Tasting Notes - Vic July 2007 Swap

[Thirsty Boy]

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

You just take a syringe body, draw up a little bit of the beer, and "shoot" it back into the glass from a couple of inches above.

It rouses the beer in a similar way to a sparkler on a handpump and gives a great head on even a very low carbonated beer, like a cask ale. It should look a little like a freshly poured guinness.

Try cracking one of your slightly under carbed APAs and giving it a go, you'll see what I mean. Although APAs do taste a bit flabby if they are under carbonated.

I was really careful and only drew up a couple of ml of Fents beer to shoot back into the glass, because his wasn't undercarbed at all. It was just too cold. As it was I very nearly lost a bit of foam over the side of the glass.

TB

 

[Wardhog]

Lucas' Alt

Wow. I gotta start using some of the malts in this beer.

It pours brilliantly, creating a thick creamy off-white head, with a hearty brown body.

I couldn't pick up anything resembling hop aroma or flavour, but there was just the right amount of bitterness for the fantastic malt flavour. I guess that's the style, I've never had an alt before - but I very much like :beerbang:

A fantastic brew, Lucas, very impressive. This is why I wanted in on this case swap, to taste new beers and hopefully discover a few new favourites. This one's a strong contender.
And I've found some new malt I just gotta use - it's Munich, right?

 

[Fents]

Thirsty your wits next after this one

11. apd - brown ale - Labelled BA 0507 - Ready to drink

Apperance - very nice off white creamy think 1 inch head when poured. beautifull deep dark brown colour, exactly what i would expect a brown ale to look like had a drank one before this.

Aroma - Little to no hop aroma at first. Definatly can smell the malt tho, mmmm mmmm!

Tatse - Lovley malty toffee caramel flavours hardly any hop flavours at first but after a few sips they shine through a bit. bitter - if i was going to make this i'd make it a tad less bitter.

All in all i think i cracked this too cold like the other guys, i usually love a cold beer, but this beer in particular is getting better and better as it warms up a tad. Im turning my fridge up a bit.

Lovely beer APD!

 

[lucas]

DFT Smoke Ale

I ate some spicy mexican food with the first glass of this, but the spiciness (spell checker tells me thats right, but i think it looks dumb) overpowered flavour in general. waited for my tastebuds to come good again before having the rest of the bottle

Looks: nice golden colour, might be a little hazy but that could very well be the glass im drinking from.

smells: i smell the mild smokiness, definitely not overly intense. I'd be guessing the malt was smoked with hickory.

tastes: I can taste the smoke, but again only mildly. nicely balanced beer profile behind it. I'm uncertain if I'm tasting a hop variety Im unfamiliar with or if it's the smoke combined with the malt. (will look for the recipe when I finish writing this) probably better that it's not over the top with the smoke for a case swap, I'm a fan of this beer but i also dont think it'd be too offensive for those with a more conservative pallet. I reckon I could go a session on this. good work DFT

I think you've inspired me to do an over the top smokey beer, the sort where a single long neck is the limit that you'd want to drink in one go

 

[DarkFaerytale]

i rekon it would have gone well with spicy food lucas (hmmm smoked chilli ale), glad you enjoyed it, might be hazy from the koelsch yeast and it probably suffers from chill haze, most my beers do if i don't add fineings (which i forgot too)

sorry i have not posted yet, been trying to have a few afd's as i went overboard on my long weekend and paid the price, should have a few reviews up by monday morning

-Phill

 

[AUHEAMIC]

Fents IPA

What can I say that hasnt already been said. Top drop Fents.

 

[Wardhog]

Mark Mulrooney's Amarillo Amber Ale

Pours well finishing with a healthy light tan head sitting on top of a clear-as-a-bell brown body. Picturesque.

Smell those hops as you pick up the glass! Knowing that this is an extract beer, the sharp whack of hops took me by surprise. Definitely not a throw-down-your-throat quaffer, but the amber in it tastes great.

That sharp whack of hops may be a little much for an extract beer to carry off, though. When I say this, it's purely relative to my tastes, it's a little bit much for me. Give this to a hophead and he'd be grinning from ear to ear. The same hop schedule in a darker grain beer would be wonderful. In fact, I might even filch it for the next Amarillo I do.

Overall, a very good beer. BTW, it goes quite well with flake and a couple of cornjacks.

Do you want the bottle and cap back? How can I get it to you?

 

[Wardhog]

Fents' IPA

Very smooth. Very malty. Very good.
Pours beautifully, and drinks just as well. Hops just about pick your nose when you raise the glass, and the malt level in this beer is magnificent.
Am I coming across as a malt guy as opposed to a hop guy yet?
Hop flavour is there in spades, kind of a herbal one. Another great beer Peels, thanks again for organising this swap, I've never looked forward to the evenings as I have this week.

