My Brew Mates corey and Jason, have released a commercial Beer. Congrats guys, I got given a bottle to try out (I've also had it on tap.)
So Here is my review of the beer, as I see it.
STYLE: West Coast American IPA
BREWING CO.: Fiasco - New Zealand
WEBSITE: https://www.facebook.com/fiascobrewingcompany?fref=ts
AROMA: HOPS, HOPS, HOPS. Maybe some more hops, just for good measure. Its big and bold, and I do get some Malty sweetness, coming through which is a nice touch.
APPEARANCE: Pours copper colour, with Off white head, Clarity, is very good. I love the colour of this beer, perfect for the style.
FLAVOUR: This beer smashes you with hoips. Carbonation is Bang on, it really makes those hops ping out of the glass. Small amount of Malt, just enough to back up the big flavour hops.
MOUTHFEEL: good head and retention seems good and rocky. Not thin, not thick of Cloying like some beers. About right really.
OVERALL: Great beer, just as the style intends, bitter resin, hoppy and unapologetic, as the bopttle suggests. I'd also like to point out, that it gives me a hinted flavour of the green flash west coat IPa, mainly the hop flavour. this will be the simcoe hops. AWESOME.
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Lesson Learnt...
Well, lesson Learnt, I've tasted the beers, and they are correct there are some considerable faults in each one. (except for the Porter, I still dont getit...)
So its time to take a fresh approach. I've gotten some advice off of forum.realbeer.co.nz, in regarding to hop intensity, vibrancy, and the like. so its time to put some of this into practice... I was originally going to brew the Russian River 2RowHill56 clone, however after reading the feedback I decided I needed to change up a couple of things.
Firstly, the Beer i was going to Brew. It's time to come up with something that works, and tastes like a winner, so I made a winner... apparently. I saw this thread, and the beer does actually look pretty tasty, and at a more sessionable 5-5.5% I figured why not, as I had some hops that needed using.
here's the thread: SOBA NHC 2013 Recipes.
I used Kelly's Smell the roses, which I've put onto brew toad; Here. scaled down to a 21 litre batch, (this is what I aim for into the fermenter)
So time will tell If my processes are correct, and how well I'm actually doing.
I'll also be using a different Fermentaion process... I'll be 2 weeks primary, then a week in secondary, for dry hopping.
Brew date was last Saturday.
So its time to take a fresh approach. I've gotten some advice off of forum.realbeer.co.nz, in regarding to hop intensity, vibrancy, and the like. so its time to put some of this into practice... I was originally going to brew the Russian River 2RowHill56 clone, however after reading the feedback I decided I needed to change up a couple of things.
Firstly, the Beer i was going to Brew. It's time to come up with something that works, and tastes like a winner, so I made a winner... apparently. I saw this thread, and the beer does actually look pretty tasty, and at a more sessionable 5-5.5% I figured why not, as I had some hops that needed using.
here's the thread: SOBA NHC 2013 Recipes.
I used Kelly's Smell the roses, which I've put onto brew toad; Here. scaled down to a 21 litre batch, (this is what I aim for into the fermenter)
So time will tell If my processes are correct, and how well I'm actually doing.
I'll also be using a different Fermentaion process... I'll be 2 weeks primary, then a week in secondary, for dry hopping.
Brew date was last Saturday.
Wednesday, 6 November 2013
Alot to Learn!
Well the weekends results didn't go anywhere near to plan. My biggest hope gained the lowest score.
A real shame, as the beers actually taste quite good.... to me.
All Beers were tried and tasted that njight to see if I could pick up what the judges were saying.
I'm not sure how to attach the pdf files... so i'll tell the notes by writing them for you.
First marks back:EMPIRE OF GOLD - Blonde Ale
Aroma: Cidery, Tart
Appearance: Slightly Hazy
Flavour: Cidery, Tart, Some Oxidation
Mouthfeel: Pleasant Hint of CreaminessTart.
