#1. “Harvest IPA”, brewed by Stosh
Stosh says this was brewed with 5# of honey,
Smells like it has 5# of hops too.
Nice bright orange color, just 2 row and honey I’m thinking.
Smells like dank grapefruit right out of the gate,
And getting a nose deep in the glass got me a lil whiff of the 9.1% ABV
Tasted awesome. Clean, lean, and bitter.
Not a bit harsh in the bittering,
There has to be a good amount of hops in there, or some hop tricks.
As it warmed up a bit I swear the hop smell turned into pineapple+citrus?
Keg hopped with Citra? Easily more aroma than I’m able to get my IPAs to hold.
Thanks Stosh! Looking forward to trying the other beers, and the apple butter cyser.
And those 2oz of leaf will get dry hopped in something for sure! - Scott
#2 “Cocoa Bock” brewed by Duxx
So far the beers I’m getting are in fine shape, but somewhat disturbed from the shipping, hence alot of head.
Urge to drink is overruling need to let these beers rest upright for awhile to re-settle yeast. For pics sake at least.
Duxx ( Ducks, get it? ) says this bock sat on cacao nibs for 3 weeks.
When the shipping foam died down, the beer was still pretty cold and the initial smell and taste was clean dark lager.
I thought initially there was just the slightest roasty flavor,
Could have been cacao bitterness, or flavor from dark kilned malt?
Really clean when cold, hard to pick out the flavors.
When it warmed up some alot of flavor came through,
The sweet, caramely alcohol that you get from a Bock beer and lagering came out.
The cacao was there in the background adding a layer of complexity to this beer.
Would like to know what yeast was used, seemed to my nose that it added a nice slight hint of lager fruit.
Can’t even wildly speculate on the grain bill, so clean. Thanks Duxx!
This orphan beer came with another but no papers indicating the brewer.
Interestingly, everyone else has very lovely serial killer style handwriting.
I’m anticipating a package that actually has pasted magazine letters for its manifesto.
“Skippy McGuillicuddys Five Sheep Effers Irish Stout” :cheers:
#3 “Brain Melt” brewed by Dadslackey
This lager was an incredibly easy drinker at 6.4% ABV and 20 IBUs.
Crisp and grainy, I’d have never guessed it was that potent.
Really nice noble hop aroma. And alot of it.
I’m liking the minor fruitiness that lager yeast brings to this beer.
All together it’s quite refreshing, knowing that this is one of the tougher ones to brew well.
Can’t say that I could detect any adjuncts flavor or smell wise,
But the FG seemed appropriately low.
Nice work Dadslackey.
You guys and your lagers are leaning me towards making my own lagers.
-Scott
“Skippy McGuillicuddys Five Sheep Effers Irish Stout”
This would be from me… There was supposed to be a note in the box for you. Not sure what happened to it!
Scott, just got two Bavarian weisse’s in the mail for ya. Again, apologies that they likely won’t make it for new years…enjoy my friend!
No worries. This will extend the excitement of coming home from work wondering if any beer came in the mail today.
-also, If you’re from Jersey and sent me beers, PM me please.
#4 “Bender” brewed by Porterman
Another top notch beer.
Having not had the original that the kit is recipied from,
I really didn’t know what to expect style/flavor/color wise, etc. No idea.
In the glass it looked like it belonged to the stout/ porter/ dark roasty beer family.
Who doesn’t love it when a beer can raise a light brown head?
Really interesting malt in this one, lots of good stuff here.
Seemed to go back and forth between a light roasty coffee flavor, chocolate, and caramel.
English hops? No C hops anyways, definately of the flowery/ earthy varieties.
Unable to pick out anything given from yeast,
Possibly just blends right in with all the malt.
Well balanced, smooth drinker. Thanks Porterman!
-Scott
Hey Scott - Two beers going into the mail in the AM - Copper Ale and Potomac Bohemian Steam.
Happy New Year and enjoy!
Thanks Rakes, I like the sound of that.
On a related note, if anyone else wants to send me beer to drink and wildly speculate on ingredients and brewing practices, please feel free to. Okay, here we go:
#5 “Skippy Mcguillicuddys 5 sheep effers dry irish stout” brewed by Rifester-
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This stout poured with a nice tan head that settled a bit while I fought with the lighting to get a good picture.
Smell was roasty and otherwise clean smelling.
I couldn’t detect any yeast esters, cold or warmed a bit.
This one tasted appropriately dry, not to the point of astringency, but clean, drinkably dry. Roasty, hints of chocolate. No harsh bitterness from the roasted malts.
Hopping with neutral hops or just blends in with the roasty?
