Vic 2017 Xmas in July Case Swap - TASTING

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It worked for bananas, why not make a grapefruit wine?
1. Cut grapefruits into slices leaving peel on
2. Boil and add a ****-ton of sugar
3. Put contents in a fermenter and add some wine yeast
4. Leave it sit for a year because the internet said so ok?
5. Bottle
6. Blow minds at swap

Ha! That banana wine was surprisingly popular.

Laxation - the other option is to juice a heap of grapefruit, freeze the juice in a sanitised container (freezing should kill most bugs) and then add the defrosted juice to a partially fermented beer. The other option is taking some zest, steep it in vodka for a week or so and add both to finished fermenting beer and leave for a few days before bottling.

I'm planning on grapefruit zesting a small portion of sour when I get round to bottling one of my batches currently on the go.
 
Danscraftbeer - Mocha

Delish mate. Great for sipping in front of the fire after an RDO spent in the garden.

Jet black with no head retention (looks like coke). Aroma hints at the coffee which really kicks in on the flavour front. Well balanced espresso coffee flavour that's not overpowering nor astringent. Going by the name of the beer I'm assuming there's been a chocolate addition too of some description. I'm looking for it, but can't really find it. Delicious regardless and thank you for sharing.

Edit: just gave the wife a sniff of the beer (she refuses to drink all beer unless it's a sour...that's my gal!). She says it smells like dark chocolate. Must just be my stuffed palate!
 
It worked for bananas, why not make a grapefruit wine?
1. Cut grapefruits into slices leaving peel on
2. Boil and add a ****-ton of sugar
3. Put contents in a fermenter and add some wine yeast
4. Leave it sit for a year because the internet said so ok?
5. Bottle
6. Blow minds at swap

I take it I wasn't the only one to ask for the recipe haha
 
16. Danscraftbeer - Session Ale low carb blah blah
I wrote something up on the phone last night but it vanished when posted it - getting ****** with the app since the upgrade. I'll do my best to recall.
Low carb? This thing was spritzier than an Aussie champagne knockoff (zing!). I served it in a headmaster glass which necessitated knocking the froth off a few times, though the head was persistent and held itself well. Aromatically it was mostly floral hops with little if any malt until the glass was finished. Nothing really to fault there. To taste though the hops are definitely there and has a Galaxy character. There's little/nothing in the way of malt but I think it's masked by the hops. I associate Galaxy with tea flavours, and this didn't dominate but still came across like Galaxy. Personally I don't like Galaxy but I wasn't too off-put by this. It is dry as the fancy little label promised, but a little too bitter to make it sessionable for me. A longneck no worries, but I couldn't spend a night drinking it. I think if the bitterness was backed off a frag it is would make for a very approachable beer to wannabe hipsters and newcomers to the world of hops. But then again maybe others will love it as-is, we all have our own tastes. A good showing.
Cheers Wiggman.
Low Carb, (Low Carbohydrates) should have been written as Low Cal. (Calories etc) I agree it comes across too bitter from the bottle. Strangely enough from the keg to me it seemed 35IBU. Tasting from the bottle it seems like 45IBU. I can only conclude its because I boosted up the carbonation in the keg too much for bottling and the higher carbonation raised the perception of more bitterness maybe. Admittedly I can session this balance. :foammug:
No Galaxy. Victoria for bittering, Cascade (home grown) for late additions with a tad of both Mosaic and Azzacca so its in the character of Galaxy, without the Galaxy ha.
 
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8: Wow. This one took me by surprise. Very pale, no head. It smells yeasty, bready. Then the flavor I was not expecting at all. So this is one of the sours.
Its a tad too sour for me, makes me pucker and pull funny faces at first then better when my palate gets used to it. I can appreciate it. I recall a convo with GrumpyPaul on this one I think. Kettle soured then brewed with US-05? I get it now. The US-05 I know so well is the aroma, I think I recall he said he let it sour longer than planned.
Less on the sour and would be great served very cold on a hot day.
ps: This is not the 8a that was posted a picture of previously. Much paler than the one pictured.
 
7th July - 9th July Location: Idzy's Brewery - Ferntree Gully

Drink Now:
4. AJ80 - grapefruit pale ale (Ready - drink fresh)
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!)
10. Shortybronx - Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
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.
5. droid - Nefarious Villain; A three way blend of Stouts - let age and put a carb cap on if you can when cold to bump the carb up
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
15. Tahoose
 
13. TheWiggman - Haters' Wheat© (drink now)

I missed out on a bottle of this !
 
You've probably got a bottle droid, some of the earlier collectors grabbed 2 of my bottles which were missing labels. It'll be in there someone. Being a re-used bottle there's also a chance it's got a number on it already which is admittedly piss-poor on my part.
 
You've probably got a bottle droid, some of the earlier collectors grabbed 2 of my bottles which were missing labels. It'll be in there someone. Being a re-used bottle there's also a chance it's got a number on it already which is admittedly piss-poor on my part.
Through the process of elimination I shall find it!
 
