Vic X-mas In July 2009 Tasting Thread

[Hutch]

6. sappas - Better Red Than Dead Irish Ale

Scott, I overlooked your recommendation to wait a few weeks - and very glad I did. Bloody marvellous beer mate!
Unfortunately I drank it with dinner, which meant dealing with children took precedence over note-taking. Thankfully my wife agreed that it was a fantastic beer, so much so that I only got 1 glass of it!...

Anyway, enough jibba-jabba...here's what I remember...
"Nice balance" best sums it up - very sessionable beer. Lovely malt character, low bitterness, subtle earthy UK hops, low-medium carbonation, and reasonable head retention. Blood-red colour, and nice clean fermentation - slight toasty malt character lingering in the finish, nicely complementing the hops.
Would probably work really well on Nitro this one, though equally tasty under CO2.

My 2yo daughter said it was "Mmmmmm, a bit sour. Nice tasty good beer daddy". Take from that what you will.

Overall, great beer (Sorry for the vague feedback).
Hutch.

 

[beerDingo]

5. Brendo - LCBA clone:

First impressions wern't great. Kinda got a passionfruity taste (which I'm not a big fan of). But is growing on me. LCBA clone eh. It looks like it is the right color, has kept it's head and carbonation well in a large glass. From memory, I thought that the Bright Ale was a bit sweeter than this and a bit more hoppy. I think your's has the right amount of bitterness, but a little sour(which is probably the passionfruit taste I get (maybe that's the b-saaz, I've never tried it in a brew)). Overall, I've enjoyed it, while trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about :icon_drunk:

 

[beerDingo]

My 2yo daughter said it was "Mmmmmm, a bit sour. Nice tasty good beer daddy". Take from that what you will.

Probably better than me! LOL. 2 and already the beer connoisseur.

 

[scott_penno]

Scott, I overlooked your recommendation to wait a few weeks - and very glad I did. Bloody marvellous beer mate!

Hutch, glad you liked it. Wiki updated to advise that it's drinkable now (after keeping at room temp for a week)...

5. Brendo - LCBA clone:

First impressions wern't great. Kinda got a passionfruity taste (which I'm not a big fan of). But is growing on me.

I had a similar experience (with regard to growing on me - I thought the taste was pretty good). Admittedly it was the next beer after an SNPA so I have to apologise to Brendo in advance for my judgement. Poured well with a nice white head. Right color for an LCBA but was a little cloudy/hazy. Very little aroma present - may be the result of nc as Brendo mentioned earlier. Light to medium body. Great flavor and mild bitterness. For me, could have done with a little more carbonation. At the end of the glass I wish I had another bottle. Struck me as a great session beer for a summer afternoon.


24. Don Mateo - "Way out Weizen" - Hefeweizen :

I absolutely loved this. Pours well. Looks like a wheat beer. Smells like a wheat beer. Tastes like a wheat beer... and bananas....
Again, wish I had another bottle...

sap.

 

[brettprevans]

13. CM2 - Kenzie Dunkle (munich Dunkle style).

Nice dark brown colour (I wouldn't expect anything else from CM2), very little carbonation. Nice caramel flavours with a nice malt aftertaste. A very good drop Brett. I could get used to drinking this beer. I suspect the keg to bottle transfer has let you down on the carbonation front though.

glad you liked it leigh. I know I really got to brew some lighter coloured style beers dont I. I promise I will for the xmas swap.

Yup I was worried about CO2. combination of not enough time carbing up and then transfer from keg to bottle. Damn.

My critique on the beer is that it doesnt have as much full on malt flavour or body as i was aiming for. but at just under 4% its a bit hard. I'll have to work on it. nice easy drinking style. i wouldnt put it up there amoungst one of my best beers that ive enjoyed the most, but there's nothing wrong with it (other than not enough carbonation).

 

[brendo]

5. Brendo - LCBA clone

I'm guessing you were aiming at an APA loaded with B Saaz and Cascade. There's plenty of hop flavour and a good bitterness/malt balance about it. The first taste is Cascade, then subsides and leaves the B Saaz winey taste to linger.

It needs more hops on the nose (try racking to secondary and dry hopping there - it'll give tons of aroma, and might also reduce the haze), and there's something that appears once the initial hop flavour dissipates. I don't know what it is, but I think it's for the best that it doesn't take long to give way to the B Saaz.
Have another go at this beer dry hopped after primary fermentation, it'll be a cracker.

Hey Wardy,

Thanks for the feedback mate... glad you enjoyed it. I totally agree with the comments re aroma hopping and will be addressed in the next iteration.

Any ideas on the "something that appears" - I haven't noticed anything myself, but if you can point me in the right direction, of what to try and look for it would be helpful (totally understand that it is easier said than done).


Thanks to everyone else who has provided feedback to date... looks like it is generally well recieved, if sometimes a little slow to grab a hold of you.

