Beerswap: Walker-san's brews

You got a date Saturday baby!!!




I just wanted to create the thread to let you know I haven't forgot about ya--I plan on sampling and writing a little critique, 'kay?

Wow you guys got some great pics from the festival! Looks like you two had an awsome time.

Walker's the one that can dance.

Baron von BeeGee said:

...dance.

Click to expand...

Is that what that is?

I had one of Walker's IPA's today. I believe it was the whole-hopped one because the cap said HW, and it definitely wasn't a Hefeweizen.

This is a really great IPA that I'd love to call my own. It was probably a bit more carbonated than I generally go for in my own beers, but the head and head retention were second to none. It was also reasonably clear until I bombed it with some yeast sediment from the bottle.

The aroma is really clean hoppiness, and the bitterness is spot on for my tastes. There is also a very nice citrusy hop flavor. I'm guessing there's a modicum of cascade in there.

The color is a beautiful light copper with the suspected hint of maltiness.

All in all a great beer.

Tasting note: SwAMi and I are sitting down for sampling! We'll probably get to all of Walker-san's brews and some of Boston's, but for now...

Holy Grail Porter (#12)

This is a REALLy nice beer. It is perfect color (duh) for a brown porter. No hop aroma, very malty, slightly coffee-like.
Taste is super. Not too bitter from the darker malts, and nice and malty. Well balanced, perfect sweetness to go along with the bitterness, but no detection of an overly yeasty flavor or astringent bitterness from the dark malts.
I detected a hint of oxidation (my palate seems to be very sensitive to cardboardy flavor), but the oxidation is probably from age and not a brewing fault. I do not detect an extract 'twang", so Walker you did an OUTSTANDING job on this beer.

Sam here: Same impression as Dude, but would like to add that I got a nice coffee, almost black licorice flavor coming through. Very nice.

Also, very good balance in the yeast. Very clean...not too estery, and little to no diacetyl. Looks like you had your ferment temps dialed in really well!
~Sam

I'd eliminate the black patent on future batches, but I'd drink this everyday. It was super.

Espresso Stout: Little to no head, opaque brown, damn near black. A little estery in the nose, and the coffee comes through well. More coffee flavor, as well as chocolate with some residual sweetness. Very nice, but a little flat.

~Sam

B here....Walker, this is what I wanted my LPR to taste like. I am thrilled with this beer. Other than being slightly flat, this is what I would call a "real" Liquid Panty Remover. The sweetness from the Laaglander really comes through. I looked at the recipe and never would have guessed you used Perle hops. No harsh bitterness at all. This beer just really flows well--and for being sweet it isn't over the top either. The coffee is perfect, not too much but it is definitely there. This was an awesome beer. Absolutely no faults other than the carbonation.

Kaduva IPA (p)

WOW. Strong hops in the aroma, and a huge head. Color is really nice. Super clear! Taste is bigtime hops. The NB hops stuck out to me immediately in the taste. I'm not a fan of them, so it jumped out as too bitter. I'd like this beer to be a bit more malty to go along with the hops. I understand an IPA should be bitter, and you got that--but I'd like to see more malt.

~Dude

Hop notes are a bit too harsh. Also overcarbonated. Might work on your hopping schedule to get it a little better integrated.

~Sam

Baron von BeeGee said:

I had one of Walker's IPA's today. I believe it was the whole-hopped one because the cap said HW, and it definitely wasn't a Hefeweizen.

Click to expand...

??? I don't think taht was my beer. If it has HW on the top, that might have been dude's Honey Wheat???

(I'm still reading the other reviews still and soaking in the analysis.)

-walker

Kaduva IPA (w):

This is MUCH better. Good citrusy aroma like a classic american IPA. Clean looking, clear beer.
The taste has a better balance, because the hops aren't so bitter. I prefer this one over the (p) batch, for sure. I don't detect diacetyl or any other fault, but it almost gushed when I poured it. It IS overcarbed, but personally I like a slightly overcarbed beer. I get more taste out of it. I know, I'm weird.
I don't envy you guys who bottle because it is pretty hard to dial in the correct carbonation using priming sugar. I respect that.

--Dude

Much better integrated than the one with pellet hops. It's quite a bit overcarbed, though, and pretty watery. With some tweaks, it'll be a helluva an IPA!

~Sam

Thanks guys! This is very reassuring feedback.

Sout Responses

I agree with everyone that the stout is a little flat. Part of that is my priming sugar (I cut back the amount since I don't like fizzy stouts) but I think my reduction in sugar combined with the thickness of the beer makes it come off as very flat.

I actually want to thin this out next time (droppping sweetness) and up both the roastiness and coffee, but I was definately not disappointed with it when I first had it (my 31st b-day in december).

Porter Responses

I TOLD there was something wrong w/ the porter. I find a burnt aftertaste (too much patent). Dude/Sam detect oxidation. Billy tastes copper. I already plan to drop the patent next time, but I don't think I'll get rid of completely. My DME is xtra-lite (3 or 4 SRM), so I feel it needs to be there to darken the beer properly. I wanted the color to be a VERY dark ruby-red/black, but too much patent == black.

As for my ferment temp... I'm using a fridge and a home-made mini heater to control temps. Each has an independent thermostat. I can keep the temp within a 4°F window easily.

IPA (whole hops AND pellet hops) Responses
Originally, both SWMBO and I thought we liked the pellet hop better. My wife loves things uber-bitter and I like the almost perfumey hoppiness. However, as we work our way through both batches, we are both coming to the conclusion that the whole hop version is better.... which is good, because I have a TON of whole hops.

