Vic "off Season" Swap Tasting Thread

[Polar Beer]

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...

Pleased to hear it went well. Will be sure to be armed and ready for next one, which I suppose should be over the bridge somewhere.
Was 12 a good number?

 

[brendo]

Pleased to hear it went well. Will be sure to be armed and ready for next one, which I suppose should be over the bridge somewhere.
Was 12 a good number?

yeah worked quite well... funny rocking up to the back of a pub to see a bunch of blokes with illeagally obtained milk crates full of beer... very dodgy

 

[br33zy]

yeah worked quite well... funny rocking up to the back of a pub to see a bunch of blokes with illeagally obtained milk crates full of beer... very dodgy

Yes; the gentle clinking of the various bottles as we went about our illicit trade was music to the ears and strangely comforting...

 

[brendo]

Ok... next cab off the rank...

7. apd's first ever lager

OK, so poured this one out and the first thing that struck me was the nice pale colour, great white head - nice and tight. Next thing I noticed was the carbonation - stacks of bubbles going off like a frog in a sock - looks like the freezing process didn't hurt the yeast (or did you repitch?). I too froze my first lager (a pilsner).

Onto the taste... some up front bitterness, but then I noticed a slightly funky yeast flavour - what was your fermenting temp? I was thinking it was some yeast produced esters - so maybe a tad higher than it should be - of course I could be wrong. Just didn't quite have the clean lager profile I was expecting. Funkiness incresed a little bit as it warmed up.

Still drinkable... just better nice and cold.

Interested to see what others think or if I just have an overactive imagination.

Cheers,

Brendo

 

[Leigh]

Fraser John - Nelson Sauvin Summer Ale

Nice pale amber colour ale with a nice aroma on pouring. Poured flat, but soon came to life with a head that lasted throughout the beer.

Some funky bitterness on the back of the tongue while it was cold, but now it's warmed up to room temp it is really quite nice, very much like a southern england real-ale.

A nice beer you've brewed there Fraser.

 

[GumbyOne]

BULP - TDA's Fly blown Belgian (Red Malty Bliss Piss)

Really liked this one , Beautiful dark red colour, tan head, poured it cold forgetting it was a strong belgian tasted a bit muddled at first but once it warmed a bit got a really nice malty/bananary taste (apologies for my descriptions im a bit of a noob at trying to describe beer). After further warming i noticed a bit of an alcohol taste coming through, at this point i was also getting slight whisky-like (?) aromas. What was the ABV of this one? was getting a bit buzzed by the end of the bottle :icon_cheers: .

 

[bulp]

BULP - TDA's Fly blown Belgian (Red Malty Bliss Piss)

Really liked this one , Beautiful dark red colour, tan head, poured it cold forgetting it was a strong belgian tasted a bit muddled at first but once it warmed a bit got a really nice malty/bananary taste (apologies for my descriptions im a bit of a noob at trying to describe beer). After further warming i noticed a bit of an alcohol taste coming through, at this point i was also getting slight whisky-like (?) aromas. What was the ABV of this one? was getting a bit buzzed by the end of the bottle .

Gday Gumby

Glad you liked it mate, The percentage is around 7 %, It's one of Bindi's Light beer recipes :lol: (Red Malty Bliss Piss) . Its not TDA's Fly blown Belgian, though there was a single bottle in the mix, the rest of the keg got, well, drunk, must of evaporated. A few mates have tried it and we call it the Malty Hammer coz she sure packs a punch, its taken me out a couple of times. Goes down supprisingly well for breakfast

 

[scott_penno]

6. Jason's Porter. Mild malt aroma. Poured a deep dark brown with a nice off-white head. Tasted slightly malty up front and then the subtle chocolate flavor took over, finishing with a nice bitterness. Maybe a bit too sweet for my liking.
I think in the original case swap thread it said something about home-made malts. Is this correct? How is this done?

