Lawn Mower Lager

[Rob Courtney]

at 9 weeks and the old pint glass seems to be the way to go, just very moreish, Galaxy hops shining through

[Rob Courtney]

Just over 11 weeks and this is bang on now, really nice.

It is so good to have so many beers brewed that you don't drink the same beer twice in a night

[Steve Gyldenvand]

7 minutes ago, Rob Courtney said:

It is so good to have so many beers brewed that you don't drink the same beer twice in a night

Totally agree, Rob. The tricky part, at least in my estimation, is to anticipate the possible duration of the session so you can get the order right. I'm a firm believer in starting out light and low, with a modest ABV sessionable beer, then gradually moving up, going stronger and bolder as I go. Unfortunately, I have a bad tendency to jump into the big beers too early. "Let's start with a Stars & Stripes. Okay, now maybe a Lord's English. Right, I think it's time for a Belgian Strong!" Theoretically, I'm old enough to exercise a little wisdom and restraint in these matters, but reality doesn't seem to support the theory.

[Thagomizer]

8 hours ago, Rob Courtney said:

Just over 11 weeks and this is bang on now, really nice.

It is so good to have so many beers brewed that you don't drink the same beer twice in a night

I agree.  The turning point for me was getting the second droid.  Before that it was difficult to get anything aged over three weeks.  Now, I have an inventory that allows such extravagance as several different properly aged beers in an evening.  Such luxury....

 

 

[Steve Gyldenvand]

This is my first time with this beer. I've been reading so many positive comments about it, and finally got around to it. Now, normally I'll give a beer a full 14 days at the minimum before sampling, and often a bit more on top of that, but it was a beautiful late afternoon, and the Brewart app was teasing me, showing the Lawn Mower with about 20 hours to go, so.... Okay, I'm weak, but the character of this tasty beer is not. Hoppy and crisp, bold but not pushy, this one is a winner. I hope I can keep my hands off this one long enough to let at least a few bottles mature a bit. (Probably not, but I can hope, can't I?)

  

[Thagomizer]

Ah. Lawnmower lager.  This is my "Homecoming Brew."  I like many of the others, but Lawnmower is solidly in my comfort zone.

[Rob Courtney]

On 17/07/2023 at 9:03 PM, Steve Gyldenvand said:

This is my first time with this beer. I've been reading so many positive comments about it, and finally got around to it. Now, normally I'll give a beer a full 14 days at the minimum before sampling, and often a bit more on top of that, but it was a beautiful late afternoon, and the Brewart app was teasing me, showing the Lawn Mower with about 20 hours to go, so.... Okay, I'm weak, but the character of this tasty beer is not. Hoppy and crisp, bold but not pushy, this one is a winner. I hope I can keep my hands off this one long enough to let at least a few bottles mature a bit. (Probably not, but I can hope, can't I?)

  

How many grams did you dry hop with?

[Rob Courtney]

So, have my brew from April, 50 gms of Galaxy and at 13-14 weeks, really nice, like really nice.

[Steve Gyldenvand]

1 hour ago, Rob Courtney said:

How many grams did you dry hop with?

Rob, I used the D7 (25g Galaxy) listed in the brewprint recipe.

[Rob Courtney]

Have had a good drinking night ( sometimes with work you need that, for some reason as we are planning for the year ahead...ours is Oct 1 to Sep30... we have been asked to as part of the planning group for the year ahead, to nominate our superpower. I have little idea how this is relevant, nor how they expect me to come up with a sensible answer but I need one by Monday 10.30am. The best I can do so far is this...

"My superpower is learning from the mistakes of people who have listened to the advise I have given them"

It's not the best but it is the least sarcastic I can come up with.

My other choice for superpower was "Uncomfortable silence".)

Anyways, enough of that, this beer is nearly 4 months in Secondary, drinks well with 50gms of Galaxy but for me, it needs that extra time when there is so much of the one hop variety in there from a personal choice. Would crack another one open but just looked at the clock...

 

[Thagomizer]

Here is my own mantra:

Building on our successes while understanding our failures and avoiding their repetition.

It is simple and hackneyed, but surprisingly effective when taken to heart.

Hope this helps.

🙂 Cheers

[Rob Courtney]

1 hour ago, Thagomizer said:

Here is my own mantra:

Building on our successes while understanding our failures and avoiding their repetition.

It is simple and hackneyed, but surprisingly effective when taken to heart.

Hope this helps.

🙂 Cheers

Will use that because god knows I'll have a separate meeting with the GM afters if I use mine

 

Cheers

[Rob Courtney]

I was also a big fan of "Functioning Alcoholic" as my superpower but if I was down the line to talk that one would be long gone

[Steve Gyldenvand]

It should be pretty obvious, Rob. Your superpower? You can turn water into beer!

