I’m going to the cook islands in 2 weeks, anyone tried the beer there. They have 2 breweries I think.
Anyone else going to the GABS festival this year? Always good fun, even though the brewers seems to be taking the ■■■■ a lot of the time with the weird ■■■■ they chuck into the beer.
Official guide came out the other day, and it looks like it’ll be heavy weather though - seems this year the fashion for the festival beers is fruity sours (which I don’t mind, tbh) and enormous ABV. Seriously, there’s much more above 7% than below it, a solid dozen or so in the high 9% range or above, and one lunatic has put in something at 16%. It’s hard enough to try samples of everything as it is, but if I do my normal four tasting palettes or whatever this year then I’ll end up a fair bit more hammered than I’d prefer to on a Sunday arvo. Rethink might be required…
I'm going to the cook islands in 2 weeks, anyone tried the beer there. They have 2 breweries I think.
No. But the one on Norfolk Island is a mad house. Actually, Norfolk in general is the weirdest place I’ve travelled to. Good brewery tho.
Weird.
Love my Pales Ales.In order:
Stone N Wood
Hawthorn
Burleigh Brewing
Little Creatures
CoopersStone N Wood and Coopers are only ones i’ll really drink it really hot weather.
Yep had a few Stone Woods in Melb loved it big fan of the Matilda Bay beers as well Fat Yak is my beer now
No love for 4 Pines or Sierra Nevada?
Love my Pales Ales.In order:
Stone N Wood
Hawthorn
Burleigh Brewing
Little Creatures
CoopersStone N Wood and Coopers are only ones i’ll really drink it really hot weather.
Yep had a few Stone Woods in Melb loved it big fan of the Matilda Bay beers as well Fat Yak is my beer now
No love for 4 Pines or Sierra Nevada?
they’re ok but these are my favs.
I reckon 4 pines is pretty good, I just normally go for stronger crazier flavours and four pines gets a bit over powered as it’s subtler by comparison. sierra nevada is a beer t appreciate more for being a decent tasting strong beer than flavour alone. I’m especially partial to their torpedo for that very reason.
More brewers wanna straddle that line now, hence the rise of XPAs and session IPAs. Pale ales can have finesse, and extract citrus and floral hop qualities and aromas well but lack punch, yet many IPAs go too hard on IBUs to smash your palate and lose focus on balance and drinkability. These new styles can provide the best of both. Stone Go To IPA, Founders All-Day IPA, Wolf And The Willows XPA, Liberty Yakima Monster are all farking rad. Essendonians should hit em up at Prince Wine Store.
I’ll go for a 6.5% IPA everyday, over anything overly citrussy or flowery, for a session.
Can’t hack more than one or two of the S&W pacific pales for that reason.
Waaaaay out of whack (to my palate).
Appreciate the flavour but I don’t like it.
Cold months I tend to gravitate towards dark ales and stouts. I know most have heard of it by now but in case you haven’t do yourself a favor and pick up one of these from Dan Murphy’s this weekend. Smokey, rich, liquid velvet. Not your chugging type of beer.
I cant session IPA’s. Some of those more robust ones feels like I’m drinking pine needles.
it’s getting colder now so moving off pale ales and onto stouts and reds ales.
I can tell winter is almost here - I keep finding random Coopers Dark Ale bottle tops in pockets of my clothes.
Unfortunately living in China l have very little to add to this thread, as most beers here are akin to sex in a canoe.Perhaps there is a niche for you to start importing? I hear wine has started becoming popular in the PRC.
There are some local wines, but they are diabollockal.
The biggest local label is Called The Great Wall, but it is anything but Great.
Then there is Dynasty, or die nasty as l prefer to call it.
Better by far than both of them is Changyu.
The best Chinese wine l found a few years ago, was also the cheapest at about $ 4/bottle.
It is now off the market, pity.
Penfolds and lots of other Ozzie wines can be found everywhere, even in 7/11 style convenient stores.
There are some serious prices for wine, but if you shop around you can find some bargains.
My local supermarket has a bottle of French plonk going for a cool $4000.
l went out for dinner a few years ago in Zhuhai and found an 11 year old Bordeaux for $ 10, a ripping good drop it was too.Not worth importing wine even on the side here. Besides l am planning on a move out of China this year, so there is no point.
My beer experience in china - is hilarious
Purely long necks served at restaurants, normally at room temperature and you can see the dust in labels (great storage!)
