Vic Xmas Anytime Case.

[vlbaby]

Swap day is almost here guys, yay! Just a reminder to all of you involved, you need to get your beers to your drop off point no later than 12PM SUNDAY 24th OF SEPTEMBER which is this weekend! If you havent done so already, just let your drop off distributor ( berazafi or myself) know that your still ok and when you're likely to drop off. Everyone involved should have been PMed a contact number etc by now, so scream if you havent.

Fingers crossed this will be a success :beerbang:

cheers

vl.

 

[Lukes]

Mine is down at dave's.
I was not that happy with the Aussie ale I had planned so I bottled up a lawnmower lager with 2000 Budvar yeast, POR for bittering and a bit of Amarillo for taste.
I put my number #5 on the list on them (labels from work).
It was so hard not to drink it before and as I filled the bottles and it was the quickest I have ever emptied a keg.

I am also of on a holiday over the ditch for a few weeks so I look forward to trying all the brews when I get back.

Luke

 

[James Squire]

My APA and 'darkhorses' Irish Red are at Dave's ready to go.

Looking forward to getting stuck into these brews.

Cheers,

JS

 

[berazafi]

The sort has been complete. It was nice to catch up with a few of the guys who help sort (Vlbaby,Lucus and Velophile)special thanks to VLbaby for doing the long drive from hoppers to mooroolbark unfortunatly two brewers were unable to enter there beers, so your case may be down a few beers, also some brewers provided 12, some 13 and some 14. After the 11 beers were all sorted the left overs were randomly distributed. Hope this doesnt pose a problem

Here is a pic of the sort

 

[vlbaby]

Well I've got 10 new beers sitting in my fridge doing a crash cool at the moment, which one to try first? mmmm
Thanks guys for making this work, hopefully there will be more. And a special thanks to berazafi (and mrs berazafi ) , for their hospitality and letting us use their place as a distribution/ sorting point.

It was good also meeting up with some fellow brewers and their beers. I was very impressed by the samples that i got to try today, so you guys are doing nice work I'll say.

For the guys that dropped beers of at my place, your free to pick them up any time that suits you. Just give me buzz when your likely to come around.

Cheers,

vl.

 

[lucas]

Twas a good day, even if the weather was horrid. Big thanks to berazafi for providing the venue, much beer and leaving me with many new ideas for my path to AG.

 

[Lukes]

That pick of the swap beers looks great.

Too bad we lost a few brewers. Looking forward to a bit of a drink when I get back.

Dave, don't drop mine off at my place otherwise Jeff down stairs will Judge them :chug: .

I will pick the up when I get back.

I'm currently stuck at Melb airport for 2 hours waiting on a delayed flight to N.Z :angry: .



I added my lawnmower lager to the recipe database.

Are you guys doing the same?

It would be nice to know what is in them without the guess work.



Xmas swap next.



Luke

 

[James Squire]

Picked up my case last night over a few beers with Dave.

Spewin' I missed meeting the rest of you guys. Big thanks to everyone that was involved in the sorting and distribution of the beers, especially Dave and VL for the big efforts they made. Cheers.

Looking forward to sampling a few of these beers soon.

I agree Luke, bring on another swap for Xmas.

JS

 

[lucas]

kit recipies dont work very well in the recipie thinger so ill stick mine here:

morgans golden sheaf wheat beer kit 1.7kg
1Kg wheat malt
0.25Kg dextrose
0.25Kg maltodextrin
15g Coriander seeds
8g saaz hops
15g orange zest
Wyeast 3944 belgin wit yeast

i dont actually have any notes for how i did this beer but i think back then i probably would have boiled most of it with the hops and Coriander for 15 mins or so then strained and dumped in the fermenter, topped up to 23l

tried the amarillo pilsner tonight, damn nice beer. has it been filtered? i'll definately have a crack at making one of these once i get my AG gear together

 

[darkhorse]

Cheers to those that have done all the leg work to make this come off...

Recipe is on the bottle for the Irish red ale... well, more like a ingredients list than a recipe.

1 correction though... Green bullet 10g used for bittering (not willamette)

I only sampled it a week ago but I was very happy with how it turned out as my first AG

Turns out my bucket is bucket and crude control of mash temp gave OK results!

Now I'm just hanging out to taste... I'd love to go through the samplings back to back but that is a massive session!

 

[vlbaby]

tried the amarillo pilsner tonight, damn nice beer. has it been filtered? i'll definately have a crack at making one of these once i get my AG gear together

I was impressed by Lukes pilsner also. I could easily drink that beer all night. Well done Luke.
I think I might give that recipe a go myself.

vl.

 

[NRB]

I don't mean to be an ass, but I tried Lukes' lager last night and found it to taste like soap. I unfortunately didn't enjoy it at all.

