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[morethanworts]

Lack of head can sometimes be the glass.y mate bought me some really nice peroni glasses; pints and halves. They are beautiful but don't keep a head where as my crappy old carling glass keeps a head right down to the bottom.
The stuff in the peroni still tastes fizzy but is just missing head.

I took three bottles from three different brews to a friend's house last week, all chilled, transported gently in the car (held upright), 2 opened after about 10 mins stood still the other end, the last one about 20 mins later. All three poured with far more (retentive) head than usual into his glasses. I'm not sure if this was just the journey, what he'd washed the glasses in, temperatures (glass/beer) or whatever, but I think it shows what a slippery customer head creation/retention is in beer!

 

[anthonyUK]

Report for 4E - Dry hopped APA

I had chilled it for a couple of days and the clarity was excellent after such a short time.
Great carbonation. Slightly more than I normally do but perfect for the style.
No aroma as such which is not uncommon but again this is in keeping with the style.
Lovely bitterness which gives a very refreshing brew. No head to speak of but TBH I didn't help matters here using a glass from the dishwasher and was careful not to stir up the sediment so there may have been if I'd tried harder.
Overall very impressed - 8/10

 

[fbsf]

3C arrived on Friday (many thanks!) and is settling in the garage. Will report back over the weekend :

 

[evanvine]

Will there be a "revelation" at the end as to who was who? :twisted:

Still not received mine!

 

[evanvine]

Spoke too soon!
3F has just arrived, that's all it says on the bottle, just 3F. :wha:
Will open it at the weekend.

 

[redhousebrewing]

6F arrived safely today and is now tucked away for a few days to settle after the rigours of travel!
Also posted my 2 out today to the unsuspecting victims
Tasting notes to follow...

 

[fbsf]

Not sure - with the xmas ones it was up to the sender if they wanted to reveal themselves (in a matter of speaking :shock: ). As long as I get a glowing review, I'd be happy to reveal which one mine was :lol:

 

[Pakman]

Exactly 1 hour after I had walked into town to post my beer to my designated recipient last Thursday 2F was delivered to me. Been sitting in my beer cupboard whilst I was away at the weekend so looking forward to sampling it tonight. Tasting notes to follow.
Graham

 

[morethanworts]

Will there be a "revelation" at the end as to who was who? :twisted:

I think I've indicated along the way that I'm not going to reveal anyone's identity :nono:, so I am duty bound to stick to that! I'd still encourage senders to respond to all reviews, though, to further enrich our feedback thread and to put it all into perspective.

Let's have some photos too, if you can! :electric: - I know it's only a bottle and a glass on a table etc but it does make the thing come alive! I bet the sender will be intrigued to see their beer in your glass. :

The kind sender of bottle 1G will be delighted to know that it arrived safely today and will now be given plenty of time to clear down before tasting. Many thanks!

 

[Asalpaws]

Phew that was a hot day at work!

Thought I'd relax in the style of a monk.... a Belgian monk that is.

Cracked open the bottle I'd received. Titled "Trappissed" a dark Trappist style ale. ABV 7.7 %. Beer 2 G.

Packaged in a buds£&?!er 300 ml bottle, yes I've palmed off a lot of that insipid fizz on family members to get these great little bottles, perfect for strong highly carbonated ales like this.
The label was minimalist and stylish the aged paper a nice touch.

Poured into a tulip glass with a nice foaming head supported by plenty of bubbles streaming off the side of the glass. The head gradually fell back to about 1 cm which stayed till the end. A lovely deep garnet colour which looks nearly black from a distance. Surprisingly clear despite it's Royal Mail epic.

Not too much in the nose but I could deffinately get some Belgian yeast funk as it warmed up. Perhaps a bit of chocolate in there as well.

Initially taste was the sharpness of the carbonation, as you would expect for the style, then I get molasses and Belgian yeasty, ester goodness (? WY 3787). No alcohol burn noticeable with a nice dry finish, did you use dark candy sugar? Slight bitterness in the finish but no hop flavours, again appropriate for style.

Overall a very enjoyable Dark Belgian, plenty of chocolate, bread, dark sugar character. I very much enjoyed it, I find some of the commercial examples a bit over sweet (Kwack for example) this seemed to have more balancing bitterness and dryness. Thank you very much for a n great beer. T

 

[RobWalker]

Cracked mine open after a long day at work, appropriately but not excessively chilled. Clearly whoever made this beer knows me very well and sent me the right thing, as it's totally hit the nail on the head. Allow me to elaborate...

