S" on cap
3. Lucas - Batz Altbier - labeled "alt" on caps + dodgy masking tape label - ready to drink
4. Wardhog Sloppy Skunk Fart APA - 'WAPA' on lid, will crack a tester soon and update
5. Fents - IPA - Labelled Clearly - Ready to drink!
6. Velophile - Amarillo Pale Ale - labeled - Keep it warm for a week or so. I'll open a tester soon & report
7. Thirsty Boy - Witbier. Labled Half Wit - Drink it NOW.
8. Andrei - Irish Dry Stout - labelled, also with "IDS" on bottletop - could do with more time in the bottle - try and keep it as one of your later tastings if you can
9. Quintrex - Tripel- Labeled Q on cap, ready to drink, as with most big beers, aging will very much improve it.
10. RobW - robust porter - Labelled, ready to drink
11. apd - brown ale - Labelled BA 0507 - Ready to drink
12. kadmium - Hause ale AWOL
13. Mmmmm... beer - Dark Ale - Labelled 'Dark Ale - Belgian twist' - ready to drink
14. mark_mulrooney - Amarillo amber ale - labelled, ready to drink


Lucas - Batz Altbier

Malty to the nose with no detectable hop aroma (to my nose anyway). Lovely deep copper colour with a thin creamy head which lasted to the bottom of the glass. Suffering a little from chill haze. Very smooth with a nice dry finish and lingering bitterness.

All in all a really well made beer and one I will definitely have a crack at.

Well done Lucas (and Batz for the recipe)

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Heya folks

I thought that I would honour Peels' contribution and the fact that he got the whole ball rolling for the case swap, by starting with his beer. I'm pretty excited to be starting my case swap tasting with a style I have never tried before. I'll be luck to not get myself in trouble by drinking the whole lot in a few days But that wouldn't be doing the beers justice, so I will try to exercise self control.

Peels Cream Ale -

I've not had a cream ale before, and I didn't want to read the style guidelines before I tasted. So this is just what I noticed in the beer. Tasted in a 330ml Stella stem glass.

Appearance:

Beer poured a nice bright straw yellow, hazy but not cloudy.

A good inch of tight white head lasted fairly well, but eventually faded down to a 1mm cap of foam. The cap lasted to the bottom of the glass. Pretty good lacing and the beer was nice and lively with good active bubble formation

Aroma:

Light floral hops with a hint of pine. Low intensity malt, grainy and sightly sweet with some toastiness.

low to no fruity estery smells

A quite distinct tart/sour smell reminiscent of the tartness you get from a raw wheat.

Taste:

Light to medium body with good carbonation, maybe heading towards too fizzy. Quite a smooth and creamy mouthfeel.

Quite malty with a slightly sweet grainy maltiness. Bitterness is well balanced with maltiness.

The tart/sourness is present in the taste as well and by the end of the glass starts to dominate the other flavours a little. There is maybe a hint of butter hiding in there as well

The beer finishes quite clean, crisp and dry... with just a little lingering toasty malt on the pallet.

All in all a pretty nice beer. I certainly finished my first glass quickly and was fairly happy that there was another left in the bottle. The slight sourness is presenting as "interesting" at the moment and if its intentionally there it is a skillfull addition to the flavour profile. If its a bit of an infection... then the flavour is good now, but will probably end up being far to intense. Depending on which it is, it might be worth drinking these up before they have a chance to change too much.

Thanks Peels.

Thirsty

 

[Fents]

bloody hell thirsty you've set the standard for tasting notes!

 

[chris.peile]

bloody hell thirsty you've set the standard for tasting notes!

He sure has! I'm going to go for the 'quality not quantity' approach (i.e. I'm a lazy bugger!) Great work - I'm going to crack my first one tonight and see what happens.

Cheers
Chris

 

[AUHEAMIC]

Thanks for the very descriptive review Thirsty. Its reviews such as yours that really makes you think about your beer.

The sourness has me buggered. It wasn't intentional. I just got home and cracked a bottle and I can't pick it up. Maybe it's just my lack of taste buds/smell. Maybe it's an isolated bottle or maybe I have no idea what I'm on about. It will be interesting to see if is present in the other bottles. I better have another bottle just to be sure.

Peels

 

[mark_m]

After Thirsty's post I've developed critique anxiety, great effort.

