Westgota Nidbryggeri – Dynamitardens Kardemummaporter

Our own brewery’s second beer was a little of an experiment and although it didn’t turn out as good as Bonnatwist Bitter it is still an interesting brew.

Westgota Nidbryggeri Dynamitardens Kardemummaporter
Sweden
ABV: 9.7%
Rating: 3
Scents like vanilla bread with cardamom. The cardamom is even strong in taste but is accompanied by liquorice and some sweetness. Oily, almost fat towards the end but the cardamom taste gets milder and more pleasant. Too few nuances to be a great imperial porter but a very drinkable attempt.

Beer 100909-100924

Mikkeller It’s Alive
Denmark
ABV: 8%
Rating: 3

Apple and yeast-notes. Unfortunately a little weak in taste but very good balance.

 

 

 

 

 

Cropton Imperial Stout
England
ABV: 7.2%
Rating: 3

Not bad at all for being English. Nice burned notes but a little watery.

 

 

 

 

 

La Trappe Tripel (20100917)
Belgium
ABV: 8%
Rating: 4

Fresh citrus and fruit aroma. Pleasant thick “Belgian” mouthfeel. Spicey and warm taste. Good with food although a little too much alcohol shines trough. Subtle notes of jam. A great beer.

 

 

Sigtuna Brygghus Mohawk Stitch
Sweden
ABV: 5.3%
Rating: 3

Coffee and a little acidic. A little watery but with good bitterness. Burned and smoky notes after a while. Perfectly fine.

 

 

 

 

De Ranke XX Bitter
Belgium
ABV: 6.2%
Rating: 3

A typical Belgian scent and aroma but taste shows much more hops than the style use to. Some citrus and flower notes. Pleasant but not complex enough to get a rating of 4.

Swedish Nationals – Tournament Report

So, I played my wacky deck and had three fun games. I’m not sure if my initial prey or predator had a fun game in any of them but no one yelled at me or hit me so I pretend everyone was happy.

Round 1
Kasper Kristensen (Ventrue Breed/Boon) –> Tomas Wallmur (Helena Advanced) –> Henrik Klippström (Euro Brujah) –> Me –> Ville Kaijasaari (Guruhi Master heavy)
Henrik was the first person to give me the idea of using Pressing  Flesh together with Escaped Mental Patients back at our ECQ this year and it was extra fun to give him a taste of it. I didn’t draw any Inceptor early (I played almost 40 cards before seeing the first one) but the Agent of Powers and Abebe was enough to give the deck a good start. Soon I had graverobbed both Donal O’Connor and Nana Buruku and while my prey got low on pool the table, as expected, started to conspire against me. Kasper decided to lunge into me with three Kine Resources Contested when I was at twelve pool so I made a desperate deal with him granting him two Victory Points before I would do any damage to him so he changed his mind. This was a huge mistake and I could have dealt with the situation in two other different ways:
1. Giving him a similar deal but clearly make sure that I would still rush his minions, vote against his referendums and bleed heavily into him during the process.
2. Instead threatening him to spend my last game round (Maybe I would have survived one more turn and I could always bluff having a wake or similar) attacking him instead of ousting my prey if he voted damage my way.
Instead I went too easy on him. I ousted my prey and Tomas ousted Henrik. Tomas and argued that I should deal break but I wasn’t in the mood to do so. I play a fun deck and I have never broke a deal before so this wasn’t going to be the first time. Probably silly of me because breaking that deal would have gave me the game win for sure. Kasper was to strong in the duel since he had saved up lots of Majestys on hand, me having exhausted my library and him having minion superiority. I also made some silly mistakes but nothing that changed fact.
Kasper GW 3VP
Tomas 1VP
Me 1VP

