Hoddys bottle swap competition

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Hoddy

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So I'm after two volunteers to assist me with some recipe development.

I have a beer that I've developed that need some feed back to help me get it right. Where I think it's pretty darn good, and unusual.
I think with a few tweaks, it could be even better.

That's where two lucky winners come in.

The beer is a Rosemary & Simcoe IPA. 5% beer using MO, Munich, Vienna and wheat.

It's been dry hopped with a 100grams of simcoe in a 20L batch. And made with rosemary. Yes i said Rosemary.....Just trust me on this......

If you would like to help me and have a bottle swap box then post below to say "your in" and what beer you want to swap.

Winners will be chosen by the brew widow on bank holiday Monday night.




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I reckon the rosemary/simcoe combo sounds interesting too, but thought I'd leave these for others as we already have the other swap organised.

But if you're short on 'volunteers' I don't mind swapping the Vermont brew for one of these, or if you wanted to do an extra swap and try something non-Vermont I could swap for either my NHBC entry APA, or my recently bottled 'vague handwave in the general direction of a 19th century IPA'
:cheers:
 
I'm in.

I've got a tweaked version of my pale ale, an ipa, a Belgian blonde and a mikkeller trxas ranger clone.
 
So it would appear that few of you are convinced, nor brave enough to try my odd sounding combination. Trust me it's a winner.

So the winners are :

Leon103 and TheRedDarren.

Pm me if you don't already have my address. And let me know which way round you want to swap. Happy to send out first if your short of bottle boxes.


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Thanks Hodster, looking forward to trying this. What inspired the Rosemary mate?
 
I was doing some stuff with rosemary and cooking a stew/soup and I tried some water with some Rosemary boiled in it. And I thought..... This with piney simcoe would be wierd. Could be really weird. But could be really good. I think it needs more hops but that's the idea with getting some constructive feedback on how to make it better. Or if I'm just got no taste [emoji6]


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@hoddy firstly apologises, I went to post the Saison earlier but there was a massive queue and I had the little one with me, I will do it tomorrow.

I finished your experimental ale. Firstly the negative, and the first one is mostly my fault. I think I opened it too early and should have left it in the fridge for longer. When I poured it created a huge head in my glass, I don't think it was down to technique, but on pouring I could a smell of the lovely aroma and drank the rest from the bottle, yeast included.

Despite being a little lovely it poured clear and the carbonation was right for the style. Maybe a little chill haze but again I should have chilled it for longer. Now onto the beer itself, waw what a pint, one of the best I have drank, ever. So much so I turned to social media to praise it. I can't get enough of it and want more. You have to send me the recipe - NOW.

Honestly it was a lovely drop, I don't know whether it was the Rosemary or the 100g of dry hop Simcoe. In my head Rosemary and Simcoe go together and compliment each other. I got plenty of pine and mint.

As per all of my bottle swaps, yours was also blind tested by my ale lovely wife. I made the mistake of handing her the glass straight after pouring so she had a mouthful of froth and that it had a homebrew type twang. I then gave her another go later in the pint and she thought it was nice, I said it included an ingredient not found in ale and she said sage, but agreed it was rosemary when I corrected her, she took another swig and said it was really nice and thought it tasted like something I have brewed.

So 10/10 from both of us.

IMG_2773.jpg
 
Just cracked open the Rosemary Simcoe Pale.
Ok, from the top...
Hell of a hiss on opening and a slight gush - not enough to cause problems as I saw it coming and caught the foam. But it did mean it was a two stage pour which brought up yeast from the bottom.
Whilst pouring I was hit with the aroma. Very pleasant indeed, very different indeed, too!
Its heavily carbonated, I'd guess to about 3/4 volumes of c02. This also gives a cracking head of a good two fingers which is hanging around nicely.
Aroma; Very pleasant but also very different. I get a really good whack of rosemary, that is the dominating aroma, in the background I'm getting a touch of banana (no idea where that is from) but also... Spag bol! Crazy!! (That must be the rosemary messing with me!)
Taste; Very clean malt profile, nice dry and crisp on the toungue. Then that rosemary hits again! Lovely! Long dry and bitter finish. I'm mainly noticing how clean it tastes. Defo no off flavours what so ever.
Mouthfeel; Very smooth, almost creamy. Lovely use of oats. But with a crispness to it which is really nice due to the high carb levels.
Clarity; Cloudy. That'll be your oats, but I'm guessing this is also due to disturbed yeast. (There are bits of yeast whizzing around, getting buffeted by the carbonation!)

