Fellowship of the Home Brew I: The Hops are Strong with this one!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I'm also interested in the BYO bogo if any else has one to split.
 
TwistedGray said:
Post review you damn hippies!! [From Germany]
Click to expand...

Ok,Ok!!!:eek:

@Scturo,

Hoegaarden (12oz Bottle) - Classic Belgian Wit flavored with Coriander and Orange Peel. Brewed on 5/25/017.

This was very nice, I drank it cold out of the bottle after a hot day of work. The spice was subtle and I believe I remember a nice little twang to it.

Say Hello to My Little NEIPA (Bomber) - A Hazy brew that is Hopped with Mosaic, Nelson, and Citra giving it a Tropical
apricot flavor. Brewed on 6/29/2017 so it's a little old but is still holding its still as giid as ever.

I drank this after drinking the Monkish and the Supercollider. (which I really liked by the way) At this point I was pretty buzzed and yours was the perfect finish to my first enjoyable IPA experience. The lower abv made it seem a little weak compared to the other two but the flavors were a perfect follow up.

Afpelwein (Bomber) - A clean, crisp apple Cider made with QA23 that is 9 months old, so is taking on a smooth
Chardonnay flavor. You also have the option of carbonated or Non-carbonated.

My wife drank this and really enjoyed it. She (we) have been trying to make ciders for a year and when she tasted yours she was like :mad::mad: This is what I have been trying to make!!!

I told her it was aged and have been trying to get her to age some instead of drinking it up! Thank you for helping me with that.;)

I did try it too and it was good though we would have most likely preferred it carbed. Might have to hit you up for a recipe.:)

Maple-Bourbon Fidy (2 12oz Bottles) - A brew based on Ten Fidy with Oak Aged Bourbon and @Brizzo's Maple Syrup
added. Brewed on 7/28/2017 so it needs some time But is already tasty.

I am trying very hard not to drink these yet, I know its going to be good and my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I am a fan of Barrel aged stouts, I have a small collection building I hope to save for a while. Yours are with them. For now!!:D

Well thats all I got. I meant to do better reviews and try to learn more with all the terminology and such. Sorry, but life has been a hectic blur since July. There is always next time. Right???

:mug::mug::mug:
 
PianoMan said:
Holy Porch Bomb @RevKev!! This is an awesome load! Thanks for the many many goodies. Coffee beans?Dig the glue high also first thing! 😉
Click to expand...

Lol I kinda forgot to let them dry.. Also the whole labeling thing is beyond me I give up from here on out. I'll make them but putting them on **** no.

And yes coffee from www.deathwishcoffee.com my version of noise makers... Cheers! I may have something else... The stout is likely undercarbed :(
 
We are indeed. I'll write up the new thread this weekend. You guys have until then to come up with the timeline. :p

I'll start the next FotD this weekend, also.
 
TwistedGray said:
Post review you damn hippies!! [From Germany]
Click to expand...

Okay. I'll critique imasickboys brews. Just finished his stouts. Very good, a little dry, but good. Nice mellow roastiness, has that homebrew sort of aroma and aftertaste, but I really enjoyed them. The IPA was the absolute bomb. I've had Heady and Pliny and I enjoyed these more. Absolutely fantastic. The plain Mead was good, a little hot, but good flavor. Hope you don't mind if I let the vanilla and cinnamon one age a little. I made a cyser for my daughters wedding that is 2 1/2 years old and it is just starting to mellow out on the alcohol heat. Haven't had a chance to get into the kraut yet, but it's in the fridge. I'm really happy I picked your offer. How about we hear some more reviews.:mug:
 
GaBrewZoo said:
Okay. I'll critique imasickboys brews. Just finished his stouts. Very good, a little dry, but good. Nice mellow roastiness, has that homebrew sort of aroma and aftertaste, but I really enjoyed them. The IPA was the absolute bomb. I've had Heady and Pliny and I enjoyed these more. Absolutely fantastic. The plain Mead was good, a little hot, but good flavor. Hope you don't mind if I let the vanilla and cinnamon one age a little. I made a cyser for my daughters wedding that is 2 1/2 years old and it is just starting to mellow out on the alcohol heat. Haven't had a chance to get into the kraut yet, but it's in the fridge. I'm really happy I picked your offer. How about we hear some more reviews.:mug:
Click to expand...

I think he needs a second opinion. I'll sacrifice imasickboy....a 12pk of HB should suffice! ☺
 
Well, about one eighth the way home from Germany...in France for the evening. Great reviews folks! I need to get a few brews going for the next one.