 

[DarkFaerytale]

i know it's a bit early but any thoughts on another case soon? i would love to be involved

 

[darkhorse]

No reason not to put the feelers out for another swap... especially if the swap time is going to be for Xmas
Leaves only a month (ish) for plan and brew, then another 6 weeks (ish) to mature.
You may even get a whole new set of participants!


NRB, I dunno about Luke but I will be looking for both positive and negative (well, I hope there is no negative, but if they are contructive that is great).
So, what do you mean by soapy anyway... maybe I will have to try it to find out, unless it was a factor that only affected your sample.

 

[NRB]

darkhorse, what I mean is it tasted like soap, viz. like a cake of soap one would use in the shower. Perhaps it sat on the yeast for a very long time and the fatty acids were broken down.

 

[darkhorse]

That doesn't sound particularly tasty!!!

Now I'm scared to try it!

But then again, I have to drink VB if I forget to BYO to my parents' place.

 

[vlbaby]

darkhorse, what I mean is it tasted like soap, viz. like a cake of soap one would use in the shower. Perhaps it sat on the yeast for a very long time and the fatty acids were broken down.

You must have got a bad bottle NRB, because of the 5 beers I have tried in this case so far, Lukes is by far the best i reckon. Seeing you werent in the swap, did you try his beer from a bottle or from tap?

Darkhorse, I know what you mean about looking for both positive and negative comments. I hope I can get some honest impressions myself. I'd even go as far as inviting people to critisize my beers if they didnt like it because it does me no good to hear nice comments etc that aint true.
Anyhow, Ive got to get into the old flame suit now h34r:

cheers

vl.

 

[James Squire]

I got stuck into the first couple of beers from the swap last night so I guess it's time to kick off the reviews people! *Disclaimer: I am not a beer judge! My tastes are my tastes only, end of story!*

Lukes' Amarillo Pils

After all the talk about the supposed soap taste I had to give this one a go first!

When I first heard that a Pilsner bittered with POR and flavoured with Amarillo was in the case I must admit I had my doubts on it's flavour compatability. However it had my interests up nonetheless, after all Im not really too much of a style nazi anyway! Good thing too cos I was pleasantly surprised by this beer! Good on you Luke for breaking 'the rules' and giving us a beer with a difference!

It poured very attractively in the glass, perfectly clear straw colour with a nice light head. Good carbonation (unlike mine unfortunately!) Little to no aroma noted. Taste was nice and crisp, well bittered with the Amarillo just coming through. There was a slight sweetness to this beer though, it tasted as if there was some sugar in the recipe but I know from looking in the recipe section that there wasn't. As for the soapy taste that NRB has noted, I did detect (but remember that I was trying hard to) a slight ?detergenty? taste in the background somewhere but it in no way destroys the beer for me. Im guessing (unless you've done this!) a little iodophor in the bottles before bottling may sort this out. Just remember though that after reading NRB's comments I was actually looking for the taste, so its no real negative for me.

Sort out the sweetness thing and then deliver me a kegs worth!

Cheers for the beer,

JS

 

[NRB]

Seeing you werent in the swap, did you try his beer from a bottle or from tap?

A bottle was taken to our brew club meeting on Wednesday night and tried by several brewers. I meant no disrespect to Luke for this beer, it's just that we all found it to be "strange". Full marks for having a go at a beer that doesn't fit into any style.

From memory, it poured a bright straw colour, had no aroma to speak of, was mildly bitter, slightly sweet with a floral taste reminiscent of Cusson's Imperial Leather.

I'm no brewing expert and don't have award winning beers, but my palate is reasonably well educated and this is what I came up with.

 

[James Squire]

....next!

Darkhorse's Irish Red Ale

Im not super familiar with this particular style so Im not sure what fits guidelines and yada yada but I do know what I like to drink so here goes! Johnny is a workmate of mine so I've been keen to get this one down the gullet!

First pour presents a beautifully clear deep red ale with a nice full creamy head that hangs in there all the way to the end. This is an attractive beer. So attractive that SWMBO (who's normally a chardy or marsanne drinker) snaffled the glass first and stole the first taste. She handed it back to me saying "That's nice!" which is like the ultimate compliment from her! Well done! I then proceeded to tuck in to it and definately agreed with her. A good well balanced beer, malt driven but bittered perfectly. My first time (that I know of!) tasting the Green Bullet hops and they were used very well.

Second pour however was a little different. Quite cloudy. Something as if it's ?break material? came through in small bits into the glass. The impact on the taste was that some yeasty flavours became more prevalent. Im not sure the reasoning behind this issue but it's very unfortunate as it is a let down for an otherwise exceptional beer.

Great job on your first AG Johnny, I forcast some good beers coming out of the Belgrave Brewhaus in the near future!

Cheers and thanks for the beer,

JS