Latest drop

[Iain]

As the good Dr has given a few days off work with my knackered knee I have just put down a couple of drops.
Newcastle Brown, this is a K&K comprising of a can of lager (Coopers) and a blend of bits from Narre Brew Supplies in Narre Warren, he won't tell us what it is but it comes up nice after a couple of weeks in the bottle, I use Saflager yeast with this and ferment at about 12c.
It doesn't quite tatse like the original but it is a nice soft brown, slightly sweet drop that is best served cool not chilled, nice rounded flavour and good head retention.
While brewing it has a beautiful chocolately aroma, suspect it is the choc malt or whatever it is called.
If you are in Melbournes outer east have a look at Narre and pick up a pack (dry) and see what you think.
The expat Poms should love it.
The other is my dark ale which I have mentioned a few times and when finished a Mexican Cervesa kit will be on the go for summer, I find the cold conditioning really helps with this one and we are not short of that at the moment.

[Ramps]

Iain
sounds like you have my sort of tastes. I tend towards the amber and dark ales and don't mind a glass of "the Dog" occasionally. One of my favourite commercial brews is Coopers Dark and I have made variations on this theme. Would be good to be closer so we could do a swap. Be great to put down 60 stubbies then swap 3/4 of them and have 4 different brews (I don't go thru them fast enough to put them down even once every couple of months.

[Iain]

I like Coopers dark as a base and have tried a few variations, used to use, well.....still do, fuggles but like the spicy finish that tetnang offers.
I just buy this in pellet form (15 or 25g) and add just before the yeast.
I have tried 750g dark malt but find it a bit too black so go half and half with LME and DME in syrup form.
I haven't tried dextrose with dark yet and am almost afraid to do so as I think it may ruin a good drop.
This batch is going to be kegged too, 19 litres and the balance bottled, just have to work out pressures, obviously not as high as lagers.
As stated, the Mexican Cervesa kit is not bad but takes a long time to mature, I tried the first one after a month and it was bloody awful, after 4 months it was quite good, I also add juice of 3 lemons to the fermentation and this gives a nice clean finish with merely a hint of lemon.
Swmbo is complaining at the moment as the two fermenters are busily 'burping' all night, I find it relaxing and reassuring that all is going well.
As an aside I used to work with some blokes who 'home brewed', 1 x can lager, 1kg white sugar, kit yeast, ferment 1 week, bottle with sugar for secondary, 3 days later ready to drink, so they reckoned, it was the worst ever god awful garbage I had ever tasted and they thought it was great.

[Ramps]

Been there with the std can of kit with the 1kg white sugar ... that's why I'm not still there. sometimes I put down an "all dark" but mostly leave those to the very occasional stout.Played with hops a long time back but have forgotten what works best and what they tasted like so I'll go visit the brew shop tomorrow and go on your recommendations and pick up some tetnang and I did have fuggles before so I might store some of those again.
The dextrose won't hurt it but if you like the all malt ales as I do then don't bother. It works well in some of the lighter flavoured lagers that I was playing with at one stage.
Not real keen on the Mexican style beers. Or for that matter the wheat beers... that was until I had a dunkler Weizen (which means dark wheat beer, sorry to the Germans if I've got that wrong) in Germany and I fell in love with it. Had to slip out of the conference at lunch time for one and of course there was a compulsory one (or two) at the end of the day. As it was a local brewery, I don't know where to start.

[Iain]

Don't forget too that in Germany every town has it's own brewery, and like water, power and a telephone, a beer line direct from the brewery to home is considered a utility with a monthly account(at least it was when I was there).
I'd love to see a monthly account, wonder if it's like our bills: Fritz Pizzenpotter, average consumption 15 litres per day, last billing period, 11 litres per day.
I also wonder if it is billed on a sliding scale?
It is also the only place where I have seen beer at McDonalds:D :D :D
Re the hops, I like Fuggles but Tetnang has a slightly spicy finish with about the same bittering, tried Pride of Ringwood, whoa!!!!!! really takes the smile off your face.

