Vic Xmas In July 2008 Tasting Thread

[Hutch]

8. Chris Taylor - Weizenbock

Another top effort, continuing the level of excellence in this swap.
Having never had this style before, this beer lives up to both expectations of the Weizen character, and Bock strength and Maltyness.

First up , there's a slight mix of some Weizen flavours - bubblegum, pears, slight clove. Got me very intruiged what the yeast is (not much banana, so couldn't be WY3068). Whatever, I like it...

Rich, deep red colour. Some chill-haze (which I thought was yeast, until it warmed up). Haze is not a fault in Wiezens, though I think a beer this colour certainly looks better crystal clear.
Moving on to the Alcohol. There's quite a bit, and it's all good - warm, and very clean indeed (for a strong weizen, you seem to have managed fermentation really well). Would be interested to know some specifics - fermentation temperature, pitching rate, duration?
Bitterness is quite low, and carbonation medium, perfect combination for a beer with this much going on.
Great falling-down water. :beerbang:

I'm really enjoying this swap fellas - top stuff!
Hutch.

 

[therook]

2 - Fents - US Lager

This was my first beer from the case swap and has set the bar pretty high.

As with most of the beers i don't give a stuff about BJCP standards and go with what i like, taste wise.

This was a great beer Fents and had great white head, low aroma/taste from the hops, the only downside was the chill haze, so i turned the lights off

great job


3 - Harold

loved the clarity and colour Wardy, this was a nice APA. This was the first time i had tried Chinook hops and really loved the taste.

Top beer

8 - Chris Taylor - Weizenbock

If i wasn't drunk before i had this beer i certainly was after it.

Bordering on Amber / Brown in colour and you certainly could taste the alcohol which wasn't harsh but nice and warming if that makes sense.

I wish i had of kept this beer until last to give it anothe couple of weeks in the bottle.

This was the first time i had experienced Wy3333 and liked it very much, the only down side was the low carbonation

great stuff Chris

18 - Mark_M - Amarillo / Motueka APA

This bloke just doesn't know how to make a bad beer, Mark, this beer was every bit as good as your last case swap beer

Nice hop aroma/taste, excellent head which laced the glass all the way to the end. Carbonation was spot on and a nice maltiness to it also.

What ever you do when you make a beer don't change a thing.

Send me your address as i'm coming over for a BBQ :lol:

Fantastic beer

11 - Cummins - English Pale Ale & 19. Alvin Ng

Sorry fella's, as stated these were both off and tipped down the sink. Don't feel bad as i had to tip a keg of irish Red out on the weekend so it happens to us all

24 - Leigh - Golden Ale

Big thick creamy white head which had great lacing also.

High carbonation when first poured but after letting it sit for 5 minutes became really good. I don't think it was 9.5% alcohol if it was it didn't knock me about to much as i could still stand after i finished it.

Excellent bitterness. The only thing i would have like was a bit more hop aroma/taste.

Really enjoyed this beer a lot and is one of the best non A.G beers i have had

Top effort Leigh

7 - Hairofthedog - Saaz Pilsner

Just goes to show you can make great beers with one hop and one grain

Shit this went down well with fish and chips on Friday night watching the Cats pump the Crows

I didn't think you had it in you doggie..... lol

everything was good about this beer, head, hop deffinitions. The only thing not so good was the chill haze

How long do you do your boils for ?

I also think this beer would have been a lot better if you had of used either S189 or a liquid yeast and also CC'd it for a month.

But mate, lovelly refreshing beer...top darts

16 - DoppelBrewer - Helles Bock

This is just about the best beer i have had so far, i even got the BJCP guidelines out to see what i should be tasting and its all there.

Nice colour with a tiny bit of chill haze but no big deal.

No hop aroma as expected, big creamy head which laced the glass to the end.

Excellent malt aroma and also nice levels of alcohol coming through.

Nice malty beer

definitely was looking for another bottle of this

Fantastic work Doppel

Rook

 

[therook]

5. Hutch - London (not the) Best Bitter

This was a pretty dam fine beer Hutchy, true to style in being flat and low in carbonation.

Lovely malt flavours coming through and got better as the beer warmed up

If this is a typical Pommie beer, i can understand why the Poms are piss heads.

A really easy drinking beer, i would have liked a bit more head on it, but hey, story of our life :icon_cheers:

Rook

 

[tim_mortensen]

About time I put some tasting comments in. Drank these over a week ago, so apologies for lack of detailed comments.

21. Superhero - Milk Stout

This was a great beer, perfect for a cold afternoon. Great roastiness that was perfectly balanced with the sweetness. Not a huge fan of overly roasty stouts, so this one was perfect. As has been mentioned, a cross between a milk stout and an imperial stout, even had to have a little nap after this one! Will be my next stout I think. Well deserving of all the positive feedback this beer has received.

