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]

I might Chime in here and give my thoughts on Rapture....

 

I'm not a massive fan of low gravity Belgian Beers: had some bad experiences experimanting with them at home. I find it really difficult to get a balance between the malt characters, yeast spice and then the bitterness. With some Belgian Style Pale Ales I micked around with - the biterness allways overpowered the spice from the yeast (I'd generally go for a spicy Belgian strain over the fruity ones) and confused the palate to the point were the beer was virtually undrinkable - and I'm only shooting for 30IBU.

 

With Rapture, I found the bitterness just on the cusp however I managed to down the 2L rigger in about an hour and a half.... so obviously my palate wasn't confused. As far a sulphate and sulphide goes.... none in my glass. I can see how the yeasty spice could perceived as some kind of "off aroma" but knowing this strain well - I knew full well that it was a clean mid-low temperature fermentation. The malt characters hadn't really "mutated" at this temp, so the bready notes were fully intact. There was a bucket load of yeasty spice on the rim of my pint for the duration of the entire rigger. The beer maintained its character all the way throughout.

 

It was exceedingly complex for it's weight, and have to give Stu full credit for making a "thinking" beer out of such a low gravity.

 

So no toxic gas in my Rigger - ex Hashigo Zake.

[Stu McKinlay]

Thinking beer.  Ha! It's designed to be a non-thinking beer...

 

Out of interest - the calculated bitterness for Europa and Rapture was 26ibu.

 

Coming soon... an even lower gravity Belgian Ale: Mild Thing. You can be sure the ibu's will be low on that scuker.

[Andrew]

I wouldn't stress, as I said it wasn't strong enough to be unpleasent and I am more sensitve to it than most. Just a little bit of struck match from the SO2. Still loved the beer and I'd have had more given half a chance!

[Dave W]

Last night I had Liberty brewing's west coast blond from the tap at Hashingo zake, I was well impressed!!

Awesome beer!!  :-D

[JoKing]

Did you get the Simcoe version or the Amarillo one Dave?

[Dave W]

Both :-D

[JoKing]

Good shit! Must've been a good night. Glad you liked it mate.

 

Cheers!

[Dave W]

Having a glass of Waldhaus Scharzwald Weisse.  :o)

[Stu McKinlay]

Had a Liberty West Coast Blonde and a Sculpin IPA at lunch. One was awesome and the other was soapy... 

 

You'll need to get rid of the haze to please Graeme Mahy but you'll please everyone else.  I'll probably not get a chance to try the Simcoe one but I bet it wasn't as good.

 

Top marks Jo... you're away. Lang may yer lum reek!

[JoKing]

I dunno Stu - my pick is the Simcoe aye! I agree with Dave that the aroma on the simcoe is wicked... but the Amarillo version offers a lot more to the palate.

 

I won't get a chance to do so (all my kegs have sold out) but I'd love to do a 50 / 50 blend of the two beers and see how that tastes!

 

Cheers Stu.

 

I hope mine wasn't soapy!

[Stu McKinlay]

haha, no way, not yours!

 

Sniffing beer is all fine and dandy but I love drinking it most of all... so, from Dave's description (and now yours), I'm sure I'd prefer the Amarillo.

 

I voted for Simcoe, so it would be nice to get a chance to taste it.

 

[Richard Jack]

Looking forward to having a glass of amarillo in one hand, and simcoe in the other :)