[Rob Courtney]

As an update, we didn't even have to do it but my 1 up said it is something I bring to meetings that can help so I have it

 

"I ignore most of your emails"

 

[Thagomizer]

On 03/09/2023 at 12:04 PM, Steve Gyldenvand said:

It should be pretty obvious, Rob. Your superpower? You can turn water into beer!

Just don't do it while fishing in a pond.

[Rob Courtney]

So just as I was going to go stock standard and dry hop this with 20- 25gms of Galaxy...I had an epiphany in the car on the way back from visiting the Father in Law in hospital (500 kms gives you some thinking time) and came home did a 12.5gms hop tea of Amarillo and dry hopped 12.5gms of Galaxy.

Hopefully it turns out fine.

I just know I'll forget about this hops choice and I will try a bottle at 4 weeks and think "What the F did I do to this "

[Thagomizer]

12 hours ago, Rob Courtney said:

So just as I was going to go stock standard and dry hop this with 20- 25gms of Galaxy...I had an epiphany in the car on the way back from visiting the Father in Law in hospital (500 kms gives you some thinking time) and came home did a 12.5gms hop tea of Amarillo and dry hopped 12.5gms of Galaxy.

Hopefully it turns out fine.

I just know I'll forget about this hops choice and I will try a bottle at 4 weeks and think "What the F did I do to this "

Great.  Just let us know how this minor change to Lawn Mower turns out. It is my Fave.

[Rob Courtney]

13 hours ago, Thagomizer said:

Great.  Just let us know how this minor change to Lawn Mower turns out. It is my Fave.

I was drinking a beer on the weekend and it tasted like it was grapefruit with passionfruit and citrus and they were the two hops I thought made that so yeah 

[Thagomizer]

8 hours ago, Rob Courtney said:

I was drinking a beer on the weekend and it tasted like it was grapefruit with passionfruit and citrus and they were the two hops I thought made that so yeah 

I see the logic in this.  Both have the citrus aroma and Galaxy adds the passionfruit and peach aromas.  Interestingly, Amarillo is grown in the USA while Galaxy is an Australian product.

I'll be trying this on my next rendition of Lawn Mower.

• 12.5g Amarillo
• 12.5g Galaxy

But I plan to add both as dry hops in a hop bomb.

[Rob Courtney]

45 minutes ago, Thagomizer said:

I see the logic in this.  Both have the citrus aroma and Galaxy adds the passionfruit and peach aromas.  Interestingly, Amarillo is grown in the USA while Galaxy is an Australian product.

I'll be trying this on my next rendition of Lawn Mower.

• 12.5g Amarillo
• 12.5g Galaxy

But I plan to add both as dry hops in a hop bomb.

I went the hop tea on the Amarillo after reading on a brewing site that a guy thought you didn't get the best out of Amarillo by dry hopping it and suggested that hop tea for it was the best.

He may be a total goombah but he did sound like he was coming from a place of experience so we will see

 

[Thagomizer]

1 hour ago, Rob Courtney said:

I went the hop tea on the Amarillo after reading on a brewing site that a guy thought you didn't get the best out of Amarillo by dry hopping it and suggested that hop tea for it was the best.

He may be a total goombah but he did sound like he was coming from a place of experience so we will see

Some 50 years ago, I bought some dried hop cones.  They were smelly and of questionable cleanliness.  I steeped them in just-boiled hot water to sterilize them while hopefully losing only minimum flavor.  They did have an impact on that brew, but I never repeated the process.

I am sure that fresh hops, just harvested, would be far superior to our compressed dried pellets.  The problem is that hops harvesting is seasonal and orders must be placed early.  Then how to store the lot for the rest of the year's use?  Freezing? Drying?  I think I'll continue to use compressed pellets.  (Sigh....)

Edited September 25, 2023 by Thagomizer
clarification

[Rob Courtney]

So I bottled it today and I've been a little unsure because the hop tea smelt a bit off and I almost didn't go through with  it but it tasted pretty good with a touch of fruit out of the droid.

[Rob Courtney]

Probably close to 21 weeks in and still drinking well.

I guess if there was something to take out of this as a lesson ( for me anyhow) is that the more hops, the longer it lasts...less appealing when new though.

I just know this is the last bottle on nothing more than this tastes absolutely beautiful. As it is at the moment, I'd drink pints of that at the pub

 

 

[Rob Courtney]

OK, so 3 weeks in and worth a try I guess to see where it is at.

Not bad, it has the tools of what I was looking for, if it mellows over the next few weeks, happy days