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RDWHAHB - What Are You Drinking in 2020?


BlackSands

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1 hour ago, Norris! said:

So what are you getting from the hops? Orange from the Mandarin? I assume so, but is it like amarillo or citra? What about the El Dorado?

So many questions!

I don't know. I poured a middy and it went down really, really quickly.  So later I poured another (the one pictured) and gave it more time.  I'm hopeless at describing taste; it is citrussy.  It was my first time using Mandarina Bavaria but I have used El Dorado several times. I did a single hopped El Dorado beer once and it tasted a bit like watermelon.

It isn't really a massive hop bomb either so the flavours are more subtle. The schedule was:

10g Centennial @ 60 minutes
10g Mandarina Bavaria @ 0 minutes
20g Mandarina Bavaria @ whirlpool (i.e. 5 minutes after flameout)
20g El Dorado @ Whirlpool
30g Manadrina Bavaria - dry hop
30g El Dorado - dry hop

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Amarillo Breakfast Juice. First brew in 14 months I missed my terminal SG target by 4 points so the beer isn't as bitter as intended. It's not sickly sweet though so I can drink it. OG 1.048 and FG 1.018 🥴.  With 100g of Amarillo with some hop bursting so it looks like a NEIPA, hence the Breaky Juice name. The Fruity Amarillo notes also lend themselves to a breaky style Ale, like a slightly bitter orange juice. The MO and Munich are present but don't dominate as would be expected at such a high SG.

Cheers

Breaky Juice.JPG

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Wooohooo the latest drop... Golden Ale...  it's Golden, it's an Ale, its got beautiful malt biscuity caramel tones... full bodied... great head, head retention and lacing.

Rainwater AG w Maris Otter; Biscuit; BB Pale; Voyager Veloria Schooner Malt plus some wheat and a little acidulated... US05... 40g Styrian@60;30g Cascade@60; 40g Galaxy@15. A serious brew coming in close to 6% and FG of 1014.

Picture no.1 out of an Aldi Flens Swingtop 330 and picture 2 out of a 1L swingtop a bit later in the evening.  Yes, we are in the middle of a dust storm. Tiny bit of green starting to show ; )

image.png.25ec7310fce28a24c6ac0a2e808d1fc5.png

Looking forward to the bigger volume currently in keg doing natural conditioning.  Cheers Brewers. BB

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My Asian lager. Came out a treat. Only been in the keg 4 days but I had to give it a sample. Pretty clear as it’s past the “rubble from paw patrol” test. Should hopefully brighten up even further from here. 

Pretty crisp too. Pretty happy with this one. 
 

 

DA88489F-52C4-4DC5-81E7-DADC43E7376D.jpeg

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I have a tropical ale and a 3c's pale ale on tap right now, with an amarillo SMASH in the fermenter. Happy days. I will brew tomorrow to keep the stockpile up.

Right now I am having the tropical ale and I would say it has hit its peak. Great aroma and flavour through a nice crisp and clean base. Lovely beer.

Have a good and safe long weekend everyone,

Norris

20200124_153902.jpg

Edited by Norris!
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14 minutes ago, The Captain!! said:

Black Saison. Super interesting 

4604BA87-2EC9-411F-A14A-218D2843236A.jpeg

That's different.

I don't know how eastern philosophy will react to you trying to force Yin & Yang to combine though! 🤔 😯 

Moving forward, if I were you I'd beware of ninja's in the night. 😜

Cheers,

Lusty.

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I'm a 2-week post-bottling drinker, so I suffer from premature evaluation, but this one's had a month in the bottle and I'm still calling it - a contender for my Beer of the Year. As soon as I tasted this, it had Belgian Blonde all over it. Nice up-front fruit esters, not overdone, but enough to make it Belgian and noticeably different.

This is the Coopers Abbey Blonde, brewed as per recipe but I couldn't be bothered with the grain steep and upped the Styrian. Tastes bloody great. I'll be brewing this again so might go with the grains next time, but I suspect this beer is more about the Yeasts..

My testers went nuts over this. One is easy to please - free beer is great beer, he's my megaswill baseliner. Beers I find meh, he likes. Beers I like, he goes nuts over. The other one is a lapsed home brewer, knowledgeable and a regular beer drinker. He thinks I added some home-brew voodoo to his, says it's just like Leffe Blonde and begged me for another bottle.