They normally serve long necks of Bud, Millers of Fosters. The Bud was some ■■■■■ brew, cannot be the same as here - tastes like water
Unfortunately living in China l have very little to add to this thread, as most beers here are akin to sex in a canoe.Perhaps there is a niche for you to start importing? I hear wine has started becoming popular in the PRC.
There are some local wines, but they are diabollockal.
The biggest local label is Called The Great Wall, but it is anything but Great.
Then there is Dynasty, or die nasty as l prefer to call it.
Better by far than both of them is Changyu.
The best Chinese wine l found a few years ago, was also the cheapest at about $ 4/bottle.
It is now off the market, pity.
Penfolds and lots of other Ozzie wines can be found everywhere, even in 7/11 style convenient stores.
There are some serious prices for wine, but if you shop around you can find some bargains.
My local supermarket has a bottle of French plonk going for a cool $4000.
l went out for dinner a few years ago in Zhuhai and found an 11 year old Bordeaux for $ 10, a ripping good drop it was too.Not worth importing wine even on the side here. Besides l am planning on a move out of China this year, so there is no point.
My beer experience in china - is hilarious
Purely long necks served at restaurants, normally at room temperature and you can see the dust in labels (great storage!)
They normally serve long necks of Bud, Millers of Fosters. The Bud was some ■■■■■ brew, cannot be the same as here - tastes like water
That’s been my experience of Bud.
Bombers Beer could be 2 brews. One a big bold stout and the other a Irish Red Ale. Sounds great, where do I get some?
Son’s brewery getting really close now. IF you guys are ever at the SGG and want to taste some the cricketers arms close to the SCG always has some on
Just finished bottling a ginger beer. Maaaate it’s terrific fresh and flat straight out of the tap. Could knock it back all day at this time of year, let alone in summer. Kept the last litre and a half to chug away now. Surely ginger beer has got to be one of the healthiest things you can drink.
2 kilos fresh grated ginger, 2 kilos lactose, 27.5 litre batch, champagne yeast.
For the fermentable I used 3 kg of honey, but next time I’ll save some moulah and go with brown sugar. As expected the honey all fermented out and no honey taste left. Not that it matters!
I reckon you're hopping mad!!Green hop sludge not! For there is nothing to green hop sludge, but green hop sludge itself.
EFA.
Well it turns out that you don’t really want to have hops in your beer.
Took me hours to bottle, have 6 litres of hop sludge in the bottom of the fermenter (instead of another 12 500ml bottles of beer) and the hops have risen up to the top of the necks of the beers.
Disappointing outcome, just boil them up and keep the liquid next time?
Never entirely disappointing when you learn something.
It tasted okay out of the barrel; and tasted pretty darn good after two days in the bottle at room temp. Never have I tasted something after only two days in the bottle, but I was impressed. It was more than drinkable.
But I realised that I had a problem with mega head formation, so that if I kept them, in a few weeks I’d be popping the tops off, only to lose half of it. Hopefully over the sink rather than over a laptop or something.
Also I’m a safety freak and although I don’t think I’d have a problem with exploding bottles, with so much hops in each bottle, I’m not 100% sure.
What I did was pour them all back into a clean fermenter, added a few litres of golden ale, which I’d bottled in plastic a couple of months ago but not primed, one can of caramalt, some water and let it ferment again to make a new beer. It’s kicking along okay with the combination of english ale yeast and saison yeast from the bottles. Should be decent.
I reckon you're hopping mad!!Green hop sludge not! For there is nothing to green hop sludge, but green hop sludge itself.
EFA.
Well it turns out that you don’t really want to have hops in your beer.
Took me hours to bottle, have 6 litres of hop sludge in the bottom of the fermenter (instead of another 12 500ml bottles of beer) and the hops have risen up to the top of the necks of the beers.
Disappointing outcome, just boil them up and keep the liquid next time?
Just finished bottling a ginger beer. Maaaate it's terrific fresh and flat straight out of the tap. Could knock it back all day at this time of year, let alone in summer. Kept the last litre and a half to chug away now. Surely ginger beer has got to be one of the healthiest things you can drink.2 kilos fresh grated ginger, 2 kilos lactose, 27.5 litre batch, champagne yeast.
For the fermentable I used 3 kg of honey, but next time I’ll save some moulah and go with brown sugar. As expected the honey all fermented out and no honey taste left. Not that it matters!
Yep, can’t possible think of a dozen or so things that would be better for your health!