Overall: Lacks Malt Structure, Overly Thin, Tart
Whe I retasted the beer,s I could pick up a tart ciderynote in the beer, not unpleasant, but definitely shouldnt be there.
Second Back was worse, I knew there was an issue with the beer, but given my green palate, I couldn't pick it out.
Bathed in Blood American Red Ale:
Aroma: Sweaty Hops Smell, Lacks Malt Smell.
Appearance: Dark gold Too Light
Flavour:Thin, Dry Astringent, Lacking Malt dimension and Hop Character
Mouthfeel: Good Carbonation, Lacks body.
Overall: Lacking Malt & US Hops Character
There was also a tick box for Vegetal character, but seems slight
I knew there was an issue, I just struggles to pick out the flavours individually, now I pick things up.
The beer was a bit thin, M/Otter will fix that up. I disagree with the colour/appearance, it dead middle of style, and definitely too dark for an APA. Its lacking some real malty flavour. I knew the hop character was out of whack, it didn't quite seem right, not enough punch.
Thired was my highest ranked, freshest beer and most undercarbed...
Knights of Freedom Pale Ale
Aroma: Sweet fruit Lacking Hop Intensity
Appearance: Hazy, Poor Head retention
Flavour: Lacks Vibrancy
Mouthfeel:Body ok Lacking Carbonation
Overall:lacking lively flavours
I agree with most of this, its still young and will improve. I've since spoken to memebers of realbeer, and they have given some hints tips etc. for good vibrancy and intensity for hops.
Last Beer, and unfortunately, my favourtie, and lowest score...at least its double digits.?
Sons of Liberty Porter
Aroma: Initial Nice Hop Character, then Phenolic character appears.
Appearance: Good
Flavour: Phenolic Character Distracts from nice hops flavour, lacking malt complexity
Mouthfeel: thin
Overall: Review Sanitation, and recipe for malt character.
I'll be honest I disagree with a few comments regardingthis, its a great beer, sure its probably a bit thin tasting, despite finishing at 1.020. Making it dangerously easy to drink. The Phenols I disagree with, I'm pretty sure they're picking up a slight smokey taste, which I believe will be the Black malt adding a little extra in there, some malt complexity you might say.?? I do pick up the flavour they are talking about. they seemed to think there was a sanitation issue, could be a bad bottle maybe??
The other interesting thing is how do you make a Porter more complex without getting overly complicated with extra malts?
I'm putting this down to a bad botle, and it will be re-brewed in autumn, to give me something warming to drink in winter.
well thats it, I hope this doesn't put you off my blog, and so on. I will talk further about the hop vibrancy thing to give people advice (which I have received myself) and comment on it, I'll be listening to those comments and testing them out, and I'll report back. Until then, catch ya!
A real shame, as the beers actually taste quite good.... to me.
All Beers were tried and tasted that njight to see if I could pick up what the judges were saying.
I'm not sure how to attach the pdf files... so i'll tell the notes by writing them for you.
First marks back:EMPIRE OF GOLD - Blonde Ale
Aroma: Cidery, Tart
Appearance: Slightly Hazy
Flavour: Cidery, Tart, Some Oxidation
Mouthfeel: Pleasant Hint of CreaminessTart.
Overall: Lacks Malt Structure, Overly Thin, Tart
Whe I retasted the beer,s I could pick up a tart ciderynote in the beer, not unpleasant, but definitely shouldnt be there.
Second Back was worse, I knew there was an issue with the beer, but given my green palate, I couldn't pick it out.
Bathed in Blood American Red Ale:
Aroma: Sweaty Hops Smell, Lacks Malt Smell.
Appearance: Dark gold Too Light
Flavour:Thin, Dry Astringent, Lacking Malt dimension and Hop Character
Mouthfeel: Good Carbonation, Lacks body.
Overall: Lacking Malt & US Hops Character
There was also a tick box for Vegetal character, but seems slight
I knew there was an issue, I just struggles to pick out the flavours individually, now I pick things up.
