Strange-steve's Homebrew Reviews

[samale]

Today's beer is a rather delicious sounding Coconut Porter sent by @samale...

Aroma
The coconut is subtle but certainly noticeable, which blends with the roasted malts giving a toasty macaroon impression. Otherwise a light chocolate note.

Appearance
Very dark with a nice ruby highlight. Poured with plenty of fizz, but zero head. There is a little oil on the surface which I suspect might be from the coconut, and this might be the reason for the lack of head.

Flavour
The coconut comes through more strongly in the flavour than the aroma which is nice, but doesn't overpower the base flavours. A touch of coffee which goes really nicely with the coconut, again with a slight macaroon effect which is lovely. Finishes with a slight sweetness which I like in a porter, and just a faint fruitiness, which I suspect is from the malt rather than the yeast. Leaves in interesting slickness on the palate which adds to the mouthfeel, because this is surprisingly light.

Overall Impression
Coconut is one of my favourite flavours and it pairs so well with the flavours of porter that it's really a match made in heaven, and I'm now wondering why I've never made a coconut beer. This was nicely balanced which is one of the key points to these flavoured beers, although I did feel myself craving just a little more coconut. I wonder if the coconut (or some of it) was toasted would it enhance the flavours at all? It would certainly add to the macaroon impression (a little vanilla in there and it would be perfect) which would make me happy for sure. That's just a personal preference though, because the coconut certainly came across nicely and I thoroughly enjoyed this beer. The other key point is that the base beer must be a good example of the style, and it definitely is in this case. The roasted flavours are on the lower end, but I think that suits this beer and allows a little sweetness to come through the finish. This went down really nicely while I sat in the sun today so many thanks for sending it mate :hat:

I was actually very disappointed with this beer. I have never seen a beer lose its flavour as bad as this beer. When I sent the beer the coconut was very intense that's why I sent two to see how it would age. The coconut seemed to fade after about 4 weeks. I used two fresh coconut chopped and roasted in the oven and left it in the fermentor for 3 weeks. I will give it another go after the summer.
Thank you for the reviews

 

[strange-steve]

My apologies, I should have drank it sooner mate. But I didn't find it disappointing at all, I really enjoyed it thumb

 

[samale]

My apologies, I should have drank it sooner mate. But I didn't find it disappointing at all, I really enjoyed it thumb

 

[strange-steve]

Today's beer is called Leap Munich Lemon, kindly sent by @Pennine, a Munich malt IPA which I've been wanting to do for a while, so really look forward to this...

Aroma
Really fruity but not the usual grapefruit and mango, definitely a more lemony, slightly herbal hop aroma, also hints of lime and orange zest. The toastiness of the Munich comes through also, giving a lovely lemon cheesecake type effect.

Appearance
Very lively as you can see in the picture, copper/orange colour, hazy with huge white head.

Flavour
Intensely fruity hops up front, again lots of citrus but an interesting change from the usual grapefruit of most IPAs. There's a smooth bitter lemon zest, summer fruits, and almost floral flavour which mellows into the solid biscuity malt, and just a hint of caramel sweetness which nicely balances the finish.

Overall Impression
This beer has such an interesting duality between the soft, toasty, biscuity, almost rustic malt flavours and the light, fresh, zingy hop flavours that it really is a delight on the senses. The combined effect is that of lemon pie with a digestive base and just works beautifully. This is fantastic, probably one of the best IPAs I've tasted in a while. The bitterness is high but not harsh, and it doesn't linger through the finish which I really liked, as it's balanced with the malt and a little residual sweetness. This packs a real punch in the flavours, and I appreciate the fact that this is a "proper" IPA at 6.3% (I don't get session IPAs). Someone said on another thread, and I fully agree, that amber lagers tend to have some similar flavours to bitters, which I put down to the Munich malt and the same is true of this beer. It has the same "fullness" of flavour that I crave in a beer and is why I'll be using a lot more Munich malt in the future. Thanks for sending a cracking beer mate, look forward to another swap in the future :hat:

 

[Pennine]

Wow thanks Steve a remarkably accurate description. I have two bottles left and looking forward to trying them again now with this insight. Appreciate you making my weekend!

