Vic X-mas In July 2009 Tasting Thread

[therook]

Tried a few beers side by side so as to get a comparison.

24 - Don Mateo - Weizen

Nice mild clove and bubblegum, excellent carbonation with a smallish head which didn't last.
This was quite enjoyable and with a bit more banana aroma/flavour would have been more enjoyable.

16 - Chris Taylor - Red Weizen
Great beer Chris, one of the blokes at work said he would pay for this beer if he could buy it.
Lots of toffee and malt flavours which i think spoilt it a bit as it ended up being quite sweet,
Good carbonation . Nice mild banana and clove things happening.
A good beer Chris but you have done lot better

Thanks for 2 good Wheat beers chaps

next 2 where

12 - mcook - American IPA
15 - Fourstar - AIPA

I'm not going to go into to much depth with these beers other than to say they are your typical APA's....and they have been elaborated on fairly well already
It's all about the hops which both these beers showed....
These did go down well Friday arvo after a good counter meal

Thanks Cookie and Fourstar

Rook

 

[brettprevans]

brendo's LCBA
WEll brendo what a waste of your beer. I accidently forgot I had it in the freeezer chillihng down and found it the next morning. The beer throffed like mad when I took it out of the freezer and I caught all the overflow. So the 50-100ml or so I got to drank was an eis-LCBA... concentrated alc and hops. and at 6:00am that was a bit full on. I drnak it though. couldnt waste it. Going on the little bit I had to drink I recon it would have been an excellent beer.

Rook - Wazza's 3 shades
Rooky, I agreed with Maple. Not to my taste this one. nothing about the brewing process I dont think, more about the recipe. not sure. I think it was the CO2 type bite/bitterness.

edit: maybe the soda water bitterness was due to the mineral additions?

8. wonderwoman - Goldilocks
carbonation was fine almost no head. I struggled to define what style this was. it was a bit unbclear on taste. little smell of amrillo but all I could taste was sweet cervesa style beer. IMO not a great indication of what your capable of brewing. There was no obvious technical flaws. the beer was clear, good colour, clean. just sweeet. It tasted to me like a sweet cervesa kit. keep brewing. theres nothing wrong with your brewing techniques. maybe just the recipe. but hey if youy like it, then itrs fine. your brewing mainly for yourself so bugger everyone eleses tastes.

 

[donmateo]

You know i was thinking about this last night and i reckon my bottle may have been a bit skunked, maybe being left outside after the swap until the next morning turned it a bit "off". Aside from that i'm not really sure what could have caused this flavour, unless it was supposed to be there!

There was something I noticed in this beer at about 2 days through fermentation, I never really knew what it was, and it never really went away as I hoped it might have. Unfortunately, the best way I could try to describe it is probably 'old sponge'. At first I thought it was some 3068 characteristic which was going to develop somehow, but i'm not sure it did.
Although it finished very low - perhaps too low, about 1.008, it can give the impression of sweetness, and i've had comments this is diacetel - a buterscotchy kind of flavour.

 

[brendo]

brendo's LCBA
WEll brendo what a waste of your beer. I accidently forgot I had it in the freeezer chillihng down and found it the next morning. The beer throffed like mad when I took it out of the freezer and I caught all the overflow. So the 50-100ml or so I got to drank was an eis-LCBA... concentrated alc and hops. and at 6:00am that was a bit full on. I drnak it though. couldnt waste it. Going on the little bit I had to drink I recon it would have been an excellent beer.

Top work CM2...

I have a few in stock mate, so can sort you out with another one if you want... currently pouring off of a keg as well. Let me know...

Brendo

 

[scott_penno]

8. wonderwoman - Goldilocks

Left the bottle out for a couple of weeks as it felt undercarbed but there was little change so in the fridge it went. Upon pouring there was a small but persistent head. Appears an amber almost golden color. Subtle aroma of amarillo (or at least that's what it smells like). First taste theres a hint or amarillo and a background sweetness although I can't actually taste the golden syrup. Definitely undercarbed though. Didn't really strike me as a Mexican Cerveza style beer but didn't really strike me as any other style in particular either. Quite drinkable but a little on the sweet side for my liking.


7. Rook - Wazza's 3 shades of Stout

Pours a deep dark almost black color with a nice creamy tan head. Roasty/malty aroma. Upon tasting there's a nice caramel/toffee/roasty kind of flavor that's well supported by the bitterness in the background. Next door neighbour (co-taster) commented that this was the best stout that he's ever had. Two thumbs up.

 

[scott_penno]

6. sappas - Better Red Than Dead Irish Ale

OK. I'm going to leave it to others to critique this beer and instead will provide a side by comparison with the original recipe in the RecipeDB. This version has half the roast malt and double the Carared with the intention of cutting back on the roasty kind of flavor and getting the color to be more red than brown. I feel that the roasty flavor is now in check and well balanced with the other flavors but the color IMHO is still too far into the brown's. Not sure anything can be done about this without losing more of the roast/toffee kind of flavors. Pretty happy with how this beer turned out none-the-less....

