What are you drinking in 2024?

[Aussiekraut]

12 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Here's my Low Carb Lager, based on Better Beer's Low Carb Lager, as you can probably guess from the tap label.

• Clean light beer-like aroma
• Clean flavour, somewhat like the aroma
• Bitterness tastes quite balanced, probably because the FG being 0.999, has left a nice amount of alcohol in the beer
• The condensation on the glass belies how clear this beer is
• 6/10

The beer looks rather inviting. I take it you used some dry enzyme to get the SG down that low? I used it once before but it brought ABV up too far and I wasn't keen on it. I still have a sachet but am worried about what it does to the beer. Maybe as an experiment, I could just whip up a quick and dirty lager and give it another go. 

[Pale Man]

All Grain Aussie Lager. Cleared up beautifully in the keg. Very tasty beer.

 

[Classic Brewing Co]

1 hour ago, Pale Man said:

All Grain Aussie Lager. Cleared up beautifully in the keg. Very tasty beer.

 

Nice Paley, all the more reason to make another one. 

[Pale Man]

4 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

Nice Paley, all the more reason to make another one. 

We'll see what happens. I change my mind like the wind everyday. I go by day to day.

Tomorrow I might be in the Swiss Alps skiing

[Shamus O'Sean]

5 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

The beer looks rather inviting. I take it you used some dry enzyme to get the SG down that low? I used it once before but it brought ABV up too far and I wasn't keen on it. I still have a sachet but am worried about what it does to the beer. Maybe as an experiment, I could just whip up a quick and dirty lager and give it another go. 

Yes, AK.  I did use dry enzyme in this one.  I have used it before and got a similar result to you.  My previous 2 enzyme treated brews came in at 5.9% and 6.6% respectively.  Those ABV's were much higher than expected.  Both brews were pre-packed kit recipes.  However, the supplier failed to account for the effect of the enzyme.  This time I used a feature in Brewfather were you can fix the Final Gravity and in this case I made it 1.000.  Then I designed the recipe around it.  As noted on my beer tap label, it came in at 4.6%.  I think the dry taste suits a pale lager like this brew.

[Bouts]

Hey all, 

Now don't flip out, but I'm about to try a Coopers English Bitter, but without the DME.... I can now hear the groans of agony...

Why you ask? To try an enjoy a bitter with a lower ABV. 

Thoughts? (keep it clean ok.  )

[Beerdo]

10 minutes ago, Bouts said:

Hey all, 

Now don't flip out, but I'm about to try a Coopers English Bitter, but without the DME.... I can now hear the groans of agony...

Why you ask? To try an enjoy a bitter with a lower ABV. 

Thoughts? (keep it clean ok.  )

Go for it, mate. You never know how good it might be unless you give it a go.
A lot of the advice on here leans toward adding light dry malt, the more the better it seems but some beers are better with less, in my opinion.
Taste is subjective. Only you can determine if it's a good beer or not. I hope it's a winner for you.

[Aussiekraut]

20 minutes ago, Bouts said:

Hey all, 

Now don't flip out, but I'm about to try a Coopers English Bitter, but without the DME.... I can now hear the groans of agony...

Why you ask? To try an enjoy a bitter with a lower ABV. 

Thoughts? (keep it clean ok.  )

It is possible but I suspect the result will be fairly thin. Low ABV but not much else. Nothing wrong with low ABV beers but you have to take into account that the missing DME and even the missing alcohol taste will have a huge impact on your beer. Less body and overall probably a little watery.  It may be an idea to really just brew it without and then figure out how you can fix it. Or you could add some maltodextrin to the beer. It will not affect the ABV but give you more body thanks to the added sugars. 

Whatever you do, let us know please.

[Aussiekraut]

13 minutes ago, Beerdo said:

Go for it, mate. You never know how good it might be unless you give it a go.
A lot of the advice on here leans toward adding light dry malt, the more the better it seems but some beers are better with less, in my opinion.
Taste is subjective. Only you can determine if it's a good beer or not. I hope it's a winner for you.

I think he meant just the can, no additions. Or at least that is how I read it. 

