National Crate Day, Extract & Time

National Crate Day has come and gone. Some good company, some good beers and some not so good beers.

I managed to brew a Vienna/Centennial SMaSH albeit in between drinks, but it came out at 1.062, higher than the 1.057 I was aiming for - good efficiency again! I don't recall too much more than that for obvious reasons...

Onto the not so good beers....Its been a while since I've had a kit n kilo beer, but Brian brought around a couple of beers, a Pilsner, an IPA, Bock, Yorkshire Bitter and a bottle of Wheat Pilsner. I think the common feeling was kit and kilo beers should be drunk fresh. I don't remember much about the Pils apart from gushing bottles, the IPA had no hops in it at all, tasted more like how I remember Lion Red tasting, the Wheat Pils was ok being a partial mash, but just to much malt, not enough hop. A stray ESB made it which I'm trying now. Very much about the malt, similar to what I recall it tasting like fresh, but just no hops, no bitterness. I guess that's how we learn as brewers, our pallet gets used to what we've been brought up on. Second beer in is a Bock, its a little newer than the ESB, but still the same "extract twang". Fresher is better.

We had an impromptu tasting on the day, we had a Pilsner vs a Munich Lager vs the MPA. Two kit n kilo's vs a BIAB.To be honest, it probably wasn't going to be a fair fight, but we headed in full steam. The MPA came first, followed by the Munich then the Pils. One down for the MPA!!!

The star of the night for most of us that where left over was the Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter. Brian's done a brilliant job of this beer. The one we had was with Jim Beam Honey as the Bourbon part. Fantastic beer, albeit maybe a little young for such a big beer, but still, was a very good drop. The vanilla comes through, but I think it could use just a touch more, the mouth feel is like velvet, very very smooth beer. Be good to see how its tasting after some time in the cellar, if it can last that long.

Next up will be a BIPA for the brother in-laws birthday, then a double batch of MPA - gotta build up the stocks!