Limbo Beer Comp

[DP]

A couple of friends and I have been talking about how it would be interesting to see how good a beer people can come up with in the 3% range. We've decided to give it a go and invite any of you who might be interested to try your hand at it and bring it along so we can all try it out. No formal judging is planned at this stage, just crowd-sourced honest opinions.

• No particular style just so long as it's under 4%
• Bring a plate of nibbles. Extra nice nibbles if you're only coming to taste
• Saturday June 11th from midday
• 34a Potter Avenue, Northcote on Auckland's snazzy North Shore
• 021 55 09 58 if you get lost
• RSVP here

[DP]

That's a shame. If you have an entry feel free to drop it around beforehand or give it to someone else to bring. Not sure what time we'll be going until. Haven't really considered it. I'd say judging might start some time between 1-2pm.

[Barry]

I'm bringing the kids. Which will shorten the afternoon considerably for me.

[Reviled]

"If you have an entry"

 

Sadly I dont - My last keg actually blew dry a few weeks ago and cos of stupid house construction I havent been able to brew - But this weekend its all on!!

 

Funny thing is, I still haven't run out of beer, my excessive stock of bottles has kept me going ;o)

[DP]

Here are the results:

1st (6.8/10) Richard Jack with his mini imperial red

2nd equal (6.5/10) Damian and Martin

4th equal (6.3/10) Barry and Damian

6th (5.8/10) Raffe

7th equal (5.7/10) Barry and Damian

9th (5.6/10) Tom

10th (4.5/10) Damian

 

Well done Richard and well done all. A surprisingly tasty range of sub-4% beers and an enjoyable afternoon. Thank you brewers and thank you to the others who turned up to help judge.

Richard, I believe you've got an obligation to post your recipe as well as your thoughts as to what techniques help make a small beer really stand out.

 

[Richard Jack]

Damn me I need a haircut.

The Littlebig recipe was heavily inspired by something that Soren had posted up a while back with very high crystal. The beer had really peaked a long time ago, I think it hit the bottles in November. The hops have died.... Was much better fresh. It was a longshot sort of brew that happened to work out really tasty, it was great over summer for after excercise, and really good to have on hand for drivers, which is why I still had a bottle or two.

The grain bill and hop schedule is pretty close to my imperial red, just with the base malt slashed, because I still wanted all the body, bitterness and a high FG:

45.7% golden promise

15.2% carahell

15.2% carared

21% pale crystal

2.9% medium crystal

Mashed @68

Hops are mainly simcoe, amarillo, cascade in equal weights -

15g each @60 mins, 10g ea @ 30 mins, 15g ea @ 10 mins, 10g ea @ 0 mins.

Dryhopped with 10g cascade, 15g centenial and 25g amarillo for 7 days. Dryhop proportions were just to use up stock.

 

Yeast was s04 at 19C, chosen for the lower attenuation, but I'll probably try s05 on the rebrew.

 

calculated 77 IBU, calculated 15.8 SRM, measured 1.040 > 1.018 (2.9%ABV)

 

I'm really sorry you guys didn't get to try it fresh. Next time :)

Speaking of next time, I think this little comp is begging for a summertime date? Sitting in the sun quaffing session beers sounds pretty good to me.

[Barry]

Thanks Damian, thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. And thanks for letting my kids eat chips off your carpet! Cheers to all the brewers and especially to Richard - developing a bit of a winning habit!

[Martin Bridges]

What they said - thanks Damian for hosting and well done to Richard for making a beer which truly transcends its strength. There is no way I'd imagine that beer was less than 4%, never mind less than 3%! I'm glad I even got close.

 

In case anyone's interested, here's the recipe for Littlest Beauty:

 

3kg Golden Promise

160g Wheat malt

Mashed at 70 degrees. I actually did a no-sparge thing on this, so I increased the malt weights by 25% but the weights given here are for a standard batch sparge.

 

60 minute boil.

30g Pacifica @ 30 mins

30g NZ Cascade @ 10

30g Motueka @ 5

30g NZ Styrian Goldings @ 0

 

Yeast was Wyeast 1272 (American Ale II) but you could get away with US-05

 

Dry-hopped for a week with 20g each of Pacifica, Motueka, Riwaka

 

I agree with Richard - let's do this again in the summer.

 

[Richard Jack]

I'd be pretty keen to see the recipe for that gingered beer as well?

[DP]

Gotthelf Black Gingered Ale (based on Papazian's Vagabond Gingered Ale)

21L Batch

3.4kg UK Pale Malt
400g Medium Crystal
300g Chocolate Malt
100g Roasted Barley
20g Southern Cross at 60min
No water additions for this one
70g fresh ginger root blitzed with a hand blender
Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley

Next time I make this I'll probably beef up the crystals and drop the base malt back a smidge. Just to give it a bit more body to follow that ginger hit.

 

Barry, Raffe and Tom; you want to share your recipes?

I agree that rather than wait a whole year for the next Limbo a summer edition would work perfectly. I'm really gagging to play around with some recipes based on what I've learned from this comp!

[Richard Jack]

cheers mate, when did you add the ginger?

[DP]

At 12 mins before the end of the boil. A couple of minutes before I chucked in the koppafloc and the immersion chiller.

[Raffe]

Great fun! Definitely should be held bi-annually, summer and winter.

 

My recipe: (I toyed with naming the beer ComicSans, but it deserves better than that) Also my last extract batch, EVAR!

21L batch

1.036 OG

 

82% Pale malt

6% Crystal 120

4% Crystal 40

4% Carapils

4% Pale Chocolate

2% Roasted Barley

 

25g Southern Cross @ 60

20g Goldings @ 15

20g Goldings @ 1

20g Goldings dry hop @ 7 days

 

IBU estimated at 35, hard to tell with my partial boil method, it dilutes the IBUs.

S05 yeast

Only attenuated down to 1.013, thus just 3%abv. I pitched the equivalent of 8g of a 11.5g packet, rehydrated.