Your Best Beer For The Year

[big d]

fellow ahbers
its almost the end of the year and we currently have the 05 brew plans posting.jeez is it that far along already.anyway im wondering what your most favourite beer you have made is this year.?

mine would be a porter followed by a scottish 80/.now im not counting the rather late octoberfest that ive finally got into the bottle today.it is tasting like the u beaut that i expected of it so should be up there amongst the good ones.
oh and ive forgot the very memorable and great favourite hourglass.ive a few others but will stick with the porter and its great with rauchmalt.
better get back to my question.....porter was my best beer of the year
cheers
big d

 

[wee stu]

Easy - Eurilpa Bitter. My first all grain - cos I actually did it!
They don't get much better than that.

Devil in a Kilt, McBelgian Strong Golen Ale looks as though it's going to be pretty respectable too. Wouldn't enter it in a Queensland comp though - doesn't take too kindly to getting overly warm h34r:.

And I have a soft spot for my problem child second all grain - the Road KIll Amber made with all POR hops. Came second last in its category in anawbs, but is really just misunderstood. If you can cope with the immediate belt of hop astringency which puckers the mouth, she settles down into a pleasant beer - well, at least that's my story

 

[Barry cranston]

Good Day
Must be my Old Dark, foreign stout.
All the best, Barry

 

[Jovial_Monk]

My best beer would be either the bitter I made with rye and oatmalt or the Oktoberfest that came in exactly to style (I used the info from the OKF book by Fix & Fix)

Again, neither did well in ANAWBS, ah well, next year I will prime some bottles especially for the ANAWBS comp.

Jovial Monk

 

[bonk]

i think my apa beer with amarillo was my best , closely followed by the porter i tasted last night, made with amber malt, very nice, just in time for xmas

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Stu, put the road kill amber aside for a year, bet by then it will be of just the right bitterness as the alpha acids have largely changed to flavoring compounds

Jovial Monk

 

[Snow]

I'd say it's a toss-up between my Steam Beer and my Arrogant ******* Strong Ale.

- Snow

 

[Gough]

I'd say my second and fourth AG brews, an APA with Centennial and Cascade (only 3 bottles left ), and an Amber Ale style with lots of Willamette (only 8 bottles left )

Hopefully lots of good beers to come. Can't wait to try the Christmas Pilsner...

Shawn.

 

[Doc]

Very hard to decide. Have brewed some awesome beers this year.
Probably the Imperial Vanilla Bourbon Porter, Arrongant ******* Clone, HourglassIPA and Saison would be top of the list.

Beers,
Doc

 

[RobW]

A nice Irish red ale was definitely the pick followed by a big cascade APA.

 

[neonmeate]

i made a lot of big and weird beers this year but i think my favourite was my 3.5% ordinary bitter. goldings, styrians and maris otter yum.

 

[SteveSA]

Very hard question to answer. Probably the Last Minute Oktoberfest or WLA IPA.

 

[JasonY]

Was quite fond of my oatmeal stout, many others were as good but I will settle for the stout.

Could be interesting to have a thread with the opposite question "What was your worst beer" - mine would be my Lager that tasted like wine

 

[PostModern]

I was really happy with 2 of my porters, an Oatmeal Stout and an Irish Red. Couldn't put one above the other. I must say my satisfaction ratio is increasing all the time.

 

[Scotty]

Hey doc what was in the Imperial Vanilla Bourbon Porter, i am interested in making it.

 

[MCWB]

Scotty, a couple of posts down here: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...opic=2338&st=15

That brings me to an idea: how about we each post the recipe for the best beer we've brewed this year? Would make for pretty impressive reading I'd think! I'll have a think about my best one and post it later.

 

[Snow]

Good idea MCWB.

Here's my steam beer:

Partial mash
23L
OG 1.050
FG 1.013
Est. IBU 38

2.5kg JWM Pale Ale Malt
300g medium crystal malt 60L
600g pale DME
1kg Pale LME
15g Northern Brewer pellets (10.2%AA) 75 mins
15g Northern Brewer pellets (10.2%AA) 35 mins
10g Northern Brewer pellets (10.2%AA) 15 mins
9g Northern Brewer pellets (10.2%AA) dry hop in secondary
1 tsp Irish Moss - 15 mins
1/2 tsp Gypsum - start of boil
1 tsp yeast nutrient - 15 mins
2.5L starter Whitelabs WLP810 San Fransisco Lager Yeast

Mash at 54C for 30 mins, then raise to 65C for 60 mins. Ferment at 16C for 10 days. Lager for 4 weeks at 3C.

I did a lot of research to come to this recipe, including Ray Daniels' designing great beers and I'm pretty sure it's as close as I could get it with a partial mash. It's a great beer that's full and malty but with a great earthy/woody hop character that's complimented by some great fruit notes from the yeast. Definitely one of my best. Unfortunately I drank it all before the Qld comp, so it never got judged . Oh well there's always next time!

Cheers - Snow

 

[neonmeate]

nice idea. here's my ordinary bitter. it was an attempt at a Brakspear Bitter clone after a bit of research into ingredients etc.

2.7 kg maris otter
100g Fawcett Crystal
10g Black malt
50g flaked barley

200g brown sugar

30g NZ Goldings flowers (7.5 %) 60'
15g Fuggles (4.5%) 15'
2 Slovenian styrian plugs 1'

1275 Thames Valley

22g gypsum + half tspn MgSO4 to water. Mashed at 66.5C for 70 mins, + boiling water to mash out, batch sparge. Boil 90'. Fermented at 22C. dryhopped in secondary with 1 plug Styrian.

OG 1038 34IBUs

 

[Ray_Mills]

Hi
After winning the Nationals the best beer did not win, I really liked the Baltic porter, in the NSW Comp it won and Andrew Walsh (BJCP Judge) had a little note on the score sheet saying
"Can I have more please"
I think that summed it up. A huge beer of 10% and it goes down very smooth.
Bugger only one bottle left.
Ray

 

[pint of lager]

Yes, I was lucky enough to try some of Ray's porter, a very nice drop.