Vic X-mas In July 2009 Tasting Thread

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i assume you mean where ;). been drinking already?! kidding

ringwood. so about 10 minutes from where we are renting. lots of room for all my brewing gear!! and the ridiculous amount of grain i have atm.
 
Congrats Brett! Bet your stoked. Nice area Ringwood.
 
i assume you mean where ;). been drinking already?! kidding

ringwood. so about 10 minutes from where we are renting. lots of room for all my brewing gear!! and the ridiculous amount of grain i have atm.


oh come on leave my spelling alone. I will admit its terrible! But good on YA!
 
Great news on the house CM2. that calls for a beer. up for a lunch bevie?
 
Ill Pm you Maple

ok back on topic otherise the topic police will come get us.

edit: geez your a funny man Wardy! but yeah once we are in and set up. certainly up for a house/brew warming.
 
5. Fourstar - AIPA

Mine wasn't amazingly clear, but then again i'm not fussed what it looks like.

Easy and smooth mouthfeel, moderate malt background.

I found the bitterness reasonably pronounced - it is bittered to 60 IBU i guess so that's to be expected. Great dry end to the mouthfull, made me keep wanting more :)

As above, no evidence of any infection or phenolics in this one that i could taste, was pretty good overall.

Only slight criticism is the bitterness was a bit strong for my liking, but that's more a personal preference thing rather than a flaw in the beer.

Great work overall on this one!

Looking forward to trying someone else's beer tonight.
 
5. Fourstar - AIPA
Only slight criticism is the bitterness was a bit strong for my liking, but that's more a personal preference thing rather than a flaw in the beer.
Great work overall on this one!

Cheers mate! I see that being my main issue if you are not a hop head or into strong American C hops. You'd think it was overly bitter. Personally for an AIPA i think its slightly underhopped on the hop flavour side of things... needs more resin! :icon_drool2:

As Chirs pointed out, on my next attempt i might drop around 5 IBU from the bittering additon and pop it in as a 20 minute one! It should hopefully bump up the 'fruit salad' flavour to 11 on the dial! :p

Glad you liked it!
 
Cheers mate! I see that being my main issue if you are not a hop head or into strong American C hops. You'd think it was overly bitter. Personally for an AIPA i think its slightly underhopped on the hop flavour side of things... needs more resin! :icon_drool2:

As Chirs pointed out, on my next attempt i might drop around 5 IBU from the bittering additon and pop it in as a 20 minute one! It should hopefully bump up the 'fruit salad' flavour to 11 on the dial! :p

Glad you liked it!

Speaking of fruit salad, I got watermelon as one of the fruit flavours going on, particularly as it warmed. What hop do you feel might be responsible for that one Fourstar?? I really liked it alot and now feel inspired to try some American hops I may not have considered using before trying this beer, so thanks and yes, the Kolsch only got put in the keg a couple of days before so was yeast as it could be. The other half of the brew wheich originally went in a keg and settled was "cleaner" as this yeast does leave a bitter flavour IMO.

Cheers :icon_cheers:
 
Speaking of fruit salad, I got watermelon as one of the fruit flavours going on, particularly as it warmed. What hop do you feel might be responsible for that one Fourstar?? I really liked it alot and now feel inspired to try some American hops I may not have considered using before trying this beer, so thanks and yes, the Kolsch only got put in the keg a couple of days before so was yeast as it could be. The other half of the brew wheich originally went in a keg and settled was "cleaner" as this yeast does leave a bitter flavour IMO.

Cheers :icon_cheers:

You didn't use aussie cascade did you ? I just ask cos' i've tasted watermelon from that, plus you mentioned that it had an alpha of 7.8% which if I remember correctly is what the current batch of tas cascade was.
 
Speaking of fruit salad, I got watermelon as one of the fruit flavours going on, particularly as it warmed. What hop do you feel might be responsible for that one Fourstar??

Cheers for the Kudos BM70! Umm the hops usused where Simcoe, Cascade, Amarillo and Chinook with lots of late simcoe in there too. heres the Hop profile:

20.00 gm Simcoe [13.00%] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 27.1 IBU
20.00 gm Cascade [5.50%] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 11.5 IBU
20.00 gm Chinook [13.00%] (15 min) Hops 12.2 IBU
20.00 gm Amarillo [8.20%] (15 min) Hops 7.7 IBU
10.00 gm Cascade [5.50%] (5 min) Hops 1.0 IBU
10.00 gm Amarillo [8.20%] (0 min) Hops -
10.00 gm Chinook [13.00%] (0 min) Hops -
10.00 gm Simcoe [13.00%] (0 min) Hops -
5.00 gm Amarillo [8.20%] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops -
5.00 gm Cascade [5.50%] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops -
20.00 gm Simcoe [13.00%] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops -

Unsure as to what was throwing the 'watermelon' Maybe the simcoe and Amarillo together? Slightly passiona?