LOVE flying European airlines...regardless of the length you get free booze. I had a Swiss beer on my first flight out of Zurich followed by a Heineken on my in-France flight. Flying KLM tomorrow so I'm sure it'll be a Heineken again, but I may just opt for wine...pretty beer'd out from Germany trip.
 
Here's my review of the beverages @Thorrak sent me:

"Awesomest" Chipotle Porter & "Awesomest" Base Porter: I'll combine my reviews of these two beers, because they're the same other than the pepper... So, I don't really brew for anyone else, and don't share my stuff often, and I'm not really a beer geek, or beer snob, so to speak. I'm a drinker. And quite frankly, these were beers I'd brew for myself. Period. They were downright ****ing delicious. I truly want these recipes. The base beer was perfect, as far as I'm concerned, and the pepper was perfectly executed. Loved them, loved them, loved them.

Cherry Melomel: Tasty, and pretty dry. Gorgeous in the glass. I agree with Thorrak that it could use some tweak to the sweetness. I like my meads sweet. My solution: 4 pounds per gallon, and D-47 yeast. Sadly, it requires time. A lot of time. The mead that I sent to @GaBrewZoo that he thought was a little hot is over a year and a half old. So, yeah. More time than that. Not a lot of additional help I can give here.

The IPA: This beer came with a disclaimer mentioning some problems. I noted an almost metallic kind of thing, which I once experienced in one of my own IPA's that I just threw too many non-compatible hops into. Whether this is the problem here, I can't say, but it is a possibility. I've had much worse commercial IPA's, so it was a win, as far as I'm concerned.

The small project included was a temp controller meant to be used with software that he's been working on: http://www.fermentrack.com/

I've built the controller, but have hit a rough patch trying to flash the firmware. I've not yet reached out for help, because I've not yet exhausted my own knowledge. I've been busy, and haven't had time to really try to work it out, so it's still sitting six inches from my keyboard, waiting for me.

It was a great pick!

@Thorrak I really do want the porter recipes, if you'll share. :mug:
 
@gabrewzoo. Cucumber saison.

Great noble hop (saaz?!) nose that made me fall in love. This is a tasty saison. There is a bit of caramel/honey malt (maybe caramunich?) that shows up at colder temps that I would pass on but I really enjoyed this one.

My wife (aka my better palette) and I both thought the cucumber was muted. Like in an, ‘I think that is the cucumber bc it is fresh and different but it doesn’t strike me as cucumber’ way about halfway through.

This was the beer I picked the offer for and it lived up. Great drink, and much needed on this Friday night. Glad I have one more in the cellar. View attachment IMG_1506731559.408158.jpg
 
fourfarthing said:
@gabrewzoo. Cucumber saison.

Great noble hop (saaz?!) nose that made me fall in love. This is a tasty saison. There is a bit of caramel/honey malt (maybe caramunich?) that shows up at colder temps that I would pass on but I really enjoyed this one.

My wife (aka my better palette) and I both thought the cucumber was muted. Like in an, ‘I think that is the cucumber bc it is fresh and different but it doesn’t strike me as cucumber’ way about halfway through.

This was the beer I picked the offer for and it lived up. Great drink, and much needed on this Friday night. Glad I have one more in the cellar. View attachment 415844
Click to expand...

Glad you liked it. I actually used Sorachi Ace hops for their lemony taste, thought it would go good in a saison. The grain bill was 7# pilsner, 4# wheat and 1# OB honey at flameout.

I only used about one half of a cucumber for the five gallon batch, so the cucumber flavor is very subtle, I should have gone with a whole one.
 
@GaBrewZoo. Wheat Rye Ale. I have nothing to say, other than that I would like the recipe so I can have some on hand next year late summer/early fall harvest season. Great f’ing beer.
 
fourfarthing said:
Last new one as I am saving the cider for something special. @gabrewzoo ‘s Berliner Weisse is spot on. I have had 4 beers of his with three brewing techniques and have barely been able to provide useful feedback as they were all so well done.

View attachment 416328
Click to expand...

I love seeing that bottle. I have my first brew in the fridge in one of those bottles. I dont know if it is even any good any more, it is a Maris Otter/Willamette smash. Just makes me smile seeing it in the back of the fridge.
 
jerbrew said:
Saison. 90% pils 10% flaked grain of choice. An ounce sorachi ace/saaz/favorite noble hop at 60 and FO. Any/favorite saison yeast. Simple and tasty, done in a week and easy to make 1.070. If you're feeling saucy add some good quality honey to boost SG. The simple sugars will help you get a low end hydro reading too.
Click to expand...

