Vic "off Season" Swap Tasting Thread

[bulp]

Ok blokes i'll start this off, after tasting a few of the swap beers today i'm very glad i took part in this, which is my virgin swap.



Seemax's Aldi wheat Bix Wit, Sensational mate really enjoyed this beer, nice and spicy and medium sweetness give the misses a taste of this and had trouble gettin the glass off her. Have been really dissapointed in Hoegarden recently but you've got me excited about Belgian Wits again can you post a recipe mate.

Cheers
Brett



Not sure who this beer belongs too, Have never had a Vienna Lager before so was unsure what to expect but i found this beer rich and malty (munich malt ?) Really deep red and lovely clear color, Finished very clean with low bitterness, easy drinking lager well done.

More tastings to come but i'm finding it hard to type must be the coffee

 

[brendo]

View attachment 25243

Not sure who this beer belongs too, Have never had a Vienna Lager before so was unsure what to expect but i found this beer rich and malty (munich malt ?) Really deep red and lovely clear color, Finished very clean with low bitterness, easy drinking lager well done.

Hey Bulp,

That one was me... pretty happy with it in the end - wasn't too sure when I bottled it originally but it has come up pretty well. Not to sure how representative of a Vienna Lager it is, but I reckon it is a tasty beer either way.

It was an extract brew, with a bit of crystal, roast barley, carapils and a heap of carared steeped as well. Was looking for something similar to a Matilda Bay's Rooftop Red Lager, but missed the mark really (in my opinion).

I don't know that I would use that much carared again in a brew - but it does lend a lovely colour.

Plan to get into a few tomorrow (been letting the brews settle into their new home tonight) so will post once i have sampled a few.

Cheers,

Brendo

Edit... oh and glad you liked it mate - looking forward to sampling yours...

 

[Leigh]

2. Barra - Southern German Lager

IT'S A BOY!

Opened fine, poured a glass of head, sat the bottle down to wait for the head to clear in the glass and low and behold the bottle erupted in a 2inch high fountain! Even after pouring a full glass of beer the bottle continued to overflow.

That aside, a pale yellow lager that was very clean and crisp. Nice mild malty flavours with very well balanced hop flavours.

A perfect beer after a day of cutting down trees

 

[bulp]

Breezy's SNPA

Very nice mate, i'd always wondered what cascade smelt like dry hopped and i ficken loved it, I,ve tried a few AG versions of this and your beer is as good as any i've tried,Given me a real nice hop hit, Bitterness was perfect and aroma :icon_drool2: Now you've done it i'm brewing my SNPA tomorrow and having a crack at dry hopping my flame out additions Well done mate really enjoyed this and wished i'd had another bottle :beerbang:

 

[seemax]

Burp, glad you enjoyed, it was my 2nd attempt at a wheat beer and ended up using WB-06 dry yeast. It doesn't clone the typical flavours of Wyeast 3068 but IMO still delivers the spice and estery notes needed for that unique wheat beer profile. Family and friends consider this to be one of my better brews, but then most of them are not hop heads like me ...gimme an APA anyday

The recipe is simple...

2.5kg JW Pils
2.5kg JW Wheat
0.5kg Aldi Weet Bix
60min mash @ 66C

18 IBU of Hallertau (60min addition only)
WB-06 @ 18C for 10 days

Now for the tastings...

Golden Ale (stubby) - drunk very cold after a few hours working outside, it lasted all of 30seconds, yum!! Was this DrSmurto's recipe?

Breezy's SNPA - hops and more hops...lovely aroma and flavour, not too strong, good colour, bit hazy but who cares, overall enjoyable drop

A few more samples tonight me thinks ...

Stefan

 

[brendo]

OK guys... after a busy day brewing, I have finally gotten around to cracking a beer and first cab off the rank...

Barra's Southern German Lager

Forwarned is for-armed... had seen the comments about this one bieng a boy, so had a jug on standby and some nifty decanting later I came out with a glass each for kell and me.

Nice and clean taste, good colour, nicely balanced and plenty of carbonation. VERY drinkable.

Kell gives it the thumbs up too... top work Barra.

