Second Place In Comp

[c38885]

Hi all, l recently entered a Home Brew competion at the Wodonga Show (Vic) and came second, not a bad effort for a first time entrant.

 

 

 

The Beer entered was a Nut Brown Ale pitched with wet yeast saved from a previous brew. Added instead of sugar was 500g dextrose, 250g maltodextrin & 250g light malt. The beer was almost 3 years old when entered.

 

 

 

Has anybody got any suggestions how l could improve on this reciepe for next years entry as a first place ribbon would look much better above the bar. Unfortunely the judging results were discarded before l could view the results.

 

 

 

Cheers

 

 

 

John Marengo

 

Member No 38885

[kieran]

you could try hopping.. ? you could have a go dry hopping in a secondary fermentation, or even boil the wort extract for an hour and hop it there.. that will certainly add some je ne sais quoi to your brew. The 3 year aging might be a little hard to match though! You need to be careful that you dont go overboard as the malt extract would've have a few IBUs anyway, so you'd need to be quite subtle with whatever you add..

[Oliver]

I'm with Kieran. Add a few hops next time.

 

 

 

Try some Fuggles, perhaps. They're an English hop traditionally used in darker style ales.

 

 

 

About 20g should do the trick. Perhaps boil 10g in 100g or so of malt for half an hour (for bitterness), then add the other 10g and turn off the heat (this is for aroma). Leave for 10 minutes and strain the whole lot into the fermenter.

 

 

 

The only consideration is that in my experience most aroma from hops dissipates as the beer ages, so you'll probably find there's not much left after three years.

[c38885]

Hi Again,

 

Thanks for the tips. l have just bottled a brew using finishing hops for next years assault on the Wodonga show l'll let you know how l go !!!

 

 

 

cheers

 

John

[BigAl]

Three years!!!!!!! :shock:

 

 

 

You have definately got a drinking problem mate......not drinking enough!!! :D

 

 

 

My brews have a average life expectancy of about....(what time is it!), nah, about three months.....bloody freeloading mates!!

 

 

 

Seriously though try hop flowers (very hard to get) or plugs (compressed flowers in plugs about 5cm diameter and about 5cm long) for flavour, I find these have more of the oils still retained than pellets. As the plugs are dearer than pellets I use pellets for bittering as the acids in the pellets still do the job quiet well. :wink:

[kieran]

You can use the downtime to your advantage though.. if you were to (for example) shove 100g of Fuggles or some Goldings and Simcoe to dry hop. If you go nuts, it'll taste like crap straight off - but within that 3 years, the mellowing should turn into something like the 3-course dinner that Willy Wonka makes into a single stick of chewing gum [warning: reference may be lost on those who haven't read/seen Charlie and the Chocolate factory and what happens to Violet Beauregard]..

 

 

 

fictional Beer Judge's Comments: "mmm... first its garlic bread, with a hint of tarragon.. wooooo now I can taste a bavarian duck liver pat\xe9, served on a rice water cracker, oooo, now its grapes with a hint of spice perhaps from a slice of chilli mettwurst".. "and to finish, a nice fruity desert, perhaps a fresh fruit salad with.. wait.. hang on, no, its followed by merangue tones - its pavlova!" "what a beer! 10/10! Gold medallist!"

 

;)

[Greg B]

The cream on a Pav will send your beer flat, Trust me.

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Greg

 

 

 

ref: Christmas 1996, 1999, 2004.