Bradinator.com » Beer

Beer Review – The Master Pilsner

bradinator — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:53:05 +0000

Name: Asahi, The Master Pilsner

Origin: Japan

Style: Pilsner (5.5%)

Appearance: It pours with a medium head, that has decent retention. Its a dark gold, clear colour.

Taste: The aroma consists of copper and grasses. This is a very bitter beer, with strong herbal flavours, some earthy notes. It finishes bitter and ashy.

Mouth Feel: A sharp, strongly carbonated mouth feel. Light bodied.

Final Thoughts (2.0 out of 5): As far as canned pilsners go, this is no master.

Homebrew – Moved to Secondary, added oak chips

bradinator — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:12:49 +0000

The lid on one of my plastic fermenter buckets is not the best. It does not make a seal so I am always hesitant to leave my beer in it for longer than a week. This is a good reason to move my beer to the secondary carboy, which will give me a cleaner looking final product.

I decided to take this as an opportunity to pitch 1/2 oz (about 10g) of french oak chips I had sitting in my bag of ingredients. I could not begin to guess how old they are, but being wood I doubt they go bad.

The gravity reading was a perfect 1.010. By the time I return from Japan this beer will be ready for bottling… Though I doubt I will have the energy to do this after the long flight….

Beer Review – Victoria Bitter

bradinator — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:49:03 +0000

Name: Victoria Bitter

Origin: Australia

Style: Lager (4.56%)

Appearance: A dark gold lager that pours with a very short-lived small to medium head.

Taste: The aroma is mostly metallic and copper-like. VB is a very light tasting beer, with most of its flavours coming from its bitter, herbal hops. There are some very subtle grain-like notes. It finishes bitter and metallic, with a very short aftertaste.

Mouth Feel: A medium carbonated beer with a light body and short-lived aftertaste.

Final Thoughts (2.5 out of 5): This is a very plain-Jane lager. It’s not bad and its actually a very easy drinking and refreshing beer, but it lacks character. Still, its leaps and bounds better than Fosters. I gave it a +0.5 because it really hit the spot after spending the day in the sun on top of Old Goat Glacier.

A veiw of the valley carved by an Old Goat

Beer Review – St. Peters Ruby Red Ale

bradinator — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:00:05 +0000

Name: St. Peters Ruby Red Ale

Origin: England

Style: Ale (4.5%)

Appearance: True to its name this beer is a copper like, red-brown, with a short lived medium head.

Taste: It smells like copper and caramel. There are some notes of citrus initial, becomes more pine-like as it lingers on the tongue. There is definite notes of copper in the beer. Finishes bitter and ashy.

Mouth Feel: A sharp, medium body ale. Not filling in the least.

Final Thoughts (4.0 out of 5): Something can taste of copper, citrus and pine and still be enjoyable.

Brew Day – Mild Manner PM

bradinator — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 02:46:21 +0000

It feels like its been a very long time since my last homebrewed beer. So before I leave on vacation I figured I would get another English Mild ready. By the time I come back it should be ready for bottles and shortly thereafter ready for drinking.

Here is the recipe

3.75lbs of LME (Draught)
1 cup of Light DME
1 cup of Demerara Sugar
1/8lbs of Black Patent Malt
1lbs of Vienna Malt
0.5lbs of 2-Row Malt
0.5lbs of Brown Malt
Tettnanger Hops @75min
Liberty Hops @75mins
1/2tsp Irish Moss
1/2tsp Yeast Nutrient
11g S-05 American Ale Yeast

As this was an attempt at a partial mash, I sparged the grains as best as I could though I doubt I really gained much extract from this attempt. The sparge was done at 80c, for 30 minutes. According to Beersmith my efficiency is still below 40% which is terrible.

Everything else went according to plan. Pitched the yeast dry at around 26c. Original gravity was 1.036.