RDWHAHB - What Are You Drinking in 2020?

[Red devil 44]

12 minutes ago, Norris! said:

I am from Omaha Nebraska but lived in Columbus Ga while at Ft Benning and after being retired for about 7 years.

Haven’t been to Nebraska, I am Aussie but a mad American Football fan, have been to Seattle the last 2 yrs to watch my beloved Seahawks play, and Seattle is a really cool city actually. 
Used to play up here in Brissy, Strong/Free Safety. 

[Malter White]

3 minutes ago, Norris! said:

Yes Wodonga. My Wife's family is from this area. It is a great place. Now that I have been here for a while it seems to get colder every year or I need some more concrete to harden up.

No concrete required. IT IS F***ING COLD OVER THERE!
My late uncle, Vic Mozuras, lived there. I'm sure I still have relatives in the area but we've become isolated from each other. No ill feelings, just distance making us all distant.

[Norris!]

2 minutes ago, Red devil 44 said:

Haven’t been to Nebraska, I am Aussie but a mad American Football fan, have been to Seattle the last 2 yrs to watch my beloved Seahawks play, and Seattle is a really cool city actually. 
Used to play up here in Brissy, Strong/Free Safety. 

I love gridiron or as I call it Football, but no one knows what I am talking about when I just say that. I am a really into college football even with all its issues and weak playoff and before that the BCS. Being from Nebraska I am a big Cornhusker fan. I could watch them all day, unless they are losing, so the last few years, 5, it is hardly ever. But there is always this year or next, as they say.

[Beerlust]

9 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Both

Hahaha! 

[Red devil 44]

18 minutes ago, Norris! said:

I love gridiron or as I call it Football, but no one knows what I am talking about when I just say that. I am a really into college football even with all its issues and weak playoff and before that the BCS. Being from Nebraska I am a big Cornhusker fan. I could watch them all day, unless they are losing, so the last few years, 5, it is hardly ever. But there is always this year or next, as they say.

I follow college football too, I like the Oklahoma Sooners, but having been to Seattle a few times have a soft spot for the Huskies.

Got on the piss with a few Husky fans in a bar in Seattle, they were amazed I new the rules and all about the game. 
 Last trip saw the Seahawks vs Arizona, plus went to a New York Rangers game at Madison Square Gardens, all with my son which was very special, he is now a Seahawks fan, as well as my Nephew. 
Back to beer as this is a beer forum , I didn’t rate many US beers 

[Norris!]

2 minutes ago, Red devil 44 said:

I follow college football too, I like the Oklahoma Sooners, but having been to Seattle a few times have a soft spot for the Huskies.

Got on the piss with a few Husky fans in a bar in Seattle, they were amazed I new the rules and all about the game. 
 Last trip saw the Seahawks vs Arizona, plus went to a New York Rangers game at Madison Square Gardens, all with my son which was very special, he is now a Seahawks fan, as well as my Nephew. 
Back to beer as this is a beer forum , I didn’t rate many US beers 

The Sooners and the Huskers have had many great games and it used to be one of the best rivalries in the game, now Nebraska sucks but some of the beers coming out of there are all right.

[Red devil 44]

1 minute ago, Norris! said:

The Sooners and the Huskers have had many great games and it used to be one of the best rivalries in the game, now Nebraska sucks but some of the beers coming out of there are all right.

Went to Boston, that’s good for Craft Beer, but hate the Pats with a passion for obvious reasons, bit like Dallas Cowboys, suck balls.

[Norris!]

8 minutes ago, Red devil 44 said:

Went to Boston, that’s good for Craft Beer, but hate the Pats with a passion for obvious reasons, bit like Dallas Cowboys, suck balls.

I have been wanting to try a trillium beer or two but always shy away when I see it down here due to the travel and such but need to get to the north east America for some fresh tastes of the home of the NEIPAS.

[Red devil 44]

23 minutes ago, Norris! said:

I have been wanting to try a trillium beer or two but always shy away when I see it down here due to the travel and such but need to get to the north east America for some fresh tastes of the home of the NEIPAS.

Travelled all across the US, avoided Bud Light because I thought it was light beer

I really liked the Sleeman Honey Beer when I went to Vancouver, Canada.

Found a bar on my honeymoon 2 yrs ago in Barcelona next to our hotel, run by an American guy but must of had 20 NEIPA,s on tap, originally walked in there because they had the Seahawks game on Sky, quite a few American Seahawks fans on holiday there, staggered out of there around 3am as you do

[Beerlust]

Hi Red Devil 44.

