Rob Courtney Posted July 26, 2019 Report Share Posted July 26, 2019 Bottled on Wednesday, may try one in about 8 weeks to see how it is going and then report back. This is meant to be the equivalent of Guinness so we will see how it goes. The sample I had from the droid when I was bottling was very promising so I can see it being very nice, when I plan to have a few bottles with my Ma on our birthdays and Xmas this year ( obviously she's a Paddy...well I am too but we moved here when I was young enough not to be tainted by European nonsense and to think summer meant cricket and winter meant footy and both season meant beer) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Courtney Posted August 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2019 Give one of these a go next week to see how they are progressing, four weeks secondary. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Courtney Posted August 27, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2019 OK, so trying one now. As I have said, haven't actually tried a Guinness in my life so can't really give an indicative yes/no to it being the real deal. The best I can come close to is I have had a few dark German beers. In saying that, the pour from the bottle didn't have a great amount of foam but it has stuck about ( probably not the best glass to drink from tbh). The flavour itself is like a dark coffee ( most pronounced) with a bit of dark chocolate in the after taste. I am inclined now to get off my arse and buy a can of Guinness to compare. Quite different to the dark German beers which were like a sweet beer version of Coke 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain 3 Droids Posted August 27, 2019 Report Share Posted August 27, 2019 15 hours ago, Rob Courtney said: OK, so trying one now. As I have said, haven't actually tried a Guinness in my life so can't really give an indicative yes/no to it being the real deal. The best I can come close to is I have had a few dark German beers. In saying that, the pour from the bottle didn't have a great amount of foam but it has stuck about ( probably not the best glass to drink from tbh). The flavour itself is like a dark coffee ( most pronounced) with a bit of dark chocolate in the after taste. I am inclined now to get off my arse and buy a can of Guinness to compare. Quite different to the dark German beers which were like a sweet beer version of Coke For me stouts in bottles are best left to mature over a long time (have “brew in a bag” versions 7 years old- delicious). With your batch suggest you hide a few and do a 6 monthly and yearly sample $ if you can, ha. Do the comparison with the Guinness can, brewed in Ireland as the bottles are brewed here under license and to me not the same. Also check out the pubs/RSL to ascertain if they have a Guinness on tap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Courtney Posted August 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2019 Cool, I am happy to leave it another 5 weeks to try another bottle as it is not my go to...I can happily let that sit. I know it isn't surprising at all but there was a large difference in how it had improved with strength of flavour 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weissbock Posted September 27, 2019 Report Share Posted September 27, 2019 closer to the reveal date now! For me Guinness is a bit thin, lacking mouthfeel, can or bottle, nooooo! but love it on tap! unusual taste, i thing due to the chalky water used. Can't wait to see how it turns out for you! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Courtney Posted September 27, 2019 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2019 3 hours ago, Weissbock said: closer to the reveal date now! For me Guinness is a bit thin, lacking mouthfeel, can or bottle, nooooo! but love it on tap! unusual taste, i thing due to the chalky water used. Can't wait to see how it turns out for you! Absolutely impossible for me to get on tap sadly, as years ago I moved away from living in the city to a town with 25k. The beers on tap down here are shocking. True story, when I moved down here I decided to play a sport as an adult that I had loved as a kid, cricket, sort of like baseball...close enough anyhow. So, I play for the town on the outskirts that has a population of about 800, so you know, probably a lot of incest going on in the town but the grounds were sweet built by the farming community a hundred years ago. Anyways, walk in the first time and they have their own bar set up, a piece of lacquered redwood on the bar that probably by itself is in the six figure mark and their fridge has "farmers beers" and I say to the guy buying the beers for sale, can he get a premium Aussie Lager in ( Mark, this is Boags Premium) and he says sure. I figure, worse comes to worse, we train 2 nights a week, have a couple of beers and a couple after the weekends game, I'll be through a slab (carton of 24) in a month, paying 5 bucks each for a slab costing 50 bucks. So as the new guy, I cop a lot of crap from the guys getting my fancy beer into the club, bit of ribbing ( not too much because I am already teaching their kids self defence), have a couple of beers, go home. Go to the club next day...all my beer is gone, apparently the farmers beers suck. My club 10 years down the track has German and Czech beers in the fridge and opposition players who drink after games say "can I have that one with the red and white label "Trumer Pils". So, that is where I have moved to, if you say that Guinness in cans is shite, then I will update you on how it tastes, possibly tomorrow but I can only compare it to dark German beers. The real test is in 5 weeks when my Ma has a bottle for her 80th, as an Irish