Round 2
Magnus Löf (Lutz & Friends) –> Michael Holmström (!Ventrue sticks) –> Johan Mononen (!Salubri rush & blood deny) –> Alex Ek (Kiasyd s/b) –> Me
This round started a little like the first. I had a quick start  graverobbing Lutz and diablerizing Pherydima. Problem was Alex influenced out small caps and created Nocturns so he did some serious pool damage to me so I had to play Golconda on Lutz. It looked pretty bad anyhow but Johan did his best attacking Alex, not leaving much in defence. I ousted Magnus and Johan was gone soon thereafter (or was it the other way around?). Alex drew very bad and couldn’t oust me and my last four or so pool even if I was almost tapped out. Michael killed him too and again I was in a duel where I was the weaker part.
Michael GW 4VP
Me 1 VP

Round 3
Me –> Helena Löf (Presence Weenie) –> Isak Bjärmark Esbjörnsson (Kiasyd s/b) –> Jonas Nyrén (Shambling Hordes)
I had to focus all my energy towards Helena at the start or she would have got Isak really quick. I also had to be careful with my ash heap since Jonas had Giovanni del Georgio in play and could have used his special to remove Escaped Mental Patients, making me unable to play Pressing Flesh. This wasn’t any real problem sine four of my Pressing Flesh was amongst the five last cards in the library. I had to recruit the patients the hard way and that slowed me down. I had plenty of Fake Out on hand and didn’t see any maneuvers played by Jonas so before ousting Helena I rushed and graverobbed The Arcadian but were forced to play Golconda on him to survive. I think I rushed Isak one round too late because once again I was in a duel and this time I didn’t draw any Pressing Flesh.
Isak GW 3VP
Me 1VP

The deck did quite well but it was too new to me to really shine. I will continue working on it to make it even more focused and able to really kill the whole table. It’s interesting to see that my Grandprey won all my three games, and that they all were pretty similar. My initial prey or predator (maybe with the exception of Alex in round 2) were quickly neutralized. I think I need to start spreading my attacks earlier on but the deck takes some more testing before really knowing how to play it at its best. It is a really effective concept and even if it looks like there are many moving parts it's not that hard to get the ball rolling.
First of all I think I have to increase the library to around 70 cards. I am going to remove Information Highway since I just discarded them if I didn’t draw one early. Pentex is also not needed. The times that I needed to play it were when it already looked way too bad for me. I definitely need a second Golconda and some more Sibyl’s Tongue. The rest of the library Increase will probably just be more of the already featured cards. You haven't seen the last of this, that’s for sure.

Expectation Analysis – Part 6 – Swedish Nationals

I have to face fact – I have been trying too hard lately. I don’t win games anymore, not in tournaments, not even in casual play. I rarely even take victory points nowadays. So what to do at the nationals? Sure, I could play one of my “stable” decks, getting frustrated for hour after hour and getting 0gw2vp and a major headache. No thanks, not this time.
Time fur a fun deck, time to create chaos and have a good time. Don’t get me wrong, I am not playing a deck with that as the only purpose, of course I have been thinking about ousting and how to win a table. Players will get frustrated and maybe even pissed off encountering this but that has to be their problem. I am going to have fun, play my game, surprise some people and maybe even reach some success.
Here is the deck:

Deck Name : Zombie Asylum
Author : Stefan Karlsson

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 4 average: 2.33333
2x Abebe 4 nec obf thn Samedi:4
1x Roger Farnsworth 4 OBF aus !Malkavian:3
1x Jackie 3 DEM !Malkavian:4
1x Marta 3 aus dem !Malkavian:4
1x Midget 3 DEM obf pre !Malkavian:3
1x Bloodfeud 2 obf !Malkavian:4
1x Anarch Convert 1 Caitiff:0
1x Basir 1 qui Assamite:4
1x Cesar Holfield 1 obf Caitiff:4
1x Lisa Noble 1 ani Caitiff:3
1x Sandra White 1 Caitiff:3

Library [60 cards] 

Action [18]
  1x Aranthebes, The Immortal
  7x Graverobbing
  9x Pressing Flesh 
  1x Sibyl's Tongue 