Cheers,

Brendo

 

[GumbyOne]

Tried a couple tonight

Dr Smurtos Golden Ale (stubbies) - Sensational! Delicious lingering sweet/citrusy flavor. I now see why everyones brewing this, definently on my to do list once i get my AG kit together

Ruddy Hell Lager - Also very good Lovely rich roasty flavour, gonna go pour myself another now :chug:

 

[Barramundi]

might not be a bad idea to be armed with a suitable sized jug to decant my lager into ,,, glad you liked it brendo

 

[Leigh]

9. Brendo - Ruddy Hell Lager (Vienna Lager)

Medium brown in colour, nice malty aroma, roasty palette but not overly roasty. A very nice drop, went exceptionally well with the rich red-wine gravy in the meat pies I had for dinner.

 

[brendo]

3. Fraser John - Golden Ale

There's always someting a little celebratory in popping a champagne bottle, and this Golden Ale doesn't disappoint. Well balanced with a good amount of bitterness, tempered by a good dose of Amarillo for flavour and aroma. Yum!!

Looking at the brewing notes taped to the bottle, it was based on Smurto's Golden Ale - so I am pretty excited to see what the one I brewed today comes out like in a few weeks.

Good job Fraser John...

Brendo

 

[bulp]

Jasons porter

Lovely roastiness not over the top mildly sweet with a clean finish a very sessionable porter haven't had a crack at a porter yet but winter is approaching, Good job mate any chance of a recipe ?

so many beers and only one liver, which is evil and must be punished

 

[jasong]

Recipe: porter byo jan 2009
Brewer:
Asst Brewer:Jason
Style: Robust Porter
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 24.00 L
Boil Size: 28.02 L
Estimated OG: 1.054 SG
Estimated Color: 31.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 30.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.95 kg Pale Malt, Ale (IMC) (2.0 SRM) Grain 69.82 %
0.79 kg Brown Malt (65.0 SRM) Grain 13.96 %
0.52 kg Crystal (Joe White) (72.0 SRM) Grain 9.24 %
0.40 kg Chocolate Malt (Joe White) (381.0 SRM) Grain 6.98 %
36.40 gm Fuggles [5.70 %] (60 min) Hops 25.8 IBU
22.20 gm Fuggles [5.70 %] (15 min) Hops 4.2 IBU
1 Pkgs British Ale (Wyeast Labs #1098) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 5.66 kg
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Full Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 12.44 L of water at 74.7 C 67.0 C
10 min Mash Out Add 5.99 L of water at 96.5 C 75.6 C


Notes:
------

 

[br33zy]

Breezy's SNPA

Very nice mate, i'd always wondered what cascade smelt like dry hopped and i ficken loved it, I,ve tried a few AG versions of this and your beer is as good as any i've tried,Given me a real nice hop hit, Bitterness was perfect and aroma :icon_drool2: Now you've done it i'm brewing my SNPA tomorrow and having a crack at dry hopping my flame out additions Well done mate really enjoyed this and wished i'd had another bottle :beerbang:

Geez it looks good in your glass!

The original recipe for this has a big hop bill (http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?t=15532&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0); and we're gradually working our way up to it (the case swap is the third iteration). But splitting the 0 minute additions between flameout and dry-hop-to-secondary seems to increase the bang for our cascade buck as well as boosting the aroma.

...
Breezy's SNPA - hops and more hops...lovely aroma and flavour, not too strong, good colour, bit hazy but who cares, overall enjoyable drop
...

Stefan

Clarity definitely hasn't been a priority for us to date - we're working too hard just to get a good tasting brew in the bottle! I guess it will come with time.

Cheers guys

Breezy

 

[scott_penno]

OK. Here we go...

9. Brendo's Ruddy Hell Lager (Vienna Lager). Never having had a Vienna Lager before wasn't sure what to expect. Poured a deep dark red beer with a lovely tight creamy head. Nice malty aroma. Tasted malty maybe with a tinge of caramel like sweetness. Well balanced. Looked up the BJCP style guide for this (3A) and with the exception of being a bit dark, I'd say this was pretty close to spot on.

