Belgian Apa

[Reviled]

Bit of a stuff up as I designed this beer for us-05 but the local brew shop had none the day after I brewed so I had to go with T-58, but the beer turned out quite balanced, well, you be the judge..

Ran out on the 16th bottle so unfortunately someone has a rogue NZ amber, be interesting to see if you can spot it ;)

Pour hard cos I carbonate low

20 litre batch

2.5kg Golden Promise
600g kolsch
600g wheat
200g caramunich 2
80g caraamber
80g caraaroma

30 - 15g centennial 9.2%
20 - 40g ahtanum 4.8%
15 - 15g amarillo 8.2%
5 - 20g ahtanum 4.8%
0 - 20g centennial, 10g amarillo

OG - 1.047
FG - 1.014
IBU - 40

[Martin Bridges]

Erm, not sure what's going on here. It certainly looks awesome - reddish amber with a big head which subsides but hangs around. Carbonation is high but not prickly. Smells a bit acetaldehyde-y on the nose but not overpoweringly.

 

Mate - were you shooting for Rodenbach (i.e. Flanders sour red)? Coz that's the main thing it reminds me of. In a good way. No real big hops but a definite hint of sourness. Very refreshing. Interesting stuff!

[Reviled]

Cheers Martin, interesting feedback!! Wasnt really shooting for anything other than an APA or AAA but that all changed along with my yeast choice haha, but it was one of those pleasant mistakes ya know?

 

Personally Ithink I get a bit of a sourness from the ahtanum, its like a lychee sort of a flavour to me which I think could be perceived as sour, (especially combined with the tartness from the wheat malt.) I noticed it slightly in the aroma on Jackos red also.. Either that or you got an infected bottle, but I dont think you did...

[Barry]

Fizzy amber with a slight haze. Quite a but of sediment in the bottom, thought it was bottle conditioned til I read here.
Head is sticky as heck, lasted all the way down the glass. Definitely some secondary fermentation there.

Hops on the nose with a bit of spice, subtle but yum aroma.

Perfect mouthfeel and balance on this beer, it slides down super easy, nothing harsh at all in the hoppage or the yeast. So tasty! The yeast has stolen a lot of the hops and rounded thing out a lot, but also added it's own dimension which is pretty cool.

Really great beer man, just superbly drinkable. Cheers!

[Stu H]

So I didn't read your post before drinking, and thought I was drinking an "ESB" as per the bottle cap!

 

What Martin said - the beer looks amazing. Huge, slightly off-white head on top of a deep, clear red brew! Not heaps in the nose for me, very light floral notes, and a bit yeasty/bready. I was mostly tasting bready yeast, very bitter. I was expecting to taste more hops from a beer from you Rev! I guess it's that yeast aye? As I thought I was drinking an ESB I wrote in my diary "missing maltyness", but maybe throw that one out the window! The beer finished very dry for me.

 

While it wasn't what I expected, I still happily sucked the bottle dry, and would have happily had another!

 

Thanks for sharing Rev!

[Stu McKinlay]

Just checking through to see if I missed any comments and it appears I missed this one... Damn, sorry. It all got a bit hectic before I popped over to Aus last week.  I guess I had this a night or two before but then forgot to comment.

 

I remember liking it, thinking it was familiar yet unique, and that you'd done a nice job with T-58.

 

However, I also remember it shooting its load all over my jeans.  I lost half the bottle upon opening it.  then left if over night and it was tasting pretty solid the next day.  Cheers, I'll send you my dry cleaning bill!! ;-)

[Tilt]

No. 2 beer for me tonight.  Having read previous posts I'd been venting this one bit by bit to reduce the carb.  Aroma is a bit spicy and very slight tinned mixed "four fruits" to me (with the emphasis on the frutiy syrup, not the tin!!).  Flavour wise I get a clean low order malty base, but more phenolic yeasty flavour that covers up the hops in the beer.  This is a subtle little beer with a bunch of flavours that have me scratching to place them.  I'm a noob with belgian beers but this one has tweaked my interest Rev - thanks for sharing your experiment...interesting and complex with a bit of spice..sort of reminds me of a french bird I once knew...