Capital Brewers July Meetup

Apologies in advance for the massive article as we recently started taking notes on people’s beers for the Capital Brewers meets so there tends to be much more detail than would normally be retained after a tasting. First up was Rossa’s “Dexter Weiss” which weighed in at 5% ABV. The beer was named after a puppy called “Dexter” who Rossa kindly rescued from an animal shelter. This isn’t his first time to do this either. In fact, Rossa frequently fosters dogs from the shelter. His beer was described as “refreshing and drinkable” by some although the general consensus was that for some reason the beer had very little aroma, flavour or body as if they were stripped from the beer.

The Capital Brewers

Peter’s (Dr. Jacoby) “Bohemian Lager” is a test batch designed to be served at a friend’s wedding close to Christmas. A great deal of care was taken to brew this beer with a lot of attention paid to mash temperatures, yeast management, fermentation/transfers in an environment devoid of oxygen and lagering temperatures. Despite a good start to the beer a few weeks ago, a subtle off flavour has crept into the beer. Despite everyone’s attention being drawn to the off flavour(s) by Peter, there were differing opinions as to what the off flavour actually was. The beer had a honey-like sweetness to it but this flavour was accompanied by subtle metallic undertones with a faint grainy astringency from the aroma. The prime suspect for these off flavours was potentially a poorly sealed corny keg (fermenter)  and potentially too much specialty grain. Peter’s plan to improve this beer is to simplify the grain bill and take even greater care of the brewing process from start to finish.

Another beer from Rossa was his “Hopfenweisse” beer with an ABV between 5.5 and 6%. The beer itself was described by several brewers as being “very aromatic” with a “pleasant hop flavour and very clean finish”. The beer was very easy to drink and had very low bitterness making it a great thirst quencher and with a lower ABV a potential candidate for the upcoming summer beer competition! The only suggestion that was made for this beer was that it could benefit from a little bit more body.

Given the thirst quenching quality of the previous beer it made sense to sample the “Lawnmower Bitter” coming in at 3.7% ABV from Rob (Dunkel the Younger) who has been exposed to the world of brewing by his dad Kevin (Dunkel the Elder) . This beer was an unsuspecting kit brew made from the Coopers English Bitter range and despite the warm weather was fermented at an enviable 18-20 degrees. The beer was very clean, exceptionally clear and a very successful 2nd brew for Rob. The second of Rob’s beers was a “Blonde Ale” which was his first brew although unlike the previous beer may have been exposed to higher fermentation temperatures as high as 25 degrees. This fact didn’t seem to have much of an effect on the beer as there were no off flavours detected in the beer that could be attributed to fermentation. Everyone around me found that the beer was very refreshing and its ~3% ABV would allow you to put a lot of these away on a warm summer’s day. Perhaps another candidate for the summer beer competition!

Next up was Owen’s “Summer Ale” which came in between 4.5 and 5% ABV. This beer was dominated with Chinook and Amarillo hops with a malt backbone from Munich and Maris Otter grains. The use of WLP001 with its high flocculation and high attenuation qualities was very apparent with the very clean and dry finish to the beer. Some people detected a “subtle smokiness” in the beer which added an extra pleasant level of complexity to the existing fruitiness of the beer.

Another one from Peter (Dr. Jacoby) was his session ale at 4.5% which some of us had before and was looking forward to enjoying it again. It still had its bitterness and flavour but it lacked the very strong aroma which was very apparent in previous samples. The lower aroma and muted flavours were attributed to the beer being too cold which was an unfortunate by-product of chilling the beer enough so that it can be correctly carbonated using the beer gun. Most members enjoyed the beer describing it has being “hoppy” with a “bitter aftertaste” with some being very excited and stating that they would happily “drink it for the night!” which is always a great complement for a beer.

Cathal’s (Cathal O D) NZ IPA made with Pacific Jade and Nelson Sauvin hops used US-05 yeast to get the beer from an OG of 1.058 to a nicely attenuated 1.010. Cathal made a previous version of this beer and the comments he received on it were that he put in too much hops and that they should be dialled back a bit. Ironically, the comments he received on this night were a bit perplexing in that attendees were suggesting that he should have more hops in this batch! Overall it was a well-balanced beer which I think would have benefited from some dry hops to accentuate the hop flavours that Cathal might increase (again) in the next version of his brew. Fionn (Fyodor) brought his “Summer Pale Ale” with an ABV of 5.6%. The beer was characterised by a distinctive caramel aroma which was influenced by the addition of approximately 250g of Crystal 145 malt. WLP001 was used for this beer which fermented the beer right down to 1.008 which accentuated the pleasant fruity flavours from the hops.

Shane’s (Shiny) beer, an IPA, was up next and was a bit of an experiment as it used Mauribrew Lager 497 yeast which can be used to ferment “Californian Ale” style beers at room temperature. Some tasters reported a lovely fruity burst of flavour at the front of the tongue with diminished to a slightly soapy flavour. There were hints of off flavours in the aroma and some grassy flavours in the beer additionally. The beer was dry hopped with an enormous amount of hops resulting in Shane running out of hop bags and having to throw loose leaf hops straight into the fermenter. Unfortunately not all of this hop material was filtered out from the beer before bottling and Brian (Dempsey) was first to suffer “friendly fire” from some hop material. Overall the lager yeast was deemed “acceptable” for brewing Californian style ales but personally I wouldn’t use it again for an ale style.

Peter (Dr. Jacoby) was up AGAIN! with a 3rd beer, a “West east coast IPA” at 5.8%, which was brewed with the same level of care and precision as his earlier lager was brewed to. This beer was popular with the tasters with some of the words being used to describe it “lemony, lovely, fruity, heady, rosemary, fruity, voluptuous and effervescent”. Ronan (Beerfly) was along next with his stout with an OG of 1.045 and a FG of 1.012. His stout was characterised by a chocolaty, roasty and molasses aroma which blended with the additional subtle alcoholic aroma from fusel alcohols. The beer had moderate to good head retention with a light body attributed to the excellent attenuation. Some brewers felt they would like to see some additional roastiness in the recipe although I find the levels of roasted malt to be more personal preference rather than a clear cut amount.

Cathal (Cathal O D) brought some malt to the table with his “Hoppy Porter” at 5.5% was characterised with a strong chocolate aroma. The first impressions of tasting his beer were caramel, chocolate, a little bit of roast and flavours which we guessed could be attributed to brown malt. It was an American style porter brewed with 100% centennial hops. Rossa returned to put the nail in the coffin with what we thought was the last beer of the night which was a 9.5% “Double IPA”. The first impressions from this beer were very good head retention with a very fresh and pleasant hop aroma.  While the beer may have been a little young, it was deemed to have great potential with comments like “brain cell armageddon” and “feels like a porcupine rolling around in a tun” indicating its alcohol warming and hop bite effects respectively. Fionn (Fyodor) sneaked in one last beer for the night which was his “Hoppy Stout”. Despite our taste buds being destroyed by the previous DIPA, we were still able to appreciate the roasty aroma and the chocolate/coffee flavours. Unfortunately there was only one bottle left in his batch and hopefully we get to try it again under more favourable circumstances.

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