Lovely golden pale colour, a nice low abv at 4%, wonderfully clear. The carbonation is just right, fizzy but not as intense as a lager etc. The bottle design is everything a good beer should be too, those sneaky puns that you have a little snicker at.

It's well hopped beer with some American style C hops, but a respectable amount at that. I think these mini IPA things can be overbearing and ruin your palette, but the bitterness is just harsh enough with the right amount of fresh hop aroma, not overpowering but plenty of taste. It's wonderfully balanced against the malt which is just the tiniest bit of sweet and lends a good slightly syrupy backbone, leading to a dry bitter finish that doesn't make you thwack your gums but leaves you just thirsty. It reminds me more of the Arbor Ales type beers than a brewdog or tiny rebel, and that's just fine with me!

Head retention is very good too, halfway down and it's still covered in a thick layer with lacing all around the glass.

This is certainly a 10/10 from me, a perfect summer session beer, I could drink it all day. Well done to the brewer!

Cheers! :

 

[morethanworts]

2G (Trappist Ale) was mine! Thank you so much for your thoughtful review and for making such an effort, Asalpaws. I think I'd still have enjoyed it even if you hadn't liked the beer quite so much (well, nearly ) :

I so wish I could take full credit for the malt profile and balancing bitterness you so knowledgeably identify, but I must acknowledge Brewferm and their impressive Abdij kit. I think their yeast is great, giving all that 'funk' at high temperatures, and settling out brilliantly. Sounds like it cleared quick after posting too. I couldn't quite bring myself to shake one up to test that before! It was rehydrated and fermented just in primary at a steady 25C (as per their old instructions - it's now recommended lower !?!?) for 10 days, stood cold for 3 and bottled, batch primed with 80g white sugar in the 9.5L I had. 550g Golden Syrup was in it, as a 'substitute' for candy sugar, giving an OG of 1.072 and FG of 1.018. [The 7.7%ABV included 0.4% from the hefty priming, if you're doing the sums.]

Interesting that you highlight the extra bitterness, compared to some of the commercial Belgian offerings. I totally agree.

It spent nine weeks in the bottle before your tasting. I've got about 15 bottles of that batch left, then I've got a second, double-batch, though that one got stuck briefly around 1.020 and seems to have suffered slightly for it's rousing and/or extra time.

Again, much obliged for your feedback, which was really interesting to get. :thumb:

 

[Asalpaws]

Wow very impressive for a kit beer, I totally thought it was AG! Makes me very tempted to try some of the Brewferm kits. Nice to see other brewers who make Belgian ales. Generally I've not needed to get temps as high as you mention with Belgian yeasts apart from WY belg Saison (notorious for stalling out) which I thought had finished at 1.008 only to find it had continued to ferment in the bottles-> fail. It seems the higher the temps get the more ester funk you get but a lot of people recommend keeping temps < 20 for the first 48 hrs before letting temps climb.

Are you planning any extract brews? I've never tried extract personally, but I imagine Belgian triple would easy. Just 80 % pilsner/pale extract and 20 % table sugar with about 30 IBU of any bittering hop at 60 mins? WY Trappist High gravity is my personal favorite yeast, it goes mental, needs a lot of head space in the fermenter, you might even be able to culture it from a bottle

Typical kreuzen, it went on to come out the airlock.

Thanks again, T

 

[redhousebrewing]

Having been patient giving the bottle 3-4 days to settle & chill after its journey it was time to sample a beer swap...

Ginger Bite (bottle 1A) - Lager/Ale flavoured with fresh ginger, 4% ABV.

A generous 750ml serving, served well chilled, plenty of carbonation, ideal for a lager/ale, nice and clear (its the start of condensation on the glass in the picture below rather than chill haze), lovely subtle aroma of ginger, poured with a head which subsided.
The ginger flavours come through nicely but with a little bitterness over and above a straight lager - very refreshing and could see this going down very well sat outside in the current weather!

Whoever brewed this should be very happy with the results. I'm a huge fan of ginger so this has me thinking on how to do something similar!

Very good effort :thumb:
Thanks for a great beer!
Stuart

 

[evanvine]

Review of 4f , since bottle looked to have settled and was a beautiful day I cracked open the bottle, was lovely and refreshing only critism was when poured in glass there was no head at all but tasted nice and that's the main thing , gave my mate a taste as he was helping paint my fence and he said would have been really good with more carbonation.

I'm the guilty party here!
It was a late decision to join in the Beer swap.
I don't normally bottle so took this out of my keg, added 1/4 tsp sugar and left for 3 weeks before posting.
Thank you for your comments, I quite understand about the lack of head and fizz! :thumb:

 

[Kinleycat]

Having been patient giving the bottle 3-4 days to settle & chill after its journey it was time to sample a beer swap...