I take no credit, Coopers can do that - this is down to the Canadian blonde and Belgian yeasts - 2 in this recipe. I've done the Canadian a few times making summer ales with Notty, and the only difference here is the yeasts. They make all the difference.

20200124_171202_resized.thumb.jpg.06235161a0cfef04c034607d9ad5ccf3.jpg

Edited by Lab Rat
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On 1/7/2020 at 7:40 PM, Bearded Burbler said:

Did you get the festive cascading bubbles thing happening down the outside of your glass Hoppy like our man @Cosmo2450 Cosmo with the nitro cold coffee?

image.thumb.png.136d5fca1292c166d6833c3d285dbe49.png

Ah I forgot about this. So turns out the cascading and taste of cold brew coffee is way better if you filter it...

as for beer gas...I don’t think I’d use it. I’ve got a beer naturally conditioned so it’s already carbed and I’ll just stick to pure nitrogen

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8 hours ago, Lab Rat said:

I'm a 2-week post-bottling drinker, so I suffer from premature evaluation, but this one's had a month in the bottle and I'm still calling it - a contender for my Beer of the Year. As soon as I tasted this, it had Belgian Blonde all over it. Nice up-front fruit esters, not overdone, but enough to make it Belgian and noticeably different.

This is the Coopers Abbey Blonde, brewed as per recipe but I couldn't be bothered with the grain steep and upped the Styrian. Tastes bloody great. I'll be brewing this again so might go with the grains next time, but I suspect this beer is more about the Yeasts..

My testers went nuts over this. One is easy to please - free beer is great beer, he's my megaswill baseliner. Beers I find meh, he likes. Beers I like, he goes nuts over. The other one is a lapsed home brewer, knowledgeable and a regular beer drinker. He thinks I added some home-brew voodoo to his, says it's just like Leffe Blonde and begged me for another bottle.

I take no credit, Coopers can do that - this is down to the Canadian blonde and Belgian yeasts - 2 in this recipe. I've done the Canadian a few times making summer ales with Notty, and the only difference here is the yeasts. They make all the difference.

20200124_171202_resized.thumb.jpg.06235161a0cfef04c034607d9ad5ccf3.jpg

Nice one LR. Did that recipe a couple of times in my early days and it was a nice beer. 

Yes any belgian its all about the yeasts. Hops and malts are supporting actors. Temperature of ferment and pitch rate are also levers that will give different flavours to the end beer when it comes to belgians. 

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Side by side taste test

Coopers XPA

Mine is much darker, even though I went with the @Beerlust variation of Caramalt instead of Crystal Malt.  I am not convinced that the LHBS got this right.  Admittedly it is a LHBS that is part of a cooking and kitchen supplies business.  The guy who helped me seemed to know his stuff, but he might have given me Crystal Malt by mistake.  When I crushed them I thought they were pretty dark coloured.

I also used the Mexican Cerveza as my base instead of the Australian Pale Ale.  Not sure what differences this might have introduced though.  Mine tastes and smells more toward the Amber Ale direction.  Not as bitter as the Coopers XPA.

Mine does not have as much bitterness as the Coopers XPA.  I could definitely increase the boil time for next time.

Coopers XPA is pretty hazy.  Mine is crystal clear.  Thank you isinglass and polyclar (fish guts and plastic).

Mine has only been bottled for a week, so give it a break.  I am looking forward to giving it a try in a week's time.

IMG-1636a.jpg.e9ce9c7fea46e5d9214068c8b756507c.jpg

 

 

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12 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Side by side taste test

Coopers XPA

Mine is much darker, even though I went with the @Beerlust variation of Caramalt instead of Crystal Malt.  I am not convinced that the LHBS got this right. 

IMG-1636a.jpg.e9ce9c7fea46e5d9214068c8b756507c.jpg

It's highly likely you've been given a darker crystal malt.

Commercial-XPA-vs-DIY-XPA.jpg

That was my side by side of the commercial vs the DIY version using the CaraMalt @ approx. 50 EBC I advised.

Cheers,

Lusty.

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8 minutes ago, Beerlust said:

That was my side by side of the commercial vs the DIY version using the CaraMalt @ approx. 50 EBC I advised.

Thanks Lusty

I was using your example as my reference point.  I was hoping for mine to come out similar.  Alas it did not.  It also has a noticeable amber like aroma and taste.  400g of the wrong malt has taken this beer a long way off what it should be.  Still a nice beer; I like amber style brews.

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