Would like to know what hops were used, if earthy hops are helping add some dryness.
Didn’t change much flavor wise warmed a bit. No masked alcohol came out or any
sweetness. Just dry stout from start to finish. Thanks Rifester!
Scott,
I got two going out to you today via UPS, enjoy.
BTW - it is my first time bottling from a keg (I have done growlers) but I am curious how they travel and how well they stayed carbonated. I did a spare one for me to give it a shot too 
[quote=“560sdl”]Scott,
I got two going out to you today via UPS, enjoy.
BTW - it is my first time bottling from a keg (I have done growlers) but I am curious how they travel and how well they stayed carbonated. I did a spare one for me to give it a shot too [/quote]
And of course, when I sealed up the box, I realized that I left my note to you out. A hand written label tells you what it is and who brewed it!
[quote="560sdl]
And of course, when I sealed up the box, I realized that I left my note to you out. A hand written label tells you what it is and who brewed it![/quote]
Ah the forgetting. Slight side effect of brewing.
#6 " Star On Cap " brewed by the unknown brewer
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Initially there was a strong grainy type of malt smell from this one.
That mixed with a floral hop aroma, like EKG?, made 80\ - 90\ my first impression.
Doesn’t taste like high FG alcohol, but the caramelly smell of it is there.
Hard to guess at the ABV, but I think its 8+.
I think this is well attenuated Barleywine.
Really nice balance of the caramelly flavors and the flowery hopping.
Seems to get more rich/full as it warms up, but not “sweet”
Alcohol smell comes out more, and the malt dominates.
Thanks Unknown Brewer!
Sheesh! The beers keep coming in, faster than I can drink them.
#7 “The Innkeeper” brewed by mainemike68:
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Mainemike68’s Innkeeper poured with an appropriatly low carbonation.
The smell of this beer hooks you right away, there’s so much ester in there.
And it lasts and lasts until the glass is empty and you wish there was more.
Apricots? Tropical fruit? A really amazing yeast ester that I can’t say id had before.
Maybe the hops added some to that smell, not sure.
The hops were well hidden in this one, unless they had something to do with that fruit smell.
Just enough to knock the sweetness back some.
I didn’t get any maltiness out of this one, tasted really clean .
But for a little session beer, sure had a lot of charecter.
Thanks mainemike68 !
#8 “Cream Ale” brewed by andjenliang
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This ale rose up a monster pillowy/ bubbly head that wouldn’t quit.
Combined with the straw yellow color, the smell of grains and adjuncts,
and it was really cold made me want to drink it fast and grab another like it.
But I took it slow and there was a lot to like in this one.
I’m pretty sure it was cut with rice which made it taste really light and clean.
No hoppy aroma that I could smell, but seemed like in the malt/hop balance,
This one was leaning toward the hoppy side. Not aggresive, but bitterer than you’d expect when you you think cream ale. Probably how I would bitter one.
No yeast smells either. Just clean, light and pleasantly bitter. What cream ale should taste like.
#9 “Bavarian Hefeweizen” brewed by wrclancy
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Huge fluffy wheat beer head on clancy’s weizen.
Beer has unbelievable amount of clove in the nose,
Like it was clove bursted or dry cloved if there were such things.
Fat spicy mouthfeel, hard to describe,
But spicy mouth coating sensation that I’ve only gotten from weizens.
Clancy wrote in the note that this was open fermented with the weihenstephen strain.
I personally like that strain better than the bavarian strain or wlp hefe & hefe4.
Would like to know more about how this was fermented. Really turned out nice.
No detectable alcohol or hops here.
Fat, smooth and satisfying hefeweizen.
Thanks Wrclancy!!
Scott,
I keep checking this thread to see when you are going to get to my beers!! How many did you end up receiving- all 72? That’s a lot of beer. Are there some you haven’t bothered to review?!?
Randy in Northfield MN
[quote=“rbclay”]Scott,
I keep checking this thread to see when you are going to get to my beers!! How many did you end up receiving- all 72? That’s a lot of beer. Are there some you haven’t bothered to review?!?
Randy in Northfield MN[/quote]
I just did a quick count, I recieved about 60 beers!
I’ve been putting 6 packs in the cellar and the fridge, there is beer everywhere.
Not one beer arrived broken, and man was there alot of boxes and packing material around here!
I, sadly, really have only drank 9 beers so far.
I need to sack up and really put some beer into my beer hole or I’m never going to get my fridge back. :cheers:
sounds like a good problem to have!
FWIW- you should drink my pale ale sooner rather than later. just sayin’. dry hopped goodness is fading a bit. but still yummy…