You didn't use aussie cascade did you ? I just ask cos' i've tasted watermelon from that, plus you mentioned that it had an alpha of 7.8% which if I remember correctly is what the current batch of tas cascade was.
It may have been, ive noted it as 5.5% here. i think i used an old batch of cascade looking at the above because i added some dregs in the dry hop (that loose 5g) and the new cascade @7.8%AA may have been used in my cream ale with EKG.

If you or i can find that post of mine... prove me wrong! :p
 
Neil i think no5 is brendos not fourstars maybe thats the problem ??? :icon_cheers:
 
Neil i think no5 is brendos not fourstars maybe thats the problem ???

Lets hope its a typo, I'd be suprised if Brendos has hopped his LCBA to 60 IBU! not to mention the amount of crystal i used was 8.5%, rather sweet for a bright ale clone. Who knows what Neils palate is like! App his taste in women is supurb though! :p
 
Fourstars AIPA

Pours nicely, good level of carb.

Nice tropical fruit salad aroma, with further sniffing revealing some toffee.

Firm bitterness balanced with some x-tal, pretty nicely balanced. I'd love a touch more hop flavour, but i am a hop fiend.

enjoyable beer

Q
 
Unsure as to what was throwing the 'watermelon' Maybe the simcoe and Amarillo together? Slightly passiona?


It may have been, ive noted it as 5.5% here. i think i used an old batch of cascade looking at the above because i added some dregs in the dry hop (that loose 5g) and the new cascade @7.8%AA may have been used in my cream ale with EKG.

If you or i can find that post of mine... prove me wrong! :p

I was a little worried the the voilent ferment i had. Ended up quite the pearler! Glad you liked it Chris. When i pick mine up tonight, mine and Mcooks are going into the fridge for a side by side, blind tasting.

Im unsure how you drank this but the more it warmed up, the more the malt pushed forward. Especially the crystal which helped balance things up abit. Yep, i noticed the bitterness was a little sharp, could be a problem for the non-hop-heads. it didnt help the cascade in it was 7.8%AA too! Cheers!

whichever way doesn't really matter, I just mentioned it because the aussie cascade a friend had in his randall was throwing out some massive watermelon flavour.

Q
 
Fourstars AIPA
Pours nicely, good level of carb.
Nice tropical fruit salad aroma, with further sniffing revealing some toffee.
Firm bitterness balanced with some x-tal, pretty nicely balanced. I'd love a touch more hop flavour, but i am a hop fiend.
enjoyable beer
Q


Cheers mate, on the final tasting i had i wish i hand late bombed the thing.. saying that the batch as 150 grams of hops in it! maybe i should have trippled my 5min addition from 10 to 30g as this goes in at whirlpool for me (im a NC'er). always next time.... 15 bucks a batch for hops. Its 3/4 the cost of the grain bill!
 
12. mcook - American IPA

Orange to amber in colour, holds a smooth blankety head. Got a little hop/yeast haze as expected in a highly hopped beer like this.

Aroma, slightly grainy, no hop presence whatsoever! Not much to it on the nose, slight alcohol warmth.

Onto the lips. A high carbonation with some solventy hot alc characteristics at the back of the throat. finishes very very malty. Lots of munich/melanoidens going on. hop to bitterness ratio is balanced more like an APA than an AIPA. very nutty in the finish. Its lacking American hop. Noteably C hop characteristics. Considering your recipe it should be all US hop flavour/aroma. I detect nothing, all im getting is bitterness, no hop flavour unfortunately. The flavour is all munich with some crystal sweetness.

What happened mcook? Did you have a high temp ferment going on? what ABV did this finish at? All hop aroma is lost and a noticable solvent character too. I was expecting a battle of the gladiators man! Maybe i got a ugly bottle..

Cheers for the beer either way mate!

12._Mcook___AIPA.JPG
 
22. Lucas - Smoked Porter

This beer is very dark (indeed you can't see through the glass!), pours with a small head that dissipates quickly, typical sweet porter-esque sweet aroma.

On tasting, a mild burnt chocolate flavour at the front of the mouth that travels rearward, leaving a bitter aftertaste that remains at the back of the tongue. The bitterness is a bit stronger than the other porters I've tried.

Not a bad effort Lucas, my comments come from a non-porter drinker ;)
 
15 fourstars AIPA

pure gold mate great malt character matched with a perfect amount of hops :icon_drool2:
 
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