I'm definitely gonna try this recipe again with some small tweaks but stick with the Munich as the main malt.

 

[strange-steve]

Wow thanks Steve a remarkably accurate description. I have two bottles left and looking forward to trying them again now with this insight. Appreciate you making my weekend!

I'm definitely gonna try this recipe again with some small tweaks but stick with the Munich as the main malt.

No thank you, this has made me push Munich IPA up my to-brew list thumb
Also I loved your hop choices, I might just steal your recipe!

 

[samale]

What hops was in the beer

 

[Pennine]

What hops was in the beer

eukanot, citra and mosaic. the combination of eukanot and citra give an amazing lemon blast. in fact eukanot is one of my favorite all around hops and gives a really smooth bitterness.

 

[samale]

Anything with mosiac is always good

 

[Pennine]

agreed and sometimes I wonder if mosaic is just best straight up. i do have to say i accidentally mixed up my dry hops on a mosaic red ale and instead used chinook and nugget and it's a bit complex, possibly too complicated for my tastes?

 

[strange-steve]

Today I'm drinking an India Pale Lager sent by @Pennine, a style I've only had a couple of times so intrigued by this...

Aroma
Piney, fruity, herbal, and resinous hop aroma (this really hits all the hop descriptors), also hints of citrus fruit, primarily orange and lemon. I'm not familiar with ekuanot but the centennial comes through nicely.

Appearance
Beautiful deep golden colour with a nice white head. Hazy but that's probably down to the fact that there was some yeast around the inside of the neck from shipping.

Flavour
The citrus flavours of the hops comes through more obviously in the flavour, with a really nice little tang of orange and loads of lemon. The malts come though with just a little bready flavour and a touch of graininess which adds a nice layer of complexity. Finishes with a smooth lingering bitterness.

Overall Impression
This is another beautifully drinkable beer. The hop flavours are crisp, clean, and really pop but the malt flavours aren't lost, just nicely holding up the background. The bitterness really doesn't seem like the 76IBUs on the label, it's so smooth and well balanced with the slight touch of residual sweetness. This has the similar zingy lemon flavours that your Munich malt IPA had, so I'm guessing that comes from the ekuanot hops? If so I really need to get me some of those, because it's delicious. I find it interesting that this is an IPL, it's a style I've had very little experience with, but I honestly wouldn't have known. I'd have assumed this was a straight up IPA, and I'd be really interested to see how different this would have been with US-05 rather than S-23. Anyway that's just academic because this is simply a great beer, another well designed recipe, and skillfully executed. It was a real pleasure to drink this and I wish I could brew an IPA as good as this. Thanks again :hat:

 

[Pennine]

wow thanks steve for the great review and i am glad you enjoyed. eukanot is definitely the lemon addition you are tasting, it meshes really well with the centennial in this one. which is what i was hoping when i put it together. did you get a green pepper flavor at all? thats the one negative that some dislike with eukanot, if i try hard i can sense it but i dont feel like its a bad thing.

and yes s-23 is known for being a fruity lager strain so its probably very similar to an 05 or nottingham. i really enjoy s-23 as it gives me more of a cali common type of lager flavor and is much less sulfury to me than 34/70 or s-189. especially when the beer is green. someday i will start digging into liquid yeast more, but then that would require more advance planning which i am not good at. anyway thanks again for the review its nice to get the feedback!

