While the students have been out studying, I've been busy. Some catching up to do! I've drunk these over the course of a week or so. They've been way more entertaining than my own beer at the moment.
4. DJ_L3thAL - Macleod Bitter (WLP059) 4.8%, drink now.
Drinking this right now. Very beery. Having been a former fan of Melbourne Bitter, I'd have to say that this doesn't compare. It's way too yum! Simple, easy drinking, bready, a bit of fruity flavour from the yeast. Very drinkable. And by the way this is Very. *******. Well. Balanced. Good job DJ. I'd line up a few of these during a barbie.
11. Midnight Brew - House Ale (Chinook flowers and Belgian Ardennes) - ready.
God damn this was a good beer. It was a hot day, a freaking long one on the anvil of the daycare, and this beer came out precisely when the last parent to pick up walked out of sight down the hall. I think I drank the whole bottle in 5 minutes. The glass didn't leave my hand. This is the kind of beer I need to spend more time brewing, the one you want to have and have and have again. I was very sad to find the end of the bottle at the bottom of my glass. Great spice from the yeast, good head and lacing, light and refreshing body, enough malt to give the yeast room to play, but add to the yeast's good work too. Fantastic. I'll have to plan my visits for when you have this on tap
15. Mofox1 - Blended Stout thing... ~7 or 8%. Drink now or later.
Really smooth, and a whole lot going on in this one. It was this swirling dance of malt and roast and yeast and happy. The thing that I'm finding about blends is that the smooth out the edges. However the best blends leave some of the edges for you to find. There was plenty going on in this one. It had the kind of roast you only get from the intensity of a RIS, but a bit lighter and more easy going. A bit. And then the RIS whacked me in the chops again. And now I'll ask the question I kept telling myself not to ask - "Just. Experience. The. Beer. Stop. Thinking about it. So much." - Was this a blend of the two stouts from your partigyle brew day? I really enjoyed this, and it was also quite full on. I'd love to taste it in a few months.
++Which brings up something TB66 and I talked about briefly in the 3 minutes I saw him at the swap. Let's do a sub-swap of beers that are meant to age a bit. Say, 8 people, 24 bottles each, everyone takes home 3 bottles and drinks them over a year, writing about them along the way.++
20. Malt Junkie- Raspberry
sour 5.5% Ready now, or wait
Smooth Operator, this one. It had a quality I call milky, or perhaps creamy. Just silky down the palate. The kind of beer I love to gulp. I don't know, for me beer is a beverage, one to drink and enjoy the feeling of drinking. Cool and slippery, with satisfying flavours. Unfortunately this is short path to a quick day. I actually only got to drink about 3 solid gulps before my wife stole the rest, so for the non-beer drinker, you're on the right path. She won't drink pretty much any beer. I know this was a surprise sour, but I could barely detect the sour. I would have liked a bit more acid edge to bring out the raspberry more. It got me thinking about how much acid you can get from the raspberries.
21. TSMILL - biere de garde 7.5%
Wow. This was really intense when cold, voraciously carbed and hot alcohol. Once I let it sit for a bit, it really opened up a lot though. The thing with biere de garde for me is the complexity within simplicity. I'd say this had a reasonably deft hand behind it. Light touches of malt and hops playing against the carb and yeast. There's a flavour I associate with good biere de garde that I can only describe as "grapey", sort of a candy white grape flavour. This had it. The beer continued to open up for the 90 minutes or so that I took to drink it, and that grapey-ness just kept developing and deepening. Really, really nice. One which, in retrospect, I wish I could have let develop in the bottle for a year or so.
Now I wish I had another 23 from Danscraftbeer, because tonight I'm finally in the mood for it! Great job guys. I love the swaps!
EDIT: Hey Mr. Mill, any chance of a recipe for your biére de garde?