You may have misunderstood what people say about DME. I cannot imagine anybody here saying "the more the better" when it comes to DME. What people will say is to use MDE, rather than dextrose. That is sound advice. However, if you like a kit and a kilo of dextrose, then go for it. You like it, you brew it. It's not for me to judge. If you ask me what to add to a can, I will tell you preferably DME or even better, LME. 

[Beerdo]

9 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

I think he meant just the can, no additions. Or at least that is how I read it. 

You may have misunderstood what people say about DME. I cannot imagine anybody here saying "the more the better" when it comes to DME. What people will say is to use MDE, rather than dextrose. That is sound advice. However, if you like a kit and a kilo of dextrose, then go for it. You like it, you brew it. It's not for me to judge. If you ask me what to add to a can, I will tell you preferably DME or even better, LME. 

Hi AK.
There's no misunderstanding. I may have worded my response a bit carelessly though.
When I started out a lot of the advice was to add malt extract. Some recipes called for say 500g but I was encouraged to add 1kg or more sometimes. That's fine and I appreciated the advice but some beers don't lend themselves to high malt additions eg. Cerveza, crisp lagers. Some extracts are also malty enough so additional malt can be too much.
Personally, these days I keep things fairly simple and mainly make APA with about 300g LDM and 700g dex. I do the occasional stout and it's usually a 50/50 blend.
As you say, if you like it, brew it and as I mentioned earlier taste is subjective. There's no right or wrong. Only right or wrong for you.
 

[Shamus O'Sean]

3 hours ago, Bouts said:

Hey all, 

Now don't flip out, but I'm about to try a Coopers English Bitter, but without the DME.... I can now hear the groans of agony...

Why you ask? To try an enjoy a bitter with a lower ABV. 

Thoughts? (keep it clean ok.  )

Hi Bouts, Welcome to the Forum.

Another issue with your proposal is the English Bitter kit, and it is kind of a bit obvious, this is one of the more bitter kits.  Without any other fermentables to balance the brew, it will have a high Bitterness Units/Grains Units (BU:GU) ratio of around 2.  A typical brew is 0.5.  So, although it will be lower ABV, it might be unpleasantly bitter.  

I have never made it this way, so I am interested to hear how it comes out.

[Bouts]

Thanks Shamus,
I've been home brewing on and off for about 30 odd years now. So, I'll let you and the forum know how the taste test goes afterward. I might add some maltodextrin. I love a bitter beer, and I love the Coops EB. It's what I call a good traditional beer.Th
 

Cheers for all the advice guys, stay tuned for mor info after I have brewed and tasted it. 

[Kegory]

The first Taste Test Challenge for 2024: 016, Jolly Roger Pale Ale, bottled 31/1/24, conditioned 26 days, vs Pirate Life Pale Ale.

JR had a bigger, creamier, longer lasting head than PLPA (poured 1st). The colour is almost identical but JR was a fraction more opaque.

JR had more bubbles and a higher carbonation.

PLPA had a distinctly piney aroma with a slightly malty character and a hint of citrus and maybe some stonefruit. JR had a more malty and stone fruity aroma without any pine that I could detect.

PLPA had more bitterness and a strongly piney flavour. The dominant tastes in the JR were malty and stone fruity.

Here are the brew notes:

[Beerdo]

11 hours ago, Kegory said:

The first Taste Test Challenge for 2024: 016, Jolly Roger Pale Ale, bottled 31/1/24, conditioned 26 days, vs Pirate Life Pale Ale.

JR had a bigger, creamier, longer lasting head than PLPA (poured 1st). The colour is almost identical but JR was a fraction more opaque.

JR had more bubbles and a higher carbonation.

PLPA had a distinctly piney aroma with a slightly malty character and a hint of citrus and maybe some stonefruit. JR had a more malty and stone fruity aroma without any pine that I could detect.

PLPA had more bitterness and a strongly piney flavour. The dominant tastes in the JR were malty and stone fruity.

Here are the brew notes:

It doesn't matter what they taste like. The Jolly Roger wins for it's superior label.

[Classic Brewing Co]

A nice Pale Ale out of the keg, I am about to make a new AG version of this using Eclipse in the boil & dry hop with Lemon Drop Hops.

