Beerswap II: Walker-san's brews...

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Walker

I use secondaries. :p
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I had three different types, but not everyone got every type due to taste preferences and availability.

All of my caps were blue with white stars, but some had light blue stickers on them with writing.

Kaduva IPA
Caps with a blue sticker and the letter 'i' on it. The recipe used is reflected in my sig. This batch has more malt than previous batches, but I think it was better with a little less. I will drop it back down and brew it again soon. This is my best recipe, but this particular batch of it comes in third if ranked against other iterations of the recipe.

Dude got some, Todd got some. There are 4 bottles MIA, so somebody has them. They might still be sitting at Boston's.

Titch's Wit
Caps with a blue sticker and the letter 'w' on it. Recipe in my sig is not accurate, because I added a booster to this in the primary after tasting it and deciding it was too weak. I added another pound of DME and another two tbsp of corriander. It's not a Wit, but I think it's a good wheat beer. (My first wheat beer, too...) I suggest squeezing a wedge of fresh orange into it when you drink it.

Dude got some, Todd got some, Greg and Pansy got some.

ASB
Caps with no sticker. This was a "fly by the seat of my pants" brew with the recipe created from leftovers in the freezer and a couple things I wanted to try out. It's nothing very memorable and I'm not a very big fan of it.

Only dude got this one... I save the bad brews for him :) Though.... he never did drink my Fat Tire F*ck-Up (Pandora's Box) from the last brewswap.

Edit: Any of you local guys that want to review them, let me know. Supplies are running low on the IPA. Need to do me some brewing soon.
 
Mystery solved: I've got 4 bottles of the Kaduva IPA in my fridge. I've sampled it plenty (and liked it very much) so I'll save these for whoever wants them. Walker?
 
I can take them back if you don't want them. I think everyone has had my IPA at somt point.

Those were left over because sailman and beerluvngrl don't like super hopped beers. I gave them all the remaining Wit I had with me instead of a sampler of Titch and Kaduva.

-walker
 
It's no secret that I'm not a fan of wheat beers. What's worse is that I don't have any oranges to squeeze into this brew. With that said, here's the review:
This beer is cloudy, common for wheat beers. There is a little carbonation, not much, and very little head. Mostly just a ring around the top, touching the glass.

This brew is malty with little to no bitterness. It's very smooth. Walker says there is corriander in it but I honestly can't tell you what corriander tastes like.

I like this beer! It doesn't remind me of other wheats so maybe that's it. SWMBO had some too and she likes it as well. I guess my only question is about the carbonation, is it suppose to be less carb'd?

I will definitely have to get an orange to squeeze into the other bottle and see what that is like.

Good job Walker!
 
It's not going to be highly carbed, but you might have a very undercarbed one.

a few of my beers (both IPA and Wit) got put into the fridge at about the 2.5 week mark on conditioning and could have used more time. However, I never got around to taking them OUT of the fridge. Those prematurely cooled beers might have made their way into the six packs I gave away.

-walker
 
Ahhhh....I've got the last few sips of a nice Kaduva IPA right now....

Nice orangish color, and a hint of hops at first whiff. Taste is a classic hop first IPA that still remains balanced. Carbonation, perfect. The more I had the better and better it got. Good strong bitterness all the way through--but it isn't harsh. I really, really, REALLY like this one. Of course, I'm a hophead.

BTW, the lable for this is spot on for what I would expect from the beer. It jsut fits for some reason. Great stuff.
 
ASB:

What do you not like about this?
I think it outstanding.

It has a real nice balance--this is something I could drink all night long and be perfectly happy. This is a top notch beer from top to bottom. One thing I've noticed about Walker's beers is they hold a head all the way through. I can't say that for mine.

I think this one is flat out awesome. Aroma is all malt, real sweet. First sip is real malty, then a nice bittery finish. No faults whatsoever in this, I hope you have more because you should enter it into a competition. I'm dead serious.

This is the best beer I've had of yours Chad. I don't know if you'll take that as a compliment or not--but I really enjoyed it.
 
Dude said:
ASB:

What do you not like about this?
I think it outstanding.

