What are you drinking tonight?

[Chippy_Tea]

Decanted a bottle of Pea-Pod wine
.

When members mention pea pod wine I always think of this.

[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aAh2xAhEbuQ[/ame]

 

[Notlaw]

Anyone else on here a BeerBods subscriber?

Well, Thursday night is BeerBods night so last night's drinking menu was:

Williams Brothers, Caesar Augustus - Lager/IPA hybrid at 4.1%, crisp and refreshing with a brilliant hop aroma and bitterness. Really balanced. Matched really nicely with the Thai Green Curry :grin:

The BeerBods beer was Dark Star, Hophead - session strength 3.8% light golden hoppy ale. Loads of floral/elderflower hops (all American hop bill though) good citrus and bitterness. Bottle was pretty fizzy, which helped in keeping it from being too sticky and sweet. Very good example of this type of beer.

Finished the night with a Cloudwater, Autumn Range IPA - holy mother of mercy, this is a beer! Got it cheap because the 'Enjoy by date' was January 2016. If this is a month past it's best, I would shudder to think how good it was fresh. Bang on. Up there with Buxton Axe Edge (nearly!). The New Zealand hops give it such a sharp zingy grape like character whilst still being absolutely packed full of tropical juicy and citrus flavours and aromas with enough sweetness and bitterness to make it precisely balanced and moorish. Cloudwater are absolute gods!

I'd never heard of it, but might mention it to people as an idea for me for birthday, christmas, valentines, easter, or just because I'll such a swell guy

Do you get tasting notes with details on the hops and grains used?

 

[machin05]

You get 12 beers and you drink one a week on a thursday at 9pm. They tell you which one via email and give you a back story about the brewery and/or beer on the day of the tasting. Live tasting is all done on Twitter with the #beerbods hashtag. Sometimes the brewery themselves get involved.

They won't necessarily tell you the ingredients in detail as that's not really got much mainstream appeal, and their whole MO is getting good beer into the hands of the mainstream.

You can certainly tweet the breweries though, and more often tan not they're happy to tell you. The head brewer at Dark Star responded to my tweet last night to tell me that HopHead is 1 part Amarillo to 2 parts Cascade, and then the official brewery account told me which grains they use (Extra Pale and Caramalt).

Been a subscriber for nearly a year now. It's definitely worth the money (£3 a bottle). Changed the way I select beer, what I look for and all the different craft styles. Used to be a strictly "British Golden" cask drinker. It's about my 5th favourite style of beer now!

 

[BeerCat]

sacrilege...why did you pour it away?

Tbh i should of saved it and bought some cordial the next day but was as dry as vinegar :lol:

 

[Hops_and_Dreams]

Tried Lagunitas Pils for the first time tonight, bloody brilliant! Also had one of their Day Time IPAs, which was good too.

Dad gave me some silly strength Chimay at Xmas, going to give that a go in a bit.

 

[DanST]

I've got a chocolate lager from hogs back. Bought out of sheer curiosity as I didn't even fancy it as I was picking it off the shelf.

Can definitely taste the chocolate, very nice. Also lager, nice. Together, not really nice.

Can't say I'm surprised. If they could get the same chocolate taste in a stout or porter it could be quite nice but don't think it works in a lager or any kind of pale.

 

[Leon103]

Had two disappointing pints last night at a party. Tetleys cask ale - bland no flavour never try again type of ale. And tribute from cask. Again no flavour and nothing like the bottle version

 

[Notlaw]

Went round my muckers house last night for a 'bullsh*t' night; beer, guitars, metal, swearing etc., and I picked up a selection of bottles from Booths. Some I'd had before and like (Blue Moon, Pedigree, Trooper), but also had a bottle of Yardbird pale which was rather good and a bottle of Double Hop Monster IPA which I didn't like at all. I keep trying with hoppier beers as I WANT to try and get a taste for some of the more exotic hops, so I can broaden my horizons of what I can use in my own brews. But, that just wasn't nice.

The thing is, I've just compared the Yardbird and DHM on the Greene King website and they use similar hops. They both have challenger, pilgrim, first gold and cascade. The Yardbird also has willamette and tettnang. Whereas the DHM also has target and styrian. So, is it one of those two that I don't like perhaps? I'm keeping a tracker of stuff I've tried, researching what's in them and trying to build up a picture of what I should and probably shouldn't use in mine.

I've waffled on here, but I'm still a bit drunk to be fair.

 

[machin05]

They quite often have Yardbird on cask at my local. Very nice drop it is too.

