CS5 - Jacko's Red Devil Plum Ale

[JackoNZ]

This is my experimental beer that I brewed for the last WnBC Imperial Hybrid comp. It was intended to be an IIPA with plum but points were knocked down for style so I'm re-branding it as an Imperial Fruit Beer!

Red Devil Plum Ale

18L Batch

Baird's Pearl Pale Malt 85%
Weyermann Munich I 4.6%
Baird's Pale Crystal 2.9%
Global Light Caramel 2.9%
Sugar 4.6%

60 - 10g Pacific Jade 13.9 IBU
55 - 10g Pacific Jade 13.5 IBU
50 - 10g Pacific Jade 13.2 IBU
45 - 10g Pacific Jade 12.7 IBU

30 - 10g Centennial 8.4 IBU
25 - 10g Centennial 7.6 IBU
20 - 10g Centennial 6.7 IBU

Dry Hop - 22g Pacific Hallertau 3 days

3.2kg of dark red flesh Omega plums were added in secondary, 1kilo (pasteurized) at a time for 3-5 days then removed and replaced with a fresh kilo. The dry hop was added with the last 1.2 kilo of plums.

2 packs of SAF-05

1.063 - 1.012
6.66% ABV
76 IBU

[Reviled]

I got very excited when I opened wellys beers and saw this Leigh, really looking forward to trying it :o)

[JackoNZ]

haha you're a brave man! Sure you haven't been sampling already with that long winded spelling of my name! Lee is fine ;)

[Reviled]

Haha, sorry mate, I wish I had a sample allready, been thinking about beer all day! lol

[Simon David kelly]

I've had a go at it already ... was going to wait till they were all in but ...

Very nice, quite tart finish. Not a session beer, but more than drinkable. Not too sure what else to tell you about it as I'm not really a fruit beer drinker. I'd maybe add a little more sweetness in the next one, or back the fruit off a bit and dry the beer out a little more.

Wouldn't turn away a second helping :o)

[James P]

Wish we had the Auckland and Wellington ones.... Next time CHCH may hold all beers to ransom until we get WLG and AKL!! :)

[Reviled]

Sorry James, Akl beers are being posted today, I promise... Bloody hard working in town and catching the bus ive had to beg/plead/borrow/steal help from where ever I can get it...

[MrC]

I thought Welly waiting on the Chchers?

[Reviled]

Its been a bit of a shambles this time round, but well get there in the end mate ;o)

[Simon David kelly]

Not a shambles at my end ;o)

Ruthless Engineering Efficiency down/up my way ...

[vdog]

Pours a hazy dusky scarlet kind of colour, without much of a head. Dark plums dominate on the nose. Taste-wise it had a slight lambic sourness to it, with definite plums in there - reminded me a lot of a kriek or something (Lindemans, not that Boon stuff), in a good way. Very refreshing to drink, and had I not looked at the label I wouldn't initially have picked it as 6.66%abv - dangerous.

A little more sweetness would balance it a bit better IMO and make it slightly more quaffable - but as it was, still a very enjoyable beer and something I haven't had the stones to try for myself to date. Well done Jacko, nice drop.

[Dale Cooper]

I haven't brewed a fruit beer yet and feeling a bit nervous about it given the next WnBC is fruit. I remember trying this one in the last WnBC and the small taste I had I thought was quite nice. Sitting down with this one tonight I find it fairly tart/sour/tannic, well one or a combo of those anyway. I dunno if the hop bitterness and the plum combine that well, to me it seems to give the beer flavours of the plum skin rather than plum flesh. It was an interesting experiment and one i'd probably not do, so good for me to learn from. Thanks for that. Overall it is an interesting beer, not to my taste but fruit beers generally aren't.

If I was was going to brew this for myself i'd try and sweeten it up by cutting down on bittering hops and probably up the crystal malts.

Cheers for putting this in the case swap, these kind of radical and experimental beers are what make them great.

[JackoNZ]

Thanks for the feedback so far guys, great stuff. More sweetness seems to be the common theme in your comments. I don't drink fruit beers much either so a lack of knowledge there on my part as to what's expected in the fruit beer style. Originally this was brewed as a hybrid between the IPA style with fruit to give some dark colour. If I was to brew with plums again I would definitely pull back on the hops, but I do like the tanins from the skins in there!