The beer was a bit thin, M/Otter will fix that up. I disagree with the colour/appearance, it dead middle of style, and definitely too dark for an APA. Its lacking some real malty flavour. I knew the hop character was out of whack, it didn't quite seem right, not enough punch.
Thired was my highest ranked, freshest beer and most undercarbed...
Knights of Freedom Pale Ale
Aroma: Sweet fruit Lacking Hop Intensity
Appearance: Hazy, Poor Head retention
Flavour: Lacks Vibrancy
Mouthfeel:Body ok Lacking Carbonation
Overall:lacking lively flavours
I agree with most of this, its still young and will improve. I've since spoken to memebers of realbeer, and they have given some hints tips etc. for good vibrancy and intensity for hops.
Last Beer, and unfortunately, my favourtie, and lowest score...at least its double digits.?
Sons of Liberty Porter
Aroma: Initial Nice Hop Character, then Phenolic character appears.
Appearance: Good
Flavour: Phenolic Character Distracts from nice hops flavour, lacking malt complexity
Mouthfeel: thin
Overall: Review Sanitation, and recipe for malt character.
I'll be honest I disagree with a few comments regardingthis, its a great beer, sure its probably a bit thin tasting, despite finishing at 1.020. Making it dangerously easy to drink. The Phenols I disagree with, I'm pretty sure they're picking up a slight smokey taste, which I believe will be the Black malt adding a little extra in there, some malt complexity you might say.?? I do pick up the flavour they are talking about. they seemed to think there was a sanitation issue, could be a bad bottle maybe??
The other interesting thing is how do you make a Porter more complex without getting overly complicated with extra malts?
I'm putting this down to a bad botle, and it will be re-brewed in autumn, to give me something warming to drink in winter.
well thats it, I hope this doesn't put you off my blog, and so on. I will talk further about the hop vibrancy thing to give people advice (which I have received myself) and comment on it, I'll be listening to those comments and testing them out, and I'll report back. Until then, catch ya!
Thursday, 31 October 2013
The Nation is Watching....Twitter
https://twitter.com/soba_nhc. This is the Twitter feed for the NHC Home-brew Competition for 2013, apparently they have just over 350 entries, with a Mac's bottle removing an entry or two. Oops. Glad it wasn't mine, but gotta feel for the guy.
So here are my entries, brewed specifically for the competition:
Robust Porter - 12 B
Sons of Liberty American Style Porter. Full Malty Porter, generously hopped with Amarillo Hops. All thrown in during the boil. Recipe is based loosely on the Robust Porter from Brewing Classic Styles. 5.5%ABV
American Amber - 10 B
Bathed in Blood American Red Ale. Big Caramel Malt flavours, generously hopped with Amarillo Centennial, and Simcoe. Recipe is loosely based off the Heretic Brewing Evil Twin Recipe.
5.9%ABV
American Pale Ale - 10 A
Knights of Freedom American Pale Ale. Hoppy Goodness. Citra, Centennial and Amarillo, Hopbursted and Dryhopped, with minimal Caramel Malts in the mash. 40-ish IBU from 20min and later additions only. Citra Dryhop. Based on the Electric Pale Ale, by www.eelectricbrewery.com
5.6%ABV
Blonde Ale - 6 B
Empire of Gold Blonde Ale. Loosely based off an old Extract recipe, I did in the early days. I subbed out the standard Ale Yeast, and Brought in Kolsch Yeast, for a crisper flavour, Low Bitterness, Refreshing, light and very very pale. Malty Aroma, with Minimal Hop Aroma. Clear to Brilliant.
5.1%ABV
Good luck to everyone who has entered, and hopefully, a good standard of beer has been produced again this year. I'm aiming for a medal too. at least one would be nice.
Champion Brewer receives a beer scholarship and 3 commercial releases, the first is paid for by BeerNZ.
