VIC 2013 July Case Swap - tasting thread

[Edak]

15. Edak - Pirates American IPA


Nice golden colour, thick white head and a great floral / fruity nose.
Tastes a bit like Centennial or something hop wise?

Really solid beer Edak. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thanks Fikuss, it's mosaic, cascade and citra on a base of golden promise. I love that combination.

 

[technobabble66]

Hey
Finally back from holidays.
Big thanks to manticle, breakbeer, midnight brew & fikuss for the reviews & positive/constructive feedback. :beerbang:

I tried a bottle of my #22 with a friend on the weekend. Not totally focused on a full analysis at the time, but i remember noting the tight head i got in the glass with fine lacing throughout.
Is this something that could develop/improve in the bottle??
I only ask as the head sounds like it might have been a bit underdone on some of the bottles tried earlier by others. Whereas mine was tight, thick, & persisted for the entire glass. I have to admit i was actually kinda super impressed with it, if i do say so myself, because all of my previous brews had weak, fading heads and the carbonation tended to be lemonade-like for the first few minutes. I did a 10 min step at 76°C for this, but i'm not sure if that would've helped, given manticle's previous mention of 72°C being the golden point of Great Head.
Flavour-wise, it seemed pretty good, which i was also stoked about, but i'll need to analyse the exact malt/hop flavours a bit more next time (great descriptors from manticle!). I think the mouthfeel was the best of mine so far. Medium level of malts, Medium-to-low level of hop flavours/aromas. Medium-to-mild level of bitterness. i think about mid-point between dry & sweet. Seemed about right for the mid-range of a Golden Ale. Have to say, i prefer a stronger level of hop flavours, but for a golden ale i guess this is more sessionable. I suppose i could say it had a more subtle hop flavour - definitely there with a bit of New World complexity, but not your face-slapping, ball-grabbing hop flavour; like certain IPA's brewed by certain hop dealerz h34r: . Colour was a golden copperish, which i liked; and as cloudy as hell, which i didn't like. Not happy with the cloudiness, but its really just an aesthetic so i'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Apologies for being a bit ego-centric & reviewing my own first. However, i did that on the fly, whereas i want to sit down with a pen & paper & try to review everyone else's properly (asap). :icon_cheers:

... & i was also so greatly relieved after cracking mine & finding that it turned out OK, even if it is a relatively simple brew to swap. :lol:

 

[Midnight Brew]

Hey
Finally back from holidays.
Big thanks to manticle, breakbeer, midnight brew & fikuss for the reviews & positive/constructive feedback. :beerbang:

I tried a bottle of my #22 with a friend on the weekend. Not totally focused on a full analysis at the time, but i remember noting the tight head i got in the glass with fine lacing throughout.
Is this something that could develop/improve in the bottle??
I only ask as the head sounds like it might have been a bit underdone on some of the bottles tried earlier by others. Whereas mine was tight, thick, & persisted for the entire glass. I have to admit i was actually kinda super impressed with it, if i do say so myself, because all of my previous brews had weak, fading heads and the carbonation tended to be lemonade-like for the first few minutes. I did a 10 min step at 76°C for this, but i'm not sure if that would've helped, given manticle's previous mention of 72°C being the golden point of Great Head.
Flavour-wise, it seemed pretty good, which i was also stoked about, but i'll need to analyse the exact malt/hop flavours a bit more next time (great descriptors from manticle!). I think the mouthfeel was the best of mine so far. Medium level of malts, Medium-to-low level of hop flavours/aromas. Medium-to-mild level of bitterness. i think about mid-point between dry & sweet. Seemed about right for the mid-range of a Golden Ale. Have to say, i prefer a stronger level of hop flavours, but for a golden ale i guess this is more sessionable. I suppose i could say it had a more subtle hop flavour - definitely there with a bit of New World complexity, but not your face-slapping, ball-grabbing hop flavour; like certain IPA's brewed by certain hop dealerz h34r: . Colour was a golden copperish, which i liked; and as cloudy as hell, which i didn't like. Not happy with the cloudiness, but its really just an aesthetic so i'm not going to lose sleep over it.

May have been a time of drinking in terms of the head because mine was fantastic. It may have just needed to condition a tad longer. In terms of chill haze it is aesthetic but for what its worth I used to get it all the time. The only thing I have changed recently on my brewing methods is step mashing. In the mash schedule there is a rest at 55C and at 72C both for 10 minutes with the rest of my mash. It seems to have disappeared so far so pretty happy with how its working. Only adds in an extra 30 minutes over the whole mash versus single step. Could be worth doing a bit more digging.

