Vic Xmas In July 2008 Tasting Thread

[Barramundi]

Barra's beer went down last night in about two gulps. It's that kind of beer.

is that a good or a bad thing peels ???....

 

[voota]

22. Quintrex/Voota - Coffee Stout Vootas

Questions was the coffee added in the boil, or in the fermenter for this one?

Was it in a plastic bottle of a glass bottle? They had different coffee additions.

 

[chris.taylor.98]

Was it in a plastic bottle of a glass bottle? They had different coffee additions.

The one I had was in a glass bottle.

 

[voota]

That was mine, I added freshly ground coffee to the fermenter at about 10gm/L and left it for a couple of weeks. To be honest I dont really like the beer that much anymore and I certainly agree that it has a weedy vegetable character to it. I reckon it came out too dry (mash temp was a touch low) and this dryness accentuated the coffee even more. If I ever add coffee to a beer again, I'll try for as much residual sweetness/body as I can get into it.

Way too much coffee in it too, Q's is much more balanced.

 

[therook]

4. Rook - Amber Ale

Now I know Rook said to leave if for 3 weeks, but in my defense I did have it in the hot box (18-26C) for the week and a half, and Amber Ale is one of my favorite styles. Even so I would suggest that this one be left for a little bit longer, as the carbonation level was still quite low.

Aroma - plenty of malt caramel garnered with a healthy dose of hops and some fruity esters.

Flavour - Good level of bitterness with a somewhat dry finish. Lots more hops ( presumably cascasde ) tempered with some sweet caramel on the front of the pallet. Also a slight honey flavour coming through.

Very clean (and clear ) with a slight apple flavour coming through, although this is probably attributed to my "early" consumption of this beer while it is still conditioning. Next time I will follow the brewer's instructions .. no really .. I really will.

Really top effort Rook.

I've been waiting for your review Chris as i know how much you like Ambers.....thanks for the report

Hops were NB and Willamette

Rook

 

[therook]

Tried 3 beers on the weekend and they were all exceptional.

1. Peels - Kinda Porta

Carbonation plus which created the biggest head i have ever had. lovely chocolate aroma's.
lovely Deep brown beer with the best clarity so far, a little bit on the sweet side but this may be to style.
Initial chocolate flavour, which was followed by other nice malty flavours.

Nice drop peels.....would have been better with chocolate pudding :icon_drool2:

23. Moonee - Oak Butt Brown Ale

has to be a good beer with the name like Moonee ( go cats )

Another beer with a nice creamy head, excellent clarity which highlighted the nice brown/Amber colour
Lovely balance of malt flavours, this beer is very similar to my swap beer but yours is a little drier

I liked this beer very much

Good work moons

9. Barramundi - One grain One Hop Ale

2 one grain one hop beers in the swap and as i said about Troys, a very easy drinking beer

excellent colour, excellent carbonation which left a typical pilsner/Lager head.

little to no hop aroma but had a tiny bit of hop flavour.

Excellent bitterness which balanced out with the Ale malt.

Excellent beer Barra.....by all means bring a keg up to my place for a BBQ :icon_chickcheers:

Rook

 

[AUHEAMIC]

is that a good or a bad thing peels ???....

Good thing Barra. I like a beer I don't have to think about.

 

[Barramundi]

Good work moons

9. Barramundi - One grain One Hop Ale


Excellent beer Barra.....by all means bring a keg up to my place for a BBQ :icon_chickcheers:

Rook

might have to make some more only got the 30 bottles out of this batch.... thinking of an eildon mission hopefully soon too mate ... will let you know ......


thanks for the review ...

 

[nick_lavender]

Currently enjoying the (21 Superhero) Milk Stout! Great job! Best stout I've had in ages, really nice creamy mouth feel and taste! Good level of carbonation.

Will definitely copy the recipe down for this one!

 

[andreic]

OK, this time in the right thread...

23. Moonee - Oak Butt Brown Ale

Brown, slightly hazy. Off white head. Smells malty, chocolate and some wood or resin. Tastes pretty malty, nutty, then some real fuity and woody flavours. Has a slightly slick feel on the tongue. Seems slightly sweet.

A very flavour-full beer! I really enjoyed drinking this tonight.

cheers, Andrei

 

[Wardhog]

4. Rook - Amber Ale

This beer has been harshly done by. I would've loved to have tasted it in about 8 weeks. Excellent malt levels, (what promises to be) nice hop flavour - but unfortunately too young and undercarbonated. It's been inside my house for the last week (SWMBO likes the house nice and warm and the heating bills nice and big), so I don't think the cold weather is to blame totally for the carbonation, maybe up the priming a little bit next time. However, I hope you've posted the recipe, 'cos I'd love to have some stock of this beer, and I think I'll set about making some.

Good job, Rook.

 

[superhero]

Hello All,

The case is quickly disappearing. These are my latest tastings.