I took a couple of bottles & shared them with one of my non-brewing but keen beer drinking/gourmand mates last night:

Thirstyboys half wit: thoroughly enjoyable, I've not been a wit fan, but this has definitely inspired me to experiment with the style. As for my German extraction mate - in raptures.

Wardhog's APA: really enjoyed. I'm on a bit of an American Ale kick atm, this is a nicely balanced example & again has encouraged me to work more with the style.

Thanks for your contributions guys, if I wasn't enjoying them so much, I might feel guilty about contributing a kit/extract brew to the swap (if you can't have complexity, then at least hop it up).

 

[Wardhog]

Wardhog's APA:

Was it carbed up properly?

 

[mark_m]

Was it carbed up properly?

Carbed up nicely, refrigerated approx 18 hours.

 

[Wardhog]

Thirsty Boy's Half Wit

Poured beautifully producing a thick white head, with admirable Belgian lacing all the way down the glass.

Nothing on the nose I could notice, but the banana\bubblegum flavours stick out like dogs' proverbials, and stay on your tongue for a long time. A refreshing beer, would be great on a hot day with something chicken and spicy on the BBQ.
I was surprised by the amount of malt taste, maybe I just had the wrong impression of wit beers.

Edit : I cracked my APA in the name of SCIENCE, and here's my notes.

Undercarbonated. A vigorous pour resulted in a thick off-white head that didn't persist, and a hazy body.
Good malt levels, with a large portion of caramel-like flavours, and only a hint of roastier malts.
Mild hop aroma, with balanced bitterness that remains on the tongue after the malt has gone. No real standout hop flavour, perhaps too young.

I would suggest leaving the WAPA in the warmth for as long as you can before drinking it, maybe just before you get into the stouts and tripels. I'd be heartbroken if I didn't have other bottles of it to taste later on I'm pretty happy with the beer.

 

[AUHEAMIC]

These are my tasting notes from last night that I never got around to posting due to the unforseen and abnormally large (for mid week) quantity of beer that I drank.

Wardhogs - Sloppy Skunk Fart APA

When Wardhog dropped his case off to me he said it needed a bit more time to carb up. The little patience voice inside my head (that I so often ignore) told me not to drink it tonight and wait a little longer. I should have listened to Wardhog as the beer was a bit flat.

Appearance:
Nice deep amber colour. A little cloudy.

Aroma:
Moderately balanced toward the malt end of the spectrum. Good citrus hop aroma.

Taste:
Perfect bitterness for my taste buds. Nice hop flavour with good supporting malt.

 

[Fents]

:beerbang: Just picked up my case, thanks ward! nice amarillo too and thank ben for my sticker! :beer:

Cant belive no ones really posted tastings yet?

Peels cream ale straight in the freezer (i could not bare to wait) upright of course :chug: i'll report on that tonight then i think robs porter and thirstys wit tommorow, bring it on!

 

[Fents]

Peels Cream Ale :

a massive pssssst when cracked! lovely start.

Apperance - One of the cleanest, clearest straw coloured beers i've ever seen. booya.

Smell - Little hops smell there, but can smell somthing else...somthing sweet?

Taste - absolutley beautifull. lovely grain / hop balance and again can taste somthing sweet in the after taste, whatever it is its rocking!

If anything maybe a tab over carb'd, bubble bouncing off the pint glass but i like it!

edit - HA! just got my girls approval too peels and she dosnt drink beer but guess what, shes having a pot of yours!

 

[lucas]

peels cream ale

looks: clear as a bell. if it werent for the sediment in the last glass i poured I would have sworn it was filtered and force carbed

smells: scene is my weak sense, so i dont smell much unless it's pertty full on. i couldnt smell much but i wouldnt put much weight in that. heck, i dont really know the style so it might be "to style"

tastes: really nice. has a sweet note to it, but not in the sense of tasting under attenuated, i think it might be the balance between the malt and the floral-ish hops?

 

[Quintrex]

peels cream ale

In general a well made beer, most of the detail has been covered in previous tasting notes but just two things

The adjuncts gave it a real raw grain kinda flavour, I personally would ditch the rice(maybe some wheat instead), maybe use 10% carapils, to help give a creamier mouthfeel which i associate with this style in conjunction with the maize.

The only other thing I would change is, more hop flavour, bitterness was pretty spot on for the style, but just a little lacking in hop flavour for my taste.

But all in all a well made beer, enjoyed it.
Cheers
Q

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Fents IPA

Drunk from a Stella stemmed glass -

Appearance:

Deep Copper coloured with rose gold highlights. Hazy enough to be almost opaque.

