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Author Topic: A Double Question - Most Interesting Beer and Best Beer of the Year  (Read 8640 times)

Offline Kaiser

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Re: A Double Question - Most Interesting Beer and Best Beer of the Year
« Reply #15 on: December 31, 2009, 12:11:59 pm »
I didn't brew anything really interesting this year. A lot of run-of the mill stuff.

The beer I was most pleased with however, was my Schwarzbier. In particular after having been to Germany again and having had a few good commercial exaples I feel that my version is pretty much where I want to be with that style. I made 4 batches of that beer this year.

Kai

Offline pjj2ba

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Re: A Double Question - Most Interesting Beer and Best Beer of the Year
« Reply #16 on: December 31, 2009, 05:39:50 pm »
Most interesting would be the two beers where I was messing with cooking the hops in oil first.  The first was deep-frying hop pellets and then after realizing most of the bitterness went into the oil, brewed another batch where I sauteed the hops (everything added to the mash).  Add to the second batch that I boiled all 9 lbs of grain (intentionally) and the drained into the fermentor.

Best I guess would be the American lager that took 1st in the NE region of the AHA national comp.  I probably though liked the kolsch and IPA I brewed better

Offline yugamrap

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Re: A Double Question - Most Interesting Beer and Best Beer of the Year
« Reply #17 on: January 03, 2010, 08:57:47 am »
Well, the most interesting for me was a Jolly Rancher American Wheat.  I made it for our club's "Strange Brew" contest where we drew "strange" ingredients (e.g., licorice, oysters, marshmallow fluff, Jolly Rancher candies, etc.) from a hat.  It tasted pretty good and took 3rd in the contest out of about 20 entries.  The color was pretty weird, though - a little greenish-gray, because I used the Blue Raspberry Jolly Ranchers.

The beer I was most pleased with was a batch of Amber Ale I made with my first harvest of homegrown hops.  It probably wasn't the best beer I made in 2009, but I was really pleased with the results and my family killed the keg in just a few days around Thanksgiving.  I think the best beers I made in 2009 were a batch of Altbier, and one of ESB.  I think the overall quality of all my beers improved over last year as I improved my ability to control fermentation and lagering temperatures, and made other improvements to my brewing techniques and practices.
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Offline majorvices

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Re: A Double Question - Most Interesting Beer and Best Beer of the Year
« Reply #18 on: January 04, 2010, 06:49:12 am »
Most interesting would be the two beers where I was messing with cooking the hops in oil first.  The first was deep-frying hop pellets and then after realizing most of the bitterness went into the oil, brewed another batch where I sauteed the hops (everything added to the mash).  Add to the second batch that I boiled all 9 lbs of grain (intentionally) and the drained into the fermentor.

Dude, that's just crazy. Sauteed hops??? In butter or olive oil? Deep fried hops??? What the...??? How was the head retention on those beers? :o

Offline pjj2ba

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Re: A Double Question - Most Interesting Beer and Best Beer of the Year
« Reply #19 on: January 04, 2010, 09:47:51 pm »
Plain old vegetable oil.  My first try was the deep frying.  I battered the pellets to help keep them together and retain the hopefully isomerized alpha acids.  Afterwords I found much of the bitterness went into the oil anyway, so the next time I tried sauteing, and dumping the oil and hops into the mash.  Between adding the cooked hops to the mash (some oil sticks to the grains, and the use of lecithin, I actually head great head on both of the beers.  For the sauteed hops, 6 tbsp of oil and 2 tbsp of lecithin went into the mash.  Oh yeah, and only a 20 min boil - hoping the frying would replace the need for a 60 min. boil.  The sauteing actually worked!

Offline rabid_dingo

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Re: A Double Question - Most Interesting Beer and Best Beer of the Year
« Reply #20 on: January 04, 2010, 11:41:36 pm »
my most interesting beer would have to be my School House Table beer. from zymurgy. Very mild and actually very tasty.

My best beer would have to be my holiday beer. I brew it every Christmas Eve and age it until the next year. I went through
about 2 gallons the day I released it. I fear that there may be less than a gallon left. I love sharing it.  ;D
Ruben * Colorado :)

Offline blatz

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Re: A Double Question - Most Interesting Beer and Best Beer of the Year
« Reply #21 on: January 05, 2010, 11:29:02 am »
I'm not as radical as some of you guys, but here goes:

Most interesting: Every year, for my club's oktoberfest, I brew my house specialty IPA, but this year I wanted to do something more appropo to the season, so I took a crack at an all Vienna based IPA and it turned out fantastic - exactly what I was after - the blending of two of my favorite styles into one beer.  The two kegs were gone within a couple of hours...I think it will be an annual production.

Sucked back fast/most proud I made a lot of great beers in 2009 (perhaps only great in my opinion  ;)) , even got an avg score in the high 40s on my IPA last fall at an MCAB entry comp  :D :o, but the one I was most proud of was one that I drank so fast it never made it to any competion (and I doubt I coulda parted with any, anyways!): my Dortmunder really nailed it down, so much so that I had to show my buddy the corny kegs b/c he swore it was Great Lakes Dort Gold.
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Offline richt

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Re: A Double Question - Most Interesting Beer and Best Beer of the Year
« Reply #22 on: January 05, 2010, 12:55:03 pm »
I didn't do anything real creative or experimental compared to some of you guys, but I did finally go AG this fall, so that was a big change.  Probably the most interesting beer and beer I am proudest of would be my first AG, an all Munich malt and Summit hopped APA.  It was supposed to be an IPA with tons of hop aroma and flavor, but I massively undershot my gravity and ended up with an APA gravity.  The result was outstanding.  This turned into a hugely hoppy beer that wasn't excessively bitter so it was still very sessionable.  I think the OG was around 1.048 with 95 IBUs.  I liked it so much that I just brewed a similar beer for New Years and it was a hit.

I am also proud of taking a ribbon in the first comp I entered (2nd place fruit beer, MN State Fair), and scoring well with the APA I entered but didn't place with.  I am really anxious to enter some more comps now that I'm AG.
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