May 2016 Meet Writeup

May 2016 Meet Writeup

This month we were at @CafeBeermoth and we had a couple of new members join us. I must say its been positive to see so many new members over the past few months. After sampling our homebrew we again cracked open some of the finest bottles @CafeBeermoth have to offer. Its becoming a nice habit of ours.

As always if anything is missed we can only apologies as beer was consumed whilst writing notes.

Welcome Julian and Keith

On Sunday we welcomed Julian and Keith. Seems like both of them had heard of us and been intending to come down for sometime but hadn't of yet been able to make it.

Julian (@jarvisjulian13) brought his homebrew in some rather impressive bottle (obtained from the US) and the beer inside was no less impressive. Top quality beers we wouldn't mind paying for:

  • 5.2% IPA brewed with Magnum, Mosaic, Citra hops and a 100% maris otter malt base. Only 3 weeks since the brew and it tasted great. I really do love the Mosaic hops.
  • 7.2% IPA brewed with Magnum, Nelson and Citra hops, 100% maris otter malt base and lemon zest from x3 lemons (20 litre batch). Wow this did not taste like a 7.2 % beer. A well balanced beer with the lemon addition being a topic of discussion for sometime as it worked really well.

Keith (@jamesksowerby) is a man you will like if you are into your sours or anything a bit different. He brought a wide collection of his beers and even though he is modest about his setup he is obviously producing some quality beer.

  • 5 % Bretted Stout with tamarind and dates. Lovely sherbet and parma-violet notes without being over empowering.
  • 'Free N Funcky' - Spiced Gose matured for 15 months and kettle soured yakult. As with the last beer the spices could only just be tasted so not to over empower the beer.
  • 'Hop Skip N Punk' - I must admit I cant read my notes for this one... sorry. I think it was a hopped sour pale with Steve mentioning it in comparison to the Chorlton amarillo sour but I could be wrong.
  • 6.3% Whimberry Beer, kettle soured and bretted. The berries were cooker slightly and smashed before adding to the fermentor 1-2 weeks after fermentation. A wonderfully different beer and I can honestly say I haven't tasted a beer like it.

Upcoming Events

We again discussed some of our upcoming events and ideas for future events. By doing this we hope that you can enjoy what we have to offer as a group and attend some of the events we organise.

June 19th - Manchester Homebrew Expo & Competition

Next month we will be replacing our typical homebrew meetup with the Manchester Homebrew Expo & Commercially Viable Brewing Competition. To find out more check out the full details in our earlier blog article:

http://manchesterhomebrew.co.uk/19th-june-manchester-homebrew-expo/

More importantly don't forget to brew for the competition and get involved. If you have any questions please do get in touch mancshomebrew@gmail.com.

July Meetup - BJCP IPA homebrew competition

The main theme of our meetup in July will be our BJCP IPA competition organised by Rich. The challenge is to brew an IPA which fits nicely into the BJCP IPA (US and speciality) 21 category. Rich will guide us through just how the national homebrew judges go about judging or beers. The beers will be judged by us using the BJCP guidelines. The idea behind this challenge is for us to learn what judges look for when judging our beers. Knowing this may help you brew your beers to the category you want or place you mishaps in a category the beer is best suited for.

Full guidelines on BJCP category can be found on page 37 in this rather large PDF 2015 Guidelines Beer.

Rich is putting together a website for the competition. Once done we will share out a blog with more details. But in the meantime please do read the IPA category guidelines and most importantly get brewing you IPA's (like we would have to ask you twice)!

13th August Huddersfield Excursion

August if a funny month with many people away or busy. So instead of having a meetup we plan on having an excursion out to Hudderfield to experience the beer scene there. More than likely we will meetup in Manchester and commute over on the train. It will be on the 13th Aug the week before Brewcamp.

19th - 21st August Brewcamp

Brewcamp is a weekend long home brew meeting, somewhere in a field in the Peak District. Its likely to be in near Bakewell just like last year. Its a good way to meetup homebrewers from further a field, the bar tent is stocked by ourselves, the local countryside is nice and its even family friendly.

Oct/Nov The Great Northwest Homebrew Competition

We still plan on ensuring The Great Northwest Homebrew Competition repeats this year. Looking at the schedule of events over the year Oct/Nov is looking like the best month to run the competition. We are looking a host who we could collaborate with and have some ideas already. As plans start to come together we will share more.

Top Tip Of The Month

Ensure beers are fully fermented out before bottling with brett to avoid gushers as it will continue to eat everything!

Other Beers In Attendance

  • @BeerNouveau(https://twitter.com/BeerNouveau) - 3.9% Halle Lager using Hallertauer Mittelfrüh and Saaz hops. Made as an easy to drink standard lager.
  • Craig (@craigcsruk) - 3.8% Infected Pale Ale. The ale was unintentionally infected and was brought along so the group could help with descriptive words for the infection. Although not massively unpleasant (it is drinkable) the beer was described as having a plastic, apple and phenolic taste.
  • Michael - Oatmeal Pale brewed with Citra and Galaxy hops. A good beer with mouthfeel and some grass notes from the hops.
  • Stuart - 4.0% Mild Vanilla - A Stone Lee's Mild clone recipe. Vanilla added into the secondary fermentor. This beer smelt great and lead a discussion about how breweries make their beers achieve an ice cream sundea aroma.
  • Rich (@rcaller) - 5.8% American Amber brewed with galaxy and citra hops. Malts combination of golden promise, special b and various levels of crystal.
  • Aaron - 6% Nelson SMASH. A good beer with a sweet and hefty body. Hops didn't fully balance out the malt sweetness. The amount of dry hopping we felt should have balanced out the beer but we think they may have sat on top of the beer instead. As a result we had a discussion about different ways to get dry hops in the beer.
  • Stuart - 8% Honey Braggot Brown made with 50% mead and 50% malts. An amazingly sweet beer and deadly drinkable at 8%.

See you at the Manchester Homebrew Expo & Competition on the 19th June