Vic 2017 Xmas in July Case Swap - TASTING

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It's a #4 night tonight, it appears.

Wasn't sure if there was actual grapefruit in here or not - almost identical profile to late + dry hopped ahtanum. Topaz late has a similar effect although with more fruit. Moderate astringent citrus "peel" type bitterness coming through.. slightly sour as well? Makes sense if there is grapefruit here for realsies. Certainly finishes rather dry after a decent body up front

Very nice, but for me needed a bit more fruity hops late and/or a touch more sweetness to offset the sourness/astringency. Rather refreshing and if it was 30 degree it would be epically smashable.

Cheers AJ!
 
No. Mofox's Heady Topperish.

Ive never had a Heady Topper - so I have nothing to compare to.
Join the club... If you could only buy them here :'(

As a Double IPA - Awesome job Mick

Aroma - sensational fruity
Appearance - Golden Colour - bit on the cloudy. Nice white head.
Flavour - you can taste that this is a big beer - definitely a bit of alcohol on there. But pretty nicely balances. As it warmed the alcohol became more obvious - so for my tastes better drunk on the cold side.

Overall - great job Mick.

Recipe please

Haziness is probably the massive amount of dry hoping as it was bottled from the keg, although some of it would be from the yeast as it is a bit of a floater.

Double batch here:
https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/what-are-you-brewing-in-2017.93648/page-20#post-1451883

This batch dry hopped around 10 pts of final with:
40g Columbus
40g Moutere
55g Simcoe

and then 1pt above final in transfer to secondary with:
41g Apollo
23g Citra
21g Simcoe

CC'd 6 days after transfer to secondary when gravity was stable (1.016).

No keg hops this time... maybe next. :D
 
Cheers for the feedback droid and mofox. All the acidity was from the grapefruit additions. There was 2L of grapefruit juice (I think this is what really dried the beer out) added to the fermenter after 5 days of fermentation as well as the finely shredded zest of a ruby red grapefruit soaked in vodka and then added (with the vodka) 5 days before bottling. Late hops were all Amarillo and mandarina Bavaria (1.5 g/L each in the cube and the same again as a 5 day dry hop).

I too would have liked the grapefruit to be more prominent.
 
From what I see, how does anyone stay sober at this event? Or perhaps no one does. Certainly appears to be lots of fun (after the hard work)

Sober....?

AFTER...?

[emoji23][emoji12]

Grotto I think you just signed up to the next swap [emoji6]
 
Just a heads up my swap beer (no 15)which is a fortified stout will be ready to drink in sept.

Approx abv 6.5%

Hope you enjoy
 
7th July - 9th July Location: Idzy's Brewery - Ferntree Gully

Drink Now:
4. AJ80 - grapefruit pale ale (Ready - drink fresh)
5. droid - Nefarious Villain; A three way blend of Stouts - drink now or let age, whatever you like
7. mofox1 - Monster Pale (drink now)
8.GrumpyPaul - Grapefruit Sour. (drink now) [Note there are 15 sours labelled 8 and 5 of the American Rye in this case labelled 8a)
9. mofox1 - Heady Topperish (drink now!)
13. TheWiggman - Haters' Wheat© (drink now)
14. GrumpyPaul – American Rye (drink now)
16. Danscraftbeer. All mine are ready to drink. Bottled from kegs.



Drink Later:
3. DJ_L3THAL - English Brown - ready from September.
6. Midnight Brew, IPA - drink end of July.
11. Whiteferret - British Strong Ale (Give it a couple of months say September)
12. Laxation - Stout, American style. Bottled early June, but has been conditioning in a cold room. Will be better in a while.


TBC what it is and when to taste:
1. Idzy
2. Husky
10. Shortybronx
15. Tahoose
 
^^ haha @ Droid. Any details to that question? Like, number? label? was that to me or the whole bunch of us....:D

OK -
Disclaimer: I'm no connoisseur so forgive me for any vague laymen comments etc. I'll try.

First taste of the batch:
No.7 Monster Pale Ale: mozox
Fairly clear but not bright. Clearer than the pic above.. A Belgian/Saisonish style yeast. Spicy aroma. Nicely balanced. Has the linger spicy bitter sourish aftertaste kind of like citrus rind, or Grapefruit is the best description I could give. That's in a good way IMO. This more a summer type thing but I can appreciate these kind of sessionables any time of year.
Good white head and retention and leaves some great lasing on the glass.
 
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how funny? that was a pic of what you also drank tonight ..

#7 mofox - Monster Pale

grapefruit on the nose
compact long lasting head
resinous
love the mouthfeel - the balance, I'm on the acidity tangent at the moment and this is right up my alley
slightly bitter back end for me
can't pick a hop, more of a team effort?

overall impression
very nice fruity beer
individual hop flavours masked by abundance
mouthfeel for me is on the money - love how the beer balls up in the mouth but patiently hangs around

if this was my brew my next one would be;
working on a bit more brightness, a bit more pop via acidity, carbonation, slightly less malt or maybe slightly more water to grist
trying to bring out some key hop flavours
enjoying the journey coz it's fecking good already and these are personal tweaks

thanks mate
2 good beers in already
 
12. Laxation - Stout. Shit first up I've picked the wrong bottle. Oh well review time.
First thing I noticed is there's very little carb with little, but residual head. It has a strange sourness to it on the aroma and not much stout going on. Taste-wise similar: sour, sweet and has what I'd associate with 'kit twang'. Definitely has calling cards of cold conditioning and stressed yeast. Can't taste anything American about it. Sorry man, I hope it'll improve with age but I doubt it. Keep at it though and focus on healthy ferments (right amount of yeast at the right temp) and make sure the yeast is happy in the bottle.
 