It has a real nice balance--this is something I could drink all night long and be perfectly happy. This is a top notch beer from top to bottom. One thing I've noticed about Walker's beers is they hold a head all the way through. I can't say that for mine.

I think this one is flat out awesome. Aroma is all malt, real sweet. First sip is real malty, then a nice bittery finish. No faults whatsoever in this, I hope you have more because you should enter it into a competition. I'm dead serious.

This is the best beer I've had of yours Chad. I don't know if you'll take that as a compliment or not--but I really enjoyed it.

****.. maybe I should try another one. I haven't had one of those for over a month. I've got probably 1.5 cases of that left, just sitting in the closet.

The goal of the recipe (which was thrown together, literally, on the fly) was to get a malty nutbrown ale. I had some grains in the freezer, so I decided to used them. I had bought the aromatic to experiment with, and decided to start using it. Since it felt like a nutbrown coming together, I grabbed some Fuggles out of my hops stockpile and started cooking.

After I had cooked it, I ran what I had done through the recipator to see what I had done, and saw that it was kind of high in IBUs for a brown ale. Someone suggested that it looked more like an Special Bitter, so I changed the name to Accidental Special Bitter.

Anyway, my opinion of it when I had my first bottle of it was that the maltiness (kind of intense on the nose from the aromatic malt used) was too much when compared to the high IBUs I had. It was a weird combo with a nutty taste under it.

Basically, I thought I had too many conflicting flavors in it.

Perhaps the bitterness has died off over time and it might have turned into what I was after in the first place. :)

I'm going to go put one in the fridge.
 
I had to go back and look at the recipe myself...

WTF is up with my hop schedule?

Hops
  • 1.50 oz Fuggles (4%) @ 60 minutes
  • 1.00 oz Fuggles (4%) @ 40 minutes
an addition at 60 and one at 40, but nothing else? I 'spect that I have a type-o there, because I can't think what would make me do that on purpose.

-walker
 
Malty. That was my first thought. You said in your comments that you used more malt than usual in this batch but I still wasn't exactly ready for it. It's pretty clear and darker than I expected but I guess that's due to the additional malt. I would like to try another one of your versions of this to compare the two. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad beer, it's just not my idea of an IPA.
 
First of all, there is no amount of hops that would be sufficient to completely offset the sweetness of Patriots 38, Bengals 13...

First thing I notice is a real nice, strong aroma right out of the bottle. Nice carbonation, good thick head. Can definately smell the cascades in there, the kinda citrousy aroma, a little bit of pine.

The beer is not all that clear, but I imagine that's because of the transport. I'll let the ASB sit until Sunday and see how much it clears up in the fridge (the beer just got here this afternoon).

The beer has a little more back-of-the-throat, back-of-the tounge bittering, a little bit more harshness than my version - but not too much at all. I imagine the difference here being that I bittered with cascades rather than chinook.

Plenty of malt to support the hops, it's just big enough. Not thin at all, just the right level of body, not syrupy.

The best part of the beer is the fullness of the hop flavor, not the bitterness.

No off flavors at all that I can perceive.

I love this beer, it's *just right* for an everyday IPA. Not all IPAs are terribly drinkable, I still have to nurse my way through a Hop Rod Rye, for example. Excellent recipe, and very well done.

Can I have some more, please? :D
 
I should say, it's tough for me to judge this as I'm not really too much of a wheat beer fan. I don't view them as a sign of the apocolypse like some of our religious friends, but nor are they something I usually reach for.

First thing I notice is that the beer is VERY lightly carbed. Not sure if that's intentional or not. Very little head, I was expecting a lot because of the wheat. For me, this detracts from the beer a fair amount.

Fruity aroma, no hops. Estery, I think (I'm not the expert here). Pours cloudy as expected.

I like the body a lot, nice and full. Not chewey, but it's got some substance to it.

Flavor is fruity, nice and refreshing. Low bitterness, low hop flavor. Almost a little sour (in a good way, doesn't taste like an off flavor).

The more I drink it, the more I like it. Wheat's still aren't my favorite style, but this is a real nice summer ale. It's full in the mouth without being overwhelming. I just wish it were a *little* bit more carbed.