First up was a bottle of homebrew Christmas porter. Brewed it with my bro-in-law about a month too late for it to be conditioned in time for Christmas. It was a bit flat and lifeless when we had it, but now it's conditioned quite nicely. Standard porter really with an addition of vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg at flame out. None of those flavours are that prominent, so we'd probably add more of them at secondary next time.

After that was a can of Moor, Confidence - a hopped up red ale clocking in at 4.6%. I think this is my favourite style of beer at the moment. Has been since I tried Cloudwater Red Ale (Autumn 2015). Lovely berry sweetness, pine, grapefruit, spice and bitter. So balanced and well rounded. Love this beer.

Last up was Brewfist, Caterpillar - a 5.8% NZ hopped rye IPA. Classic NZ hop flavours. Sharp grapefruit lemon and lime, huge bitterness and a hint of spice coming from the rye. Again, really lovely.

I wonder what tonight will bring... Got a lot of IPAs on the shelf and quite a few porters/stouts. Might hit the dark side.

 

[Leon103]

That looks really nice and just what I could drink right now

 

[Notlaw]

They quite often have Yardbird on cask at my local. Very nice drop it is too.

First up was a bottle of homebrew Christmas porter. Brewed it with my bro-in-law about a month too late for it to be conditioned in time for Christmas. It was a bit flat and lifeless when we had it, but now it's conditioned quite nicely. Standard porter really with an addition of vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg at flame out. None of those flavours are that prominent, so we'd probably add more of them at secondary next time.

After that was a can of Moor, Confidence - a hopped up red ale clocking in at 4.6%. I think this is my favourite style of beer at the moment. Has been since I tried Cloudwater Red Ale (Autumn 2015). Lovely berry sweetness, pine, grapefruit, spice and bitter. So balanced and well rounded. Love this beer.

Last up was Brewfist, Caterpillar - a 5.8% NZ hopped rye IPA. Classic NZ hop flavours. Sharp grapefruit lemon and lime, huge bitterness and a hint of spice coming from the rye. Again, really lovely.

I wonder what tonight will bring... Got a lot of IPAs on the shelf and quite a few porters/stouts. Might hit the dark side.

How much nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla did you use, and in what size batch?

 

[machin05]

5 gallon batch. One vanilla pod, one cinnamon stick and a big pinch of nutmeg - followed this recipe http://www.vthomebrewguru.com/time-for-a-holiday-porter/

 

[machin05]

5 gallon batch. One vanilla pod, one cinnamon stick and a big pinch of nutmeg - followed this recipe http://www.vthomebrewguru.com/time-for-a-holiday-porter/

Would probably up the chocolate malt, reduce the dark crystal, up the vanilla (add to secondary) and lose the other spices if we were to brew it again.

 

[Niman]

A stout brewed early Nov.....getting better with time

View attachment uploadfromtaptalk1454788130371.jpg

 

[LarryF]

They quite often have Yardbird on cask at my local. Very nice drop it is too.

First up was a bottle of homebrew Christmas porter. Brewed it with my bro-in-law about a month too late for it to be conditioned in time for Christmas. It was a bit flat and lifeless when we had it, but now it's conditioned quite nicely. Standard porter really with an addition of vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg at flame out. None of those flavours are that prominent, so we'd probably add more of them at secondary next time.

After that was a can of Moor, Confidence - a hopped up red ale clocking in at 4.6%. I think this is my favourite style of beer at the moment. Has been since I tried Cloudwater Red Ale (Autumn 2015). Lovely berry sweetness, pine, grapefruit, spice and bitter. So balanced and well rounded. Love this beer.

Last up was Brewfist, Caterpillar - a 5.8% NZ hopped rye IPA. Classic NZ hop flavours. Sharp grapefruit lemon and lime, huge bitterness and a hint of spice coming from the rye. Again, really lovely.

I wonder what tonight will bring... Got a lot of IPAs on the shelf and quite a few porters/stouts. Might hit the dark side.

Love the head on that porter machin05.

 

[Leon103]

My wife fancied a saison so finished the half she left and now on a honey ale, just to finish them off.

 

[VillageBrew]

Started with a Munton's Export Stout, and now cracked open a couple of the Cereal beers I've been itching to test. :thumb:

 

[LarryF]

A Wherry, a John Bull Traditional Ale and a Coopers Cerveza tester only two weeks in the bottle, all very nice.

 

[wheazy_joe]

So far I've had two Coopers Pilsners which have amazingly turned out pretty good given the catalogue of disasters when I was brewing it.

Now moved on to Youngs AIPA.

 

[SiWHU]

Yeastie Boys Gunnamatta Earl Grey IPA. You can really taste the bergamot.



8/10