Champion beer is brewed at Hallertau in Auckland, on their new fancy brewing system, with the assistance of Jo Wood from Liberty Brewing.
Champion ale, and Champion Lagers, will receive cash prizes etc.
There will no doubt be other prizes for best in class, best in style etc. etc. The list goes on.
I will post my scores and notes up once all judging is completed, probably sometime next week.
On a separate note my big brew day beers are all but complete, dryhop is done, they are now cold conditioning, for bottling on Sunday.
Silence in the Library, has finished withthe following numbers: 1.045 - 1.012: 4.4%ABV
Three Eyed Raven, has finished up slightly higher, giving me : 1.042 - 1.014: 3.7% ABV( Exactly what I was aiming for)
So here are my entries, brewed specifically for the competition:
Robust Porter - 12 B
Sons of Liberty American Style Porter. Full Malty Porter, generously hopped with Amarillo Hops. All thrown in during the boil. Recipe is based loosely on the Robust Porter from Brewing Classic Styles. 5.5%ABV
American Amber - 10 B
Bathed in Blood American Red Ale. Big Caramel Malt flavours, generously hopped with Amarillo Centennial, and Simcoe. Recipe is loosely based off the Heretic Brewing Evil Twin Recipe.
5.9%ABV
American Pale Ale - 10 A
Knights of Freedom American Pale Ale. Hoppy Goodness. Citra, Centennial and Amarillo, Hopbursted and Dryhopped, with minimal Caramel Malts in the mash. 40-ish IBU from 20min and later additions only. Citra Dryhop. Based on the Electric Pale Ale, by www.eelectricbrewery.com
5.6%ABV
Blonde Ale - 6 B
Empire of Gold Blonde Ale. Loosely based off an old Extract recipe, I did in the early days. I subbed out the standard Ale Yeast, and Brought in Kolsch Yeast, for a crisper flavour, Low Bitterness, Refreshing, light and very very pale. Malty Aroma, with Minimal Hop Aroma. Clear to Brilliant.
5.1%ABV
Good luck to everyone who has entered, and hopefully, a good standard of beer has been produced again this year. I'm aiming for a medal too. at least one would be nice.
Champion Brewer receives a beer scholarship and 3 commercial releases, the first is paid for by BeerNZ.
Champion beer is brewed at Hallertau in Auckland, on their new fancy brewing system, with the assistance of Jo Wood from Liberty Brewing.
Champion ale, and Champion Lagers, will receive cash prizes etc.
There will no doubt be other prizes for best in class, best in style etc. etc. The list goes on.
I will post my scores and notes up once all judging is completed, probably sometime next week.
On a separate note my big brew day beers are all but complete, dryhop is done, they are now cold conditioning, for bottling on Sunday.
Silence in the Library, has finished withthe following numbers: 1.045 - 1.012: 4.4%ABV
Three Eyed Raven, has finished up slightly higher, giving me : 1.042 - 1.014: 3.7% ABV( Exactly what I was aiming for)
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Big Brew Day
I got around to brewing my 2 special bitters on the weekend, man what a day! I started at 7am, and finished up around 4pm, after a full clean up etc.
First beer was a Recipe thats been floating around on realbeer.co.nz. The spellbinder recipe, which is an attempt/inpsired by Emerson Bookbinder
I used UK Fuggles, as I couldn't get NZ Fuggles, a 50/50 mix with Riwaka. Recipe by Studio1.
its 4 days in, and I took a taste, great fresh citrus taste, with some good spice. I overshot OG, so ABV is going to be around 4% ish, ratherthan the 3.7% Suggested by the commercial brewery.
This has been dubbed: Silence in the Library Special Bitter
Recipe number 2 is another Special Bitter Dubbed: The Three Eyed Raven Bitter
similar recipe style, but I subbed out dark crystal for cara-aroma and subbed out the medium crystal for caramunich2. I then modelled this off the fantastic beer by Garage Project and used Riwaka, Pacifica, and Motueka, all in equal portions.