 

[Damn]

2. Charst – Saison : Whew, what a beer. Never had a saison till this crate swap. It reminds me of a few belgian beers I've had. This beer is first class, I imagine it would age well. I'd love to have a crate of this that I could chisel through over spring/summer. Not a sessionable beer more a biscuits & cheese in the afternoon sun for me. Thank you.

 

[fikuss]

14. Damn
 - Belgian Strong

Big creamy head, pale golden to straw in colour, slightly cloudy.
Aroma is sweet without the Belgian yeast funk that you get in a lot of Belgian beers.
Drinks sweet initially with a drier finish. Medium hop bitterness and very little hop flavour/aroma.

Nicely carbed up.... Looking at the style guidelines now you have gotten this one pretty much spot on.
Good beer.

Be interested to see what types of yeast and hops you used on this? I'm assuming that it was mainly pilsner malt.

 

[Damn]

Thank you.

Brewed 26/3/13,

Lots of help from Manticle with the recipe. (He's the chef, I'm just the cook)

One of my last partials. Will try a AG conversion, with some help of course.

Batch size 20l
2.0kg Pilsner Malt
2.0kg Briess CBW Pilsen LDME
.8kg Dextrose

60g Saaz (45g 60min, 15 0min)
60g Styrian (45g 60min, 15 0min)

1 Wyeast WY1388

 

[GrumpyPaul]

Hi All

I am organising a "Beer Tasting" night with my eldest son and a few of our mates. The plan is to taste our way through the swap meet beers.

I aim to take notes as we go and get their input as well so i can feedback here for you all.

I am trying to work out an ideal drinking order - what do you think of the following order?

( I am not familiar with some styles -never had a Saison or Dunkelweisson - so I am not sure if i have got everything in the ideal order).

I have already drunk mine and grainers - but i left them in for the sake of an overall order.

[SIZE=12pt]Beer no. Name Beer (name/style) Drinking order[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]19 Grainer Hoegarrten wannabe 1[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]21 JB -Polite Czech Pils 2[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]20 micbrew Stone & Wood Pacific Ale 3[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]18 Shane Sparkling Pale Ale 4[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]22 technobabble66 - Two Fat Ducks Ale, DSGA 5[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]4 Meathead - DSGA 6[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]2 Charst Saison 7[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]10 Shane R - Black Saison[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]
[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] 8[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]3 Fikuss - Dunkelweißen 9[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]15 Edak - Pirates American IPA 10[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]6 breakbeer - Black Nelson IPA[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]
[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] 11[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]11 Yob - English something bastardised (WY1318) 12[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]12 Midnight - American Brown Ale 13[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]1 Manticle - Brown Porter 14[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]17 GrumpyPaul - Cherry Ripe Porter 15[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]13 DarkFaerytales - Belgian Dark Ale 16[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]14 Damn[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] - [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Belgian Strong 17[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]5 Whiteferret - Oatmeal Treacle Stout 18[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]7 Vitalstatistix[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] - [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Black Massss Extra Stout 19[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]9 Wolfman[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] - [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Malty Skunk Fart 20[/SIZE]

edit/edit - had to RE-post again - I dont seem to be able to post a table from excel or word in here and maintian the formatting. And the pic of the table looked crap too. So I ended up typing it in manually

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Looks pretty good. I'd group the Hoegaarden, Saison and Czech Pils together. Plonk the Black Saison with the Dark Ale and Porters and the sparkling Pale as the start of the Ales, with S&W next, then progressing through the DSGA and onto IPA. Dunkelweizen and Black Saison to start the Dark Beers.

Reason - if you go dark malty then hoppy, you may lose it and if you wreck your palates with IPA, then you won't taste something subtle like a Hoegaarden.

I reckon the BJCP guidelines will help you with grouping like beers. The order of each group then is the thing to sort out from subtle beers to strong beers.

 

[GrumpyPaul]

How does this order look.

Taking into account LRGs suggestions I have;

• Moved the Saison and Czech Pils to the top of the line up
• Moved the Black Saison after the porter.

I am not sure if I have Yob's English ******* in the right spot?