As for the hop schedule and the NB hops being prevelant. This was what I wanted. I like the piney flavor (I think I would probably LOVE spruce beer.) However, I have decided that I want to change things just to make my measuring easier. I have 4 oz of hops divided into 7 piles. That comes out to a terrible number. If I had 3.5 oz of hops in 7 piles, that's a lot easier to measure (0.25 oz per pile). I'll try a batch with lowered hops some time as an experiment, but I'm currently happy with the bitterness, flavor, and aroma of this one, so... screw you.

I had to pour an IPA to check on the carbonation thing. I guess I generally pour slowly down the side of the glass and I get a nice managable head on it. However, I do burp a LOT when drinking it. I think you guys are right, and I should drop back the carbonation level on this. I use DME to prime it (1.25 cups) so I think the next batch will be dropped back to 1 cup.
And, finally.... a bit more malt is in order. I'm considering a tad more crystal in it too.

COlor.... I am totally satisfied with the color. It will clear up almost completely if you leave it in the fridge for a week before opening it, too. I have never NAILED chill haze, except for batches that had no grains in them, and those were boring beers.

Watery Whole Hop version (I had a top-off mistake and added an extra 1/2 gallon of water to that batch. That explains that one.

In General

Thanks for the honest feedback guys. I really appreciate it.

I'm still waiting for dude to try my Fat Tire F*ck-Up (Pandora's Box). That one tastes like a dirty a$$.

-walker

Walker-san said:

??? I don't think taht was my beer. If it has HW on the top, that might have been dude's Honey Wheat???

(I'm still reading the other reviews still and soaking in the analysis.)

-walker

Click to expand...

Naw, I'm positive it's your IPA. Maybe I read the cap wrong.

I also had Kai's pale ale, but it was in a green bottle and had skunked some! It may have been in the transport that day (it was right with your beers, but yours were in brown bottles).

I'm still pretty sure you didn't drink my whole-hop IPA.

If memory serves, I only gave you two bottles, and that was the Thurs before the festival. I gave you my porter and my PELLET Ipa batch.

I think.....

easy way to tell: my pellet IPA has an old Tomcat cap on it. My Whole Hops IPS has a blue cap with white stars.

-walker

In that case it was definitely the pellet-hopped IPA.

Walker, I'll elaborate more on your comments--but honestly dude, I was really impressed with your beers. No way did I brew extract beer like that. I thought your Kaduva (w) and Espresso Stout were awesome. I'm not a beer tasting expert but I couldn't detect that it was extract in the least. They were great. Really impressed.

Baron von BeeGee said:

In that case it was definitely the pellet-hopped IPA.

Click to expand...

I finally figured this out. The pellet IPA that I gave you had a little sticker on top of the cap with "I3" written on it. You looked at the letters sideways, I think.

I -> H
3 -> W

Walker-san said:

I finally figured this out. The pellet IPA that I gave you had a little sticker on top of the cap with "I3" written on it. You looked at the letters sideways, I think.

I -> H
3 -> W

Click to expand...

Sounds about right...I tossed the cap, but I'm sure that's it. Again, great beer.

Kai, sorry about that...I can't remember exactly how I transported them other than in the back seat of my car. I had them in a small box to keep them upright, but perhaps they got hit by some sun during the 4-5 hrs they were back there.

Don't worry too much about it if you run out...I'm still hoping we can do a major wheat tasting before you leave. The Weizenbock should be pretty well carbonated, I'll bottle Hefe2.0 tonight or tomorrow, and I'm saving a couple bottles of Hefe1.0.

p.s. Brewpastor is, of course, invited.

FYI: if you looked at the recipes linked to in my sig, this is not necessarily the recipe that was used to make the beer you drank. The recipes linked to are what the NEXT batch will be (ie; might include tweaks from the previous batch).

For the IPA, it's pretty much correct. Differences:
- only 6lbs of extract in the pellet batch. I decided it was too little, and added more to the whole hop batch, but then topped-OVER (instead of topped-OFF) the whole hop, so I never got the increased body/maltiness I wanted.
- the whole hop batch uses 0.5oz Columbus for bittering instead of 1oz Chinook.

Stout differences:
I used ALL Laaglander extract in the one you tasted. Too sweet for me, so the recipe linked to reflects what I will brew next time. Also, the batch you tasted had only 16oz of espresso, and 1/3 lb of the roasted grains. The goal next time is to lower sweetness and up the roasted and coffee flavors. I like the current version, but it's so sweet and heavy, I can only drink one of them, and only every once in a while.

Porter Differences:
the version you have had the amounts of chocolate and patent malts reversed due to drunken measuring of grains

I'll be tweaking the recipes linked to again to reflect MORE carbonation in the stout and less in the IPA.

today we finally got around to tasting some of your beer as well Walker..

we tried the Espresso Stout.. (now keep in mind we are NOT huge stout drinkers)

Definately could smell the wonderful coffee in it.. and it had a very dark color.. little to no head retention at all.. now i gotta agree tasted a bit flat..

when tasting you definatley taste the espresso and the chocolate malts in it.. bitter but not overwelming..

to not be a stout drinker. i definately thought this was a good beer...beerluvngrl with her coffee likes.. thought it was really good she liked the fact that you could taste the espresso in and is trying to figure out if it could be considered a morning starter for waking up for work.. LOL

good job though and hoping that our brews will continue to improve.. we will need to send some for some critiquing since hers is finally bottled! (pm us some addresses and we will send you some!)

just to put my 2 cents in.. sailman said it all.. i definately liked the coffee in the stout.. not to be a huge stout drinker.. it was good.. i suppose eventually ill learn to love those darker beers