Both beers have used WLP001 slurry from the knights of Free dom APA.
On another note all beers sent and received for the NHC2013. Judging begins on 2nd November, and runs through to sunday.
Next beer on the cards is a re-brew of Bathed in Blood, using Simcoe Hops, paired with Nelson Sauvin. I want more punch, and resin type flavour from this beer, and I wanted to move a bit more towards Emersons Oreti Red, which is probably my favourite Red Ale.
See you all in a week or so. I'll post my judging results up here as well.
First beer was a Recipe thats been floating around on realbeer.co.nz. The spellbinder recipe, which is an attempt/inpsired by Emerson Bookbinder
I used UK Fuggles, as I couldn't get NZ Fuggles, a 50/50 mix with Riwaka. Recipe by Studio1.
its 4 days in, and I took a taste, great fresh citrus taste, with some good spice. I overshot OG, so ABV is going to be around 4% ish, ratherthan the 3.7% Suggested by the commercial brewery.
This has been dubbed: Silence in the Library Special Bitter
Recipe number 2 is another Special Bitter Dubbed: The Three Eyed Raven Bitter
similar recipe style, but I subbed out dark crystal for cara-aroma and subbed out the medium crystal for caramunich2. I then modelled this off the fantastic beer by Garage Project and used Riwaka, Pacifica, and Motueka, all in equal portions.
Both beers have used WLP001 slurry from the knights of Free dom APA.
On another note all beers sent and received for the NHC2013. Judging begins on 2nd November, and runs through to sunday.
Next beer on the cards is a re-brew of Bathed in Blood, using Simcoe Hops, paired with Nelson Sauvin. I want more punch, and resin type flavour from this beer, and I wanted to move a bit more towards Emersons Oreti Red, which is probably my favourite Red Ale.
See you all in a week or so. I'll post my judging results up here as well.
Monday, 14 October 2013
A Nice Roasty Porter.
Well on the weekend, we probably drank a few too many of Sons of Liberty, and man what a great beer. Here are some notes on it:
AROMA: Roasted Malts, chocolatey roast aroma, slight hint of sweetness, this could be the fruity american hops trying to break through, perfect balance.
APPEARANCE: Crystal clear, opaque black colour, with ruby highlights. this really cleared up nicely with a short cold crash and an even shorter secondary, it seems I've worked out a pretty good process for clearing the beers up a bit.
FLAVOUR: Rich Malt, probably a tad sweet the additional 2 gravity points I wanted would of made this a real winner. even 1 point would of made it better. rich and malty, with a dry roasty finish, very "Robust". Good balance of bitterness to the beer., not hoppy just a hint of something, either the sweetness of the hops trying to do something/mixing together.
MOUTHFEEL: Thick, very thick, and rich, perfect carbonation at around 2.2 volumes. Head is sticky and a nice lacing down the glass. indicates to me a good creamy feel.
OVERALL: A good solid Porter, definitely on the list for re-brewing. Possibly with Challenger to see if I can establish the unidentified flavour coming through. Rich, thick and malty, with the perfect bitterness to style. Advice from the brew guys in Christchurch was to increase gravity by a couple of point, to assist with attenuation, and drop the temp down to 67 for mash temp. the other advice was to use an english hop, see what the differences are, and they felt the Amarillo hops were a bit wasted here.
NHC Beer Number 1, worthy of mention.
Big weekend coming up too.
I'm bottling the Knights of Freedom. This is a final gravity which happens to be 1.012
I'm also doing my first double brew day. Epic weekend coming up.
AROMA: Roasted Malts, chocolatey roast aroma, slight hint of sweetness, this could be the fruity american hops trying to break through, perfect balance.
APPEARANCE: Crystal clear, opaque black colour, with ruby highlights. this really cleared up nicely with a short cold crash and an even shorter secondary, it seems I've worked out a pretty good process for clearing the beers up a bit.