Action Modifier [9]
  7x Domain of Evernight
  2x Veil the Legions

Ally [8]
  7x Escaped Mental Patient
  1x Gregory Winter

Combat [6]  
  6x Fake Out

Event [1]  
  1x Uncoiling, The

Master [18]
  6x Agent of Power
  2x Dreams of the Sphinx
  1x Golconda: Inner Peace
  5x Inceptor
  3x Information Highway
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion

I have been fooling around with a similar but much slower concept for a while using Josette and Marge Khan but when I thought of Inceptor this turned from only goofy to goofy and doable. The idea is to bring out one or several Escaped Mental Patient(s), rush and torporise with them and redo it with Pressing Flesh over and over again. Graverob when doable and swarm bleed the table to death.
The setup is ideally very quick. Influence a !Malkavian out in round 1, recruit an Escaped Mental Patient in round 2 and start the action in round 3. The idea is to have a 1-cap with Inceptor by then and the three cards on Inceptor is Pressing Flesh, Domain of Evernight and Graverobbing. From then it should just be torporising everything and bleed with all spare actions.
Lets look at the different parts of the deck:

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 4 average: 2.33333
2x Abebe                4  nec obf thn   Samedi:4
1x Roger Farnsworth     4  OBF aus       !Malkavian:3
1x Jackie               3  DEM           !Malkavian:4
1x Marta                3  aus dem       !Malkavian:4
1x Midget               3  DEM obf pre   !Malkavian:3
1x Bloodfeud            2  obf           !Malkavian:4
1x Anarch Convert       1                Caitiff:0
1x Basir                1  qui           Assamite:4
1x Cesar Holfield       1  obf           Caitiff:4
1x Lisa Noble           1  ani           Caitiff:3
1x Sandra White         1                Caitiff:3

5 !Malkavian and 5 1-caps. Two copies of Abebe to get another vampire that can play Pressing Flesh

Action [18]
  1x Aranthebes, The Immortal
  7x Graverobbing
  9x Pressing Flesh
  1x Sibyl's Tongue

Aranthebes is for contesting. I think you get the idea behind Graverobbing and Pressing Flesh. Sibyl’s Tongue is that last card I included since it would have been a 59 card deck without it. There should be spare actions for !Malkavians after some rounds so its just there to fetch a card I need. I don’t think I’ll have blood enough to include more copies of it.

Action Modifier [9]
  7x Domain of Evernight
  2x Veil the Legions

Domain of Evernight is the free untap for the Inceptor making him able to play both Pressing Flesh and Graverobbing in the same turn. It also doubles as stealth at outferior Obfuscate. Veil the Legions can be a game winner under the right circumstances and can give the Patients that crucial Stealth Rush.

Ally [8]
  7x Escaped Mental Patient
  1x Gregory Winter

Not everyone can be Graverobbed so Gregory Winter is there for some good old fashioned burning.

Combat [6]
  6x Fake Out

Combat offence against manoeuvring decks and combat defence for my vampires.

Event [1]
  1x Uncoiling, The

Scourge of the Enochians is the obvious target but cards like Anthelios also needs to go away.

Master [18]
  6x Agent of Power
  2x Dreams of the Sphinx
  1x Golconda: Inner Peace
  5x Inceptor
  3x Information Highway
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion

Agent of Power is very good here. An extra Graverobbing, Pressing Flesh or Stealth? Just pick your discipline. I think the rest speaks for itself.
Of course this deck has weaknesses. Heavy prevent, combat ends or other combat avoidance will slow it down and probably kill it quick. Dedicated long range combat will also be hard to deal with as probably some other archetypes as well. As this is our national championships I hopefully will see lots of mid to high cap deck vote and bleed decks with little or none combat defence and if I do I should be able to do well if I stay alert and don’t make any mistakes.
I just got to know that V:tes is dead and this deck can be seen as a tribute. I will press Jyhad flesh for quite some time more, count on that.