[Ramps]

Pride of Rigwood yes it had a name in it's day ... beat all the others as a bittering hops hands down but when I was doing some research the other night I discovered that it's been well and truly outdone ... by about another 50% :oo: prob the stuff they throw into those cold and ice beers that make them taste so plain, bitter and awful! oops have I overstepped the mark there:p

[Iain]

prob the stuff they throw into those cold and ice beers that make them taste so plain, bitter and awful! oops have I overstepped the mark there:p

:D :D :D :D Absolutely not :D :D
CUB ice cold bitter fizz, extremely limited shelf life, deteriorates with age, unfortunately a lot of people don't realise that a quality beer/ale/lager can be compared with any fine wine or single malt.
Do they actually use hops or just a chemical bittering agent?
Hops were originally used as a preservative and the bittering was a bonus, which I am sure you knew anyway, as for my Mexican style lager, 'tis only a hot day or BBQ quaffer, and considerably better than Corona which I think is like diluted cats pee, I would sooner drink a Crown lager shandy than that, the lemonade actually improves it.

[Glenn_M]

Do they actually use hops or just a chemical bittering agent?
Hops were originally used as a preservative and the bittering was a bonus

Last time I knew what CUB where doing (few years back) the were using a 'hop extract' to add bitterness to their beers. Extracted from a varietal developed for them with very high AA content - about 11% from memory. Cheap, simple bittering I 'spose...

Belgian beers are my beer of choice (to brew and drink). In some Belgian styles they add 'stale' hops and about 3-4 times the level we would use in a Pils. Used for the preservative effect alone. Good use for all those left over stale flowers I'd accumulate in the fridge.


Cheers,

[himzol]

Just for the record:

Crown Larger = Fosters alrger ( in waynker bottles),
haven't tried it as a shandy though.... could be OK on a hot day.

H.

[Pat]

Himzol. waste of good lemonade, putting VB/Crown in a shandie.

[Bluegum]

I just put down a Rhine lager or Becks here this week.

Blackrock pilsner blonde,
1 Beer enhancer, and
12grams hallertau hops.

looking forward to getting to do a bit of tasting in the next couple of months. Just finished a coopers Canadian blonde and bottled it a coule of weeks ago. Not to bad a drop.

[Ramps]

Just reporting back

The modified Muntons nut brown ale that started a little sweet has turned out a very nice winter beer ... a touch sweet for everyday drinking and very popular with the misses as well. :U

The modified Cascade Porter has turned out a superb drop (another winter full bodied dark ale). :2tsup:

Picked up a 28kg drum of amber malt the other day (half price that way) in prep for a big season ... keep running out of stubbies and nowadays it's very difficult to get brown stubs :no:

Some of my std additions ...

mostly all (amber and dark) malt (but occasionally still do a blend of maltose, sucrose, even lactose)
crystal malt
flavoring hops

[Iain]

Went out for lunch yesterday and had my first ever James Squire Pils, what surprised me was that it tatsed just like my Newcastle Brown clone, and a lot more bloody expensive.
May have to change the name.

[Ramps]

Ian
Another report...

I have put down a stout (highly modified coopers) about a week ago. Dodgy yeast so I threw in a double dose ... it went off like fireworks and was all done in two days. Decided to do a taste and alc test ... too bitter ... over did the hops ... and not strong enough (4%) so I added some lactose and some sucrose/detrose blend (wanted something quickly soluble to reduce the time open ... will bottle that one tonight ... might be interesting as I've never added stuff after the initial fermentation ... will keep you informed.

Getting low enough to worry about the supplies (that is only enough for another month at the way I'm drinking them at the moment) so tried the coopers real ale that I bottled an coupe of weeks ago. Modified: all malt (light DME) and some added aroma hops in... yes some Tetnang

First impression was the colour is very dark. Second impression was WOW. very nice taste, tried to put my finger on it but couldn't at first ... the hops. Great one Iain and the flavour is thereright til the last mouthful, unusual as I find most beers that have a different flavour you tend to miss after the first couple of mouthfuls.

Good one, if I'm allowed to for a non-woodworking tip you get a greenie for that

Thanks

[Gingermick]

dunkler

Dunkel. Prob with all these yummy beers is that out of the fridge they are dull, but half way through they start to come alive as the temp increases .

[Iain]

4 degrees is way too low for an ale, the Poms have been drinking at room temperature for years, I find that about 12-15 isw nice, cool enough to be refreshing, warm enough to release the flavour.
I watched a Michael Jackson documentary:wink: and he talked about never drinking beer out of a bottle, poured into a glass releases the Pheremones (sp) and the taste is quite different, I have tried this and can vouch that this is certainly correct.
This is a piccy of michael, comes up well after a show doesn't he

[Gingermick]

But whenever I have a really nice strong dark ale, I don't have the patience to allow it to warm up and room temp here is a bit high.
With the greater surface area of the glass, the esters are released in greater numbers.
I haven't yet poured a knappstein into a glass, but I always have a smell before a sip.