Cheshire Brew Crew

February 2017 Meeting

Storm Doris 1:0 Homebrewers!

Unfortunately the February meeting was a bit weather affected and after Storm Doris had finishing lashing the Northwest with 70mph winds only three hardy homebrewers ventured outside in the evening! Special thanks to Neil and Ed for braving the elements too!

As there is very little beer to talk about this month I’ll take the opportunity to update you all on the Recipe Roulette competition set last month. We have 18 confirmed recipe picks and thanks to the amazing generosity of Cellar Bar, Top Rope Brewing, Brewhouse & Kitchen, Grainfather, BrewUK and Malt Miller those homebrewers are competing for a prize pot which is pretty darn amazing! So, here we go!

1st place
Your beer commercially brewed by our friends at Top Rope Brewing!
A Brewhouse & Kitchen Beer Masterclass for four people
£20 Cellar Bar Voucher
A Grainfather Growler & Yeast selection

2nd place
£25 BrewUK Voucher
£10 Cellar Bar Voucher
A Brewhouse & Kitchen Growler & TShirt

3rd Place
£25 MaltMiller Voucher
£10 Cellar Bar Voucher
A Brewhouse & Kitchen Glass & Keyring

Now I think you’ll agree, that is something a bit special!

I hope you’re competition beers are all going to plan and we’ll see you all on Thursday 30th March at Cellar Bar, Chester!

Brew of the month – January 2017

Brew of the month!!!

The January Brew of the month voting was a very tight affair with such a good selection of high quality beers being showcased at the meeting. Just able to sneak ahead (by 1 vote) to clinch the top award this month was… Ed’s Black Double IPA! Congratulations!

Ed is a two time winner, and this Double IPA is another cracker! Weighing in at 7.9% the roasted Chocolate and malt undertones are well balanced out by a big American hop bill. Belgian Candi Sugar helps bump up the fermentable sugars and two packs of White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale yeast do the hard work before nearly another pack of hops goes in as a Dry Hop!

Ed’s recipe for the Black Double IPA is:

7kg Pale malt
0.3kg Crystal malt (60L)
0.3kg Carafa III malt
0.3kg Chocolate malt
0.45kg Dark Candi Sugar
50g Columbus Hops @ 60 mins
57g Citra Hops @ 15 mins
85g Citra Hops @ flame out
57g Pacific Jade Hops @ flame out
2 vials White Labs 007 yeast
71g Nelson Sauvin Hops @ 7day Dry Hop

The brew length for this was 25l and Ed reports an OG of 1.084 and a FG of 1.024. All in all this was another quality IPA from Ed following on from his Blood Orange IPA which won Octobers Brew of the Month! Well done Ed, and long may you continue to bring down award winning IPA’s for us to sample in the future!

Cheers!

January 2017 Meeting

Happy Anniversary us!

This time last year we were mourning the demise of the Brewdoo Homebrew club and Chester Brew Crew, and celebrating the creation of the Cheshire Brew Crew! A year! Doesn’t time fly when you are ~~drinking~~ having fun?

After the success of last years competition this January we decided to set it up again and Recipe Roulette II was born! The same rules and randomly picked ingredients as last time but this year, thanks to the interest of the Black Lodge Brew Club (@liv_homebrew ), we have increased the participants for 2017 to 20 entries!

Ben: Simcoe & Chilli
Neil: Hallertauer & Chamomile
Guy: Citra & Oak Chips
Charlie: Saaz & Salt
Chris W: Pioneer & Grains of Paradise
Nick W: Centennial & Peppercorns
Mark: Galena & Fruit
Dave: Amarillo & Star Anise
Ed: Goldings & Chocolate
Simon: First Gold & Coriander Seeds
Lol (Liv): Northern Brewer & Cinnamon
Ken (Liv): Fuggles & Cardamom
Andy (Liv): Galaxy & Orange Peel
Ron (Liv): Cascade & Tea
Pete (Liv): Chinook & Coffee
Damian (Liv): Ahtanum & Juniper Berries
Steve (Liv): Motueka & Heather Flowers
Andrew (Liv): Sorachi Ace & Vanilla

The competition will be judged at the March meeting on Thursday 30th March and the prize pot up for grabs currently includes donations from Malt Miller, BrewUK, Cellar Bar and a goodie bag from the guys at Grainfather!

January’s Beers

Once all the messing about with the competition entries was out of the way we could crack on with the main event! Beers! Another brilliant selection was brought in this month with Charlie yet again making a strong push for the unofficial ‘longest beer name’ award with his Imperial Salted Vanilla Smoked Milk Stout! We also welcomed Dave who was joining us for the first time this month and brought along a lovely citrusy IPA hopped with Olicana – not a hop I or many of the group had used before, and a Robust smoked Porter he had brewed on his Grainfather system. Both were very nice beers – he can come back next month!