 

[strange-steve]

Nope I didn't notice any green pepper, I thought the flavour was great. I reckon a lemon saison might be on the horizon for me

 

[Pennine]

i cannot find the original brewday for this so i'm going to take over strange steve's review thread for a bit.

the last week i was mulling over brewing a german porter and steve mentioned that making a brett version of this would be interesting, so the idea was planted in my head and then i had to commit. oddly enough he also very nicely sent me a bottle of his bretted "orval clone maybe" beer and coincidentally enough i have one last bottle of orval from my pre-corona trip to belgium and decided i would give then a comparison tasting and then selfishly steal the dregs from both bottles for my porter that i brewed this morning.

so without further ado!

appearance wise these are very different, orval had a much larger pillowy white head, and had plenty of bubbles rising for a while after the pour and poured quite clear. SS's poured with minimal head (i normally pour gently) but it did linger on and had some legs to boot. it wasn't clear but also not cloudy, chill hazeish

i started with the orval first, aroma wise its a very smooth blend of candied sugar, malts and a very feint grassiness maybe a bit of wood and raspberry. from SS's version it was much more aromatic, was hit with a lactic sourness that blended into strawberries and then bubblegum. maybe even strawberry gum like. i didn't get any malt or hops. as they warmed the sourness of SS's was much more pronounced while the orval leaves a much lighter version of the same.

taste wise from the orval i got a very effervescent bubbles that bombard the taste buds then citrus and light sour, leading into the heavy orval earthiness, i might even describe it as lemon pith bitterness. which lingers for a long time. SS's version was much less carbonated which probably causes the sour to show up right away but then melds into a quite delicious strawberries. it ends almost exactly like the orval but a less restrained pithy bitterness. the earthiness is there though. funny how similar these are on that end. must be the hops or brett?

so overall, i much preferred the @strange-steve version. I really enjoyed the more lactic sour with less bitterness, and the strawberries were amazing. It is one of the better sour's i have had, maybe the best. not too overbearingly tart with plenty of character underneath. Really good job with this one.

the one change i might recommend, up the carbonation if you want it to be more orvalish. however if i wasn't comparing the two, the carb level was just fine for my tastes but more would definitely not hurt this at all.

thanks for the delicious beer!

edit: since orval changes with age the one i had was bottled on 22/10/2019.

 

[strange-steve]

@Pennine when you told me that you were doing a head to head with Orval I was a bit scared, so I really appreciate your kind review!

You're absolutely right about the carbonation, I purposefully went a little lower to allow for the brett creep but I think I went too low. Otherwise I was pretty pleased with it, and it's went down well with a few mates who have tried it. Thanks again for the thorough review :hat:

 

[Oneflewover]

i cannot find the original brewday for this so i'm going to take over strange steve's review thread for a bit.

the last week i was mulling over brewing a german porter and steve mentioned that making a brett version of this would be interesting, so the idea was planted in my head and then i had to commit. oddly enough he also very nicely sent me a bottle of his bretted "orval clone maybe" beer and coincidentally enough i have one last bottle of orval from my pre-corona trip to belgium and decided i would give then a comparison tasting and then selfishly steal the dregs from both bottles for my porter that i brewed this morning.

so without further ado!

View attachment 26037

appearance wise these are very different, orval had a much larger pillowy white head, and had plenty of bubbles rising for a while after the pour and poured quite clear. SS's poured with minimal head (i normally pour gently) but it did linger on and had some legs to boot. it wasn't clear but also not cloudy, chill hazeish

i started with the orval first, aroma wise its a very smooth blend of candied sugar, malts and a very feint grassiness maybe a bit of wood and raspberry. from SS's version it was much more aromatic, was hit with a lactic sourness that blended into strawberries and then bubblegum. maybe even strawberry gum like. i didn't get any malt or hops. as they warmed the sourness of SS's was much more pronounced while the orval leaves a much lighter version of the same.

taste wise from the orval i got a very effervescent bubbles that bombard the taste buds then citrus and light sour, leading into the heavy orval earthiness, i might even describe it as lemon pith bitterness. which lingers for a long time. SS's version was much less carbonated which probably causes the sour to show up right away but then melds into a quite delicious strawberries. it ends almost exactly like the orval but a less restrained pithy bitterness. the earthiness is there though. funny how similar these are on that end. must be the hops or brett?

so overall, i much preferred the @strange-steve version. I really enjoyed the more lactic sour with less bitterness, and the strawberries were amazing. It is one of the better sour's i have had, maybe the best. not too overbearingly tart with plenty of character underneath. Really good job with this one.

the one change i might recommend, up the carbonation if you want it to be more orvalish. however if i wasn't comparing the two, the carb level was just fine for my tastes but more would definitely not hurt this at all.

thanks for the delicious beer!

edit: since orval changes with age the one i had was bottled on 22/10/2019.