Aleganten från Vidderna - Brewing

I promised a little more detailed report on this brew and hopefully you will understand what we are doing in the different steps of the process. This time we brewed some sort of IPA, a hop heavy ale, using two different hops from New Zeeland and genuine Westgotisk Nidhumle donated by my father from my parent’s garden.

1. Steeping Malt
 The first step is steeping some caramel malt. This is done by gently crushing the grains and making something similar to tea from it. The process goes on with 16l of water for about half an hour at 65-75°C. This gives our ale a darker colour and a base taste and sugar for the yeast to feed from.

2. Boiling
The mash is removed from the brew and heat is increased to reach a boil. When boiling starts it will go on for one hour. At the start of the boil we added some kilograms of Extra Light Malt Extract (dried processed grains) as the main sugar source and main malt characteriser. We also add the first batch of hops, called bittering hops – in this case Pacific Gem from New Zeeland. Bittering hops boils with the brew all the way to give the brew its main bitterness and the after-taste will be very dependent on these hops. Pacific Gem has a heavy bitterness and should do the job well.

 
After 30 minutes of boiling its time to add the second batch of hops. Extra exciting since we used our own brand Westgotisk Nidhumle for the very first time. The second batch is the taste-hops that will mostly effect the mouth feel of the brew.

After 45 minutes we added our cooling device to the brew to sterilize it. After 50 minutes we added Granulate, a decoct with the same active ingredient as Irish Moss that will eat protein making the brew clearer. We also added Muscavado sugar to hopefully give the brew some nice anise notes. After 55 minutes we added the last batch of hops, called aroma hops. We choose Riwaka from New Zeeland for this and I’m very curious about the result since it promises interesting notes of citrus and passion fruit. Aroma hops are mostly for scent and first impression but I feel it is important for the beer’s overall impression, especially for hop heavy beers like IPAs.

3. Cooling
The cooling device we use is a home bent spiral formed copper pipe that with a constant flow of cold water does the work really fast. Beer takes bad taste when being below 100° and above room temperature so it is important to get it down as quick as possible. As you can see we had to manually attach the tube to the water supply this time but we will work it out till the next brew.

4. Fermenting
Time to filter the brew into a fermentation bucket and add the yeast. We used liquid ale yeast this time. First we filtered the brew over to the bucket and then added fresh water to a total amount of 25l. Then we measured the gravity of the brew to be able to calculate its ABV when it is done fermenting. The difference in gravity shows how much of the sugar in the brew that has been transformed into alcohol by the yeast. Lastly we added yeast and shook the bucket around some to mix it out evenly. In about a week from now it is time to pour the brew over to a second bucket for secondary fermentation and maybe then we add some seasoning but we haven't quite decided yet.

Beer 100904

After Brewing Aleganten från Vidderna some of the brewers at Westgota Nidbryggeri decided to go out, mix with common people and drink some commercial beer.

Avery The Maharaja Indian Imperial Pale Ale
USA
ABV: 10.2%
Rating: 2

Very heavy alcohol taste. Nice scent but the bitterness is destroyed by the alcohol. Not good at all.

 

 

 

 

Brooklyn East India Pale Ale
USA
ABV: 6.8%
Rating: 3

A little lame but still balanced and drinkable IPA.

 

 

 

 

 

Left Hand 400 Pound Monkey
USA
ABV: 7%
Rating: 3

Also a lame one. Notes of canned corn but still pretty okay.

 

 

 

 

 

Dieu du Ciel Corne du Diable
Canada
ABV: 6.5%
Rating: 4

Very Belgian in style even though it is an IPA. Well hopped and nice liquorice notes. Great balance between hops, sweetness and malt.

 

 

 

 

St. Bernadus Abt 12
Belgium
ABV: 10.5%
Rating: 4

Nice taste of fresh bread, pleasant malty taste. One of the best Belgian strong dark ales probably only beaten by Westvleteren 12 and Abbaye des Rocs Brune.