Vic 2007 Xmas Swap Taste Thread

[brettprevans]

Maple Rye IPA

Wow man this wage huge. It so way bitter. I had a look and the recipe and my hoip is that a hop monster. Not saying I didnt like, it but it took me a few mouthfuls to get used to it. Wow this was a huge beer. really nice. Sh*ts on the Jamison Beast IPA IMO. I know they arent the same but I menaing in hops flavour and bitterness. how the hell you thought of that hop combination and schedule is beyond me. glad I drank it on a hot muggy day.

Wambesi Sweet Honey Wheat
sorry man this didnt do it for me. Probably just my personaly taste. carbonation was ok, slight honey tones, very clear (you must rack or filter, if not well done!). Can taste the Hallertau. its not a badly made beer, its just not to my taste. nice beer to quaff. actually I probably shouldnt have had yours after Maple's. opposite ends of the beer chart.


Ive got 5 left: Peels scottish, apd - Brown ale, DarkFaerytale - F.E. Stout, voota - extra stout, Quintrex - belgian IPA

Andreic your hef must have been one of the ones I lost to the plebs plundering my fridge. so no comments from me. so dissappointed

 

[andreic]

Andreic your hef must have been one of the ones I lost to the plebs plundering my fridge. so no comments from me. so dissappointed

those bastards! Seek them out and give them a flogging

 

[Hutch]

Slowly getting to the end of my stash!...

Quintrex - Belgian IPA
I've read many positive comments about this beer, and I'm going to be a tad boring and agree with them all.
The columbus is prominent from the first mouthful - I'm really starting to like this hop in big American-style beers, and Belgian beers as well!
I drank it very slowly, and it continued to be a very enjoyable drink as it warmed up on this sultry night.
This beer really goes to show that as home brewers, you don't need to tick all the BJCP style boxes to make a great beer.

Top stuff!
Hutch.

 

[andreic]

18. lucas - NS Summer "Real Ale"

High carbonation, and resulting big head. Very light golden colour. Pretty clear, but a touch of haze. Looks good. Big hoppy aroma - the NS hops - passion fruit? Tastes nice and light, the passionfruit flavour from the hops dominate. It has a nice bitter finish.

Overall a very nice, light and tasty brew. Quite refreshing. Thanks for the beer

cheers, Andrei

 

[andreic]

18. lucas - NS Summer "Real Ale"

High carbonation, and resulting big head. Very light golden colour. Pretty clear, but a touch of haze. Looks good. Big hoppy aroma - the NS hops - passion fruit? Tastes nice and light, the passionfruit flavour from the hops dominate. It has a nice bitter finish.

Overall a very nice, light and tasty brew. Quite refreshing. Thanks for the beer

cheers, Andrei

Should have added... this was my 2nd go at this beer - got 2 bottles of it in my case. Looking back at my first tasting notes earlier in the thread the only difference is that now I seem to have decided the aroma is passion fruit, whereas before it was lemon...

I enjoyed tasting both bottles but I'm still a little undecided on whether I'm a huge fan of NS hops. I preferred this bottle to the first bottle a month ago - perhaps the hop-level has mellowed to a level more suited to my palate...

cheers,

Andrei

 

[andreic]

24. Lavender - APA

I'm assumng this is the beer labelled "24 Amarillo Ale"

Pours a light golden colour. Quite hazy/cloudy. Fairly high carbonation with a generous white head that lasted until half way through the glass. The aroma was yeasty/bready. The taste was also quite bready. As the glass warmed up a little I got some of the amarillo hops taste. There was a reasonably bitter finish. Body was medium.

On reading the label I was kind of expecting a big Amarillo hopped beer which I didn't get. It was fairly easy drinking, but kind of felt a little lacking in aroma and taste due to my expectations. A very quick scan of other reviews showed some reports of the missing hop character - perhas the extra bottle time in my fridge was not kind to the beer.

thanks for the beer Lavender

and that's the end of my case...

cheers, Andrei

 

[andreic]

OK, as noted in my last tasting note my swap case is done.