16. DoppelBrewer - Helles Bock

Unfortunately I must have got a bad bottle. Mine was very phenolic and had to be tipped out. Based on the other comments on this beer I lucked out

6. Andreic - Irish dry Stout

Another great stout, good carbonation level, head persisted very well. Not overly roasty, with medium body and dry finish. My last attempt with Nottingham finished too dry and ended up with a thin body, so great job on this one.

A really great session stout, one to emulate.

 

[Hutch]

i would have liked a bit more head on it, but hey, story of our life :icon_cheers:

...so would I mate
I think I need to get back to a few percent wheat or carapils additions for head retention. It seems to make a real difference, in spite of what some brewers think.
So you had a pretty big tasting session by the looks of your last post!

 

[therook]

...so would I mate
I think I need to get back to a few percent wheat or carapils additions for head retention. It seems to make a real difference, in spite of what some brewers think.
So you had a pretty big tasting session by the looks of your last post!

LOL.....thats over 4 days Hutch.....i try not to do more than 2 bottles a sitting otherwise i get to drunk and in the end wont know what i'm drinking...

Rook

 

[chris.taylor.98]

8. Chris Taylor - Weizenbock

Another top effort, continuing the level of excellence in this swap.
Having never had this style before, this beer lives up to both expectations of the Weizen character, and Bock strength and Maltyness.

First up , there's a slight mix of some Weizen flavours - bubblegum, pears, slight clove. Got me very intruiged what the yeast is (not much banana, so couldn't be WY3068). Whatever, I like it...

Rich, deep red colour. Some chill-haze (which I thought was yeast, until it warmed up). Haze is not a fault in Wiezens, though I think a beer this colour certainly looks better crystal clear.
Moving on to the Alcohol. There's quite a bit, and it's all good - warm, and very clean indeed (for a strong weizen, you seem to have managed fermentation really well). Would be interested to know some specifics - fermentation temperature, pitching rate, duration?
Bitterness is quite low, and carbonation medium, perfect combination for a beer with this much going on.
Great falling-down water. :beerbang:

I'm really enjoying this swap fellas - top stuff!
Hutch.

The yeast is Wyeast 3333 - German Wheat. This is the second time I have used it. First time it was a little on the subdued side, so this time I upped the pitching temp.

Pitching rate from memory was 3ltr starter grown form a slant (approx equiv to 1 x2ltr starter and 1 wyeast pack circa 300 billion cells)

Pitching temp was 22C for the first 12 hours them 18 C for about 2 weeks.

If you appreciate this one you should try and hunt down the Schnider Aventus, it has about the same ABV but is a lot smoother

 

[chris.taylor.98]

10. Haysie- Oatmeal Stout

Aroma was mostly roast malt, with a little bit of sweetness and some graininess.

Fantastic full creamy body, with that hallmark oatmeal slickness present.

Great but not overly assertive roast flavour with some coffee and a little bit of blackberry coming through.

Somewhat but not overly dry finish, and some alcohol adding to the overall experience.

The only very minor fault a could detect was a very low level of acetaldehyde (green apples) and that was only after let it warm up to room temp and sucking down 2/3rds of the bottle.

All round another fantastic stout.

 

[andreic]

8. Chris Taylor - Weizenbock

Brown, cloudy, with a big, just off-white head. High carbonation. Aroma was malty, clovey, fruit/raisins. Taste was malty, with fruit cake or rum n raisin flavours. Its relatively sweet. It tastes very alcoholic with a viscous/syrupy feel to it.

I've never had this style of beer before. Its really interesting and very tasty. It kind of reminds me of dessert wine in mouthfeel and a little sweetness - maybe drink it with your dessert or ice cream!

cheers, Andrei

 

[Leigh]

Thanks for all the kind words guys. I now have all the ingredients to put this one down again, and will take a sample from the top and bottom of the fermenter when I take my og to sort out the 9.5% issue...I just have to bottle my small swap pale first to free up a fermenter

 

[chris.taylor.98]

11. Cummins - English Pale Ale

As already stated this one is infected, seems to be somewhat acetic possibly with a touch of bret thrown in.

 

[chris.taylor.98]

13- Citymorgue2 - Pride of Porter (Honey Porter)

Not really sure what to make of this one CM2. My bottle was very under carbonated still (perhaps should be stored inside for a couple of weeks before consuming, and not left out in the garage).

Some spiciness in the aroma. There where some roast like qualities in there, bit of bitterness in the finish, but also a very overpowering level of what I perceived to be acetaldehyde (green apples). Possibly was not left on the primary long enough, or could have developed by zymomonas or acetobacter.

Hopefully this one is localised to the bottle I received.

 

[chris.taylor.98]

16. DoppelBrewer - Doppelbock

Aroma had some grain and a lot of malt sweetness.