14. GrumpyPaul - American Rye
Here's a new one, I've never brewed with rye before so was hoping to learn something from this. Well, I most certainly have. Very clean on the nose with very little going on with a pleasent, grainy beeriness - which seems like that's how it's supposed to be. It's quite dry and the rye is coming through in spades, with a wheat-like phenol character pairing with what seem like boil hops only with mild bitterness. A drinking beer for sure. Overall well balanced and a welcome variation on US beers as the restraint with the hops is not an easy thing to get right for the hop junky home brewer. I reckon if there was a bit more late Amarillo it'd work perfectly.
 
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Hey I can upload attachments now
1499935768472.jpg
 
9. Mofox - heady topperish

Mmmm yummy. Cracking beer mate. Hazy as with a thin head that is juuuuust hanging around. Fruit salad on the nose, but nothing over the top. Just right really. Very much enjoying the lower carb. Hop flavour is bang on, curious to know if this was chilled or no chilled. Bursting with hop flavour. Has the body of a high ABV, but no hot alcohols to my palate. Warming in the tummy though so I'd guess the ABV is up there. Very well fermenter beer. Delish mofox and thank you for sharing. What a great beer to start my swap tastings with!!
 
9. Mofox - heady topperish

Mmmm yummy. Cracking beer mate. Hazy as with a thin head that is juuuuust hanging around. Fruit salad on the nose, but nothing over the top. Just right really. Very much enjoying the lower carb. Hop flavour is bang on, curious to know if this was chilled or no chilled. Bursting with hop flavour. Has the body of a high ABV, but no hot alcohols to my palate. Warming in the tummy though so I'd guess the ABV is up there. Very well fermenter beer. Delish mofox and thank you for sharing. What a great beer to start my swap tastings with!!

About 8%.

Cubed, but chilled to 75ish before adding 15g/L whirlpool hops for a 20 (30?) min hop stand before cubing... recipe posted earlier.

Big beers are fun.
 
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Ah bugger... was hoping it'd be a good one.
Definitely has calling cards of cold conditioning and stressed yeast.
What tells you this?
I was using bottle reconditioned yeast so maybe I screwed that up somewhere? or is stressed yeast from not using enough? From memory that was the first time I'd used the temp controller so it was a steady temp the whole way.
Cheers for the feedback - will make sure to do a good one for the next swap!
 
Hard to explain and I'm speaking from experience rather than education (i.e. I haven't been trained and learnt flavours anecdotally). The likes of MartinOC will tell you with more certainty and he is certainly honest with his feedback.
What I tasted in your beer was characteristic of an insufficient yeast pitch or unhealthy yeast, and considering you've said you did a bottle recondition then it lines up. In my opinion there was not enough healthy yeast in your beer so it's probably a twofold problem - a bit of yeast mutation and inadequate yeast pitch. The problem with yeast management is there are so many things that can go wrong with it and a lot of factors to consider:
  • OG of the wort - higher OG needs more yeast
  • Volume of the beer
  • Age of the yeast
  • Storage of the yeast
  • Handling and temp changes prior to pitching
  • Mutation, particularly from reuse
  • OG of the previous beer after reculturing matters, if it's too high the yeast will throw off flavours and likely stall early
  • If stepping up, yeast count:volume has a huge impact on mutation, particularly for lagers
  • Oxygen in wort solution
  • Yeast count - some beers (like my Hater's Wheat) call for lower yeast pitches to get certain flavours, but this is rare
  • Different yeast strains prefer different conditions
  • Etc. etc. etc.
You're on the money with temp control, that's the first step to good ferments. If I were you though I wouldn't do reculturing just yet (I'm assuming that's what you meant by "bottle reconditioned") and focus on getting solid pitches of healthy yeast. If going dry, look at rehydrating and follow the instructions to the letter. If your OG is over 1.050 for a 23l brew, use 2 packs. I've never heard of complaints from over-pitching on a home brew level. Another easy improvement is using yeast nutrient, it's only a few cents per brew and completely worth it.
On a personal note I have recultured a few times and wasn't sold on it, with the exception of one Coopers Pale Ale clone. I use liquid yeast 90% of the time (I've maybe used dry yeast 3 times since going AG) and probably spend more effort focussing on yeast than brewing wort. I'd attribute any success I've got from brewing lagers: get lagers right and you'll nail ales, but make sure you get ales right before trying lagers. I've tipped out bad beers before so it's not like I haven't made mistakes, I just make sure I learn from them.
Ed: forgot to add, when bottle conditioning if the temp is too cold and the yeast count inadequate for the you'll exacerbate the problem. I didn't get any diacetyl though so I'm guessing you used a US yeast strain and likely saw the ferment through.
 
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