CS6 - Black Rain

[Andrew]

My effort and first addition to a case swap, named in honour of the new track on Soundgarden's Best Of album.

 

88% Weyerman Pale Malt

6% Vienna

6% Carafa

 

14g Sorachi Ace (11.3%) first wort hop

 

15g hops (7.5g Motueka (7.1%), 7.5g Sorachi Ace (11.3%)) every 10 mins from 90 right through to flame out.

 

Dry Hop

60g Pacific Hallertau (5%)

40g Sorcahi Ace (11.3%)

 

OG 1075

FG 1015

ABV 7.22%

Estimated 96 IBU

 

Will have some sediment in the bottom of the bottle so you might want to chill it a bit to cake it up and try to get none in the glass.

 

 

[Stu McKinlay]

Damn nice beer that is rich and smooth, really well made, drinks far too easy for 7.2% and completely hides that estimated 96ibu. I had to have a whisky and an early night after drinking it. I like that it is a nice simple recipe but I'm not convinced by the Sorachi hops in this type of beer, they didn't seem to quite go with the roasted malt. Certainly an unique hop and, as I'm very new to it, perhaps another bottle would change my mind.

Cheers!

[Simon David kelly]

Just had a read of Stu's comments before typing mine out from the old tasting book. I didn't actually take note of what was in this one before having a go at it as I'd just finished 2 hours of lawn care (finishing the front 2000m2) and was in desperate need of alcohol and a thirst quencher. I may have rushed it a bit and not noted down enough about the hops.

As a side note I'm listening to "The devil went down to Georgia" whilst writing this up, and I reckon that would have gone well with the beer.

Appreance
Very dark brown, almost black with a good tan head (it didn't hang around but I think that may have been down to Andrea sticking the glasses in the bloody dishwasher again)

Aroma
Light soft hoppy nose not overpowering and soft malty tones too. (I may have mentioned sinus issues before, but I think they were really getting in the way when i sampled this, which is a real shame)

Taste
The tongue still works well and i was picking up some burnt flavors with the malty bulk. I really like this combination and it was very well balanced with the bitterness. However, I think the burnt notes were hanging around a little too long.

Mouthfeel
Good, slightly thick start but it does thin out. A small prickeling feeling down the centre of the tongue.


This one got better the further through it I got. I'd not have had a second straight away as it was a little thick, but I'd have gone back to it for a night cap before home.

[Simon David kelly]

It's a right b'stard too, usually takes 4-6 hours to do the lot with a ride on mower and a weed-wacker ... the back 2000m2 is going to become a vegetable plot at soon as I've felled all the trees around the perimeter and dug up the effing Bay tree stumps (will require a very large digger!)

[Simon David kelly]

Oh yes, it is, without all the fun :o)

[Stu McKinlay]

or the trainspotting... that painting job must be a trainspotters dream (though i've met a lot of painters in my time, and not many of them seemed like the kind of guy who'd be a trainspotter).

[Andrew]

Glad its not "offended" anyone yet. I took it up to the WBC comp and no-one liked it. It was only in a bottle about a week or two and the hop oils where still really prominent with the 100g's dry hop. To be fair it did taste a bit like old hoppy engine oil! It just rounded out now with a bit of age.

[Reviled]

Hoppy engine oil and no one liked it?? lol, sounds delicious to me ;o)

[Stu H]

This is a delicious beer. Hands down. I would drink a lot of this. I love the fruity notes. This is fuckin' nice.

[JoKing]

I didn't get into this beer unfortunately. I was really looking forward to it - so my expectations might have been a bit high.

Reading the other notes - I'm guessing I got a bad bottle.

Mine was oxidised which made it really unpleasant for me as the bitterness was up there... all flabbed out by a cardboardy, caramelly, sweet liquorish kind of thisng going on there.

I wish I was more positive about it mate, but I thought I better be honest rather than bullshit you.

Thanks for the beer though mate.

Cheers.

[Andrew]

Cheers for the feedback, sorry you got a duff one. In all honesty its not one of the favourite beers I've ever made, don't mind a drop of it but I,m never going to drink loads of it so I,m chuffed at least a couple of people have enjoyed it more than I did!

[Andrew]

Which Carafa? Uuum, can't remember... sorry. I brewed this a while ago so its dropped out of my memory bank. All I can remember is I got it from Brewers Coop in Mt Wellington so I'll see if I can find out what Mike normally stocks. Most of his stuff is from Weyermanns so at a guess I'd say its from Wyermanns through David Cryer.

[vdog]

I'm writing from memory, so hopefully I remembered this right:
Poured deep brown/black, rocky tan head that stuck around a bit. I was struggling to identify the aroma and one of the other guys picked it as mouldy citrus - not sure it was exactly that, but that's the impression I was left with. The flavour seemed dominated by the same thing, with roasty malt in the background.
Like Jo, I'm wondering if I got a dud bottle since this didn't seem consistent with what everyone else has found. Sorry the feedback's not more positive!