Cheers,

Brendo

 

[Hutch]

7. Rook - 3 Shades of Stout

Lovely winter warmer, even though I'm not a great critic of dark beers. Nice and clean, slightly sweet, with some roast barley character (though not over the top), and lingering bitterness. Subtle chocolate in the finish. Colour is very dark crimson instead of black. Lovely dark red hues shine through as you drink it. Good carbonation, and light tan head that laced the glass.

What yeast did you use?

Very well made beer.
Cheers,
Hutch.

 

[brendo]

Well I only had time for one beer last night (out to dinner with the missus) so I made this one count and made sure I got my hop quota up. First cab off the rank...

15. Fourstar's AIPA

Cracked this bad boy open and poured a couple of glasses. Good head on the pour, but disapated pretty quickly down to a mil or so which pretty much hung around most of the glass. Good clarity with a bit of haze obvious due to the hop resins - to be completely expected. Nice colour too - golden/orange hue with good carbonation.

Put the nose over the glass and was instantly hit with classic american C hop type aromas whch completely dominated masking all traces of malt - again, what I would have expected.

Next up - the all important taste test. Yum!!! Mouth was assaulted by C hop flavour which parted way for cleansing bitterness. The flavour hops helped balance the bitterness quite nicely and I found the bitterness quite pleasing - I reckon you could go higher again if you wanted to push it, though I am pretty impressed that you already squeezed 150g into the recipe as it is. Little to no malt flavour - hops dominate. Nice and clean, no obvious fermentation issues. Mouthfeel was good and mouth was coated in hop resin goodness.

Overall, I was really happy with this - assertive but pleasing. My only criticism is that I have obviously turned my wife into a hop head as she gladly drank her glass, leaving me with only the one glass to enjoy myself :icon_drool2:

She gave it a big thumbs up as well... nice one mate!!!

Brendo

 

[Neill]

26. Neill - Malty English Ale

Bright copper to amber in colour, stands with a light tan, creamy head which dissipates to light wispy 'pub foam'. Best looking beer so far in terms of clarity. Can read brewing classic styles through it

Rather clean on the nose, very light yeast character, slightly sweet and the lightest solvency and slight fruitiness. No malt/bready aromas here. Onto the lips...

Medium carbonation, rather thin body. Light crystal sweetness is coming through with some pepperyness. Firm bitterness, balanced more towards hops than malt as the body is quite thin. Aftertaste has a lingering maltiness/nuttiness. Quite a session beer. The only negatives I can pick on are a slight 'kit twang' and probably the yeast profile is a bit lacking. Over all a decent kit and extract beer mate.

Looking at your recipe just now... Im surprised you havent started steeping grains etc. That will be the best thing you can do for your brewing right now... if you gave this say 200-400g of a light crystal steep (say 15-30Lovibond) and boiled your hops in that, it would have taken it to another level. The malt profile is a little one dimensional.

Saying that, this beer would fit into the category of a best bitter. If you up your late hopping a little and/or start using un hopped extracts with partial boils and steeping grain, Id say your beers would be fantastic! Next thing you know you will be buying a 3 tier system!

Cheers for the decent beer Neill! Thumbs up!

glad you liked it fourstar - at least it turned out drinkable after my initial worries. i will definately do this one again with some crystal (just bought some yesterday actually) so hopefully i can improve on it again. would you recommend a change in hops to an english type (fuggles or something)???

 

[brendo]

glad you liked it fourstar - at least it turned out drinkable after my initial worries. i will definately do this one again with some crystal (just bought some yesterday actually) so hopefully i can improve on it again. would you recommend a change in hops to an english type (fuggles or something)???

I haven't tried yours yet mate... but if fuggles or east kent goldings are good ones for this sort of style.

Brendo

 

[Hutch]

i will definately do this one again with some crystal (just bought some yesterday actually) so hopefully i can improve on it again. would you recommend a change in hops to an english type (fuggles or something)???

Hey Neill,

Haven't tried yours yet, so can't comment on the kit quality, but I can srtongly recommend the latest Coopers kit - English Bitter. It's only a few months since manufacture, so pretty fresh by kit standards (read "minimal kit twang").

It is quite dark already, but could certainly benetit from a small steep of light crystal, or even a mini-mash of Marris Otter or Munich (if you're feeling game). I've made this a few times recently, from 1.032 OG up to 1.045, and all worked out well.

Also, you can do a lot worse than adding a UK hop variety like Goldings, Challenger or Northdown, which are three of the most commonly used varieties in English Bitters. A combination of a few different UK varieties always works well IMHO.

For yeast, Notto is OK, but doesn't really impart much character really. If you ever want to improve the fermentation character, and feel like jumping into liquids, some of the UK varieties are absolutely brilliant (for example WYeast 1469, 1187, 1318, 1968,...well, most of them in fact!). These will get you a lot closer to the stuff served on tap over in the UK.

 

[therook]

7. Rook - 3 Shades of Stout

Lovely winter warmer, even though I'm not a great critic of dark beers. Nice and clean, slightly sweet, with some roast barley character (though not over the top), and lingering bitterness. Subtle chocolate in the finish. Colour is very dark crimson instead of black. Lovely dark red hues shine through as you drink it. Good carbonation, and light tan head that laced the glass.

