Saturday, August 28th, 2010
Last Tuesday night saw the latest quarterly Brewshare event at The Localtaphouse in Darlinghurst. The set style for the night was Indian Pale Ales (IPA) with 21 entries and 5 more in the nights ‘open class’.
Sydney water had a bit of mishap with a water main bursting down the road in Moore Park leaving the pub without water. This caused all in attendance to turn to beer for their hydration but with so many fantastic brews on offer this was hardly a punishment. The beauty of the event is it brings a such a wide variety of homebrewers together with a wide range of skillsets and experience to together to talk shop and enjoy each others work.
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Tags: brewing, brewshare, homebrew, The Local Taphouse
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Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
The rain was pelting down in Sydney last night, but it didn’t stop a crowd of home brewers converging on The Local Taphouse in Darlinghurst. Every few months the Taphouse plays host to an event for beer loves named “Brewshare”. A style for the night is set and homebrewers bring along their brews to share and be judged, last night the theme was Porters / Stouts which was a good choice considering the inclement weather on the night.
It ended up being a great night that was thoroughly enjoyed by all, below are some of the brews I was fortunate enough to taste (sorry to anyone I missed, your sheet didn’t make it home me!):
Oak Imperial Stout
Ben Buxton
Vitals
8.5% Alcohol
Ingredients
Caramalt, Crystal malt, roasted barley
Chinook & Cascade hops
Irish Ale & Whitelabs super high gravity
Notes:
This brew sat on bourboned oak chips for 3 weeks. This added a great level of complexity and also help smooth it out, even at 8.5% this brew was pretty easy drinking.
Pret a Porter
Peter Philip
Vitals
4.8% Alcohol
30 IBU
35 SRM
Ingredients
Pale malt, flaked barley, black barley, caraamber and chocolate malt
East Kent Goldings
Safale S-04
Notes:
This brew was transferred from keg to plastics bottles which I think result in a loss of the aroma. Although what it lacked in the smell it more than made up with in taste very smooth and easy to drink.
German Dark Ale
Greg Hughes
Vitals
none provided
Ingredients
Light malt extract, black grain
Northern Brewer & Hallertau Hops
European Ale Yeast
Notes:
Awesome aroma I think I am a sucker for anything with Hallertau in it, on the palate very tasty and easy drinking.
The Governor
Michael Hodge
Vitals
8.5% Alcohol
53 IBU
Ingredients
Light malt extract, roasted barley, crystal grain, caramalt, roasted wattle seeds
Perle & Hallertau Hops
Lager yeast
Notes:
This was possibly my favourite beer of the night, packed full of flavour. The roasted wattle seeds added a great uniqueness to this brew, on the palate Cherries and raisins shone though balanced perfectly balanced with the heat from the alcohol.
Cherry Fever Stout
Sam Haldane
Vitals
6.5% Alcohol
30 IBU
60 SRM
Ingredients
Light & Dark DME, Medium crystal, black malt, roasted barley
Northern Brewer & Willamette hops
Wyeast #1272 (American Ale 2)
Notes:
Very rich the cherries combined perfectly with the stouts richness to produce something akin to a Cherry Ripe in liquid form.
Kobushi Black Dragon
Jesse Hopwood
Vitals
6.75% Alcohol
Ingredients
Liquid caramel extract, light DME, Chocolate, pale, crystal and carafa I malts
Perle, East Kent Goldings, Chinook, Saaz and Northern Brewer hops
Safale US yeast
Notes:
This beer definitely didn’t leave you wanting for taste. The extensive use of different hop varieties gave a hug level of complexity.
Coco Coconut Stout
Anthony Mills
Vitals:
5.89% Alcohol
36.5 IBU
70.6 EBC
Ingredients
Thomas Fawcett Golden Promise – Chocolate malt, Simpsons Golden naked oats, black malt, Weyerman Caraamber, Bairds Maris Otter, Light and dark DME
Challenger and Fuggles hops
Wyeast #1028 (London Ale)
Coconut meat, 1 vanilla bean, 90ml Malibu rum, Cocoa beans
Notes:
This was my own entry into the comp, and it did alot better than I expected it came second and won me a yeast voucher from Daves homebrew store in North Sydney. The first few weeks in the bottle the vanilla was overpowering to the point it I was going to write it off as a dud brew given time to age though this died down to a more subtle level, I couldn’t really taste the coconut although most people said they could.
Related: IPA Brewshare @ The Local Taphouse
Tags: brewshare, homebrew, Porters, stout, The Local Taphouse
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