CS6 - US Coal

[James P]

It was supposed to be an American Amber, but with the addition of too much patent malt, became a speciality beer.... you know the "catch all" BJCP category.

4.00 kg Pale Ale (Gladfields) NZ
0.50 kg Amber Malt
0.25 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine
0.24 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L
0.16 kg Acid Malt
0.10 kg Black (Patent) Malt

10.00 gm Centennial [10.00 %] (60 min) Hops 13.0 IBU
5.00 gm Simcoe [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 8.4 IBU
10.00 gm Simcoe [13.00 %] (30 min) Hops 8.6 IBU
10.00 gm Centennial [10.00 %] (30 min) Hops 6.6 IBU
15.00 gm Centennial [10.00 %] (0 min) Hops - 
20.00 gm Simcoe [13.00 %] (0 min) Hops - 

2 ml tsp Lactic Acid (Mash 60.0 min) Misc 
3 gm Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 min) Misc 

1 Pkgs SafAle American Ale (DCL Yeast #S-05) Yeast-Ale

Not my best brewing moment, but at least I could bottle enough from a single batch to swap!

Edit: JP on the bottle tops.... all class me!
Edit Edit: Seems it was worth a bronze at the NHC! :) Stoked!!

[Simon David kelly]

Second out of my stash, and another good one.

Appearance
Dark brown, off white head (I have to think up something better than that for a head description, they're all likely to be the same!), good and thick after a centre pour into the glass. Very clear and bright.

Aroma
Subdude hops in the background but not hidden. A little dark fruit aroma in there somewhere too.

Taste
Malty through and through. Bit of a burnt/smokey nut falvor in there as well, which offset the malt. Very well balance for my pallet, with just enough bitterness to stop the malt from being excesive.

Mouthfeel
Fantastic, near purfect smoothness with the malty thickness sticking to the tongue.


I didn't actually write down any other comments but I do remember being a bit miffed when I discovered an empty glass and no refill in sight. A thoroughly enjoyable pint!

[James P]

Cheers SDK, I'm glad it survived the travel... whilst I'm glad it was in the case swap, I was also guttered I emptied the keg!

[Stu McKinlay]

This beer had me a little confused (which is a good thing). It was nicely hoppy but I wasn't sure if it was trying to be amber or brown (or just what it was). Reading your explanation makes it clearer.

Very well made brew: good ferment, nice and clean, hop flavour comes through but it is checked slightly by the roast character (though if that wasn't there the bitterness might be a bit low for me). As it was, it was a well balanced beer and went down pretty quickly.

I reckon you should have another crack but either cut out the black and amber malts completely (for an amber), or swap them for a bit of pale choc (for a brown).

Thanks mate. Your beers are always nice and clean... you seem to do more consistent things with Gladfield malt than half the commercial brewers in the country!

[James P]

Cheers Stu, always good to get advise on how to make beer better, especially from one on my favourite beer producers (sorry not meaning to give e-fallatio!).

No amber malt for an amber though, is that a normal thing? I'm finding it hard to brew ales etc since being a predominately pilsner brewer. Everything I make seems to come across drier than the craft ales I have been having.

[vdog]

I'm not sure this really got the chance it deserved - drank it straight after Rev's beer had confused my palate.

I liked it though - great colour and a good malt and pine aroma in the glass. Good balance, with a roasty malty flavour that I enjoyed. I thought maybe the carbonation was a little high, but otherwise a very enjoyable beer. Cheers James.

[James P]

Thanks Vdog, I had been having issues with my keg leaking, so cranked up the pressure to try and get a seal.... maybe I should have purged the keg at bit.

This beer has had a few issues, but I still rated it highly enough to include in the case swap... so far so good!

[James P]

Yeah, misread the recipe, and so far the feedbacks been positive! The acid malt is partly for pH (as is the lactic), but for some reason I keep adding it to my beers with Gladfields as a base... probably more now for superstition than actual outcome!

[Stu H]

Okay so I've worked my way through all the beers now, and I drank yours second last (only to Joe's). As I didn't read the recipe's before drinking, and yours and Joe's didn't have labels on them, I didn't know who's was who's! But anywho I drank yours last night, and enjoyed it. I'm not a large fan of American Ambers, but I enjoyed yours more than most I've tried. Sorry I can't be more elucidating, but yeah delicious brew bro!

[Haish]

I reckon this is an American Brown with the hoppiness of an Amber. Another excellent beer from the swap, nice american hops on the nose (I love simcoe and centennial together), a thick malty roasty chewy mouthfeel. Nice clean ferment, a touch too much carbonation for my taste. If all my brewing accidents came out this drinkable I'd be a happy man. Cheers for the beer James!

[James P]

Thanks Stu and Haish, still coming to grips with all the positive comments from the accident!

[JoKing]

Last Case swap beer for me. Not a bad one to finish on - quite light and refreshing. Slightly overcarbed I feel - but then you do like brewing lagers... so I guess that rate would be perfect for you! Again - not estery at all... the perfect lager brewers ale! The hops didn't dominate the beer, they added quite a resinous mouthfeel to the beer. If I really think about it, I would say that there is a slight clash between some of the toasted characters and this resinous part of the palate... but I think some people would dig this complexity.

All in all - clean fermentation, clean characters and cleanly executed.

Well done.

[Andrew]

Last CS Beer!! I need to get my finger out. I've still 6 left...