What yeast did you use?

Very well made beer.
Cheers,
Hutch.

Glad you liked it Hutchy, but i have to admit it's not my Recipe it's Warrens and it's the best stout i have ever drank.

Yeast was 1469

Rook

 

[Fourstar]

glad you liked it fourstar - at least it turned out drinkable after my initial worries. i will definately do this one again with some crystal (just bought some yesterday actually) so hopefully i can improve on it again. would you recommend a change in hops to an english type (fuggles or something)???

Like i said, only major pitfall was some noticable kit twang and the kit base being slightly 1 dimensional. I havn't used Nottingham before so i cant comment on the yeast profile it should give but even upgrading to wyeast 1968 ESB might be a smart option too. As soon as you start steeping grain your beer will improve 10 fold. Theres some noticable husk/grain character you just never get from extracts. extract to me = malt. Nothing more unfortunatly.

Personally i'd get a 100g bag of EKG and add 30-40g for a 10min boil and 30g for flameout addition... if you want to give it some cask ale qualities, dry hop it with the rest for the last 1/4 of fermentation and crash chill for a few days before bottling/kegging. That would give you a decent Hoppy/malty English style ale.

 

[Brewmeister70]

Some sulfur, slight esters and malt on the nose ... very much wine like.

I actually tried to KEEP as much sulphur in this as possible by fermenting cold and only boiling it for 70 minutes, for one, to keep it as pale as possible and two, to increase the DMS character from the pils malt, so it's good that it seems to have paid off.

17. Brewmeister - Kolsch - Probably should have drunk this first, but it was the next one in closest reach. Nice subtle (yeast driven?) aroma. Quite clear. Lager like taste and finish, well balanced. Easy drinking. Hope the kolsch I just brewed turns out as good as this.

Cheers Mal! If yours goes well, maybe you'd consider doing one for a future swap? It's my first attempt at this style but I was fortunate enough to have tried Chris's one he got right and loved it. One thing about the developing phenolic is I would again suggest that you fellas drink this as soon as possible because it really doesn't have anything to keep it going: it isn't very bitter or high in alcohol, plus it was counter-pressure filled which means there is very little yeast to keep it stable. Also, I've read these beers don't last in general (Fents would probably back that statement).

Cheers,

Brewmeister70. :icon_cheers:

 

[Wardhog]

13. CM2 - Kenzie Dunkel

This is a really good beer, Brett. I'm with Leigh on this that the carbonation level lets it down a little bit, otherwise a really good beer.

One other thing, but it's probably only me - it's got a really heavy mouthfeel, when a lager should be quite light. Maybe it's just the nature of a dunkel, but I can't help but compare to some Monteith's I had a while back that was supposedly a dunkel, too. The Monteith's had a light mouthfeel to it, while yours sits a bit heavier and isn't as easygoing. Not sure what you could do about this if you chose to, and it'd be perfectly reasonable to leave it as it is. Maybe wind back the IBUs 3 or 4 points.

 

[Leigh]

21. Driveitlikeustoleit - Oatmeal Stout

Pours very dark like a stout should, nicely carbonated with a head buff colour. Very faint hop aroma.

Nice malty flavour in the mouth, lovely deep roasty flavours don't appear until after swallowing. Not sure I can taste any of the oatmeal, would have liked the oatmeal to be a bit more pronounced.

Overall a very nice beer that is very drinkable. Well done DILUSI

Is it just me, or are their heaps of dark beers in this swap?

 

[Kleiny]

1. Peels - Black beer

Man all this thing does is smack me around with roast barley and malty bitterness.

Yes its black and yes its roasty and yes its bitter, but by the end of the bottle i kinda liked it. I couldn't pick much else out in their and then i seen the recipe page 12% roast no wonder this things punching me.

I dont know that its to everybody's taste (my wife :blink: )

Thanks Peels for thr experience.

 

[Wardhog]

22. Lucas - Smoked Porter

I'm not all that sure if I'm a fan of smoked malt, but the smokiness did balance quite well with the roast and the hop bitterness, so good job there. I'm thinking this beer was a little on the thin side, it needed a bit more body in my opinion.

A well-made beer, good job Lucas.

 

[Wardhog]

10. Q - "Mildly Challenged" dark mild

Yum.

Not really a dark mild, but a mild nonetheless, and I'm loving it. Love the colour, the clarity, the malt flavour. Not sure about that flavour that I think is the 1469, but it's not prominent, so no matter.
I could quite easily have this as a session beer and still be presentable afterwards. Great job.

 

[Hutch]

2. Fents - Bitsa Pale Ale

Good carbonation level and head retention - lasted the whole pint.
I was expecting a fair whack of Chinook in this, and it didn't dissapoint.
Surprisingly different to LCPA (given the hop schedule), which I was expecting it to resemble - more pine resin, lingering bitterness, and lighter on the Malt sweetness.
Perhaps a little too light on melanoidins for such resiny bitterness, though I thoroughly enjoyed it with a couple of spicy pizzas.
Another fine beer Fents.