Beer Swap 2007 - jnorris's Beers

I sent my beers Monday August 8th to these unfortunate people Edwort, cj8scrambler, Ryanh1801. I sent an American Amber, American Light Ale and a Full-Bodied Weizenbier. All three beers are Brewers Best extract kit beers. I just started brewing last December and felt that this was a great chance to get feedback on my brews!

Brewer's Best American Amber Kit

Malt Extract

• 3.3 lbs Plain Amber Malt Extract
• 2 lbs Plain Amber DME

Specialty Grains

• 8 oz Crystal Malt 60L

Hops

• 1 oz. Willamette (60 min)
• 1 oz. Willamette (15 min)

Yeast

• White Labs California Ale Yeast

I boiled two gallons of water and pitch yeast at 1.045 and fermented for eight days. I then transfered to a secondary for 14 days then added priming sugar and bottled on April 30th.


Brewer's Best American Light Kit

Malt Extract

• 3.3 lbs Plain Light Malt Extract
• 2 lbs Plain Light DME
• 1 lbs Rice Syrup Solids

Hops

• 1 oz. Saaz (60 min)
• 1/4 oz. Saaz (15 min)

Yeast

• Dry yeast that was included in kit

I boiled two gallons of water and pitch yeast at 1.038 and fermented for seven days. I then transfered to a secondary for 14 days then added priming sugar and bottled on June 24th.


Brewer's Best Full-Bodied Weizenbier Kit

Malt Extract

• 6.6 lbs Wheat Malt Extract

Hops

• 1 oz. Hallertau (60 min)
• 1/2 oz. Hallertau (15 min)

Yeast

• White Labs Hefeweizen Ale Yeast

I boiled two gallons of water and pitch yeast at 1.046 and fermented for eight days. I then transfered to a secondary for 5 days, then added priming sugar and bottled on July 4th.

Amber ale. Got two of these and on one the cap popped off during shipping when I got it so, I quickly recapped it and drank it that night, so I will be giving it another review after a few days in the fridge on the other.

Appearance- Poured nicely with about a 1/2 inch head, dissipated fairly quickly and left a nice lacing. The beer was fairly dark (due im sure to LME), When held up a light had a nice deep amber color, seemed pretty hazy, but probably due to the fact that it was in a UPS truck not 3 hours ago.

Smell- Very nice floral/ citrus.

Taste- This was a very smooth nice drinker, nice balance between hops and malt, seemed just about perfect for the style also had a slight citrus flavor that was nice. Had just a hint of extract twang, but was tons less than I use to have on my extract brews.

Overall- I liked it alot, I could see myself throwing a few of these back on a hot summer day..

Weizenbier
Aperance- Nice head on pour, stayed nicely through out the drink.

Aroma- Slight smell of cloves other than that nothing else I can pick up on.

Taste- Ok I will be the first to say, I am not a huge fan of German wheats, but have never had a homebrew one, or a fresh one. Up front is a nice taste of cloves, but not over powering. Can't pick up much on a banana taste. Which might be a good thing, because I am really, really enjoying this one. And honestly if I could not see the color of this one, I would think it was a commercial brew. Very nice tasting.

Overall- I think you might have converted me to liking German wheats. This was a very nice brew. I went into drinking this one thinking, I would probably not enjoy it too much, but man I am really enjoying it. Excellent brew!! Do you know which yeast you used on this one?

Ryanh1801 said:

Weizenbier
Aperance- Nice head on pour, stayed nicely through out the drink.

Aroma- Slight smell of cloves other than that nothing else I can pick up on.

Taste- Ok I will be the first to say, I am not a huge fan of German wheats, but have never had a homebrew one, or a fresh one. Up front is a nice taste of cloves, but not over powering. Can't pick up much on a banana taste. Which might be a good thing, because I am really, really enjoying this one. And honestly if I could not see the color of this one, I would think it was a commercial brew. Very nice tasting.

Overall- I think you might have converted me to liking German wheats. This was a very nice brew. I went into drinking this one thinking, I would probably not enjoy it too much, but man I am really enjoying it. Excellent brew!! Do you know which yeast you used on this one?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the praise! Just like you I wasn't a real big fan of wheats but the SWMBO is. So I made this one for her and I ended up liking it more then she did. She prefers the banana taste opposed to the cloves. As for the yeast I used White Labs Hefeweizen Ale Yeast. The color is almost on the light end of a Dunkelweizen (sp?)

jnorris said:

Thanks for the praise! Just like you I wasn't a real big fan of wheats but the SWMBO is. So I made this one for her and I ended up liking it more then she did. She prefers the banana taste opposed to the cloves. As for the yeast I used White Labs Hefeweizen Ale Yeast. The color is almost on the light end of a Dunkelweizen (sp?)

Click to expand...

Do you know if it was the 300 or the 380?

I believe it was the 300...but I can check when i get home.


Edit: The yeast is WLP300

Weizen
I got a good solid psst when uncapped. It poured well and gave a thick head. The head did subside rather quickly, but it's possible that it was my glass. Since it was a wheat, I poured the whole bottle and got a cloudy haze. The color seems a little dark for a wheat beer, but I had this same problem when using extracts. It tasted malty and was slightly stronger in flavor then I expected. I detected banana flavor which seems to be the opposite of what Ryanh noted (cloves). The carbonation level seemed good.

American Lite
Again, a solid psst sound when opening it up. I got a medium head with very fine bubbles which dissipated quickly again. There was a bit of cloudiness, but this bottle only had a few hours to settle before it was poured. The medium blond color was a little dark, but again this is expected from malt extract. The only distinct flavor I could pick up was the yeast (due to the lack of settling). Otherwise the flavors were well balanced. There was a very slight hop aroma and no bitterness detected. The carbonation was ok, but could have been cranked up for this style. Overall a great beer for working outside in the summer.

jnorris said:

I believe it was the 300...but I can check when i get home.


Edit: The yeast is WLP300

Click to expand...

Thanks for letting me know, I think im gonna get some stuff tomorrow to brew one up.

Ok on to the American Light

Appearance- Nice head on pour, light in color, probably the lightest of the bunch, very clear, no chill haze or anything. Very nice looking beer.

Aroma-- Just a tad bit of hop aroma, not much else going on which seems to be inline with the style.

Taste-- Smooth light beer, just what I would expect from the style.

Overall-- Nice beer, not my favorite style, but nicely done, tasted good after I mowed the lawn today. Only thing I would change is upping the carbonation on this one.

Thanks for the beers I enjoyed them a lot, you are a hell of a lot better extract brewer than I was, none of mine ever tasted this good.

I got back in town yesterday and your bottles were waiting for me. They are in the fridge now, settling and chilling. Tomorrow is the big day.