10. Breezy's SNPA Clone. Big floral aroma. Poured an amber color and to me resembled Smurto's Golden Ale in appearance. Nice body with lots of hop flavor and bitterness. The first mouthful there was something about the hops that you could almost taste the different hops, but after half a glass they all sort of merged together. This is every bit as good as SNPA if not better. Had my next door neighbour over for a second opinion and he absolutely agreed. I *really* like this. Unfortunately, the bottle was whisked away before I had a chance to copy down what was on it. Are you able to post the recipe including method you used?

sap.

 

[seemax]

In my tired state last night I pulled a swap from the fridge, one which coincidentally had been thrown around a bit that day by a curious 1yo, the one marked as "2" on the lid.

Glass ready, opener engaged, top off, nice hiss... UH OH... violent eruption, fizz and lots of it! it was one of those moments where can't really decide quick enough on a reaction and end up just staring at the result One bench covered in beer and dripping on the floor. Seriously over carbed .. or bottled too early before reaching FG?

I managed to pour the remaining half...the intial bitternes was ok, but it had a lingering cidery taste that reminded me of some kit yeasts I have tried in the past. It was quite cold so got through no problem, plenty of bubbles though

 

[br33zy]

...
10. Breezy's SNPA Clone. Big floral aroma. Poured an amber color and to me resembled Smurto's Golden Ale in appearance. Nice body with lots of hop flavor and bitterness. The first mouthful there was something about the hops that you could almost taste the different hops, but after half a glass they all sort of merged together. This is every bit as good as SNPA if not better. Had my next door neighbour over for a second opinion and he absolutely agreed. I *really* like this. Unfortunately, the bottle was whisked away before I had a chance to copy down what was on it. Are you able to post the recipe including method you used?

sap.

Thanks Sappas,

Really pleased that you guys are enjoying this beer. We love it, but there's lots of room for improvement because we stuffed up the recipe on this batch!

Here's the label text:

============================================
Bitches Brewery - SNPA Clone
(AHB: Breezy too, benny)

76.5l batch
4kg Crystal
10kg LDME
US-05 yeast (4x11g sachets)

Magnum 50g@60min
Perle 50g@30min
Cascade 100g@10
Cascade 50g@0min
Cascade 50g dry hopped to secondary.

Pre-boil vol: 55.7l - End-boil vol: 51l
7 days primary. 7 days secondary.
Bulk primed with 8.2g/l dextrose.
Bottled 17/02/2009
O.G. 1049 - F.G. 1012. Est. ABV 5.6%

Boil night was long and the boys were a little bleary and weary by the end. While topping up the fermenter with fresh water we missed our intended SG of 1053, overshooting to 1049. Very disappointing as we've had good success with this recipe before and were very keen to repeat it...
==============================================
We're still under-hopping on the original recipe (see extract version) - but the split FO/dry hopping seems to compensate somewhat as well helping with the aroma.

Cheers

Breezy

 

[jasong]

6. Jason's Porter. Mild malt aroma. Poured a deep dark brown with a nice off-white head. Tasted slightly malty up front and then the subtle chocolate flavor took over, finishing with a nice bitterness. Maybe a bit too sweet for my liking.
I think in the original case swap thread it said something about home-made malts. Is this correct? How is this done?

The base malt was just Joe White ale ,but the crystal i made in my oven.The method i used i found on the grain and grape web site .And the brown malt i used a method found in John Palmer's book how to brew .The chocolate malt i just roasted in the oven until it looked the right color.

I have being away for a few days so haven't started to sample any of the beer ummmm i think i will start in about 10 minutes ????

Jason

 

[Leigh]

12. sappas - Dr Smurtos Golden Ale

Good carbonation, pale-golden in colour. As with the last Dr Smurtos Golden Ale I tasted, a very well balanced with rich honey/golden syrup tastes, but not overly sweet, nice bitterness. Top job Sappas.


11. Gumby - amber ale

Nice carbonation, held it's head through to the last mouthful. Good amber colour. Strong malty flavours, but not overly malty, balanced by a mild bitterness. A very nice amber Gumby.

 

[jasong]

Just trying to sort out the bottles ,who was the plastic bottle with 8AA on the cap???

Jason

Tastes fine by the way..If i made it i would be happy.