FLAVOUR: Rich Malt, probably a tad sweet the additional 2 gravity points I wanted would of made this a real winner. even 1 point would of made it better. rich and malty, with a dry roasty finish, very "Robust". Good balance of bitterness to the beer., not hoppy just a hint of something, either the sweetness of the hops trying to do something/mixing together.
MOUTHFEEL: Thick, very thick, and rich, perfect carbonation at around 2.2 volumes. Head is sticky and a nice lacing down the glass. indicates to me a good creamy feel.
OVERALL: A good solid Porter, definitely on the list for re-brewing. Possibly with Challenger to see if I can establish the unidentified flavour coming through. Rich, thick and malty, with the perfect bitterness to style. Advice from the brew guys in Christchurch was to increase gravity by a couple of point, to assist with attenuation, and drop the temp down to 67 for mash temp. the other advice was to use an english hop, see what the differences are, and they felt the Amarillo hops were a bit wasted here.
NHC Beer Number 1, worthy of mention.
Big weekend coming up too.
I'm bottling the Knights of Freedom. This is a final gravity which happens to be 1.012
I'm also doing my first double brew day. Epic weekend coming up.
Monday, 7 October 2013
Smells like Freedom.....Kinda.
Onto my last brew before the NHC2013.
An American Pale Ale, based off the Electric Pale Ale, at www.electricbrewery.com.
This is the last of my Amarillo hops, which is a shame, Its a shame about the lack of availability of this hop.
anyways, ont othe recipe, It's listed here: Knights of Freedom Pale Ale. A Hopbursted Pale Ale, with all the hops going in from 20mins onwards. Wiuth a good Citra Dryhop... i didn't have enough Citra hops, and had exactly 16g of Amarillo, which makes it a 40g single dryhop.
Secondly, I have bottled both my Empire of gold Blonde Ale, after a 10day Lagering period. Then I also bottled BATHED IN BLOOD Red ale. And boy is it tasty, It's gonna be a good beer, and when tasted in a few weeks, I'll get a good idea of whether its gonna be something that may actually get a medal...
And of course Lastly, I poured a bottle of The sons of Librty Porter. nise tasty brew, probably needs another week or so. Its maybe a tad sweet, which is due to the uinder attenuation at 1.019/20. but still very tasty, and waaaaay to easy to drink.
I'm running a small beer tasting for my friends on the Night of NHC, so will post full tasting notes of each individual beer at that time.
Oh and By the way, I'm listing the tasting beers on Untappd, so in future, should anyone receive a bottle from me. Please rate it on untappd.
Catch you next time, when i embark on my first double brewday, to make a two NZ Session Bitters.
An American Pale Ale, based off the Electric Pale Ale, at www.electricbrewery.com.
This is the last of my Amarillo hops, which is a shame, Its a shame about the lack of availability of this hop.
anyways, ont othe recipe, It's listed here: Knights of Freedom Pale Ale. A Hopbursted Pale Ale, with all the hops going in from 20mins onwards. Wiuth a good Citra Dryhop... i didn't have enough Citra hops, and had exactly 16g of Amarillo, which makes it a 40g single dryhop.
Secondly, I have bottled both my Empire of gold Blonde Ale, after a 10day Lagering period. Then I also bottled BATHED IN BLOOD Red ale. And boy is it tasty, It's gonna be a good beer, and when tasted in a few weeks, I'll get a good idea of whether its gonna be something that may actually get a medal...
And of course Lastly, I poured a bottle of The sons of Librty Porter. nise tasty brew, probably needs another week or so. Its maybe a tad sweet, which is due to the uinder attenuation at 1.019/20. but still very tasty, and waaaaay to easy to drink.
I'm running a small beer tasting for my friends on the Night of NHC, so will post full tasting notes of each individual beer at that time.
Oh and By the way, I'm listing the tasting beers on Untappd, so in future, should anyone receive a bottle from me. Please rate it on untappd.
Catch you next time, when i embark on my first double brewday, to make a two NZ Session Bitters.
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