I assume it would be in the middle withthe malty ones - but should it be after the hoppy IPAs

I read back through some of the comments to date and see the Malty skunk fart is meant fairly hoppy - so I moved it after the IPAs

[SIZE=12pt]Beer no. Name Beer (name/style) Drinking order[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]21 JB - Polite Czech Pils 1[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]2 Charst - Saison 2[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]18 ShaneS - Sparkling Pale Ale 3[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]20 micbrew - Stone & Wood Pacific Ale 4[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]22 technobabble66 - Two Fat Ducks Ale, DSGA 5 [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]4 Meathead -DSGA 6[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]3 Fikuss - Dunkelweißen 7[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]11 Yob English something bastardised (WY1318) 8[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]15 Edak - Pirates American IPA 9[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]6 breakbeer - Black Nelson IPA[/SIZE] [SIZE=12pt]10[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]9 Wolfman - Malty Skunk Fart 11[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]12 Midnight - American Brown Ale 12[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]1 Manticle - Brown Porter 13[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]10 Shane R - Black Saison[/SIZE] [SIZE=12pt]14[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]13 DarkFaerytales - Belgian Dark Ale 15[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]14 Damn[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] - [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Belgian Strong 16[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]5 Whiteferret - Oatmeal Treacle Stout 17[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]7 Vitalstatistix[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] - [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Black Massss Extra Stout 18[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]19 Grainer - Hoegarrten wannabe (already drunk it)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]17 GrumpyPaul - Cherry Ripe Porter (already drunk it)[/SIZE]

 

[Edak]

I just want to say that I had Meatheads WTF DSGA. Poured with a nice cara smell and with a creamy foam that very quickly dissipated and then seemed a bit flat. Was meaty indeed so it lived up to the brewers name. The Mrs thought it had a liquorice aftertaste but I didn't get that, she identifies roasted malt as this flavour and isn't a fan. Lets' just say I had the whole bottle in about 15 minutes, even though I had completely forgotten what others said about it so was a bit shocked when I poured a GA and got a DA.

Thanks Meathead for the beer

Grumpy, be aware that with some of these beers you won't want to share How many mates does it take to go through 18 longnecks?

 

[manticle]

How does this order look.

Taking into account LRGs suggestions I have;

• Moved the Saison and Czech Pils to the top of the line up
• Moved the Black Saison after the porter.

I am not sure if I have Yob's English ******* in the right spot?

I assume it would be in the middle withthe malty ones - but should it be after the hoppy IPAs

I read back through some of the comments to date and see the Malty skunk fart is meant fairly hoppy - so I moved it after the IPAs

[SIZE=12pt]Beer no. Name Beer (name/style) Drinking order[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]21 JB - Polite Czech Pils 1[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]2 Charst - Saison 2[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]18 ShaneS - Sparkling Pale Ale 3[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]20 micbrew - Stone & Wood Pacific Ale 4[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]22 technobabble66 - Two Fat Ducks Ale, DSGA 5 [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]4 Meathead -DSGA 6[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]3 Fikuss - Dunkelweißen 7[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]11 Yob English something bastardised (WY1318) 8[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]15 Edak - Pirates American IPA 9[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]6 breakbeer - Black Nelson IPA[/SIZE] [SIZE=12pt]10[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]9 Wolfman - Malty Skunk Fart 11[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]12 Midnight - American Brown Ale 12[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]1 Manticle - Brown Porter 13[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]10 Shane R - Black Saison[/SIZE] [SIZE=12pt]14[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]13 DarkFaerytales - Belgian Dark Ale 15[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]14 Damn[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] - [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Belgian Strong 16[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]5 Whiteferret - Oatmeal Treacle Stout 17[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]7 Vitalstatistix[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] - [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Black Massss Extra Stout 18[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]19 Grainer - Hoegarrten wannabe (already drunk it)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]17 GrumpyPaul - Cherry Ripe Porter (already drunk it)[/SIZE]

Belgian strong from damn is pale/golden so I'd have it before any Belgian darkness. In fact I'd put it closer to Charst's saison than I would dark faerytales' BDSA

 

[Charst]

Couple noted from someone who burned through the lot pretty quick!

Shane S' beer is far more hop forward than No. 20 Mick Brew.

Meat Heads DSGA is a stout by accident in my batch.

Id move Midnights American Brown before Wolfmans Malty Skunk fart. Big Flavours in the fart (no dim sims thankfully)

Personally Id move both the IPA's to the end of the line as i find highly hopped beers to knock my pallet more than malt Fwd ones.

 

[meathead]

Hi All

I am organising a "Beer Tasting" night with my eldest son and a few of our mates. The plan is to taste our way through the swap meet beers.

I aim to take notes as we go and get their input as well so i can feedback here for you all.

I am trying to work out an ideal drinking order - what do you think of the following order?