Its nearly gone in only 10 minutes and I'm finding it hard to put down, excellent lacing all the way down the glass. Aroma is still pumping out rosemary.

Bloody good beer that one mate and very interesting indeed.

The only negative (very harsh as it's not really a negative point) is that I'm not getting the Simcoe.
If I were to experiment on this recipe I'd up the simcoe to balance the rosemary. What you have done is make a great platform for hops (herbs) to sing. So I think increasing the simcoe and calling it an IPA would be worth experimenting.
The other thing to try might be to keep it as a pale ale but increase the body, you could go with brown malt, crystal maybe or melanoidin malt in addition to the grain bill you have. And up the mash temp to 68. That way you'd have a slightly more balanced pale ale (Pales are all about the balance) with a very unusual kick to it.

Bloody good beer there Hods, defo worth pulling a few threads from it and seeing where you end up.

Really enjoyed it, wish I had another one.
 
Just cracked open the Rosemary Simcoe Pale.
Ok, from the top...
Hell of a hiss on opening and a slight gush - not enough to cause problems as I saw it coming and caught the foam. But it did mean it was a two stage pour which brought up yeast from the bottom.
Whilst pouring I was hit with the aroma. Very pleasant indeed, very different indeed, too!
Its heavily carbonated, I'd guess to about 3/4 volumes of c02. This also gives a cracking head of a good two fingers which is hanging around nicely.
Aroma; Very pleasant but also very different. I get a really good whack of rosemary, that is the dominating aroma, in the background I'm getting a touch of banana (no idea where that is from) but also... Spag bol! Crazy!! (That must be the rosemary messing with me!)
Taste; Very clean malt profile, nice dry and crisp on the toungue. Then that rosemary hits again! Lovely! Long dry and bitter finish. I'm mainly noticing how clean it tastes. Defo no off flavours what so ever.
Mouthfeel; Very smooth, almost creamy. Lovely use of oats. But with a crispness to it which is really nice due to the high carb levels.
Clarity; Cloudy. That'll be your oats, but I'm guessing this is also due to disturbed yeast. (There are bits of yeast whizzing around, getting buffeted by the carbonation!)

Its nearly gone in only 10 minutes and I'm finding it hard to put down, excellent lacing all the way down the glass. Aroma is still pumping out rosemary.

Bloody good beer that one mate and very interesting indeed.

The only negative (very harsh as it's not really a negative point) is that I'm not getting the Simcoe.
If I were to experiment on this recipe I'd up the simcoe to balance the rosemary. What you have done is make a great platform for hops (herbs) to sing. So I think increasing the simcoe and calling it an IPA would be worth experimenting.
The other thing to try might be to keep it as a pale ale but increase the body, you could go with brown malt, crystal maybe or melanoidin malt in addition to the grain bill you have. And up the mash temp to 68. That way you'd have a slightly more balanced pale ale (Pales are all about the balance) with a very unusual kick to it.

Bloody good beer there Hods, defo worth pulling a few threads from it and seeing where you end up.

Really enjoyed it, wish I had another one.



Hey mate thanks for the great feedback. And the feedback from Dan and Leon too. It's great to hear I'm not completely made in what I was envisaging.

And you've hit two I the things I was thinking of tweaking next with it to see if it could improved. But also one I hadn't so I will defo include that in my thoughts for the next generation.

Needless to say I'll have you down and the other chaps for a V2 when I get round to brewing it [emoji1303]

Thanks again!!



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