I will use US WEST COAST YEAST M44.

I am after a nice zingy taste.

 

[Triple B Brewing]

5 hours ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

A nice Pale Ale out of the keg, I am about to make a new AG version of this using Eclipse in the boil & dry hop with Lemon Drop Hops.

I will use US WEST COAST YEAST M44.

I am after a nice zingy taste.

 

(Insert wolf whistle here)

that just looks yum Phil !!! 

[DavidM]

Trendy Trousers Amber Ale

It's darker than it looks in the photo

Great Brew

[Triple B Brewing]

2 hours ago, DavidM said:

Trendy Trousers Amber Ale

It's darker than it looks in the photo

Great Brew

@DavidM I have to agree - Im about halfway through my keg of Trendy Trousers Amber Ale - as the saying goes “great minds think alike” eh 

Cheers n cold beers

[Back Brewing]

3 hours ago, DavidM said:

Trendy Trousers Amber Ale

It's darker than it looks in the photo

Great Brew

Congrats on the head and carbonation 

[Triple B Brewing]

1 hour ago, Back Brewing said:

Congrats on the head and carbonation 

Agreed

[iBooz2]

COPA travellers bottled on 25Jan2024.  This was part of a split batch, part A 22 L dry hopped with Eclipse and part B 22 L dry hopped with PoR.

I made the decision to only use 23 g of PoR to dry hop in part B as I did not want to open a new big 500 g pack of PoR for now.  This was most probably a mistake as the dry hop has only had minimal effect.  Next time for a 22 L batch I would go 100 g dry hop.

The beer from these stubbies is notably darker and less clear as compared to the ones I remember pouring from the kegs.

There is a slight waft of banana when you smell the glass just after pouring, but you cannot taste that.  There is a very slight hint of a citrus note in the taste but nowhere near enough when compared to the commercial version.  So, we can try a much bigger dry hop of PoR or throw some lemon drop into the mix.  Remember Coopers are more than likely using ISO hops too, but I suspect that they don't finish it off with PoR ISO, its gotta be something else.  @Back Brewing.

Edited March 28 by iBooz2

[Back Brewing]

8 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

COPA travellers bottled on 25Jan2024.  This was part of a split batch, part A 22 L dry hopped with Eclipse and part B 22 L dry hopped with PoR.

I made the decision to only use 23 g of PoR to dry hop in part B as I did not want to open a new big 500 g pack of PoR for now.  This was most probably a mistake as the dry hop has only had minimal effect.  Next time for a 22 L batch I would go 100 g dry hop.

The beer from these stubbies is notably darker and less clear as compared to the ones I remember pouring from the kegs.

There is a slight waft of banana when you smell the glass just after pouring, but you cannot taste that.  There is a very slight hint of a citrus note in the taste but nowhere near enough when compared to the commercial version.  So, we can try a much bigger dry hop of PoR or throw some lemon drop into the mix.  Remember Coopers are more than likely using ISO hops too, but I suspect that they don't finish it off with PoR ISO, its gotta be something else.  @Back Brewing.

I think I will go with no dry hop and see how it goes thanks for the input

Edited March 28 by Back Brewing

[Triple B Brewing]

10 hours ago, DavidM said:

Trendy Trousers Amber Ale

It's darker than it looks in the photo

Great Brew

Just sittin back havin one of me own Trendy Trousers Amber Ale -YUM !

[RDT2]

Neighbour bought some commercial Guinness over for comparison, mine is on the left and commercial on the right! First difference was mine was colder and still had more flavour and tasted fresh in comparison! Tasted pretty close very happy with it! I will definitely brew again and would be one of favourite beers i have brewed!

[Triple B Brewing]

25 minutes ago, RDT2 said:

Neighbour bought some commercial Guinness over for comparison, mine is on the left and commercial on the right! First difference was mine was colder and still had more flavour and tasted fresh in comparison! Tasted pretty close very happy with it! I will definitely brew again and would be one of favourite beers i have brewed!

Ok sure the commy looks to have a tighter and whiter head, but well the first thing I noticed is ya get more of ya hommie than a commercial  @RDT2