So I ended up making this with Sorachi Ace & the grain bill you recommended (6 lbs pilsner, 11 oz flaked rice, 2.5 gallon batch) and it turned out delicious. Ended up fermenting with Danstar Belle Saison 3. Got lazy and forgot to add the honey.

The only uh, issue I had -- The OG (the measurement of which was the whole reason for making this batch) was 1.071. The FG, however, ended at 0.997.

Yeeeahhhhh.

Ended up testing it with two different pieces of equipment - both read 1.00 or lower. No off flavors that I can tell. No idea how this happened as I've never had anything like this in the past.
 
Thorrak said:
So I ended up making this with Sorachi Ace & the grain bill you recommended (6 lbs pilsner, 11 oz flaked rice, 2.5 gallon batch) and it turned out delicious. Ended up fermenting with Danstar Belle Saison 3. Got lazy and forgot to add the honey.

The only uh, issue I had -- The OG (the measurement of which was the whole reason for making this batch) was 1.071. The FG, however, ended at 0.997.

Yeeeahhhhh.

Ended up testing it with two different pieces of equipment - both read 1.00 or lower. No off flavors that I can tell. No idea how this happened as I've never had anything like this in the past.
Click to expand...

That's a boozy brew there. Glad it worked out for you.
 
RevKev said:
Going to start digging in!! Only leak was a little of the vinegar, I wanna say maybe it was the apple cider? If that's what it was very interested to try them all thanks for the package my friend!!
Click to expand...



Didn’t label those, sorry. Those are malt vinegar I make from starters. I use my malt vinegar in my hot sauces. Hope you enjoy. There’s a bottle of cider and I think I forgot to label the Porter.
 
Imasickboy, we got into the kraut last night. I will never touch commercial sauerkraut again. I bought a head of cabbage and I'm going to start making my own from now on. Very good. Thank you.
 
JDXX1971 said:
I dunno, you tell me. How was mine?
Click to expand...

As promised here are some notes on what I thought of your brew.

- #1 a variation of Yooper's Oatmeal Stout 5.0%
Medium bodied and easy to drink. I liked the mouth feel and roasty flavor without astringency. It had a dryer finish being only 5% which I really enjoyed. Definitely a stout I could drink a few of. The after taste was a bit tart and not something I'm used to in a stout and if I licked my lips after a nice big drink I got the same kind of tartness.

- #2 a variation of a Power Pack Porter 6.3%
Porters are one of my favorite styles and this was a solid base porter that I could tell was built differently than mine, I tend to focus on brown, amber, and marris otter malt. I like the semi dry finish and round flavor from the crystal malts. They left the right amount of sweetness to accentuate the roast malts giving it the very dark color. This beer also had that tart finish on the end similar but more pronounced than the stout. Maybe the higher roasted grain amount in the stout hid it a bit more. My first drink was a bit surprising because of it.

- #3 my Red seal Ale clone (shh) 5.9%
This was a great all around beer. It's been a while since I've had a Red Seal but if it tastes like this beer I'll order one when I get a chance. The color was a beautiful ruby red. The beer was clear and had a great malty aroma. The flavor swayed a bit towards malty without being sweet and the hops were not overtly present. Very clean and I couldn't pick out anything about this one that I would change or recommend.

- #4 a Gaelic Ale clone found on BS 6.2%
As with the Red Seal Ale this was a nicely balanced beer. Swaying towards a rich, complex ,malty flavor the hops took a delicate and supporting backseat as they were supposed to.

- #5 Martinelli's apple cider with wlp775 7.5%
This was a fun cider. I could still taste that Martinelli flavor in it. Very crisp clean flavor. Not much going on from fermentation which I think played well with the simple base flavor of the cider.

- #6 a variation of Fruitcake Old Ale 9.5%
I loved the level of spice in this beer. I also thought that the 9.5% ABV was well integrated into the flavor of the beer. I sometimes don't like old ales because of the overwhelming sweetness and the spice made me a bit nervous at first. However, this beer came out pleasantly dryer than expected and had a very nice finish from the spice that really got me in the mood for some pie. I would loved to have saved this one for a big Christmas dinner.

You also sent me a cider version of the fruitcake which again, had the perfect level of spice and complexity. Very clean other than the spices and left me wanting more.

The Cyser. That one is hard to comment on. My first cyser so I'm not sure what I should expect but I can say it tasted like a cidery mead with an overt medicinal flavor. Probably just not my thing so take it for what its worth.

Thanks for sharing the brews and keep up the good work man.

Picture of the red seal.