EDIT: I forgot the recipe includes some corriander. My palatte isn't sophisticated enough to pick up on what corriander tastes like, but it's certainly over-spiced. It does taste a good deal like a wit, even though the beer isn't wit-colored.
 
Nice beer. Nice color, smooth head, great clarity. Malty aroma, not overpowering. Little bit of bitterness at the back of the throat, little bit of hops flavor. Hops character seems to be coming out more as I drink it, a little bit floral. There's something in there that tastes a little harsher, but not out of character. Great body, very full and smooth. Not overly sweet, real nice balance.

Very drinkable, without being too light.

Great beer. Personally, I think the IPA is the best of the lot, but all three are very, very good. Great beer, can't wait to collect my FFB winnings from you!
 
I had the pleasure of sampling Walker's first all-grain batch of beer tonight. He calls it Santa Maria's Maiden Voyage. Considering the hops he used (and since he's a big Buckeye fan) I think he should have named it Ohio State Pale Ale (Columbus, OH). I wasn't overly impressed by the first sip. It tasted good, but I didn't get that hoppy aftertaste I was expecting. Surprisingly, each subsequent sip was better than the one before! By the end of the pint I was telling Walker, "Man, this is a damn good beer. Unfortunately, the SOB only brought a 32 oz. bottle to my house, so further sampling was curtailed. So, Walker, great start to your AG brewing, the beer was delish. Let's float that keg before Christmas! Great job!

Santa Maria's Maiden Voyage
(American Pale Ale)

Grains

* 9.00 lb 2-Row
* 2.00 lb Victory Malt
* 0.50 lb Crystal 20°L
* 0.50 lb CaraPils

Hops

* 0.50 oz Columbus (16.8%) / 60 Minutes
* 0.75 oz Columbus (16.8%) / 15 Minutes
* 1.00 oz Columbus (16.8%) / Dry Hop

Misc (I actually forgot both of these things on brew-day)

* 1 tsp gypsum added at the beginning of the boil
* 1 tsp Irish Moss added with 15 minutes left in the boil

Yeast

* Wyeast 1056 - American Ale

Priming

* 3/4 cups corn sugar in 2 cups water. Boiled for 5 minutes.
(but... I'm actually kegging it)
 
BOSTONBREWIN' said:
I had the pleasure of sampling Walker's first all-grain batch of beer tonight. He calls it Santa Maria's Maiden Voyage. Considering the hops he used (and since he's a big Buckeye fan) I think he should have named it Ohio State Pale Ale (Columbus, OH).
I thought about that, actually. I also thought about renaming my porter "Paul Brown Porter".
BOSTONBREWIN' said:
I wasn't overly impressed by the first sip. It tasted good, but I didn't get that hoppy aftertaste I was expecting. Surprisingly, each subsequent sip was better than the one before! By the end of the pint I was telling Walker, "Man, this is a damn good beer.
Glad you liked it so much. I'm still not sure what I think. It defiantely gets better the more you drink.
BOSTONBREWIN' said:
Unfortunately, the SOB only brought a 32 oz. bottle to my house, so further sampling was curtailed. So, Walker, great start to your AG brewing, the beer was delish. Let's float that keg before Christmas! Great job!
Let's see; 1 week till Xmas and probably 4 gallons in the keg.

Whew... it's gonna be a long week. Santa Claus is probably going to have ale and pretzels waiting for him instead of milk and cookies.
 
I finally got around to trying the Titch's Wit last night. Once again, a super beer from the Walker Brewery.

Of course it is too dark for a wit, but you already told us that. It poured with a nice head, slightly cloudy and kept a lace to the end.

Aroma is lemony. Taste is different from any wit I've had because of the maltiness. It had a real evident caramelly flavor that really was quite sepctacular. I don't know if age is doing this or if it has been that way all along, but it was really nice. I got a little bit of that lemony sourness in it as well, and a faint hop character as well.

This was an excellent beer and I'm glad I have another one waiting.

FWIW, (and this might be the age of the beer), it is more a hybrid of a style. It almost has dunkel characteristics. Very nice.
 

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