 

[lucas]

I've skipped ward's pale ale (on his recommendation that it needs more time to carb up) so it's on to fent's IPA.

looks: lovely deep colour, poured with a nice amount of head

smells: lovely like goldings. i need to work on my beer description vocabulary

tastes: big and malty, but with a suitable whack of hop bitterness that one expects from an IPA. I get a slight warming at the back of my throat with this one that is not at all unpleasant, very nice work fents

 

[Fents]

cheers guys.

7. Thirsty Boy - Witbier. Labled Half Wit - Drink it NOW.

This is the first wit i've drunk besides a hoegarden or somthing commercial.

Poured lovely, nice creamy tight bright white head that dosbt look like its going anywhere but down my throat when i get to the bottom of the glass. Nice pale golden colour!

Smells great, lovley hop aroma, no way i can pick what it is but its beautifull.

Tastes great, at first you get this really nice malt taste then the after wheat taste kicks in!! rockin.

I dont usually drink wheat beers but this is truley enjoyable. Well done mate! :super:

Off to watch the bombers with my beer!

editg - im getting a orangey cirtusy afterstaste as well! (i think, im not that good with tatstebuds) sensational.

 

[Fents]

14. mark_mulrooney - Amarillo amber ale - labelled, ready to drink

Apperance : NIce deep dark ale copper brown. NOt much head, but defiantly carbonated.

Aroma : Ammarillo, Ammarillo and some more Amarillo! :beerbang:

Tatse - Loveley Malt and Hops tatse, still has a lilttle twang but if i hadnt of known this was a k&k i probably couldnt of picked it. excellent beer. :chug:

 

[Thirsty Boy]

mmm.... Beer's Dark Ale

In honour of the Belgian twist, tasted from a Chimay goblet

Appearance:

Poured an attractive deep mahogany. Really quite clear and only just short of bright (had to hold it up to the light to tell though, its pretty dark)

Once again, I poured while it was a little too cold, but with a little effort the beer produced a good 1cm tight off white head. Nice and sticky, it faded by about 50% over ten minutes, but then stuck around for ages. Fairly good lacing.

Aroma:

The aroma of this beer was subtle to say the least. OK it was low, BUT... what was there was pretty damn interesting. A slightly resinous and spicy hop aroma mingled gently with dark and slightly burnt caramel notes. A faint moist earthiness creeps in if you smell long and deep enough.

When you let the beer warm up enough (and I mean a good hour and a half out of the fridge, it was basically room temp at this stage) some pleasant alcohol wafts out and gives the caramel notes a little sweetness. Its at this point that the beer displays its first hints of Belgian-ness with some indefinable stuff that reminded me of a Bier de-garde.

Taste:

Much bitterer than I was expecting. The beer is not at all sweet and so the bitterness comes up and grabs you by the tounge. Its only after the first shock wears off that the maltiness starts to kick in in spades. This beer would be a great example for the education those who think that maltiness = sweetness.

Slightly herbaceous and earthy hop flavour plays a walk on part in this beer's cast of characters

As with the aroma this beer's flavour revealed a couple of secrets as it warmed up to room temperature. A little sweetness, a little alcohol and a tiny bit of that Belgian funk thing.

A clean finish, dry with very firm lingering bitterness.

This beer is not really balanced.. there isn't enough sweetness to counteract the bitterness and the somewhat roasted/burnt caramel maltiness. However ... it doesn't need it. The unbalance makes it a little less drinkable... if I got this in a bar, I wouldn't order another one for my next beer, its a bit too much to have two in a row. BUT, you can be damn well sure I would be ordering another one before the night was out.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
IMHO, you have brewed a cracking Dusseldorf Altbier. Very reminiscent of Diebels.

This is a nice two toned beer. I suggest the first half of the bottle nice and cold, not straight out of the fridge, but still cold. The next half, let it warm up to cellar temps. Then you will get two beer experiences for the price of one. Both excellent.

Just a little bit special.


Thirsty

PS... can I please have the recipe for this one.

 

[Wardhog]

DarkFaeryTales' Smoke Ale

I'll have to go from memory as I drank this at the beginning of a largish night last night.

It poured well, leaving a neat compact white head that persisted for the whole glass. I've only had smoked malt once before, it could've been described as liquid bacon. This beer had the flavour, but in much more appropriate quantities, a very tasty drop. Was it a high alcohol beer? I think I remember it having a taste that suggested that this beer could sneak up on you and leave you reeling.

Above all, I remember enjoying it and that it was a damn fine beer.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Hey Guys.

I've just been reading the Saison section of the book Farmhouse Ales.

Well, I labeled my Witbier "Half Wit" because I mucked up weighing my grain and put in nearly 5 times too much munich. Which is why people have been noticing its a lot maltier than other Wits they have had. So really, it might be a nice beer, but its not a very good example of a Wit.

After reading this book though, it seems that it might well be a half decent example of a Saison. If its not, then its somewhere halfway between the two.

Cool, I had been meaning to brew a Saison anyway.

A couple of people here and out and about have wondered about the hop character in the beer. Well, there really shouldn't be any. The only hops that went in were 50g of Hersbrucker as a bittering addition. Thats it.

