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

[JoKing]

Plenty of times - I'll show you a neat trich so you can do it with pellets and not use stockings...

[Reviled]

Do tell? Or do I need to be there to see it?

[JoKing]

You go to Briscoes and get 2 smallish tea strainers and wire them together (with your pellets inside) and they fall to the bottom of the keg. You'll want to coat them in iodophor solution first.

I can get 50g into my ones - and they just fit through the lid.

[Reviled]

Mean! I might just have to do that.. I dunno if its the cascade just by itself that im maybe finding a bit lacking? Cos the one I hopped the otherday with scross as well is allready smelling a million times more awesome! More complex ya know?

[Stu McKinlay]

Kieran's Autumn Ales festival last night.

I was driving so didn't get a chance to try everything but here are my highlights:

Kieran's "O Street Brewery 'Berhampore Best Bitter' 4.2% - a lovely lovely drop, probably the most authentic "English" beer that I've had brewed in New Zealand. Lashings of "tea" in the aroma, perfect balance of malt and hop. There's something to be said about working on just a couple of styles - Kieran's got this beer sussed.

Ed's "Golden Ale Challenge" entry - a wonderful beer, very firmly bitter, nicely aged with S04 character dying off and allowing the hops to shine through. Almost Germanic in its bitterness. This is the beer that Three Boys Golden Ale was shaping up to be in the first year but it has failed to achieve for me in subsequent years.

Brendon's Belgian Pale - nice Ardennes character from the first generation of the Wyeast Ardennes. I thought this beer was ok - with loads of potential on the next batch - until he told me it was 3.8%... wow, then I thought it was magic! A Belgian Ordinary?

Rob's Vanilla Porter - Warm, flat, black, creamy, vanilla deliciousness... I don't know why anyone was drinking it cold!?

[JoKing]

I had a few Beers this weekend - and some Champagne.

Cant remember what vinyard the champers was from - it was French (probably swill) nice leathery richness to ballance the dry acidity from the sip. It was on special for $12 a bottle - and you could have tricked me into thinking it was $50 or more!

I had some Gordon 12 from Belgium. I always over look this type of stuff when I see it on the shelf in supermarkets, as the price tag puts me off - $4 - $7 for the big can. Seems like cheap shitty lager. I was quite impressed with it though. It had a firm malt flavour that hid the 12%abv well. No new hops to speak of, however the ballance was earthy with slight herb.

La Trappe Quadrupel the next day in a Croek. Pretty Bloody good too. Hints of plum, raisin and rotten cherry beneath a soft sweetishness ballanced by about 4 volumes of CO2. Alcohol flavour bacame evident after the hour, and many complexities showed up with it. Sweet Malt, Apricots and Pears became the call for the afternoon and hints of phenolic spicyness too.

I'll ratebeer these now - hopefully I'll make it to the lead... Only 12,497 more beers to go.

How many do we have available in NZ?

[Nolen Smith]

Right - spent the weekend in beautiful CHCH hitting both the Dux and Twisted Hop. Started in the afternoon at Dux in the garden bar and tried: Hereford Bitter.... thought the name was a bit misleading as it is a "Munich-style dark lager" with absolutely NO bitterness - not even sure there were any hops in it. I asked the bartender what the hoppiest beer he had and he pointed me to the Nor'wester... I would hardly call it hoppy. I've had it before and found it refreshing, but not overly impressed. Even tried the Ginger Tom; didn't think I would like it, but it was my favourite there.

On to the Twisted Hop... what can I say!? Started with the Golding Bitter, then Challenger... man! Awesome! Then had a brown ale, which I can't remember the name of... very nice. Finished with the Imperial Stout at 8%... whew. You fellas in CHCH are lucky to have the Hop!

I'll be looking for cheap flights there again - must get back to the Hop!

[Reviled]

Spent the last couple of days drinking my wares - The conditioning on my US cascade ale is almost finished and its coming out as more of an Amber ale, too much malt sweetness for it to be a pale ale, its nice, but not what I was after but a good learning experience.. Im considering subbing crystal with munich for a few Pale Ales and seeing what the results are like..

Belgian rye is starting to be absolutely quaffable too! Alot more caramel/toffee type flavours are coming out, so damn easy to drink for the ABV! Crazy stuff ;o)

[jt]

Tonight, it's Blande Mk IV (with Munich) while I keg Blande Mk V (without Munich)
Probably a pint of Willy Nilly Brown (so called because I used Willamette and because it's brown, not for any reason that might excite Kempy) with steak & mushrooms

[Ally Mcg]

Tonight a rigger of 666 Brewings Gabriel. Been looking forward to finding more of it after tasting it at the Twisted Hop Beer Festival with the Chch RBers for the case swap meet.

[JoKing]

So... Yeastie Boys isn't a myth!!! Finally - it has arrived to New Plymouth.

Kid Chocolate:

Brown malt (I told Stu Chocolate - but it was a typo) dominates the nose with hints of nutty maris otter. Well done - I appreciate the difficulty in getting a lot of aroma from a slight grist. I cant say that I am picking up much on the caramel malts here. Once warmed, the yeast rewards me for my patience. Very soft peaches here... maybe apricot? Very subtle - couldn't notice this when it was cold.

Onto the taste, and I am impressed with this beers ability to quench ones thirst. It starts quite dry opens up to very nutty flavours softens off with a touch of toasted malt, toasted brown bread with the slightest touch of toffee. The hop character is slightly leathery... maybe a touch soapy when cold - too subdued to make a true comment on. 2 Litres isn't enough for me to truly appreciate the offerings here. When warmer, this character isn't there. I get some grainyness - but not astringic - more... a flavour that compliments the softness on the palate.

The flavour ends well after I have swallowed the beer with an affirmative bitterness. I'm curious about what calculation was used here - as the overall impression is that of dryness, and a 60 / 40 ballance tipping towards hop bitterness - especially when it was cold. Once at 16 degrees - I can say it was much softer, with a 50 / 50 balance. But this was no where near as sweet as I was expecting.

Imperial Pot Kettle Black:

Holey Shit. I honestly dont know where to start. Lawn Clippings, Pineapple, Raisins, Coffee, Toffee, Alcohol, Caramel, Tangerines, cracked black pepper: It took me a solid 15mins to think about what I was smelling here. The aroma was mind blowing.

The palate is so rich... warming... clean. Roasted whole oranges with lashings of burned sugar, malt, dark roasted cocoa beans. So clean - perfectly attenuated. A milestone of homebrewing. The bitterness kicks in just when you think it's going to become sweet. It wont let you think it's going to be sweet. I'm chewing on paspallum here... then BAM!!!! On comes the chewy texture... I lick my cheecks... Kykuku, resin, peppery bitterness, my old teachers orange coloured chalk sticks ... I need another sip.

I can smell this stuff from an arms length away. Once I become aclimatised to the sheer aggressiveness of this beer - I try to pick out ingredients, but there is so much going on. I'm thikning Cascade, Crystal, Sauvin?

Good stuff.

My level of respect for Stu has just been raised about 7 notches.

[Stu McKinlay]

Holy moly... I thought you said "7 inches" for a second.

Thanks. The amount of words you could find to describe a single 330ml bottle is astounding. I wish you were a judge at the NHC because I'm saving two stubbies for that!