Ginger Bite (bottle 1A) - Lager/Ale flavoured with fresh ginger, 4% ABV.

A generous 750ml serving, served well chilled, plenty of carbonation, ideal for a lager/ale, nice and clear (its the start of condensation on the glass in the picture below rather than chill haze), lovely subtle aroma of ginger, poured with a head which subsided.
The ginger flavours come through nicely but with a little bitterness over and above a straight lager - very refreshing and could see this going down very well sat outside in the current weather!

Whoever brewed this should be very happy with the results. I'm a huge fan of ginger so this has me thinking on how to do something similar!

Very good effort :thumb:
Thanks for a great beer!
Stuart

Thats mine, the lack of head i aren't overly impressed with on this one, it does keep a little better in a carling glass than most others i've tried it in.
Its a bog standard Youngs lager kit (that might explain the head) with 1kg DME and 40 teaspoons of pureed ginger that i brewed in March so its conditioned plenty. I would deffo do this again maybe not with Youngs as its quite a nice summer drink.
I will add a photo of one of mine that hasn't had to travel so far as the clarity looks much better.
Thanks for the nice review RHB!! :thumb:

 

[lambert]

4B has landed!! :thumb: Straight into the fridge and I'm looking forward to enjoy this one!

 

[redhousebrewing]

Having been patient giving the bottle 3-4 days to settle & chill after its journey it was time to sample a beer swap...

Ginger Bite (bottle 1A) - Lager/Ale flavoured with fresh ginger, 4% ABV.

A generous 750ml serving, served well chilled, plenty of carbonation, ideal for a lager/ale, nice and clear (its the start of condensation on the glass in the picture below rather than chill haze), lovely subtle aroma of ginger, poured with a head which subsided.
The ginger flavours come through nicely but with a little bitterness over and above a straight lager - very refreshing and could see this going down very well sat outside in the current weather!

Whoever brewed this should be very happy with the results. I'm a huge fan of ginger so this has me thinking on how to do something similar!

Very good effort :thumb:
Thanks for a great beer!
Stuart

Thats mine, the lack of head i aren't overly impressed with on this one, it does keep a little better in a carling glass than most others i've tried it in.
Its a bog standard Youngs lager kit (that might explain the head) with 1kg DME and 40 teaspoons of pureed ginger that i brewed in March so its conditioned plenty. I would deffo do this again maybe not with Youngs as its quite a nice summer drink.
I will add a photo of one of mine that hasn't had to travel so far as the clarity looks much better.
Thanks for the nice review RHB!! :thumb:

Beerswap inspiration...
I found a jar of stem ginger in syrup in the cupboard I'm inspired for the next lager brew :thumb:
Congratulations on your patience - I struggle to give them that much conditioning time!

 

[StevieDS]

Review for 2H, Sauvin Gold

Aroma: grainy, spicy, fruity, no hoppiness

Flavour: sweet, spicy flavour, soft grainy aftertaste with quite prominent alcohol flavour, very little hop bitterness, quite dry finish

Appearance: straw colour, around srm 7, hazy as it should be, white fluffy head faded fairly quickly

Mouthfeel: slight creaminess though high carbonation gives light finish

Impression: I really loved this, it's as good if not better than any wheat beer I've had before. The bottle doesn't say what exact style it is, but to me it tasted quite like a Belgian wit rather than a hefe, with quite a spicy flavour (though that may be just phenols from the yeast, and I'm certainly no expert on styles. To me it smelled and tasted quite similar to hoegaarden, although much superior).
Very nice wheaty flavour also, and the carbonation wasn't too high for my taste. The head did fade fairly quickly but personally I don't think that's a big problem. The only slight issue I had was, that at 7.2% it had a fairly strong alcohol flavour. Now that is purely personal taste, I know a lot of people would enjoy that, it's just not to my taste so it's not at all a criticism of the brew. I really can't fault it otherwise, the brewer should be proud of this one. :hat:

 

[fairbrew]

The Mission Apollo was mine. Thanks for a fantastic indepth review , Rob.
I bottled this in February and only had a couple of bottles left. I was going to send a Nelson Sauvin , glad I changed my mind.
Rob summed it up very well , as a summer ale with plenty of Apollo hops and a fairly simple grain bill. I really apreciate a review by someone who knows their stuff (all my mates liked it , but they will drink anything that is free)
Mine arrived today 1E , I hope I can do it justice when it has settled