woman who has necked more than a few pints in her time, her opinion should count. She is the only person to try my brews strangely enough, brought some bottles of Bohemian Pilsner with me to see her and she said she'd have a taste ( she has just finished chemo), had a try and said "wow, did you brew that, well, you know where the pint glasses are, I'll have a pint thanks" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weissbock Posted September 27, 2019 Report Share Posted September 27, 2019 Rob, well i ran out off coffee this morning but that story woke me right up... ha ha! yeah i live i the suburbs but even this area back before 2002 was seriously lacking in decent beer. All stores had the usual crap imo, coors, bud, miller.! i sound like a beer snob but know what i like! discovered there were actually great tasting beers out there, probably 1996. Many times me and a friend would travel 310 miles RT to Atlanta where Greens beverages would gladly remove about $400\ month from us both with their great beer selection! We had a few good beers in Alabama but none over 5.9% that removed 100's of selections from us! Working hard with a grassroots movement called "Free The Hops", we finally got the abv raised to 13.1 here. Unlimited is what we wanted, but really unless you just want to try an unusual high gravity brew for curiosity the 13.1 abv limit is fine! Low on good beer $$ lately but normally The simplest beer i drink is sierra nevada pale ale. good stuff! But Guinness in can or bottle is not shit, just much better imo on tap! I've had it in Ireland, so much better there! Also had the import stout, 7.9%. nice, very bitter. Sadly I'll be sipping cheap high abv stuff this weekend, ha.... better than nothing, i guess??? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weissbock Posted September 27, 2019 Report Share Posted September 27, 2019 (edited) I recall an old friend in New York making several clones of Guinness. His methods got a bit too scientific for my tastes , not a bad thing as he enjoyed all that tinkering with his brews. For me the many calculations made the process 'less fun!'. Admittedly the last clone he made, adjusting his water with calcium chloride DID taste closer to the real thing but too much bother for me given the amount of outcome. In my opinion the dispensing if the brew with nitrogen was the better touch, giving the beer that authentic guinness head. Alas the guy brews great beers that flow freely at his parties so I tend to keep my mouth shut, except to sip the beer! Guess I just prefer my brewing to be more 'fun' than overly scientific. One great tip I did get from Randy was using no more than 2 quarts when steeping grains. Keeps the PH low, avoiding that bitter bandaid taste! Oddly enough however, the calcium chloride raises ph levels. Hmmmmmmm.... ! From the web: "The water at the St James Gate brewery is RO quality water that runs off the Wicklow Mountains. Add calcium chloride to bring the calcium to about 50 ppm and then mash only the pale malt and the barley with the roast barley reserved. Add the roast barley with about 10 minutes left in the mash. The mash pH is at the normal range during most of the mash, but driven low with the roast malt addition. The combo of roast with low pH is the secret to a dry Irish stout." Guinness would be an interesting brew to do up, best of luck with it! Edited September 27, 2019 by Weissbock whoops! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain 3 Droids Posted September 27, 2019 Report Share Posted September 27, 2019 Great reading you guys. A few beers Rob, for mum will do her good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Courtney Posted September 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2019 OK, so this is now at 9 weeks secondary and has made huge leaps and bounds from where it was at 5 weeks.First things first, there was little head retention at five weeks, in fact it was very disappointing but that pour was like what you see from the tap, left it 2 mins and that same head was there exactly how it was left. If listening to my Ma talk about Guinness, this appears to be important. The taste itself has developed really well, less of the chocolate to it and more coffee hues, strong roast like. I was kicking myself at the 5 week stage not putting a bag of coffee beans in the droid for a few days but it looks like that would have been overkill. The beer is as dark as a teenagers view on climate change action. Think this still has a long way to go though but am really impressed with the difference from the last taste 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain 3 Droids Posted September 28, 2019 Report Share Posted September 28, 2019 “kicking myself at the 5 week stage not putting a bag of coffee beans in the droid for a few days“ Yes you have to be careful sometimes with assumptions and over thinking as with particular styles the changes over time can be quite surprising. It’s like my 7 year plus stouts (bottled), they could be considered a desert topping for ice cream. 🍦 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Courtney Posted September 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2019 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain 3 Droids Posted September 28, 2019 Report Share Posted September 28, 2019 That looks delicious 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Courtney Posted September 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2019 2 hours ago, Barrelboy said: That looks delicious Yeah, was not too bad at all. Was pleased by the progress, really pleased. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weissbock Posted October 11, 2019 Report Share Posted October 11, 2019 Yeah looks very tasty! I may be wrong, was thinking the traditional jrish stout was supposed be me more of a Guinness clone, not the four leaf? Nevertheless I'd like to try four leaf with the addition of steeped grains, noteable: 2 oz chocolate malt, 4 oz weyermann smoked malt, and for fun, 4 oz unsweetened cocoa powder. Smoked chocolate stout! one hour till beer o'clock! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Courtney Posted December 9, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2019 OK, I had one of these maybe 6 weeks ago, it didn't really do much for me and have spent a bit of time checking out how to cook with Guiness as I was keen to use a couple of bottles that way . On a whim, I opened up one tonight...16 weeks secondary. That.Is.One.Delicious.F#%$ing.Beer. One of those "I brewed this" moments 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain 3 Droids Posted December 9, 2019 Report Share Posted December 9, 2019 It always surprises me how some brews really developed over time. Don’t think you’ll be wasting those in the cooking pot now 🍽🥣🍵🥧 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Courtney Posted December 9, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2019 4 minutes ago, Barrelboy said: It always surprises me how some brews really developed over time. Don’t think you’ll be wasting those in the cooking pot now 🍽🥣🍵🥧 Yeah, the bugger straight up was my first thought was "wonder what this would be like in another 8 weeks"? The next is the recipe I have for a Guinness pie just sounds good, which makes me think " do I just buy a can of Guinness and use that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain 3 Droids Posted December 9, 2019 Report Share Posted December 9, 2019 Buy the can, they’re no longer good drinking 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul84 Posted December 9, 2019 Report Share Posted December 9, 2019 On 27/09/2019 at 11:28 PM, Weissbock said: Rob, well i ran out off coffee this morning but that story woke me right up... ha ha! yeah i live i the suburbs but even this area back before 2002 was seriously lacking in decent beer. All stores had the usual crap imo, coors, bud, miller.! i sound like a beer snob but know what i like! discovered there were actually great tasting beers out there, probably 1996. Many times me and a friend would travel 310 miles RT to Atlanta where Greens beverages would gladly remove about $400\ month from us both with their great beer selection! We had a few good beers in Alabama but none over 5.9% that removed 100's of selections from us! Working hard with a grassroots movement called "Free The Hops", we finally got the abv raised to 13.1 here. Unlimited is what we wanted, but really unless you just want to try an unusual high gravity brew for curiosity the 13.1 abv limit is fine! Low on good beer $$ lately but normally The simplest beer i drink is sierra nevada pale ale. good stuff! But Guinness in can or bottle is not shit, just much better imo on tap! I've had it in Ireland, so much better there! Also had the import stout, 7.9%. nice, very bitter. Sadly I'll be sipping cheap high abv stuff this weekend, ha.... better than nothing, i guess??? @Weissbock, was going to say some joke about you being american and having average beer. And I believe 2002 thats an accurate joke/statement. The well beers of the day are awful ( i am not much of a lager man lol) . But now the U.S has a cracking craft beer scene and I am keen for a return 🙂 . And when I am back in the South you will have to show me a few of those High ABV beers 😄 . P.S . Really want that stout right now . Will settle for a whisky to end my Monday Night 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain 3 Droids Posted December 9, 2019 Report Share Posted December 9, 2019 I wasn’t much of a lager fan either until the droid, however now due to the variety in recipes and the great temperature control I’m a converted fan. ”And when I am back in the South.....” Mississippi? ha ha you were talking about America. If you do get South here and Rob says “sorry Paul haven’t got any” ask for the “hidden box” 🤭 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Courtney Posted December 24, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2019 OK, so last night, at an "Irish Pub" ( well not really as there were no drunken brawls happening over religion, I mean if you are doing an Irish pub, all in or nothing) and I got a Guinness so I had something to compare with. I was a little disappointed to be honest, I actually thought that was going to leave my effort in the shade but give me some ideas from tasting of how I could improve this brew. There was one flavour in it I couldn't quite put my finger on that someone had mentioned Nitrogen into the brew and I could really see the point of having a bit of coffee beans in the droid for -4 days before bottling to impart a little more flavour but outside of that, it is a good representation of my brew 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain 3 Droids Posted December 24, 2019 Report Share Posted December 24, 2019 Yes I now find tap stouts generally a bit weak however have this article for you that may help or further confuse. https://byo.com/article/brewing-with-coffee/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Courtney Posted December 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 25, 2019 19 minutes ago, Barrelboy said: Yes I now find tap stouts generally a bit weak however have this article for you that may help or further confuse. https://byo.com/article/brewing-with-coffee/ A bit weak is a good description of what I had last night Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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