5. Hutch's London (not the) Best Bitter - brown in colour, sweetness (crystal malt?) and hops in the aroma (goldings?), medium malt, medium/high hop flavour
and medium/high bitterness. I really tried to get a head on this beer having read about it's low carbonation and ended up with a 5mm head for about 45
seconds! A great tasting beer and a stellar effort, just needed more bubbles.

22. Quintrex's Coffee Stout - Black in colour! Aroma of coffee. If you send out an expert search party there is a tiny bit of roast aroma! Taste is of ground
coffee beans. Again using the search party a little roast can be tasted. I love coffee but I also love stout. I think I love stout more! I did a blackberry stout
a couple of years back that turned out ok. I think I put to much blackberry in which made the stout a little tart. Still a great beer but maybe the coffee could
take a back seat next time. I'm glad I didn't get the Voota version!!

Thank you to all who have said such nice things about my milk stout. I really appreciate it.

Cheers

Superhero

 

[brettprevans]

23. Moonee - Oak Butt Brown Ale

colour was making me think Newcastle brown ale. no real aroma. then a decent bang of flavour when you taste. couldnt identify the idividual flavours so im agreeing with andreic's fruit and wood. quite a dry oaky style finish. dont know where the fruit came from.

interesting beer. almost like drinking a good sherry. cheers

 

[brettprevans]

thats me done.

3 votes - Chris Taylor - Weizenbock
2 votes - Hutch - London (not the) Best Bitter
1 vote - superhero milk stout

honerable mention: Leigh Golden Ale, Fents US Lager.

bloody hard to pick these. great swap.

 

[Cummins]

So who has made use of their galaxy? How did it turn out?

 

[doppelbrewer]

21. Superhero - Milk Stout

Wow, nice stout! Didn't taste much sweetness, but this is v. nice - strong bitterness which hangs around for a good while, good mouthfeel, lingering alcohol taste too, but not overly much. Nice work!

 

[mark_m]

#4 Rook Amber Ale.
Great beer. Popped (screwed) the cap off this one tonight - no pfft?
Tasted promising, but sorely undercarbonated.
Decanted off to a larger vessel (1.25l pet) & gave the carbonation cap treatment - completely different beer.
As I've said before, I don't (yet) have a fine enough palate to extend much beyond - "that was good - tasted like an amber should"
Will be having a crack at this recipe, into the keg where carbonation control is not an issue.
Thanks Rook,
Looking forward to getting together for a session.
Cheers
Mark

 

[therook]

#4 Rook Amber Ale.
Great beer. Popped (screwed) the cap off this one tonight - no pfft?
Tasted promising, but sorely undercarbonated.
Decanted off to a larger vessel (1.25l pet) & gave the carbonation cap treatment - completely different beer.
As I've said before, I don't (yet) have a fine enough palate to extend much beyond - "that was good - tasted like an amber should"
Will be having a crack at this recipe, into the keg where carbonation control is not an issue.
Thanks Rook,
Looking forward to getting together for a session.
Cheers
Mark

Thanks Mark for the report, your the second one to tell me the beer was under carbed, i can only assume that because i only added the sugar to the bottles the day before the case swap that they need to be stored in a nice warm room for a couple of weeks or they will struggle to carbonate up ( this is what i did to the one i sampled the other night and it was fine ).

Glad yourself and Wardy enjoyed the beer.

Rook

 

[Leigh]

I picked my case up on the weekend (thanks CM2), and Rook's amber ale bottle is "soft" to the squeeze (love the label though). I've stuck it in a nice warm spot where it will stay for a few weeks to carb-up.

On the discussion of my golden ale, I remade this recipe last night, and had an og of 1.050:huh:...so I think the "poorly stirred" argument is correct, and the label should read closer to 5.9%...well I've learnt something from this swap already!

 

[Hutch]

18. Mark_M - Amarillo / Motueka APA

Had this one over the weekend, so not a detailed review. All I can say is that this is my pick of the swap so far :icon_cheers: , and that is truly saying something! (OK, so I'm biased towards APAs).

Having tried the 50/50 Amarillo/BSaaz combo recently, mine wasn't nearly as balanced or tasty as your beer. It really is a nice hop combo, and you seemed to balance everything superbly into a really enjoyable beer. Perhaps not as full-on as some APA's (Little Creatures), though not overwhelmed with the resiney-pine aftertaste of LCPA. Your malt bill I really like. MO and a heap of Munich is just simple and plain yum, and I guess perhaps a tad more wheat or carapils would give you better head retention next time.
Slight chill-haze would be my only other critical comment. Very clean ferment, no evident acetaldehyde, as I've noticed with several US-05 beers lately (I wonder if there was a batch problem with that yeast?)

Mate, top effort - a real crowd pleaser that beer.
Think I might knock up a few kegs in time for the coming festive season!

 

[chris.taylor.98]

Ok here are my last 2

24. Leigh's Golden Ale

Definitely golden, slightly hazy.

Nice balance of hops and malt in aroma, very fruity with hint of pears.