 

[Quintrex]

6. sappas - Better Red Than Dead Irish Ale

OK. I'm going to leave it to others to critique this beer and instead will provide a side by comparison with the original recipe in the RecipeDB. This version has half the roast malt and double the Carared with the intention of cutting back on the roasty kind of flavor and getting the color to be more red than brown. I feel that the roasty flavor is now in check and well balanced with the other flavors but the color IMHO is still too far into the brown's. Not sure anything can be done about this without losing more of the roast/toffee kind of flavors. Pretty happy with how this beer turned out none-the-less....

Cara-red isn't the best way to get the red colour, roast barley is really the best for providing that awesome red hue. If you do it again, maybe keep the roast barley separate from the mash and do a cold extraction overnight on just the roast barley, then add the water to the boil. This can help prevent some of the harsh roastiness, however you'll still get the colour. Some people just add the roast barley at the end of the mash too. I think the cold water method is cleaner.

Looking forward to trying yours though.

Cheers
Q

 

[Fents]

Driveitlikeyoustole it stout - top beer, i dont even like stouts but this left me wanting more

kleinys bockstar - again nice beer mate never tried a bock before but its going down nicley...better than a dorito to the eye even

i've missed reviewing a fair few due to being to smashed with mates and pulling out swaps after to many other beers. i must say tho this case swap has surpassed all others in terms of most beers, think theres only been a small percentage i have not liked.

 

[Fourstar]

13. CM2 - Kenzie Dunkel

Dark brown with a ruby hue when held to light, smooth velvet tan like head(needed a pocket sparkler as i over chilled).

(left to warm to 7 deg) moderate malty aroma, slightly sweet with some esters present. Very malty/with some melanoidens with a crystal like sweetness coming through onto the finish. Not allot of hops going on, a smooth bitterness, reasonably well balanced. As a Dunkel, needs more melanoidens/breadcrust flavours/aromas but overall a tasty beer to suck down on a colder winter evening.

Top work there CM2!

 

[seemax]

I only seem to have a handful of swap beers left... hmmm... all this hot weather is creating quite a thirst

Highlights so far have been been the pale ales (4*, brendo, mcook et al) , Dortmunder Export, black beer and err... i even managed to finish all of the way out Hefe (wasting beer is not an option!), it tasted restrained in terms of phelonics than i recall my previous Hefe's. The mexicana golden syrup was interesting, probably the sweetest beer i've ever tried (not hard given my hop addiction).

Currently polishing off the cal common.... plenty of head on pour but has dropped to nothing very quickly, not sure if this level of fizz is part of the style? Seems similar to an APA with the hops dominating the malt... perhaps even a little fruity? Nice.

 

[Kleiny]

2. Fents - Bitsa Pale Ale
Nice beer fents i just found it a bit bitter, maybe throw some more of the early hops in later to balance it out. The way it is it could almost be heading towards IPA territory with a lot more hop flavour aroma

3. Beerdingo - Dunkelweizen
This beer was great ive had a dunkelweizen on the brew board for a while and this one doesn't put me off making it, i found it had a lot of fermentation flavour in it, which i think i will try and limit in my attempt. Great malt flavour with a nice low background hop bitterness.

4. Hairofthedog - Dortmunder export
There was something in this beer i think it was diacytel a covering of the mouth with a buttery like texture, nice malty tones with a sharpish bitterness. I really dont know what a dortmunder export is to taste like but i thought the flavour was there.

5. Brendo - LCBA clone
Nice straight up beer with a nice hop balance, i kept getting a finishing flavour i didn't really like maybe it was just the hops used, I think it is a little way off the LCBA clone but keep making small changes to this recipe and it will be a cracker.

6. sappas - Better Red Than Dead Irish Ale
Beer of the swap so far great malty balance with a nice roasty background and clear appearance. I sat back and let it warm for a while and it only got more malty with just enough bitterness to balance.

7. Rook - Wazza's 3shades stout
Drank this one with rook around for company on sat night, nice bitter stout black with a good amount of roast, This stout really fills the profile and against my oatmeal stout on tap was dryer with a good malty bitterness. I have seen this recipe before in the database and wanted to give it a go, I will be making this in the future after the taste test.

 

[Fourstar]

11. Leigh - Australian Plain Jane Lager

Crap, I didnt copy+paste properly from when I accidently posted into the standard Xmas in July thread... idiot.

Anyway Ill try and replicate what I remember tasting and from what Ive written down + what I remember from my previous post.

Brilliant clarity, straw to gold in appearance, low pub foam. Some fruity esters on the node, no hop presence, quite clean overall. High carbonation with a tin mouth feel. Sweet malt on the palate with some nuttiness and malty digestive biscuit flavours in the finish. Sharp spicy bitterness. Im assuming POR being used Leigh?

Finishes rather malty/fruity with lingering hop bitterness. Slight kit like 'twang'/metallic like also noticeable in the finish. Very subtle but I can notice something there. Maybe its water additions doing this if its not a kit/LME based beer? Either way its a very good beer and very hard to hide faults in such a light SRM/clean beer. I think you have done exceptionally well Leigh.