Ben: Cwtch Kit, Brewers Gold 3
Guy: English IPA
Mark: Schwarzbier, Plum Porter
Charlie: Imperial Salted Vanilla Smoked Milk Stout, Sorachi Ace Barrel Aged Saison, Liquorice Coconut Stout
Ed: Black Double IPA
Dave: Olicana IPA, Robust Smoked Porter

It was an extremely close run thing voting for the Brew of the Month as the quality of this months selection was so high. Ed’s Black Double IPA just pipped everyone to the post (by 1 vote)! Congratulations to Ed on another quality offering!

And that was January done! We’re back at Cellar Bar on February 23rd to see how everybody is getting on with their competition brews! See you there!

Brew of the month – October 2016

November’s Brew of the Month award was so well received that I had a number of requests for October’s winner to get a write up too!

In October the meeting was held at the Brewhouse & Kitchen Bar and one of the many beers sampled that evening was a Blood Orange IPA brought along by newcomer Ed who had brewed the to offer at his own wedding. It came in a specially labelled bottle and was really something quite special!

Ed’s recipe for the Blood Orange IPA is:

14.75kg American 2-Row malt (85% of grain bill)
1.6kg Flaked Wheat (9% of grain bill)
1.2kg Crystal malt (20L) (6% of grain bill)
55g Columbus Hops @ 60 mins
25g Citra Hops @ 15 mins
25g Citra Hops @ 5 mins
86g Citra Hops @ flame out
2 vials Wyeast 1056 yeast
85g Citra Hops and 55g Galaxy Hops @ 7day Dry Hop
1.2l Blood Orange juice & Zest added to FV @ 7days

Ed’s recipe is scaled for a 56l brew length and these grain weights are approximate as he only supplied me with percentages and the OG to aim for! If you want to brew this recipe please make sure you plug these numbers into your own brewing software to ensure they stack up for your system!

Ed used a simple infusion mash at 66C for 60 minutes and ended up with an OG of 1.074. The FG for this beer was 1.018 giving an ABV of 7.4% but this is totally disguised by the late additions of all that Citra and the Blood Orange juice and this drinks like a session IPA! Danger! Danger!

Congratulations Ed for your Brew of the Month award and I know this is definitely a recipe that I’ll be trying out in the future! Cheers!

Brew of the month – November 2016

Brew of the Month!!!

Starting this month I thought it would be great to give some recognition to the brew which the consensus of the group considered the best beer sampled that session. Of course, me being me, I meant to do this a couple of months ago but instead left it until November, when the standard of beers brought along was phenomenal and the decision for Brew of the Month wasn’t as clear cut as it might have been previously!

Fortunately the split decision between Brew 1 and Brew 2 was made a lot simpler as both beers came from the same brewer, so it is nice and easy to say that the round of applause this month goes to…. Mark!

Mark brought along two Saisons to our November meeting. The first was a Rye Saison which was full of peppery spice and certainly ticked a lot of boxes for some of the group. The second was a Tropical Saison laden with New Zealand hops giving it a massive Citrusy fruity kick! Rye isn’t to everyone’s taste and as that beer split the group a little bit the award this month goes to the Tropical Saison!

Mark’s recipe for the Tropical Saison is:

4kg Dingemanns pils
0.3kg Dingemanns wheat
0.4kg Weyermann vienna
27g Rakau Hops @ 60 mins
40g Motueka Hops @ 10 mins
20g Rakau Hopsat @ 5 mins
30g Motueka Hops @ flame out.
1packet Mangrove Jacks French Saison M29 yeast
30g Motueka Hops and 30g Rakau Hops @ 8day Dry Hop

Mark brews on a Grainfather and this recipe was scaled for 20l final volume as he was planning for a quick brew day and this would fit nicely in a Corny keg and avoid any bottling! He makes good use of the Grainfathers high efficiency rates. OG was 1.050 and FG 1.003 making the ABV 6.2%

So there we go! The inaugural Brew of the Month award is, uh, awarded! I hope you enjoy brewing this recipe as much as we enjoyed sampling it! Congratulations Mark, we’re looking forward to seeing what you brew next!

November 2016 Meeting

Clearly there is no better way to spend a cold November evening than getting together with a bunch of like-minded people and sink a few good beers! That certainly seemed to be the case this month as we had 10 people down for the November meeting bringing with them an amazing selection of beers.

