2009 Brews

[MrC]

What beers did you brew during 2009?

I've just been looking back at the beers that I brewed last year and found it interesting to look at the different styles and how many I brewed. I brewed 18 beers in total, 6 of them being pale ales of some description, and arguably one lager fermented at 17c.

BEERS:
1 x Brown Ale
2 x Porter
6 x Pale Ale (APA & NZPA)
1 x Hefe Weizen
1 x Belgian Pale Ale
1 x Blonde Ale
1 x American Wheat
1 x Fruit Beer (Raspberry Wheat)
1 x Spice/Herb/Veg (Coconut Porter)
1 x IPA
1 x Schwarzbier
1 x Stout

BEST:
APA brewed for the WnBC. It was one of the last beers I brewed and I think my beers improved as the year progressed. One of the few beers that I've brewed that I would happily brew again without changing anything.

WORST:
Hefe Weizen using WB-06

[denimglen]

Sorry, but no, you're wrong.

Almost every beer I brewed last year was a recipe from his books. Stunning results from all of them and gold, silvers, and bronzes to prove it.

The Irish red was a style I didn't like.

[Dale Cooper]

Heres my list of 14 for 09:

2x Porter
2x Pale Ale
3x Stout
2x APA
2x AIPA
Scotch Ale
Hefeweizen
Dunkelweizen

Worst beer was a Pale Ale which was all Aceteldehyde.
Best beer was maybe my case swap 3 beer Amen but a couple of those stouts were pretty good too.

[MrC]

Amen would be hard to beat, I can still remember that beer from the case swap. One of my favs.

[JackoNZ]

I took the leap from kits and bits to all grain during 2009, here they are:

K&B's:
Porter
Real Ale
Northern Brown Ale
Stout

All grain:

Northern Brown Ale
Schwarzbier
Maibock / Helles Bock
Bo Pils
American Amber Ale
Oktoberfest
ESB
Munich Dunkel
Irish Red
Dry Stout

Worst beer, probably the kits & bits brown ale, was quite soapy and thin in flavour, plus completely the wrong colour.

Best beer, American Amber Ale I'd say, my first really hoppy beer, loving it and down to the last 6 bottles. Munich Dunkel will probably be better from early tastings in the fermenter but it is still carbing up so too early to try. Just tried my Wellington comp dry stout, yum!

[Patrick]

Well, I only started brewing in late October, so:

Nelson Sauvin Summer Ale (great - will definitely re-brew)
James' Blonde Ale (OK - all the DB drinkers loved it, rebrewing on Saturday with a few more hops and a longer mash)
Scottish Amber ale (yet to try this one, put a couple on the fridge today, might crack one open tomorrow night.)

[JoKing]

Well... my list for 09 was on my laptop that got stolen.

So here is a list of brews that I did in 09 that I recorded on a hardcopy:

1. Hefeweizen
2. Timothy Taylor Landlord clone
3. Yakima Monster v2
4. Roggenbier
5. Mikes Maniachally Mad Mixture of Malted Meal featuring the 4 C Hops
6. Naked Poppy IIIPA
7. Irish Red Ale
8. Home Grown Hops Bonde Ale
9. Yakima Monster v3
10. NZ Hopped IPA
11. Robust Porter
12. Rye IPA
13. Amarillo ESB
14. Colonge Bitter
15. La Fin de la Fin Tripel
16. Yakima Monster v4
17. Organic Hefeweizen
18. Dry Hopped Mega Weizen
19. Hoppy Poppy (Naked Poppy with improvements)
20. Plan J (plan K wannabe)
21. Belgian Strong Golden (repitch Plan J yeast)
22. Debilitated Defender (recipe lost on my laptop - tastes fucking awesome)
23. Yakima Monster Baby
24. Psudo Pils
25. Ruination Clone

Thats almost one brew per fortnight.

The Best? Well Yakima Monster is always good. My tripple IPAs are awesome, as is MMMoMMft4CH and Debilitated Defender. The Hefes make it on this list too - waaaaaaaaay to drinkable and moreish.

The Worst? Irish Red seems to be a popular theme in this thread! The dry hopped Megaweizen was good in a pint size portion - but a keg is hard to get through. The Belgian Strong golden was a difficult chop too - I seem to struggle making a drinkable strong golden Belgian.

All the others were very nice. I'm pretty happy with my brewing: I didn't have a drain pour in 09 - and so far all my 2010 beers are stellar.

[Dale Cooper]

You posted the recipe for Debilitated Defender on here > http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/forum/topics/1500433:Topic:8?commen.... The benefits of sharing!

[James P]

24 beers in total in the last twelve months.

14 x pilsners (NZ, German, Bo, clones etc)
4 x Pale Ales (American & NZ)
4 x Darks (Stout, porter, vanilla bourbon and Neopolitian)
1 x NZ Draught....
1 x Drain pour (my global pilsner)

Worst: Global Pils.... that shit turned rank.
Best: Whilst I have had good feedback from my CS4 German styled Pils, I love my Hop Rocker clones.

[Reviled]

Almost just as many ales as lagers james?? Im shocked ;o) lol

[James P]

You know whilst you can be "perfect" at one style being a brewaholic means you need to try your hand at others and wonder at the ease of making, and enjoying other styles of beer that don't take six weeks to lager to be at their peak for drinking. I'm happy with what I brew, and whilst not as worldly as some of my brethern on here I don't handle change that well, and "going postal" as a home brewer means regressing to kit and kilo.... so there is not other option for me but to try another receipe.

The processes I use for lagers (stepped mash, water treatments, extended boils, extended fermentations, racking to secondary, lagering, fining, etc) all lend themselves to improvements in other styles I would think. At least I hope they do, else I suck.t

[Toot]

19 brews in total

1x Imperial Stout
1x Porter
6x IPA
2x APA
3x Brown Ales
2x Pilseners
1x Munich
3x Blonde/Bright Ales

Worst, when a lesson in sterilization wiped out 3 brews at once!

Best, probably the Imperial Stout or an IPA

[Simon David kelly]

I feel quite depressed that I only managed to do 1 RIS, 2 APAs and a rather sad looking pilsner ....

Must try harder ....