1 hour ago, Red devil 44 said:

Hmmm, Green Neck Lager, it’s so so, used to love lagers...

I don't normally delve into the world of lagers, but took particular interest in your comments here about the DIY recipe & your thoughts surrounding it.

Although I have used the Euro lager kit, I've not brewed the "DIY Green Lager" recipe so decided to have a good look at it. If you brewed this recipe to the letter & kegged it artificially using a CO² tank, the beer would have ended up around 4.1% ABV in your keg. If you used a priming sugar, around 4.5%. Not the quoted 5.0% ABV by @Coopers DIY Beer Team in the recipe listing. Unless the yeast is expected to attenuate extremely high, I can't see how this recipe can possibly reach an ABV of 5.0% even when bottled, naturally primed, & fermented to a 21 litre volume.

The 'Green Neck' lager recipe is one of the earlier DIY listed recipes on the Coopers forum & the forum has gone through a number of upgrades, along with the advent of the BE3 enhancer since that initial recipe listing. I feel some things may have been missed/left out/changed accidentally with those changes, given the current DIY recipe listing.

FWIW, if you still like a good Euro lager, don't give up on this kit or what it can produce. If you plan to brew this again to the desired 5.0% ABV (that will make it taste really good!), artificially carbonate it using a CO² tank, & keg it, then try adding the following to the existing DIY 'Green Lager' brew listing...

500gms of Light Dry Malt Extract
10-15gm hop tea of Tettnanger hops steeped for 20-30mins
11.5gms Fermentis W34/70 yeast

Pitch this W34/70 yeast with the kit yeast @ approx. 18°C, then lower to 13-15°C AFTER noticeable signs of fermentation are observed (usually within 24hrs). In a keg this will give you a beer @ approx. 5.0% that you'll really enjoy as it will give you something much closer to the desired outcome of the DIY bottled recipes' intention. You won't be disappointed.

Monitor your gravity readings to make sure you time your diacetyl rest period correctly. It's something you can get away with when you bottle, but NOT when you artificially carbonate if the diacetyl is still present. Diacetyl is not something you want to taste in your lager!

Hopefully the DIY team have a look at this listing & change the volume of fermentable ingredients to reflect the beer they are projecting you'll taste at the glass.

I've made a number of batches using the Euro lager kit for my father who enjoys this type of beer & it makes a terrific beer in this style IMHO (& my Dads!).

A note for those that switch from bottling to kegging, remember if you are using a CO² tank & artificially carbonating the advised "bottled" beer recipe, you are about 0.4% ABV short in the keg, so to maintain that same ABV you need to add that extra fermentable weight into your primary ferment to hit the same target. 

I hope that helps,

Lusty.

[James Lao]

Drinking my Double Chocolate Stout and it is bloody deelishus!!

So glad I put the cacao nibs in, really getting a big chocolate hit with every swig!

The only critique I can think of is the lacing doesn’t last as long as I would like it to - maybe the oils in the nibs affecting that aspect of it?

Might put  the cacao nibs in the oven for 20mins before making the tincture next time to see if that helps with the lacing/oils..

It has no extra hops so maybe that has an affect as well

Don’t think this keg will last til Paddy’s day!

Cheers

James

[Pezzza]

21 hours ago, Norris! said:

Yes Wodonga. My Wife's family is from this area. It is a great place. Now that I have been here for a while it seems to get colder every year or I need some more concrete to harden up.

Hey there Norris!

So do you go to Cheeky Peak at all?

1/67 Wigg St, Wodonga VIC 3690

[Geoff S]

Bottled my Coopers recipe Extra Smooth Bitter with a change, EB can, BE 2 (instead of BE 1) & 200gr of molasses, this was on the 3rd Mar, had a look today & it had the hide to be crystal clear, soooo with minimal cooling I was into it, cracking the top gave a nice hiss, poured with a good head(too good), after waiting for the head to die down & went for the first swill, immediately noticed a slight molasses smell, not too bad, may condition out, taste was smooth with a left over bitter taste but not overpowering, flavour of the EB was really nice, was not expecting how nice it was(1st time tasting EB) This brew will be done again, I am impressed, as a control I had a 3 week old IPA modified 'Hop Slam AU'(1/2 the dry hops) straight after it & the flowery hop smell really came thru, I don't think hop smells are for me, the IPA was still a nice drop just very different, all in all if you like a dark beer this is one you definitely have to have a go at.