Thanks everyone for contributing their beers. Its been great fun tasting lots of different beers and getting some feedback on mine. I originally intended to supply a Helles to the case so the Hefeweizen I submitted was backup. I can confirm that I made the right decision (for case-swappers at least). The Helles was a big disappointment - I'm pretty sure I now know what DMS is - there's a real "cooked vegetable" taste to it :angry: .

There were some excellent beers in the case but my 3 favourites were:
- Chris Taylor's American Amber Ale
- Peel's Scottish Ale
- drivelikeyoustoleit's ACA

I'll definitely be in for a Christmas in July swap if organised... I might even try to make swap day this time to meet all the fantastic Vic brewers!

cheers, Andrei

 

[brettprevans]

Peels Scottish
great head, beatiful colour. litle more hops than I was expecting for the style. really really nice. great roasted grain flavour coming through but not too strong slightly caramalised?. really well balanced. really enjoyed this.

ADP Brown Ale
I think this is sort of similar to the brown lager I did. Really quite nice. a lot more sublte than my lager (a good thing) as I hit the saaz hard and your is more true to the style. really easy good drinking brown ale. great hop aroma. Id like toi know what the recipe was?

DFT - FES
OMG! great stout. great richness bitterness balanced out by bitterness. what a stout should taste like. light medium body but wirth full flavour. great FES IMO. winter warming stout. its what you want during a cold night.

 

[Quintrex]

Spillsmostofit - Belgian Dumb Blonde -

Wheaty refreshing beverage, Was way more wheaty than I thought it would be going from the name.
Dry Crisp and refreshing.

voota - extra stout - marked ss

Looked like a stout, nice tan head and deeeeeep blackness. I leaned in for a sniff, and smiled!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brettanomyces!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was roasty, but was very dry cos of the brett.,
From my thinking it would have been an awesome stout with either less bitterness and brett. or how it was sans brett.
V Interesting experiment nonetheless, even if it was unintended.

apd - brown ale -

Tasty suprisingly light brown ale, refreshing
Probably quite a good house drinker!!

Maple rye IPA

Still unsure what the rye influence exactly was, i guess it added a bit of spiciness? maybe?
Very hop oriented, took me a few mouthfuls to acclimatise but an enjoyable hoppy mofo!


Thanks for the beers, boys!
Q

 

[voota]

voota - extra stout - marked ss

Looked like a stout, nice tan head and deeeeeep blackness. I leaned in for a sniff, and smiled!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brettanomyces!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was roasty, but was very dry cos of the brett.,
From my thinking it would have been an awesome stout with either less bitterness and brett. or how it was sans brett.
V Interesting experiment nonetheless, even if it was unintended.

Ergh, I've got that sorted out now... The lambics were escorted to another room.
Lessons were learned.

 

[wambesi]

Ok, time for some catch up, not alot of tasting notes as some of these were before chrissy and I have a really bad memory!

24. Lavender - APA
I found this was carbonated a little too much for me, had a very nice aroma and very easy drinker.

7. Thirsty - Hefeweizen
Was very syrupy and flat, I don't know if anyone else found this. Had a sip but couldn't put anymore away, sorry Thirsty.

2. Peels - Scottish Export Ale
I don't really know what to say, I enjoyed this one, have not tasted anything like it before but very nice, cheers.

Now he's the tricky part!
I have left:
Wardhog's ESB, apd's Brown Ale, Darkfaerytale's stout, Andriec's Hef, Vootas Stout and lucas summer ale (having tonight) which means the rest (4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 19 and 21) were drank down at my boys 4th birthday (hey, the dad's had a good time!).
Sorry guys but I dont have any individual comments but everyone enjoyed them so thanks alot! The last few I will take more effort with!

 

[wambesi]

Ok, thought I had better get this done now while drinking so I don't get lazy and forget again....


18. lucas - NS Summer Ale
Wow, passionfruit aroma! This is my second beer (that I know of) using NS hops, the other being Knappstein's.
Very carbonated, nice flavour, I'm not really sure if it's the hops which are the big flavour as I dont have a great expereince both at tasting or these hops, but this is a very nice beer, only criticism from me is maybe carbonated a little too much for my tastes.

I have to get me some of these hops!