Wow, Orval is one of my very favourite beers, so anything that is preferred to it must be one heck of a beer :hat:

 

[Pennine]

Wow, Orval is one of my very favourite beers, so anything that is preferred to it must be one heck of a beer :hat:

yeah same here its definitely in my top 3 belgian beers which include de struise pannepot, westvleteren 12 and orval.

ive always felt orval is slightly lacking in something and the earthiness can be a bit overbearing. i think extra tartness in strange steves was the perfect compliment to that.

 

[strange-steve]

Tonight's beer is the first of two rather special beers kindly sent by @Ajhutch, this one being a Flanders Red, one of my very favourite styles...

Aroma
Mild leathery aroma, a little funky and very fruity, particularly cherry, with hints of strawberry, orange, and cranberry, and a light, clean acidity.

Appearance
A beautiful amber/orange colour, perhaps a touch light for the style but very pretty nonetheless. Thin white head.

Flavour
Very sharp upfront, but a crisp/clean sourness, with a little lemon-juiciness to it. Fruity flavours follow, again cherries and also cranberries, along with a soft bready, wheat flavour that lingers through the finish, and interestingly just a slight impression of aged hop character right at the end, with a hint of dry earthiness. Carbonation is on the lower end, perfect for the style.

Overall Impression
The initial hit of acidity is a little unexpected, because it comes through only lightly in the aroma. It might be up there with some of the most sour beers I've had (although it's been several months since I had a sour beer so maybe it was just surprising), but as I said it's a clean lactic sourness with no noticable acetic character. The brett flavours are also very mild, just present in a hint of funk, again surprising given the aroma I expected it to be more prominent. Overall this is very clean and very enjoyable to drink. It does however seem to be lacking just a little complexity, particularly in that the fruitiness isn't as deep as I'd expect. This may be partly due to the lack of acetic flavour which in small amounts tends to enhance the fruity, red wine-like character of the style. Another factor I'm guessing is the fact that the brett flavours don't come through quite as much as I'd like, which again would add to the fruitiness and background complexity. Maybe too a touch more specialty malts, special B for example, would deepen the colour as well as the flavour, again enhancing the fruitiness and perhaps adding just a hint of sweetness to the finish. All that being said, I feel bad critiquing this because it's actually a really great beer. But it's also one of my favourite styles and I know how amazing this could be with just a couple of tweaks. I really appreciate you sending this mate, and when my Flanders is ready I'll send you one in return. I'd honestly be happy if mine was as good as this, because I've had limited success with sour beers and yours is much better than any of my attempts so far, so thank you :hat:

 

[Ajhutch]

Thanks for the review Steve. I agree with your comments about the lack of Brett funk and a little one dimensional. It’s nearly 2 years old now so I don’t think it’s going to progress any further, which is lucky because I’ve only got one bottle left! It was an extract batch with steeped special B and some maltodextrin. I fermented upfront with a Belgian yeast and then added Brett and lacto. I wonder if the ale yeast dominated and didn’t leave enough for the Brett. I’m generally pleasantly surprised with the lack of acetic character in my sour beers which speaks to decent process, but you’re right this one could’ve done with some more character or complexity.

My sour capacity is pretty much taken up now with three “lambic” batches so it’ll probably be next year before I get another one going, unless I do a small batch with just Roselare. That’s got me thinking......

 

[Ajhutch]

And I ought to do another carb check on the other beer I sent you. Might transfer one from shed to fridge for tomorrow night!