What are you drinking ?

[jt]

Ok, so What Are You Brewing was a hotty, as topics go.

Now I'm 15 pints into a keg I only filled on Tuesday and wondering if anyone else has a favourite at the moment ?

It's my second brown with US-Oh05 and it's better than the forst, maybe Ikept the temps down a bit during the scorcher we had in januray

[jt]

Lion Brown in quart bottles :)

So now you have a swappa crate of empty bottles, that you could fill with half a batch of some good home brewed beer :)

[Mike Neilson]

I have one,

Storeman/delivery driver/home brew guinea pig?

[Soren]

went camping in the deserted molesworth station over the weekend, broguht a tent, food, my lady and His Majesty. This is one of the best NZ beers brewed in 2009 for sure and certainly one of the most confusing for me as well: The first time I tried it was a Beervana, back then it was very NZ, very passion fruity and I could have sworn full of sauvin, this annoyed me because Hopwired was already in the books back then. The second time was when it was first released in bottles, this time it was very english: brian, andy and me all agreed independently, that it was like bigger version of perfection pale ale, very similar flavour profile. Then this third time its extremely american! citrus, pine, malt more subdued. it had some age but it sure hadnt gone any worse, just different. Actually, out of the 3 versions I'd probably prefer the third and oldest which is weird for an IPA. If I didn't know better, I'd say the yeasties are pulling a fast one on the NZ public, releasing 3 different beers under the same name.....??

[Stu McKinlay]

Ha ha - no way. It's been the same beer, all one batch and (contrary to a lot of people's thoughts) there is not a lot of Sauvin in there... less than 1g per litre, so well under 10% of total hop bill. It's almost all Cascade and Willamette. I reckon the fruitiness of the hop flavour has come out a lot as the bitterness and grassy/earthy hop flavour has subsided... and the malt has unwound and opened up a lot.

Sometimes I wish we'd made more but to make a second batch after telling people there were only 1200 bottles for sale (ended up as less actually) would have been contrary to my

Glad you've enjoyed it in all all its different forms Soren. Initially would have liked a little of Hopwired's overt fruitiness in His Majesty but, in the end, it was a beer we were thoroughly happy with. Something like it is coming later this year but not under the His Majesty label.

[Reviled]

Sorens Sultans of Swing Tripel - I got this off of him over a year ago and was scared to drink it fresh with its hefty 12% ABV, bottling date was something like 10/12/08, cracked it last night and enjoyed! And man, do I mean enjoyed!!!

Pours with a goldne brightness and fluffy head, quite high carb and head dissipates within the first minute. Strong malty aroma, hints of candy and honey, the faintest hints of spice and banana however the esters have subdued heaps from what I expected from the 3787... Prickly mouthfeel from the high co2, hint of sultana sweetness before an extremely dry finish leaving me wanting more and more!! Waaaaaay to drinkable for 12%, in fact, I couldnt detect any traces of alcohol apart from a warm feeling in my stomach afterwards!! Man, very, very well brewed beer! Me not normally being a fan of belgians I think you may have convinced me to give them another shot!!

[Soren]

LOL, did you only just drink this now?? I think you're right, it has been a year since I gave that to you:) 3787 was jsut to finish it off as far as I remember, the main fermentation was with "belgian strong ale", not sure about the wyeast number.
The Sultan of Swing is something very dear to me and something I plan to brew on a large scale next year. I've just brewed another trial a few weeks ago, this time with more sultanas, more caraaroma, different sugar and a different yeast, going for max raisin-ess. tending more towards a dubbel than a tripel now I think and less than 10% abv, tasting good out of ferment.

[Stu McKinlay]

so you going to trump our Yeastie dubbel through the back door like you did with our IPA? ;-) Her Majesty coming soon and is a dubbel.

[Matthew]

Nice behind the scenes collaborating guys! Could be a good central NZ version of Epic v Hallertau in the making. Brew one style the same each year...

[David Wood]

The annual contract brew-off!

[Soren]

The annual contract brew-off!

I'm in, but I wont do a mild:)

[Stu McKinlay]

not sure Golden Ticket will do a mild either... damn you all!

[Ally Mcg]

No milds on our brewing schedule I'm afraid.