Beerswap III: Brewsmith's Beers

Ok HarvInSTL, eriklupus, and DSean, I've bottled up the beer from the kegs and will get them out after the Thanksgiving weekend. You will each be getting four beers:

Green Cap - 80/- Bagpipes Scottish Ale
Blue Cap - Bruin Buster Brown
Silver Cap - Wagner Weizen
Gold Cap - 2006 Old Helicon Barleywine

I will send you a bottle of each and will also include basic recipes and stats from each brew. Hope you guys enjoy!

Beers went out today. You should be getting them within a week. I'll PM tracking numbers.

aroma:clover phenols dominate very little hops aroma.

appearance:clear light copper/ no chill haze, nice head on pour, good lace throughout

flavor: good flavor subdued esters nice balance. slight vanilla notes

mouthfeel:creamy and very light

overall:very nice, a good balanced weizen

aroma:9/12: caramel malt and floral/fruity hops fill the nose

appearance:3/3:glass bottle brown nicely clear ,lots of sediment in bottle.good carbonation light lacing

flavor:18/20:malt upfront, balanced nicely by hoppy backbite. slight alcohol burn. lingering sweetness/bitterness

mouthfeel:5/5: nice and creamy with a nice balanced body

overall:10/10: i want the recipe!! oh, wait, you sent one with it!! swweeet:rockin:

80 Shilling

Arrggh. I just typed up a "here's my critique while I drink" but I lost it, damn backspace!

Here's my basic review. I know very little about this style, so I may be the worst to judge, but I really enjoy this beer. It's got a nice bass note that's a roasted bitterness, almost coffee-like flavor, with a nice caramel-ly sweetness on top. However, I think there's something missing in the middle. Analogizing to music, it's got the bottom and top notes, but needs the middle note of the chord. That said, that may be the dead-on characteristic of the style - I simply don't know.

I really like the aroma of the beer. Virtually no hops, but very malty-sweet. It smells and tastes very delicious. I see from your recipe that it's very light on the hops, and I think it's very well balanced for the small amount of hops used. [I'm guessing that's the style of the beer].

Overall, this is the probably best homebrew I've ever tasted (and I still have 3 of yours left to go). It's quite balanced and is really lovely. And, since you sent the recipe, I'm going to steal it.

Thanks for sharing such a great beer.
Sean

Thanks for the input! This is one of my favorites so far. I'm all out of it now, but I'm going to make it again for the National Homebrew Competition coming up in the spring. I haven't forgotten about your beers. I was under the weather for a few days. I'll have a review coming shortly.

I'm having the Brown right now. It's delicious.

First thoughts - it's a lot darker than I was expecting, but still quite nice. There's a nice burnt chocolate aroma to it. Not a lot of hops, but quite balanced between the burnt malt/chocolate flavors. The beer has a great texture to it, I mean it feels really silky. I think I might a little more hop flavor and aroma in the beer, but I really enjoy it. I think you should enter this beer in a contest, because it is really great.