 

[Leigh]

Just trying to sort out the bottles ,who was the plastic bottle with 8AA on the cap???

Jason

Tastes fine by the way..If i made it i would be happy.

That'd be my amber ale mate ...Sounds like it might be good to go, last week it was still a bit green .

Next up:

Seemax - Wheat Bix Wit

Not usually a wheat beer drinker, but this one is really nice, not sure how to describe it really <_<

Must try this one when I go AG.

 

[Leigh]

10. Breezy's SNPA Clone.

Amber in colour. Medium body with lots of hop flavour. First mouthful was an experience in different hop flavours with different parts of the pallate experiencing different tastes (not sure how else to describe that), but by the time I took the last mouthful and the bottle had warmed, the hop profile had "blended" to a more consistent bitterness, albeit a lot stronger.

Overall a nice beer that went well with the savoury chicken pie I ate last night.

...also tried a bottle of my own swap beer, while it is improving and is becoming quite drinkable, I'd give it another week or so.

 

[GumbyOne]

11. Gumby - amber ale

Nice carbonation, held it's head through to the last mouthful. Good amber colour. Strong malty flavours, but not overly malty, balanced by a mild bitterness. A very nice amber Gumby.

Cheers mate glad you enjoyed it, look forward to trying yours :icon_cheers: . Ive gotten a bit behind on this, had these over the last few days (apologies for lack of detail):

2. Barra - Southern German Lager - Drinking this now, forgot this was the exciteable one but got it to the sink before it went everywhere . Initally it tasted pretty good however after a few sips i noticed a slightly unplesant aftertaste that I cant quite place (maybe vegemite?), still drinkable though.

3. Fraser John Dr Smurtos Golden Ale - Yum! , just as good as sappas' entry

5. Seemax - Wheat Bix Wit - One of my faves so far, cloudy appearance, tastes better than I remember hoegarden did (its been a while), did you put any corriander/orange rind in this? I swear i could taste them, might just be the yeast character though?

6. Jason Glare - porter - Not usually a fan of darker beers but quite liked this, Nice rich caramal/roast flavours but a bit sticky and sweet towards the end, still good though

10. Breezy - SNPA - I've never had SNPA so I'm not sure how close you got but I loved it! Heaps of hop aroma/flavour/bitterness but still quite balanced. Two thumbs up

 

[seemax]

5. Seemax - Wheat Bix Wit - One of my faves so far, cloudy appearance, tastes better than I remember hoegarden did (its been a while), did you put any corriander/orange rind in this? I swear i could taste them, might just be the yeast character though?

No special additions - just pils, malted wheat and weetbix. I too was surprised at the character produced by WB-06, it makes for a unique flavour, perhaps due to fermenting at 17C. This was my 2nd wheat beer, the 1st was with Danstar Munich and was quite disappointing, excessively phelonic with little spice. I haven't found this brew to be particularly more-ish though.

The Golden Ale and SNPA clones have been my favourites.

I've got 3 left in fridge for tonight... FBB is first up!

 

[Leigh]

4. Dan Canadian Blonde


Nice straw-yellow colour, mild hop aroma with a nicely balanced claen crisp taste.

Magnificent beer Dan. Would make a great summer quaffer.

 

[fraser_john]

Not sure if this was part or the swap or not, but it was in there when Bulp dropped it off and given the style is one of my fav's, it went into the freezer immediately for sampling

Bulps Hefeweizen

On the pour, looks a little undercarbed, but I may have opened it early? The head was very low, but the bubbles were consistent, just not enough of them. We had two different glasses between my wife and I and the head was consistent across both glasses.
Lovely straw colour, with a nice yeasty haze that is perfect to style.
Aroma is one of strong banana with a backing of bubblegum, slight spice.
Similar early on palate, but about halfway through, a nice spicey cloviness develops, ending with a slight sourness that really was pleasant.

Great weizen, if I could make one this good, I'd be wrapt! What is the recipe and I'll add it to my to-do list.

Good job Bulp!

 

[brendo]

You lucky *******... that looks like a ring in to me... that of Bulp snaffled one of the others that he really liked from your crate and subbed you one of his

Brendo