Happy 29th Stass!!!

So yesterday we got together at Stass' place, to keg the ginger beer the boys brewed last week while I was away. So I got to start learning the art of kegging beer before using the keg fridge for my first time. I have to say, our dark ale with chocolate malt was pretty easy drinking but with the extra malt giving it much more roasted flavours. Unfortunately the ginger beer didn't go so well and so was pretty flat and watery, but with a big ginger spiciness to it.

Team Bass (Beef and Stass) competed against Team Harrod (Harriet and Jarrod) in round 2 of our brewing competiton, and I have to say I was pretty confident in our honey wheat beer. Funnily enough we both went the dark route to work well with the autumn season, and I have to say if they hadn't explained all the ingredients they had used I would have thought it a good Dunkelwiess (like an Erdinger), just a bit overdone on the dark malt to hide the honey. Still, once the coriander, the 3/4 types of malt, and other ingredients were explained it then became a case of how did the beer become so well rounded with so much stuff in it.

As for ours, the decent caramel (choc malt with belgian dark candied sugar), with the floral honey (a little too much, and starting to sour a little bit) and wheat banana back palate, I couldn't help but gloat a bit (hey, it was our first time with this style, and happy that everything we added could just be found in the taste) and be happy at how lucky we had been with it. The only thing I could think to make it better was if we used slightly less honey. Still, I assumed Stass and I won, and no one would argue with me.

Then it was time for a beer journey of chocolate beers, starting with the bitter Arctic Fox, then the super sweet Magnus Chocolate, and what I expected to taste similar with the Mildura Choc Hops (it didn't in the bottle though). Next was the classic Rogue's Choc Stout that I brought back from Adelaide and then the Holgate Temptress, before finishing up on it's big brother, the Holgate Empress. I was happy to see there was a good diversity in which each of us liked most. For me though, the Rogue's has nostalgia and the Empress is just has massive flavour.

With that all over, it was then a matter of keeping on the keg and finishing off the dark ale right as the night ended. Am happy to say the backup coopers pales were not touched, but that some people brought some cheap dodgy german lager (yes, I did have a chat to them about it).

Well, happy birthday Stass. Hope you don't have much of a clean up in your new place today. Looking forward to talking about our next beer challenge set by Harrod with an IPA. This will be another unknown for us to try...

Cheers mate.

Beef