Initially the beer poured with hardly any head... but I think it was a little too cold. With a little effort it yielded a small, really tight light tan head and a fine grained carbonation. Very English looking.

So English looking in fact that I did a little experiment. I got out my trusty syringe and gave it the pseudo Real Ale treatment... warning, if you want to try it, be careful, the beer actually has plenty of carbonation so it really responds.... I gave it a 2ml shot and got myself 2 inches of thick, creamy sticky real ale style foam... bloody fantastic. The beer begs to be served on cask.

Aroma:

Big Floral and Herbal hops are the main aroma, melding with sweet toffee and toasted malt.

After the beer warmed up a bit and I had created some headspace; then a subtle fruity ester thing came out as well. It was hard to pick out of the dominant hop aromas, but I think its a little hint of kiwi fruit... ?

Taste:

Tastes mostly like it smells... but flip flopped. The Malt is the dominant flavour... beautiful toffee and caramel mainly, but with a good dollop of toast to stop it just being syrupy. Its bitter !! Oh yes it is.... Just exactly the right amount of bitter IMHO. BIG malt, BIG bitterness... great balance.

And of course, there is that lovely Goldings flavour going on too.

Needless to say. Lots of body in this one... but it finishes really well. Just a hint of sweet malt hangs around with some of the hop flavour... and a firm bitter finish.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I wanted to run back for my second glass, but really wanted to let the beer warm up... I resisted and it was worth the wait. More of everything and smoother. Do yourself a favour and take this one out of the fridge a good half an hour before you want to drink it.

Wonderful beer Fents. I would LOVE to taste it at cellar temps on a handpump

Thirsty

 

[lucas]

Do yourself a favour and take this one out of the fridge a good half an hour before you want to drink it.

heh... I'm doing almost the opposite. none of the beers go near the fridge until about 20-30 minutes before I'm going to drink them same end effect though i guess

 

[Wardhog]

I got out my trusty syringe and gave it the pseudo Real Ale treatment... warning, if you want to try it, be careful, the beer actually has plenty of carbonation so it really responds.... I gave it a 2ml shot and got myself 2 inches of thick, creamy sticky real ale style foam...

What's the pseudo real ale treatment? A 2ml shot of what?

 

[Quintrex]

And remember, drinking is serious Business

 

[Fents]

Fents IPA

Drunk from a Stella stemmed glass -

Appearance:

Deep Copper coloured with rose gold highlights. Hazy enough to be almost opaque.

Initially the beer poured with hardly any head... but I think it was a little too cold. With a little effort it yielded a small, really tight light tan head and a fine grained carbonation. Very English looking.

So English looking in fact that I did a little experiment. I got out my trusty syringe and gave it the pseudo Real Ale treatment... warning, if you want to try it, be careful, the beer actually has plenty of carbonation so it really responds.... I gave it a 2ml shot and got myself 2 inches of thick, creamy sticky real ale style foam... bloody fantastic. The beer begs to be served on cask.

Aroma:

Big Floral and Herbal hops are the main aroma, melding with sweet toffee and toasted malt.

After the beer warmed up a bit and I had created some headspace; then a subtle fruity ester thing came out as well. It was hard to pick out of the dominant hop aromas, but I think its a little hint of kiwi fruit... ?

Taste:

Tastes mostly like it smells... but flip flopped. The Malt is the dominant flavour... beautiful toffee and caramel mainly, but with a good dollop of toast to stop it just being syrupy. Its bitter !! Oh yes it is.... Just exactly the right amount of bitter IMHO. BIG malt, BIG bitterness... great balance.

And of course, there is that lovely Goldings flavour going on too.

Needless to say. Lots of body in this one... but it finishes really well. Just a hint of sweet malt hangs around with some of the hop flavour... and a firm bitter finish.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I wanted to run back for my second glass, but really wanted to let the beer warm up... I resisted and it was worth the wait. More of everything and smoother. Do yourself a favour and take this one out of the fridge a good half an hour before you want to drink it.

Wonderful beer Fents. I would LOVE to taste it at cellar temps on a handpump

Thirsty

:beerbang: :beerbang: jesus mate i feel overwhelmed! really really glad you enjoyed it, its only the second IPA i've ever made! ******* stella review too, everything i wanted to hear, thankyou sir!

 

[Fents]

Im fiending to get home and crack someones beer!