Hey, 100 posts. Party time! :beerbang:

EDIT:
I poured myself a glass and set down to watch the telly, recapped the bottle with one of those wine bottle sealers (as I normally do with longnecks - don't know what anyone else does), about 40mins later hear a bang, thought it was something outside and didn't find anything so sat back down, another 10mins later went to polish of the bottle and there is the sealer sitting on the floor of the shelf with a little head creeping out the bottle, no mess or damage or anything but funny nonetheless!
Needless to say the second glass was not as carbonated and enjoyed it alot more, cheers!!

 

[wambesi]

11. DarkFaerytale - F.E. Stout

Poured with no head whatsoever and was very low carbonated, tasted "roasty" and was not too bad at all, like said previously I have never been much of a stout drinker but this one was pretty good.


3. Wardhog - ESB
Is this a typical ESB?
Never (knowingly) had an ESB before I wasn't quite sure at first, but it grew on my after the second glass and now really enjoying it.

Thanks guys, only two bottles left...i think.

 

[Cummins]

Australia day - Was quite a hot afternoon, in the sun, thought what better beer to try in such conditions as Peels' Stout. Was quite impressed, haven't had many homebrew stouts before, this was different to others I have tried in a very positive way. I would like to try and copy this for the coming winter months! Great work. 8 hours later, and more beers than that later, I cracked another swap beer. No idea what it was or what it tasted like! Yes, I'm disappointed in myself, I did intend on trying them all sober and fresh palated.

Finished the last 3 I had to get pumped for Rage Against the Machine. Maple Rye IPA - Never tried a Rye before, was really interesting and another great beer. Fantastic IPA in fact. Fantastic. Bloody fantastic.
Andreics Hefe - Great beer here too, as all the other comments have stated. Must put it on the to-do list.
Lucas' NS - You were at a slight disadvantage here because I bought 1kg of NS myself and the novelty is wearing off! But you've made it well and I liked the balance of this one, way more carbed than mine which I think improved the character.

SO everyone ready for an easter swap or what? :beer:

 

[brettprevans]

I am! gotta start brewing now with a little one on the way and due the week before easter!. maybe I should brew a baby bock? Actually Im keen to do another xmas beer. maybe xmas in july swap?

 

[DarkFaerytale]

x-mas in July is what we did last year, still a few months away tho

 

[Fents]

Australia day - Was quite a hot afternoon, in the sun, thought what better beer to try in such conditions as Peels' Stout. Was quite impressed, haven't had many homebrew stouts before,

you sure it was a stout? and are you sure it was peel's beer? might wanna re check the list.

 

[Cummins]

That explains it! Scottish Ale... I just had in my memory 'Scottish Stout' and I was wondering what that was. Oops. Makes me even more impressed with the beer then when I think of the commercial scotch ales I can compare it too. Good work.

Its black it must be stout! :blink: I had a bartender tell me Tooheys old was a stout the other day.

 

[wambesi]

Oops miscounted...damn beers...last one!

10. apd - Brown ale

Poured with a nice creamy head.
Low carb, very easy drinking, balanced beer, going down very easy.

Mrs W said she'd even be able to drink this one - thats a compliment!

 

[Thirsty Boy]

7. Thirsty - Hefeweizen
Was very syrupy and flat, I don't know if anyone else found this. Had a sip but couldn't put anymore away, sorry Thirsty.

Most understandable ... I was obviously having a bad day the day these went into bottles. Some bottles are "interesting take on the style" some are "infected puke that I couldn't take a second sip from.." (no one actually said that, but I could tell thats what they wanted to say <_< ) Changed my sanitation technique on about half of the batch.. and guess what?? And all that when it was a particularly uninspiring beer in the first place. Probably one of my worst ever efforts and I put it in the swap - I'm gonna have to do some good work at the next case swap or my brewing street cred is down the toilet.

Now for other swap beers that are actually good ...

The flying dog APA - Oh my. That thing is interesting. Great APA backbone with a weird but in a good way yeast character. I whacked the dregs on a stirplate with some wort. Using this yeast in my next APA. Well made beer, cool yeast. Good.

Squirrels Foot Bitter - Its all been said before. Outstanding; and my wife's pick of the case by a margin.