Thumbs up for the decent beer mate!

Cheers! :icon_cheers:

 

[Leigh]

11. Leigh - Australian Plain Jane Lager

Was aiming for something a slight bit more malty than a megabrew to start wooing my VB drinking mates, but still be quite quaffable. After drinking another tonight, I think it has come up quite well. Next batch has got an extra handful of DME to supplement the rest of the K&B's...not quite the maltiness that I was aiming for.

4* Nothing gets past you mate, POR is a must for an aussie lager...but you should have known that from the recipe thread!

 

[Fourstar]

4* Nothing gets past you mate, POR is a must for an aussie lager...but you should have known that from the recipe thread!

Just a calculated guess mate, aussie lager = POR just went with it... who knows couold have been galaxy (cept no citrus/passionfruit flavours there). A decent beer nonetheless! Is it in the recipe thread? i didnt see it. time for antoher scan... nope, still dont see it.

Is it posted somewhere else?

Great work Leigh!

cheers!

 

[Hutch]

10. Q - "Mildly Challenged" dark mild

Loved this beer Q!
Not exactly a typical pommie mild, but very interesting none-the-less.
Head retention is so impressive that I'm posting a photo of it - 40 minutes after pouring it!!! (letting it warm up a few degrees)...



The yeast character is unmistakable, and has me thinking "Saison". Is this the Rogue pacman? Certainly not what I'd expect from 1469.
Some nice roast malt there in the finish, and some lingering Pommie hops. I'm getting a slight lactic acidity now that's it's warmed - not dissimilar to the Guiness aftertaste, without the dry dark roast malt.

Would love to try this beer with a different yeast, something like 1318 London, or Ringwood.
Whatever you've done to get this head retention, keep doing it - I've never had such good head before :mellow:
Cheers Q.
Hutch.

 

[Leigh]

Just a calculated guess mate, aussie lager = POR just went with it... who knows couold have been galaxy (cept no citrus/passionfruit flavours there). A decent beer nonetheless! Is it in the recipe thread? i didnt see it. time for antoher scan... nope, still dont see it.

Is it posted somewhere else?

Great work Leigh!

cheers!

Hmm, thought I'd put it up! Will put it up shortly.

[edit] Recipe up now

 

[driveitlikeustoleit]

21. Driveitlikeyoustoleit - Oatmeal stout

This is a potentially great beer. It probably needs some more bitterness to offset the massive amounts of roast, there's too much favour towards the blackened malt. Sort that out, and you've got a really good stout on your hands.

Cheers. prefer my stouts with some balls, Rook's 3 shades wasn't roasty enough for me, i found it too sweet.

Driveitlikeyoustole it stout - top beer, i dont even like stouts but this left me wanting more

Thanks fents. Hey that fridge is still going too, thanks.

 

[driveitlikeustoleit]

I better qualify that :unsure:

7.Rooks 3 shades o stout.
A well made beer,good head nice roast and better a bit warmer. A little sweet for mine but could still drink it til i fell of my perch.

14.Cally Common.
Can't remember who brewed it (yes I'm shit) but it was bloody good. Dunno much about steam beers other than what i've read, but nice work. Nice mouth feel, nice hop aroma/ flavour.

15.Fourstar. American IPA.
Another hoppy wonder. A well made beer and a pleasure to drink.

10. Quintrex. Mildly Challenged
More like mentally challenged. Who puts that much challenger in a mild? A well made beer though

1.Superhero's. Milk Stout.
A little bit of mouthfeel/ sweetness from milk (lactose) and another well made beer. Give me more stouty goodness.

So nice to get so many good beers in a swap (so far). Much more impressive than the last swap i was in.

A happy stamp to all the boys and girls involved for making this work and making bloody good beer.

 

[Quintrex]

1.Superhero's. Milk Stout.
A little bit of mouthfeel/ sweetness from milk (lactose) and another well made beer. Give me more stouty goodness.

Superheroes milk stout was last swap wasn't it? Did you have a left over bottle?

Nr. 11 Leigh "plain jane" lager
Wow clearest beer for me so far? Very clean lager. no faults that I can tell, except there's too much hop flavour for an aussie lager .
Well made beer, Can't wait to see what you can do on your new AG rig.

Hutch Cal Common
Damn fine beer, don't know if it tastes like what a cal common is meant to taste like, but it's one tasty beverage nonetheless.
Nice clean flavour, reasonably hoppy. did you use cal common yeast? Damn tasty beer hutch, it's got a real creamyness too it.

I enjoyed your oatmeal stout too DLYSI, as I mentioned to you though I'd love to try it with some cascade in it for that real american stout flava.

Q

 

[Leigh]

26. Neill - Malty English Ale

Poured with a 5mm thick head that lasted as a slight foam all the way to the bottom of the glass. Colour is on the darker side of amber and slight hop aroma.

On tasting, this beer was quite sour for the first mouthful, with the sourness subsiding as I drank through the first glass. By the second glass the sourness was still discernable from the maltiness and hop flavour, but not as prominant. IMO this sourness distracted from the beer as a whole.