5. seemax's Aldi Wheet Bix Wit. Poured a nice pale straw color - a little less cloudy than I would have expected - with a nice white head and a spicy almost floral fragrance. Tasted slightly spicey, slightly citrusy and very easy to drink. Will be making this one for sure. If you don't mind me asking, where did the inspiration for throwing wheet bix into the brew come from?

sap.

 

[brendo]

9. Brendo's Ruddy Hell Lager (Vienna Lager). Never having had a Vienna Lager before wasn't sure what to expect. Poured a deep dark red beer with a lovely tight creamy head. Nice malty aroma. Tasted malty maybe with a tinge of caramel like sweetness. Well balanced. Looked up the BJCP style guide for this (3A) and with the exception of being a bit dark, I'd say this was pretty close to spot on.

Thanks sappas... I didn't actually look at the guidlines at the time, so glad to see I am probably not too far off - was trying to base it around Rooftop Red lager - so was mostly going off of the description of their beer on the www along with a bit of research.

Glad you liked it...

Brendo

 

[seemax]

I had read on the forums from years ago that someone had used Weet-Bix in lieu of torrified wheat (unmalted). There are various options, torrified wheat, burghul, wheat bran , etc... but I thought well might as well try the cheapo option, Aldi WeetBix, 1kg for $2. My original plan was to use the lot, but the salt content was of concern and I had no rice hulls for the mash. Just as well, the sparge was at a snail pace and the mash turned to concrete!

I was quite surprised and delighted at the result, especially after reading all the negative reports on WB-06.

Some more taste reports...

Jasons Porter

Having gone off darker beers for some time now I was completely turned around by this one. I often find the coffee/roast/caramels a little overbearing, but not on this occasion. I'm surprised how mild it turned out given the 7% choc malt. Very smooth, perfect balance of malt and hops, a great beer for the cooler months... 1 bottle wasn't enough

Canadian Blonde

I tried this kit last year and was disappointed so was keen to try it again. The initial taste was ok, but the mouthfeel or aftertaste seemed a little unpleasant for me, maybe a bit of isohop twang? The general aroma reminded me of another kit I did using the supplied yeast... appley/cidery... fermented too high maybe?

Ruddy Hell Lager

Poured really well, nice red colour. Full body, very dominant caramel/crystal sweetness, subtle bitterness aftertaste. Head faded quickly. Another one to go down quickly. Quite enjoyable indeed. What hops did you use?

 

[brendo]

Ruddy Hell Lager
View attachment 25304
Poured really well, nice red colour. Full body, very dominant caramel/crystal sweetness, subtle bitterness aftertaste. Head faded quickly. Another one to go down quickly. Quite enjoyable indeed. What hops did you use?

Hey Seemax,

Hops were as follows

10g Hallertau Aroma @ 45m
30g Hallertau Aroma @ 20m
15g Hallertau Hersbrucker @ 0m

Glad you liked it...

Brendo

 

[fraser_john]

3. Fraser John - Golden Ale

There's always someting a little celebratory in popping a champagne bottle, and this Golden Ale doesn't disappoint. Well balanced with a good amount of bitterness, tempered by a good dose of Amarillo for flavour and aroma. Yum!!

Looking at the brewing notes taped to the bottle, it was based on Smurto's Golden Ale - so I am pretty excited to see what the one I brewed today comes out like in a few weeks.

Good job Fraser John...

Brendo

Thanks Brendo!

I gotto run over to Bulps place sometime and pickup the case he bought back for me, cannot wait!

John

 

[Polar Beer]

G'Day fella's

Back from NZ. Still reeling a little bit from my beer consumption. They really do have some great beer there. :icon_offtopic:

Looks like the mini swap idea was OK?

 

[br33zy]

G'Day fella's

Back from NZ. Still reeling a little bit from my beer consumption. They really do have some great beer there. :icon_offtopic:

Looks like the mini swap idea was OK?

Brilliant thanks - bloody shame you couldn't be in on your own party though:|

We still haven't tasted any of the beers yet. Had one of those brew nights last night. I got things rolling and then had to leave half way through the boil as my better half came down with a migraine. Two of the boys carried on and initial comms suggested that all was well. Then subsequent post-midnight texts became sketchy, terse and a little sinister and I haven't heard anything since.

I just hope they didn't blow themselves up - the case swap beers are in there...