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

[Martin Bridges]

When I went to Hallertau for my birthday beers at the beginning of August I picked up a few takeaways as usual, including a Maximus. For one reason and another (birthday beers, Beervana, post-Beervana cutbacks) this has sat in my beer fridge for about 6 weeks. Finally cracked it tonight and it's still on excellent form. It's about to wash down a (shop-bought) Thai green curry while the missus is out gallivanting round Auckland city centre.

[Reviled]

Be drinking this very shortly!! Went in the keg a week ago and its allready tasting fantastic, Mk III is the best so far, must be the carabohemian adding that extra malty oomph! Yum!!

Amarillo Ordinary Mk III

3.4kg Kolsch
200g Cara Bohemian
200g Cara Munich II
120g Cara Amber
80g Brown

60 - 8g Summit
20 - 15g Amarillo 8.6%
5 - 18g Amarillo 8.6%

Wyeast 1968 gen 4 (who says you cant reuse this stuff??)

[Steph]

Interesting beer night last night. A wee taste of a Twisted Hop IPA through mandarins via the hopinator at the Malty. The peel from the mandarins made the beer far too bitter to be drinkable; I want some hops in that hopinator!! Moved on to a Meantime IPA; it was tasting the best it ever has in NZ. Fresh and citrusy. Then a Bridge Rd Bling. This is prob one of Aussies best PAs as it actually has hops in it and you can taste them.

Finally, Mr Bridges, Jonny and I shared an outrageously priced Mikkeller 1,000IBU IPA. We put it up against a wee taster of the Mike's IIPA to see how the two sized up. The Mikkeller was dark amber in colour and actually had a very sweet aroma; must have a tonne of malt to match all those hops. It was both malt sweet and hop bitter; quite strange...It left a super bitter, hoppy aftertaste. A beer burp was like eating a hop cone!! That said, 1,000IBUs is a bit ridiculous and you couldn't really say you cuold taste it.

[Reviled]

Mandarins?? Far out thats random... But seriously

" far too bitter to be drinkable"

Does this statement even have a place here? I didnt think it was possible for a beer to be too bitter ;o)

[Martin Bridges]

I tried the Meantime through the Mandarinator on Friday evening. Initially I agreed with Steph - the astringency from the pith was just too strong. However, as the pint went down and my tastebuds adapted it turned into a very pleasant experience. Not something I'd drink a lot of, but a pleasant experience.

The Mikkeller 1000IBU beer was interesting, and I was very grateful for the opportunity to try it. Not as mind-blowing as I expected though. Still, it managed to make the Mike's IIPA taste thin, so that tells you something.

[Steph]

Ha ha..It was too bitter, although a few have since disagreed. But, not a hop bitterness (read Mikkeller 1,000IBU), more like eating peel bitter. Not so nice in my opinion. Smelt pretty good though.

[martin w]

i'm planning a couple of belgian brews over the next few weeks and i've picked up the only belgians in the local bs to try and educate my palate and see what belgians are about as i'm not familiar with them at all.
i'm not that great at describing beers so i'll see how i go

leffe blonde, a little spicy and i'm sure i get an aftertaste of pears? smells nice but i'm lost trying to describe it,'nice'means nothing i suppose:/

chimay red -to follow

chimat blue- to follow

[Barry]

Got me some decent beer from a botique wine stall in Queen Vic Market.
Holgate "Hopinator" double IPA
pretty decent beer, quite a malty IPA, not so pale and dry and bitter and hoppy, but solidly bitter and the hoppiest beer I've had in Aussie so far. 7/10

Hargreaves Hill Stout
Lovely lovely beer, roasty, good hop bitterness and some earthy hop flavour coming through over the roast. Medium to full bodied,but really drinkable for a 6% beer. Awesome. 9/10

[Michael]

Arrogant Bastard - The pub at the corner of the block I live on right now has this. Not a bad drop. :)

[Bambule]

I had an interesting Saturday night beer selection. I was cooking dinner for my wife's Birthday. She chose the food, I picked the beer. Globe artichokes (first from my garden this year) with Schofferhoffer Hefeweizen (The best match, the artichokes cooked in lemon and butter worked perfectly with the dry, crisp, slightly bannana wheat beer).

Asparagus with Hoegaarden Forbidden Fruit (not the greatest match but both tasted great). Cassoulet (basically duck legs and beans with way too much fat!) with Mikkeller Jackie Brown (awesome beer by the way, worked perfectly) Lemon Tart with Unibroue Fin du Monde. I was planning on having an iStout at the end but it really was Fin du Monde at that stage.

[David Nicholls]

How do you cook the artochokes? Mine always turn out like crap!

[Bambule]

There are quite a few ways, but the way I prefer is to slowly fry them in butter with some herbs (like thyme) for about 10 minutes. You also need to prep them properly. That means cutting off most of the leaves (or petals?) peeling the stalk and scooping out the choke (the prickly inner part). I love them, and they are too expensive to buy in the shop so its great to have a ready supply in the garden.