Fairly balanced with less appreciable hop flavour then suggested in the aroma.

Slightly harsh in the finish which is really accentuating the bitterness. May have finished a little bit on the low side, also would be better with a little bit more body to round it out.


23 Moonee - Oak Butt Brown Ale

Some caramel. slight hops (english), good english malt character. Well balanced with slight nutty flavour coming from the malt. Slightly dry in the finish.

Again this is one of those beers that really gets better as it warms up.

Very pleasant way to finish off the day.


As for top 3 my votes go to:

3 for 21. superhero - Milk stout
2 for 2. Fents - Some sort of US Lager
1 for 6. Andreic - Irish Dry Stout

(this is mainly showing my bias towards stouts, so from a more objective viewpoint Fents beer probably would come out on top)

Cheers to all, and thanks for the great case.

 

[Leigh]

Started on the case tonight.

First up was Hutches London (not the) Best Bitter. Drank it straight from the shed so was just under 10 degrees. Poured with a little less head than I would like from a pommie style beer (probably asking too much without a "widget"), but having been in the UK just last year, this beer took me straight back there. And it just got better as the bottle was drained. Not many "Real Ales" that I've had from the tap in the UK are as good as this one. Lovely, clean crisp taste with a nice english style strong aftertaste (is that the hops lingering?).

Great beer that would put many english beers to shame. Well done Hutch.

 

[Hutch]

16. DoppelBrewer - Helles Bock

Nice subtle alcohol, towards the low end for a Bock, slight haze (not sure if it's chill or yeast).
Perfect carbonation, and lovely bronze colour.
Nice biscuity sweet malt character - Munich is such a great malt isn't it!
Low hop aroma, medium to low bitterness, some lingering higher alcohols and fusels suggesting minor fermentation issues. Not sure which of the two batches I got ("10" was written on the bottle) whether it was the 2206 or the S-23 (only ever made this style with 2206 myself, which has a very similar yeast profile to yours). Perhaps it could do with a bigger yeast pitching, lower temp, and longer lager (2-3 months). These big beers take quite some time to clean up, but it's well worth it.

Overall a fine beer, perfect on a cold mid-winter night.
Cheers DoppelBrewer.

 

[Leigh]

3. Harold - Very nice drop! Great malty taste. Took me three or four mouthfuls to adjust to the bitterness, but am now looking for another bottle!

 

[Leigh]

8. Chris - Weizenbock

Was not expecting a beer this sweet! Is this typical of the style? Certainly can taste the bubblegum and clove flavours mentioned by somebody else.

 

[chris.taylor.98]

8. Chris - Weizenbock

Was not expecting a beer this sweet! Is this typical of the style? Certainly can taste the bubblegum and clove flavours mentioned by somebody else.

This beer actually finished too low for the style (from 1.075 down to 1.014), but it did have some cane sugar in it. My theory is that you can actually taste the cane sugars residual flavour, and it comes across as tasting sweet.

Also weizen style is very low hopped ( only 17 IBU in this one ) so the balance is towards the sweetness, but the weizen yeast is supposed to provide some counter-balance.

If you want to try a good commercial example of this style go and get a Schneider - Aventinus.

 

[Wardhog]

Aaaand lucky last - 5. Hutch - Best Bitter

I found this to be an excellent bitter, but a little low on carbonation. Never having been over to the old Dart to experience CAMRA-approved stuff - I know English bitters are supposed to be low carbonation, and maybe my expectations of what 'low carbonation' is are wrong, but it made it a little harder to drink.

Outside of that, it is everything that I would want in a bitter. Heaps of great flavours abound - another great beer.

 

[Leigh]

1. Peels - Kinda Porter

After getting used to this beer (hadn't had a porter before), I really enjoyed it. Went down well on a cold Melbourne evening. Nice caramel and coffee flavours and an enjoyable aftertaste.

 

[andreic]

22. Quintrex/Voota - Coffee Stout Vootas

I got the PET bottle version. Very dark brown/black in colour with brown head. Smells of chocolate, vanilla and coffee. Tastes fairly roasty and has a strong, drying slightly bitter coffee finish. The coffee is fairly prominent at first but by the end I decided it was not too much (I'm not sure I would have liked the massive coffee version as much though). It went down pretty nicely - another good stout from the case.

cheers, Andrei

 

[Quintrex]

22. Quintrex/Voota - Coffee Stout Vootas

I got the PET bottle version. Very dark brown/black in colour with brown head. Smells of chocolate, vanilla and coffee. Tastes fairly roasty and has a strong, drying slightly bitter coffee finish. The coffee is fairly prominent at first but by the end I decided it was not too much (I'm not sure I would have liked the massive coffee version as much though). It went down pretty nicely - another good stout from the case.

cheers, Andrei

I Mucked up the mash temperature for this, I was aiming for 66oC but only hit 63oC which really made it far too dry for how roasty/coffee flavoured it is. If I was doing this beer again I'd definitely aim for more body and I think it'd be much more enjoyable.