What are you drinking right now?

Nosybear said:
I was looking at the German-American IPL on the other page - maybe not a bad thing, either.... It's winter here in the Northern Hemisphere so I was thinking of something dark but then it's summer for our Ozzie members so.... Since I nominated the last one, I'll stay out of the discussion from here on.
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Dark or light any sessionable style I'm in either way it's beer to me:).
 
Thought I'd break out the fine glassware (only Fine Glassware I own lol) for this Liberty Lager I ain't had head like that in awhile:p!

Cheers Brewers happy Friday Arvo!
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I recon your onto something there @thunderwagn on the closed transfer pressure fermentation and better head retention.
 
Group W said:
Congrats Nosy! What category did you enter it under? Sounds tasty.
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It was an "open" competition, not BJCP sanctioned, style wasn't considered. On Brew Day, we got an ingredient list including some different grains, hops, "special" ingredients and yeast and had to put a beer together from them. Co-brewer and I decided to go with banana bread with cranberries and dried fruit as a guide to building the beer. That meant an ESB-style beer as a bread base. We were limited to 1.06 as OG because we didn't want to buy two packets of yeast. We decided to mash the banana chips to remove as much oil as possible, the dried fruit went into the boil at 5 mins, the cranberry puree went into the fermenter two days in. We brewed that day, I took the wort home with me and fermented it, including a two-week lagering period. Result was a clear, clean beer with both lager and ale characteristics.

"Judging" was by vote, tasters sampled all eight beers and voted based on their preference. I tried all eight, ours was very clean and drinkable, most of the brewers chose to go with Belgian yeasts and wound up somewhat harsh and phenolic. Ours was a good base ESB - Irish Stout malt, Caramunich for character, Midnight Wheat for color, El Dorado for bittering, Azzaca for flavor. Recipe:

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/885591/marc-steve-s-iron-brewer

I'll brew this again but as a faux dunkelweizen (fermented with Weizen yeast, ferulic acid rest). I still think the cranberry-banana flavor will be a winner and loved the base beer. And that Irish Stout malt - I bought a bag last night, I liked its outcome so much!
 
Nosybear said:
It was an "open" competition, not BJCP sanctioned, style wasn't considered. On Brew Day, we got an ingredient list including some different grains, hops, "special" ingredients and yeast and had to put a beer together from them. Co-brewer and I decided to go with banana bread with cranberries and dried fruit as a guide to building the beer. That meant an ESB-style beer as a bread base. We were limited to 1.06 as OG because we didn't want to buy two packets of yeast. We decided to mash the banana chips to remove as much oil as possible, the dried fruit went into the boil at 5 mins, the cranberry puree went into the fermenter two days in. We brewed that day, I took the wort home with me and fermented it, including a two-week lagering period. Result was a clear, clean beer with both lager and ale characteristics.

"Judging" was by vote, tasters sampled all eight beers and voted based on their preference. I tried all eight, ours was very clean and drinkable, most of the brewers chose to go with Belgian yeasts and wound up somewhat harsh and phenolic. Ours was a good base ESB - Irish Stout malt, Caramunich for character, Midnight Wheat for color, El Dorado for bittering, Azzaca for flavor. Recipe:

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/885591/marc-steve-s-iron-brewer

I'll brew this again but as a faux dunkelweizen (fermented with Weizen yeast, ferulic acid rest). I still think the cranberry-banana flavor will be a winner and loved the base beer. And that Irish Stout malt - I bought a bag last night, I liked its outcome so much!
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Thanks. I figured there was a story to go with this one. Makes sense now, with the “Iron Brewer” moniker. Congrats again.
 
Nosybear said:
It was an "open" competition, not BJCP sanctioned, style wasn't considered. On Brew Day, we got an ingredient list including some different grains, hops, "special" ingredients and yeast and had to put a beer together from them. Co-brewer and I decided to go with banana bread with cranberries and dried fruit as a guide to building the beer. That meant an ESB-style beer as a bread base. We were limited to 1.06 as OG because we didn't want to buy two packets of yeast. We decided to mash the banana chips to remove as much oil as possible, the dried fruit went into the boil at 5 mins, the cranberry puree went into the fermenter two days in. We brewed that day, I took the wort home with me and fermented it, including a two-week lagering period. Result was a clear, clean beer with both lager and ale characteristics.

"Judging" was by vote, tasters sampled all eight beers and voted based on their preference. I tried all eight, ours was very clean and drinkable, most of the brewers chose to go with Belgian yeasts and wound up somewhat harsh and phenolic. Ours was a good base ESB - Irish Stout malt, Caramunich for character, Midnight Wheat for color, El Dorado for bittering, Azzaca for flavor. Recipe:

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/885591/marc-steve-s-iron-brewer

I'll brew this again but as a faux dunkelweizen (fermented with Weizen yeast, ferulic acid rest). I still think the cranberry-banana flavor will be a winner and loved the base beer. And that Irish Stout malt - I bought a bag last night, I liked its outcome so much!
Click to expand...

Congrats! Sounds like a really flavorful holiday beer and looks great too.
 
It was a lot of fun to do (and kudos to Brewer's Friend for the assistance in formulating the recipe!). If someone in your area puts on one of these competitions, I'd highly recommend doing it. It's a great lesson in recipe formulation.
 
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