Somewhat dry finish, good warming alcohol, no perceptible hop flavour or aroma with enough bitterness to balance out the malt sweetness.

Carbonation was fairly low, but added to a creamy full mouthfeel and definitely added to the overall experience.

Very slight astringency in the after taste, but did not really come out as an a distraction, and some low levels of diacetyl.

I think if this one was put down to lager for longer it would clean it up just that bit more and make it a little crisper and cleaner too.

All in all a very pleasant winter beer, nice and malty just the way I like it.

 

[superhero]

Hello All,

As promised my next beer tasting was Harold.

3, Wardhog's Harold - Harold is brown is colour and has medium/low carbonation and a small head. He smells of citrus and as I found out
from the recipe, chinook hops. Taste is dominated by hop flavour with very little malt and medium/low bitterness. A very good, clean beer.
For a hop head like me it could've done with a little more bitterness.

11. Cummin's English Pale Ale - I agree with the others that this one is infected.Smells and tastes of vegetables and something else (maybe
rubber as others have indicated). Only had a little taste. The compost heap thanks you for the rest!!

What to taste next?

Cheers

Superhero

 

[Hutch]

11. Cummins - English Pale Ale

Very murky, and poor head retention (presumably due to the infection). Very strong burnt ABS plastic aroma, and also very notable baked-beans (would have lead to nasty burnt plastic farts if I drank it all, so tipped it down the sink).

19. Alvin Ng - No idea

Similar poor head retention to Cummin's beer, and almost identical aroma. Again, tipped this one out.

Pitty there have been two nasty infections in the swap so far - it's good to get feedback on your beers, and we all experience them at one stage or another, but perhaps not a great idea to submit a whole case to a swap if you know it is undrinkable.

 

[Hutch]

9. Barramundi - One Grain One Hop (one yeast) Ale

This beer has seriously changed my opinion of "simple" recipe beers - it was a fantastic drop!

A great session beer, with simple malt profile, subtle woody/minty hop aroma (very impressed with Northern Brewer as a single-hop variety!)
Reasonably dry, with perfect carbonation level for quaffing, it went down far too easily (didn't let this one warm up to assess its character!)
The most notable impression I got from this beer was how good the yeast profile is. Very clean indeed, though not completely sterile like Wy1056, just a few nice "ale" esters. This is how I imagine Aussie Ales probably tasted many decades ago, before adjuncts, isohop, enzymes, high-gravity ferments, and pasturisation were made available to the accountants that run the mega-breweries.

Perhaps the only criticism would be the presence of some chill-haze, and that I thought the IBU's were a tad too high for such a simple grain-bill

Thanks for another great beer barramundi.

Edit: Barramundi, just trying to estimate your IBU's - can you confirm what batch-size and boil length you made your recipe to? I don't get 1.040 from 5kg malt in a 20-odd Ltr batch. Cheers, Hutch.

 

[Barramundi]

Recipe is in the recipe thread hutch ...

thanks for the review, i havent even tried this beer out myself , so it seems i have got lucky with it ...

 

[brettprevans]

13- Citymorgue2 - Pride of Porter (Honey Porter)

Not really sure what to make of this one CM2. My bottle was very under carbonated still (perhaps should be stored inside for a couple of weeks before consuming, and not left out in the garage).

Some spiciness in the aroma. There where some roast like qualities in there, bit of bitterness in the finish, but also a very overpowering level of what I perceived to be acetaldehyde (green apples). Possibly was not left on the primary long enough, or could have developed by zymomonas or acetobacter.

Hopefully this one is localised to the bottle I received.

yeah not my greatest beer unfortunately (I tried one the other night). IBU too high (more like a stout than a porter - and the POR hops give it an interesting bite). I didnt get acetaldehyde but could be wrong. it was certainly in the primary long enough so maybe zymomonas or acetobacter. or just longer to mature.

Re carbonation. it was meant to be a low carbonated beer. I made this beer and a Scottish ale at the same time and wanted 2 low carbed beers. I wasnt expecting to have to use this as my caseswap so i made it to suit my tastes.

thanks for the feedback

 

[Hutch]

Recipe is in the recipe thread hutch ...

thanks for the review, i havent even tried this beer out myself , so it seems i have got lucky with it ...

Yeah, I checked it out - just was curious about the IBU's, and couldn't find boil volume to make a rough calculation. No probs.

 

[chris.taylor.98]

18. Mark_M - Amarillo / Motueka APA

Great citrus hop aroma with a slight malt sweetness coming through, most probably from the munich, as it warms up.

Flavour more of the same with enough bitterness to give a pleasant dry finish.

No mistaking this one as an APA.

Very clean and balanced.

Interesting to try the Motueka in there. Definitely would not have picked it for a Saaz like flavour.

Great job Mark.