The smells are mostly from the spicing and the Kaffir lime and Orange zest and Kaffir lime leaves. Bloody magical things those limes, the whole house smelled amazing just from me zesting the things.

So, call it a Wit or call it a Saison, its a bit of both and neither of them as well.

Thirsty.

 

[Wardhog]

Mmm.. beer's Dark Ale with a Belgian twist.

I like it. I like it a lot. Tastes as good as it looks, which is damn good.

I'm with Thirsty Boy. I want to brew this too.

 

[lucas]

:/ Just took an inventory and found I have two of Andrei's Irish Dry Stout but zero of Mmmmm... beer's Dark Ale. bugger, must have mucked up when I was packing the milk crate...

 

[Thirsty Boy]

apd's Brown Ale

Tasted from a 1/2 pint glass beer mug. (and also from a little wine tasting glass) and I finally paid attention and took this one out of the fridge a good hour and a bit before I wanted to drink it.

Appearance:

Beer poured a fairly cloudy medium brown. There must have been some soap residue or something on my beer mug, because although the beer fizzed vigorously on its way into the glass, no head formed at all. I grabbed a little wine tasting glass because it didn't look right to me, and tried again... this time I was rewarded with a good inch and a half of beige head. Bubbles were a little course and the head only lasted for a few minutes before fading to a ring around the edge of the glass.

Aroma:

Its all malt in the aroma of this one. Toffee and caramel with a bit of syrupy chocolate in the background.

Faint hops and a touch of alcohol and fruity ester. A bit like raisins soaked in scotch, but really faint.

Taste:

Taste is like the aroma. Toffee, caramel and sweet chocolate. The chocolate character is less cocoa, and more your shot of choc "flavoured" syrup on ice cream. Dont get me wrong, it tastes good, just trying to be descriptive. As the other things fade, the chocolate syrup comes out and could almost become cloying except for the fact that a really quite firm bitterness kicks in to balance the whole thing out.

Maybe a little too bitter actually. Its being picky, but the bitterness sits around the edges of your tounge when everything else has gone away and ends up being a tiny bit harsh. But thats being damn picky considering that I was just talking about how the bitterness does so well balancing the chocolate.

Straight out of the bottle I found the beer to be over carbonated and that took away from the flavours a bit, it was much better when a bit of the gas had worked its way out.

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

A nice not too intense session beer this one, very "drinkable". Should have poured myself a pint instead of a half and gotten on with it. To be drunk in volume with gusto.


Thirsty

 

[lucas]

thirsty's GWB (the half-wit)

looks: poured nicely with a good half inch of foamy head. has a cloudy haze, but I'd almost say it's a little on the clear side. it's by no means transparent, but I think a wit should be a little more cloudy. colourwise it looks how I'd expect it too. I approve of the label too, it gave me a laugh.

smells: two words that come to mind are "fresh" and "spicy"

tastes: as others have said, it's maltier than I would have expected, but i think it works in it's favour being drunk in winter. on my first mouthful I wasnt expecting the peppery flavour to be quite so intense, but now that I'm used to it it's actually very nice. Carbonation seems a little low (for a wit), but that probably my fault for leaving it a week knowing it was filled from the keg.

all in all, another very nice beer.

 

[mark_m]

Mark Mulrooney's Amarillo Amber Ale

Pours well finishing with a healthy light tan head sitting on top of a clear-as-a-bell brown body. Picturesque.

Smell those hops as you pick up the glass! Knowing that this is an extract beer, the sharp whack of hops took me by surprise. Definitely not a throw-down-your-throat quaffer, but the amber in it tastes great.

That sharp whack of hops may be a little much for an extract beer to carry off, though. When I say this, it's purely relative to my tastes, it's a little bit much for me. Give this to a hophead and he'd be grinning from ear to ear. The same hop schedule in a darker grain beer would be wonderful. In fact, I might even filch it for the next Amarillo I do.

Overall, a very good beer. BTW, it goes quite well with flake and a couple of cornjacks.

Do you want the bottle and cap back? How can I get it to you?

Glad you enjoyed the Amarillo Ale - the hops are a bit over-done, but I've enjoyed it so far.

Hang on to the cap, if you're passing Ivanhoe, my number's on the label, call in for a glass & drop it off.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[chris.peile]

Mmm.. beer's Dark Ale with a Belgian twist.

I like it. I like it a lot. Tastes as good as it looks, which is damn good.

I'm with Thirsty Boy. I want to brew this too.

Hey there crew... thanks for the feedback (fantastic stuff & a lot of great thoughts/ideas for the next version).

In terms of the recipe - I can't remember off the top of my head, but will get back to you. However, this is the bit where I own up to it not being an AG, it is a kit with some DME, crystal malt and (i think) fuggles hops, with a belgian abbey yeast (1762 from memory)... I'd be interested in hearing an AG conversion recipe if anyone got excited about it.

Either way I will find the details and post them up. I have also done a couple of tastings now (all good ) and will post these up shortly.

Cheers!