IMG_1923.jpg
 
Last edited:
@jerbrew
Wow, what a great review! I appreciate the feedback. I am not sure what happened with the porter and the stout. I was also surprised by the tartness, not sure whats up with that. Fermentation temps were a bit high, maybe that is the culprit or maybe our well water. Those two were my first dark beers except the Fruitcake old ale which would be hard to compare. I need to get a ph meter and get my water tested. Though I did like both the stout and porter myself especially after they aged a bit. So if it is my water that might just be my style.:D

As for the Cyser it came out a wreak, sickly sweet if you ask me. But if you freeze concentrate it something magical happens and it is killer, I thought I mentioned that.
 
JDXX1971 said:
@jerbrew
Wow, what a great review! I appreciate the feedback. I am not sure what happened with the porter and the stout. I was also surprised by the tartness, not sure whats up with that. Fermentation temps were a bit high, maybe that is the culprit or maybe our well water. Those two were my first dark beers except the Fruitcake old ale which would be hard to compare. I need to get a ph meter and get my water tested. Though I did like both the stout and porter myself especially after they aged a bit. So if it is my water that might just be my style.:D

As for the Cyser it came out a wreak, sickly sweet if you ask me. But if you freeze concentrate it something magical happens and it is killer, I thought I mentioned that.
Click to expand...

I was going toa sk you about your water and mash pH. The porter and stout didn't taste like a fermentation issue. Water was my first guess but you'd need better info on its composition to diagnose.

You mentioned the cyser makes good applejack. I've never done that but may try in the future. I keep cider going almost all the time. May be a fun adventure.
 
jerbrew said:
I was going toa sk you about your water and mash pH. The porter and stout didn't taste like a fermentation issue. Water was my first guess but you'd need better info on its composition to diagnose.

You mentioned the cyser makes good applejack. I've never done that but may try in the future. I keep cider going almost all the time. May be a fun adventure.
Click to expand...

I was thinking about doing cider recently given the availability of local apples. Do you generally get unpasteurized/un-UV-sanitized/unpreserved cider and let the natural yeast go to work, or do you pitch some specific kind of yeast?
 
Thorrak said:
I was thinking about doing cider recently given the availability of local apples. Do you generally get unpasteurized/un-UV-sanitized/unpreserved cider and let the natural yeast go to work, or do you pitch some specific kind of yeast?
Click to expand...

Generally what I've used has been pasteurized from a local source or from the grocery store when they have deals on cider, those are obviously pasteurized as well. That being said, I usually pitch some kind of yeast I'm interested in experimenting with. Cider is a great way to find out what a yeast taste like I think. I also like to through in dregs from bottle conditioned beers that are "interesting", like the Jester King dregs I used. I typically keep using the same yeast cake, sometimes adding new stuff sometimes not, until it starts to get to tart for my liking. I think I may try and spontaneously ferment some stuff this season, but we'll have to see.
 
jerbrew said:
Generally what I've used has been pasteurized from a local source or from the grocery store when they have deals on cider, those are obviously pasteurized as well. That being said, I usually pitch some kind of yeast I'm interested in experimenting with. Cider is a great way to find out what a yeast taste like I think. I also like to through in dregs from bottle conditioned beers that are "interesting", like the Jester King dregs I used. I typically keep using the same yeast cake, sometimes adding new stuff sometimes not, until it starts to get to tart for my liking. I think I may try and spontaneously ferment some stuff this season, but we'll have to see.
Click to expand...

That's what I just opened!! And I taste the funk I dig it. I'll give you more detailed notes when I work my way through them all!!

View attachment 1510196619798.jpg
 
RevKev said:
That's what I just opened!! And I taste the funk I dig it. I'll give you more detailed notes when I work my way through them all!!
Click to expand...

Man, that looks tasty. The hibiscus one I did on the same yeast came out even better. Only have a few of those left. Saving them for thanksgiving. Looking forward to hearing what you think of it all.
 

Similar threads

T
Fellowship of the Drink XXX: Pour one for our friends
5 6 7
Replies
264
Views
10K
Thorrak
T
3 Dawg Night
FotHB XIX: Legal to Drink in Canada
2 3
Replies
86
Views
3K
3 Dawg Night
3 Dawg Night
T
FotHB XVIII: In Memory of @aharri1 [RIP]
2 3 4
Replies
132
Views
7K
RCope
RCope
orionol73
Fellowship of the Drink XXIX: Doug E. Fresh(beer) - Every Body Got 2 Get Some
3 4 5
Replies
163
Views
9K
Thorrak
T
T
2023 FotD Secret "Santa" ("Cupid"?) Beer Swap
2 3
Replies
112
Views
5K
Thorrak
T

Latest posts

Back
Top