Midnight Brew - I tried your IPA the other day and it was delicious. I thought it was one I could drink now, but wasn't too far off... luckily I have two of them :)
Even though it was lacking a bit of head (probably because I was early..), I thought it was great. Super drinkable and I wish I had more of it - could have kept going all night. Looking forward to the next one!
 
9. mofox1 - Heady Topperish (drink now!)
I'm prepared to be wrong about this and I hope it's the only such example, but when I cracked the lid on this all I could smell was diacetyl. It has a hint of hoppiness hanging in the background but muted by the big D. Not overpowering, but evident all the same. It pours a very hazy orange with a green tint that alludes the the presence of most likely a shitload of hops. The heady and carbonation look bang on. Well there are hops in this alright. I'm getting diacetyl on the palate but the piney hops are pushing through, along with the juicy bitterness and alcoholic warmth. No way I'm driving after this bottle. There's ample body and enough interest in the malt to support the hop show going on. I'm left wondering how good it would be if... well, I think I've said the word enough. I'd like to reiterate that this is a strong beer and probably over the original's 8%. That or I'm a lightweight.
I've got a second bottle, I'll let you know how it turns out. My guess it'll be similar and keen to hear what others think
 
9. mofox1 - Heady Topperish (drink now!)
I'm prepared to be wrong about this and I hope it's the only such example, but when I cracked the lid on this all I could smell was diacetyl. It has a hint of hoppiness hanging in the background but muted by the big D. Not overpowering, but evident all the same. It pours a very hazy orange with a green tint that alludes the the presence of most likely a shitload of hops. The heady and carbonation look bang on. Well there are hops in this alright. I'm getting diacetyl on the palate but the piney hops are pushing through, along with the juicy bitterness and alcoholic warmth. No way I'm driving after this bottle. There's ample body and enough interest in the malt to support the hop show going on. I'm left wondering how good it would be if... well, I think I've said the word enough. I'd like to reiterate that this is a strong beer and probably over the original's 8%. That or I'm a lightweight.
I've got a second bottle, I'll let you know how it turns out. My guess it'll be similar and keen to hear what others think

I proved I can't taste/smell the difference between DMS and diacetyl at the swap, so can't put hand on heart. But I just cracked this and whoaaaaaa hops hops hops hops hops, bitterness, hops, repeat.

Can't pickup anything that stands out as wrong. Love the tingle/zing presumably from the hops at the end of the palate.

Great job at a bold and beautiful beer mofox, thanks. Think I'll be asleep at the end of this longneck which tops off a busy week [emoji106]
 
9. mofox1 - Heady Topperish (drink now!)
I'm prepared to be wrong about this and I hope it's the only such example, but when I cracked the lid on this all I could smell was diacetyl. It has a hint of hoppiness hanging in the background but muted by the big D. Not overpowering, but evident all the same. It pours a very hazy orange with a green tint that alludes the the presence of most likely a shitload of hops. The heady and carbonation look bang on. Well there are hops in this alright. I'm getting diacetyl on the palate but the piney hops are pushing through, along with the juicy bitterness and alcoholic warmth. No way I'm driving after this bottle. There's ample body and enough interest in the malt to support the hop show going on. I'm left wondering how good it would be if... well, I think I've said the word enough. I'd like to reiterate that this is a strong beer and probably over the original's 8%. That or I'm a lightweight.
I've got a second bottle, I'll let you know how it turns out. My guess it'll be similar and keen to hear what others think
Bummer! They *should* all be the same... bottled from keg. As far as I could tell, it was tasting pretty damn awesome from the keg. Not necessarily perfect, but no major faults I could tell.

I've still got a couple of the extra bottles here, I'll have to grab one and see if there is anything different about it. Unfortunately keg blew previous week, so I can't do a side by side.

Looking forward to more feedback - I was (still am) pretty stoked with this one.

Edit:
It's only a touch over at 8.4% due to the OG being 2 pts over the intended 1.076. Definitely a light-weight wiggas ;).
 
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Maybe I'm like Shortybronx and cherry?
Ed: SO MAYBE I AM MOFOX WHAT OF IT? I hate coming across as negative in the review but I'm reflecting on what I was getting in the beer and my knowledge/experience (and lack thereof). It came across as diacetyl to me but also crossed the lines of possible bad bottle. I've had infections that have ruined tastebuds and this kinda reminded me of both. After getting through a few sips the perception wasn't so bad and like I said, it oozed pine (which I prefer over citrus). In saying that there was a tart lingering mouth feel which reminded me of orange peel. Shows how much hop juice was in there.
Considering you kegged I'm backing this was early stages of a bad bottle, but I drank the whole thing so not like I didn't enjoy it.
That swap DMS beer - sorry droid you were the demo exhibit here - was an eye opener for me because originally I was told it was diacetyl. I thought "holy ****, I've been wrong this whole time!" but it was later confirmed as DMS. One of the reasons getting together with fellow brewers is great for learning, we can share experiences from knowledgeable brewers.
 
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Ha, did nobody say anything? Pretty sure you had the Little Creatures Bright Ale keg. It definitely had some sort of fault and we were informed it was DMS. No such issue with your other beers though.
 

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