CS1 - Paul Fraser's Schwarzbier - 4.6%

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dougal on March 18, 2013 at 9:33pm

Think I'm on the cusp of a cold, so I thought I'd better try a case-swap beer while my palate is still okay. Drank this first at Paul's suggestion in case it's over-primed. 

Great clarity. Pours with a nice reddish glint and fluffy head that subsides quickly. Chocolate on the nose. Mouthfeel is drying from the dark kilned malts after initial sweetness. Not as sweet as it was on Friday- seems fully carbed. Quite balanced flavour, the roast barley being slightly too prominent. For some reason it reminds me a bit of Invercargill Pitchblack. Pleasant malt, clean bitterness, restrained hops and little fermentation character to speak of. That's what I hope for in a dark lager so well done! 

In case it isn't over-primed, you should keep a couple of bottles aside to see how it ages. Over a few months the roastiness would mellow slightly and the head retention would be perfect. 

If it was a bit drier and you subbed out some more of the roast barley for chocolate, I think this would be stellar. As it is, the pint wen't down very easily.

Cheers!

Permalink Reply by Paul Fraser on March 18, 2013 at 10:25pm

Thanks Douglas. I am definately going to save some to see how it ages. I hear what you said about the roast. It is still less than 2 weeks old so it'll be interesting to see how it changes. Thanks for the detailed feedback.

Permalink Reply by Crusader-Rob on March 22, 2013 at 7:56pm

Thought I'd have a bottle tonight, So I chose this.

Now I don't know much about Schwarzbier's, so it's difficult for me to judge, but gives me an idea of what things should taste like. Pretty uncommon style.

Pours nice and dark, and has a large Roast Character. based on the comments and discussion from fridays meet, theres too much, and to be honest I'd agree, I fridged it on tuesday. to me a little under-carbed. good tasting beer, I'm proebably not the best person to give judgement.

Permalink Reply by Paul Fraser on March 22, 2013 at 8:13pm

Have a look at the bjcp style guidelines 4C to see how it compares.

Permalink Reply by Crusader-Rob on March 23, 2013 at 8:46am

Looking at the guidelines, My only comment is too much roastyness? But given it's my first schwarzbier I've had, I'm probably not the best judge, i did thoroughly enjoy it though.

Permalink Reply by Ralph on March 24, 2013 at 6:47pm

 Nice roasty malt aromas on the nose. Pours a great dark reddish brown, almost black colour with good clarity. Thin head, dissipated quickly.

Roasted malts prominent in the first taste with chocolately roasted coffee type flavours. Hops not apparent up front but give a nicely balance bitterness at the finish. Leaves a lingering drying roasted malt flavour in the mouth.

Carbonation quite light, but I did put mine into the 10 deg fridge with my other beer when it got home. Reasonably light body, but carries the flavours well.

I think it is a great dark lager. Plenty of malt character and I like the roasted barley edge and dry finish. Likely to improve with some age.

Permalink Reply by Paul Fraser on March 24, 2013 at 10:00pm

Cheers. It's been bottled now for 2 weeks and 2 days and carbonation is still pretty good so don't think it's going to be over carbed. I'm really enjoying it at the moment.

Permalink Reply by oliver on March 28, 2013 at 12:06am

Aroma: clean, slightly bready, little stone fruit maybe

Colour: almost pitch black with a little red

Flavour: chocolate, little coffee, berry/fruity, good background bitterness, little sweet + fruity in the finish

Mouthfeel: full, not cloying

Nice pours with a solid head, good carbonation.

Nice beer all round Paul, really enjoyed it :)

Permalink Reply by Paul Finney on April 2, 2013 at 10:26pm

Hello,

Now i am up and running i can comment! I had this a while ago but made notes, so i hope they make sense...

Poured a deep almost ruby red colour which was very clear. It looked great, with a good head, which hung around for ages, with a slight chocolatety colour.

No real perceptive hop aroma. There was a nice roasted malty aroma coming through even though it was quite cold.

First taste was very malty, almost a sharp roasted flavour. Even with the malts it was a clean taste which led through to light bittering at the end of the taste.

Depite the warning the carbing was quite low. I am not sure how this would effect the overal taste once fully carbed?

Overal a very enjoyable beer and one i would love to taste again, good work Paul

Permalink Reply by Mike on April 6, 2013 at 6:45pm

Paul's Schwarzbier

Appearance: Nice, very dark brown, good clarity, can't really see light through my tasting glass. Doesn't seem to retain head well, thin white lacing around the edges of the glass.Seems undercarbed, maybe waht you were talking about before Paul?

Aroma: Funky yeast note, bready, this dominated the nose on mine. Slight malt coming in the back.

Taste: Again, yeast dominates, bready/shipyard glue kinda taste. Slight diaceytl maybe? Served cold which gave the impression of clean lagerness, but yeasty taste prevailed. In saying that, nice clean malt profile, slightly roasty, reminds me of Moa Noir (which is a good thing in my book). Chocolate, roasted coffee beans.

Mouthfeel: Reasonable body, goes down smooth. Feels about right. Undercarbed though.I take back the diaceytl comment! It is quite big and slippery though.

Finish: Dry, like a dark lager should be, again, yeast

.
Overall: I fridged for 3 days and poured carefully but still got a quite pronounced bready/yeasty aroma and taste
Yeast coming back in the burps, if you know what I mean. This is funny because I decanted well and left alot more than usual in the bottom (about 3cm!). This is a good beer with a nice mouthfeel, needs more carbing and potentially a better fermentation/flocculation/racking/something to remove the yeasty taste. At the moment that is the only thing really holding it back from being commercial quality. I did serve quite cold which may have limited some of the malt flavour, but in my experience dark lagers are served cold.

Permalink Reply by Paul Fraser on April 7, 2013 at 7:28am

Interesting. I have'nt had one in a while but i didn't get the yeast thing you mention. With a 4 day diacetyl rest and around 5 weeks lagering there should be very little diacetyl or yeast character. I did rack carefully and added about a third of a pack of rehydrated CSC-1 yeast with sugar mix at bottling time. The yeast is described as imparting no flavour so preserving the original character of the beer. Hopefully it was just a rogue bottle you had. I will crack one today to see if I can detect it.
I agree that it should be fairly cold at serving.

I believe you were the last person to try my beer Mike. It was great to get everyone's detailed constructive feedback and to try some good beers too. I look forward to the next one. Cheers

Permalink Reply by Mike on April 7, 2013 at 4:36pm

Yea, didn't look like anyone else picked it up, so I'm assuming the bottle was from the bottom of the fermenter or something...

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