 

[Pezzza]

13 minutes ago, Geoff S said:

Bottled my Coopers recipe Extra Smooth Bitter with a change, EB can, BE 2 (instead of BE 1) & 200gr of molasses

Good stuff Geoff.  Reckon it might be worth considering using liquid malt instead of dry and giving that a run maybe in the future... have had good results from that in the past.

But it sounds just fine the way it is now too ; )

Cheers and good brewing

BB

[Norris!]

1 hour ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Hey there Norris!

So do you go to Cheeky Peak at all?

1/67 Wigg St, Wodonga VIC 3690

All the time, it is my LHBS. They are pretty awesome.

[Titan]

After a busy brew day, another go at my baltic porter. 

[karlos_1984]

On 3/7/2020 at 7:06 PM, James Lao said:

Drinking my Double Chocolate Stout and it is bloody deelishus!!

So glad I put the cacao nibs in, really getting a big chocolate hit with every swig!

The only critique I can think of is the lacing doesn’t last as long as I would like it to - maybe the oils in the nibs affecting that aspect of it?

Might put  the cacao nibs in the oven for 20mins before making the tincture next time to see if that helps with the lacing/oils..

It has no extra hops so maybe that has an affect as well

Don’t think this keg will last til Paddy’s day!

Cheers

James

That looks and sounds awesome.

Is this the beer you brewed in your post about the FG being too high?

Just curious as to more details on your recipe and methods used etc.

I need to make a good choc stout again for winter. 

J

[Geoff S]

17 hours ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Good stuff Geoff.  Reckon it might be worth considering using liquid malt instead of dry and giving that a run maybe in the future... have had good results from that in the past.

But it sounds just fine the way it is now too ; )

Cheers and good brewing

BB

I'll keep that in mind, Thanks.

[James Lao]

Hi Karlos,

Yes this is the one that finished at 1.016.

Ingredients were:

Coopers Irish can, Coopers Amber can, 0.49Kg LDME, 0.24kg wheat DME, 0.25kg Choc malt cold steeped, 0.35kg white sugar, 0.25kg Cacao nibs steeped in 250 ml of Gentleman Jack JD whisky at the end of ferment. 24 litres.

I steeped the nibs for a few days in the beer fridge then added the nibs and liquid together like a dry hop.

It is an absolute winner of a stout, malty but not cloying, nice mouthful of chocolate and coffee notes but not burnt bitterness you sometimes get with stouts - bloody lovely!!!

Definitely putting this one on my breweries menu , can’t just have IPAs all the time !

Cheers

James

[James Lao]

One thing though next time I might put the nibs in the oven for 20mins like the brulosophy fella did.

Either that or put more wheat DME in to assist with the lacing (it’s a bit of a thing with me and my beers!)

Cheers

James

[James Lao]

Gave the old glasses a clean in Sodium Percarbonate, rinsed with hot water then sprayed with starsan and the lacing is pretty good now!

Interesting that my IPA was lacing up nice with the old dirty glasses - but that did have about 200g of hops in it!

Cheers

James

Edited March 9, 2020 by James Lao

[Norris!]

11 hours ago, James Lao said:

Either that or put more wheat DME in to assist with the lacing (it’s a bit of a thing with me and my beers!)

Cheers

James

My wife asked me why I clean our glasses and rinse them so much, I probably should get one of those bar glass cleaner things, but it is because I want to take a picture, yes I know I am a dork, I want the beer to show the lacing, if any and to hold a head, if there is one to be held. I basically want to see the best of the beer without it being hindered by a dirty glass.

With that said, I have the worst assortment of beer glasses and even less so now that my kids like to use them, I broke 1 glass in like 7 years, in 2 years I have gone from a cupboard full of different glasses, some from 1950's Germany, to like 4 beer glasses. I now protect those like the crown jewels. I love my family.

[Titan]

My headmasters are restricted, they can break any other glass in the house but not them.

[Norris!]

11 minutes ago, Titan said:

My headmasters are restricted, they can break any other glass in the house but not them.

Smart move Mate.

[Cassius]

@Red devil 44 @Norris!

At the risk of derailing this thread, I never get to speak to Aussie NFL fans so I thought I'd check in as a die hard NFL and Arizona Cardinals fan. My bar at home is shaping into a bit of a sports bar so my wife got me a replica Cardinals helmet signed by Anquon Boldin (my fav all-time Cards player) for my birthday last weekend. Will have to frame my old Boldin jersey too at some point, though it's pretty well-worn.