( I am not familiar with some styles -never had a Saison or Dunkelweisson - so I am not sure if i have got everything in the ideal order).

I have already drunk mine and grainers - but i left them in for the sake of an overall order.

[SIZE=12pt]Beer no. Name Beer (name/style) Drinking order[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]19 Grainer Hoegarrten wannabe 1[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]21 JB -Polite Czech Pils 2[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]20 micbrew Stone & Wood Pacific Ale 3[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]18 Shane Sparkling Pale Ale 4[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]22 technobabble66 - Two Fat Ducks Ale, DSGA 5[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]4 Meathead - DSGA 6[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]2 Charst Saison 7[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]10 Shane R - Black Saison[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]
[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] 8[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]3 Fikuss - Dunkelweißen 9[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]15 Edak - Pirates American IPA 10[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]6 breakbeer - Black Nelson IPA[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]
[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] 11[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]11 Yob - English something bastardised (WY1318) 12[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]12 Midnight - American Brown Ale 13[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]1 Manticle - Brown Porter 14[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]17 GrumpyPaul - Cherry Ripe Porter 15[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]13 DarkFaerytales - Belgian Dark Ale 16[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]14 Damn[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] - [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Belgian Strong 17[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]5 Whiteferret - Oatmeal Treacle Stout 18[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]7 Vitalstatistix[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] - [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Black Massss Extra Stout 19[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]9 Wolfman[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] - [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Malty Skunk Fart 20[/SIZE]

edit/edit - had to RE-post again - I dont seem to be able to post a table from excel or word in here and maintian the formatting. And the pic of the table looked crap too. So I ended up typing it in manually

number 4 is a stout farcked up the label

 

[meathead]

I just want to say that I had Meatheads WTF DSGA. Poured with a nice cara smell and with a creamy foam that very quickly dissipated and then seemed a bit flat. Was meaty indeed so it lived up to the brewers name. The Mrs thought it had a liquorice aftertaste but I didn't get that, she identifies roasted malt as this flavour and isn't a fan. Lets' just say I had the whole bottle in about 15 minutes, even though I had completely forgotten what others said about it so was a bit shocked when I poured a GA and got a DA.

Thanks Meathead for the beer

Grumpy, be aware that with some of these beers you won't want to share How many mates does it take to go through 18 longnecks?

Well picked up by SWMBO re the licorice as yes it was part of the recipe, thanks for the feedback and yes it is a stout
Note to self label as I go

 

[Edak]

Others have noted that my IPA, while being within the style guideline, is on the lower end of bitterness/hoppiness. Shouldn't have to move it too far down the list.

 

[Midnight Brew]

#10 Shane R – Black Saison

The bottle foamed heaps when I opened this so after it had settled is drinking well. Dominated by a slight roastyness but very clean and refreshing. Never had a black saison so would have no idea what to expect, like it still. Sorry I cant be more detailed but very clean and refreshing for a really dark beer. Saison in general is a new style to me as I’ve only tasted what you fellas have swapped. Yet to try a commercial example but enjoying what has been swapped so it’s a good sign. Cheers mate.

 

[Charst]

Get a hold of Saison Dupont (the classic) or LaSirene (local and great) when they begin producing again, wont regret either.

#10 Shane R – Black Saison

The bottle foamed heaps when I opened this so after it had settled is drinking well. Dominated by a slight roastyness but very clean and refreshing. Never had a black saison so would have no idea what to expect, like it still. Sorry I cant be more detailed but very clean and refreshing for a really dark beer. Saison in general is a new style to me as I’ve only tasted what you fellas have swapped. Yet to try a commercial example but enjoying what has been swapped so it’s a good sign. Cheers mate.

 

[Midnight Brew]

Get a hold of Saison Dupont (the classic) or LaSirene (local and great) when they begin producing again, wont regret either.

In fear of getting a inferior product to what you fellas have produced. Still will give it a crack.

 

[breakbeer]

I could've sworn I've posted more reviews than what's showing in this thread

:unsure:

now I have to rely on my shocking memory

 

[Midnight Brew]

#5 Whiteferret - Oatmeal Trecacle Stout

Aroma is sweet and has chocolate characters. Perfect carbonation for my liking, doesnt strip away from the flavour. I get sweet and slighty toasty flavour come through with bitterness from the background. Light in body and easy to drink. As I get further into it I get a maple syrup like aroma. Despite its now warmer weather and I should of had this back in winter its very refreshing. Thanks mate and great beer.