November’s Beers:

Ben (S): Russian Imperial Stout
Mark: Rye Saison, Tropical Saison
Guy: Toffee Apple Pale Ale
Simon: Fig/Date Stout, Belgian Punk
Ed: Simcoe & Citra Pale Ale
Charlie: Zadar Croatian Honey & Maraschino Imperial Stout, Smoked Raspberry, Quince & Chilli Ale
Top Rope Brewing: ‘Born to Lose’- New England Session IPA

Amongst all the beers above, Charlie pushed the boat out again with an amazing Zadar Croatian Honey & Maraschino Imperial Stout – where does he get these ideas from?? I brought along my 2015 Russian Imperial Stout that was now 18 months in the bottle (and significantly better behaved than the gushers we tried to sample last November!) and Mark supplied two Saisons – the first was a Rye Saison full of spicy peppery notes and the latter was a tropical New Zealand Saison crammed with fruity hoppy amazingness! It was a tough call to pick an overall beer of the night, but I think the Tropical Saison just about got the most plaudits in the end!

December’s meeting falls in the week between Christmas and New Year so the exact dates will be confirmed nearer to the time!

October 2016 Meeting

Like all good brewing magpies the lure of the shiny copper brewery we saw last month at Brewhouse & Kitchen meant that instead of holding our own normal evening, we postponed for a week and attended the B&K Homebrewers session instead.

The evening was hosted by Matt, the Head Brewer of the Chester site, who gave us a full run down of the setup there and their plans for the future before joining us for a good ol’ beer tasting session!

October’s Beers:

Ben (S): Smoked Chipotle Porter
Nick: Hoppy Leffe Accident, Jaipoor
Ed: Pale Ale, Blood Orange IPA, Black IPA
Charlie: Lime & Lychee Wheat, Hibiscus & Bee Pollen Wheat, Cherry Wheat

Welcome to newcomer Ed who brought along 3 beers which he had brewed for his wedding earlier in the year! All three were excellent beers and the general consensus was that the Blood Orange IPA was the beer of the night.

Back to normal for Novembers meet. Cellar Bar, 24th November, see you there!

September 2016 Meeting

Oooh! Shiny!

September’s session took a slightly unexpected turn as we were graciously invited to attend the new Brewhouse & Kitchen pub in Chester (http://www.brewhouseandkitchen.com/venue/chester-2/) on their soft opening night! In the place of the old Lloyd’s pub The Forest House now sits a brand spanking new pub complete with a very shiny microbrewery downstairs! We were lucky enough to spend an hour or so chatting with the Head Brewer from the Southbourne site about all things brewing and having a nosy around at the big boys toys all whilst drinking some of the beer that will be brewed on it in the future! Brilliant! 20160929_203832 20160929_203157

Once all the fun was over and the beer was drunk it was back to Cellar Bar for this months homebrew tasting!

September’s Beers:

Ben (S): Smoked Chipotle Porter
Top Rope Brewing (Ben J and Neil): Rye IPA
Guy: Green-hopped Pale Ale, Cascade Pale Ale
Charlie: Limoncello Wheat Beer, British Summer Fruit Ale
Andy: Coopers Cerveza Kit

… and that was September sorted! We didn’t get chance to discuss a winter competition so hopefully we’ll pick that up next month. In a change to the normal schedule though, we’ll be holding our October Meeting on November 3rd at Brewhouse & Kitchen to coincide with their first homebrewers evening. It’s a 7pm start too so don’t be late!

August 2016 Meeting

Obviously the July meeting turned out to be so cataclysmically brilliant that I forgot to write it up on the website! Ho-hum…

… but anyway! Onwards to August!

August was a very quiet affair with just myself, Charlie, and the Top Rope Brewing guys Neil and Ben who were enjoying their final visit as ‘just’ homebrewers! The small crowd didn’t detract from the occasion though and another brilliantly varied selection of beers were available.

August’s Beers:

Ben (S): Jasmine’s IPA, Black Jai-P-A, Steam Beer
Top Rope Brewing (Ben J and Neil): Aw Here It Goze, Overkill IPA, Ryecentenial Brown Ale and AB Pale
Neil: Summer Pale, Brown Ale
Charlie: Cranberry Wheat, Kait’s Toalla Hippy Travels Stout

… Charlie even brought in a dried Cocoa pod and some Indonesian Long Peppers (Google them!) to demonstrate some of the ingredients in his 2nd beer!

August done! We’re back at Cellar Bar on September 29th for another session and to discuss our Winter competition plans. See you there!

June 2016 Meeting

Back to reality!

After the excitement of travelling to Liverpool last month June was back to a good ol’ straight forward homebrew tasting session. Joining us this month were Barry (from http://www.homebrewboat.co.uk), who just happened to be moored on the canal around the corner from the Cellar Bar, Barry (from the boat next door) and Barry’s dog Rico, and also Joshua from Chester’s Homebrew Shop (http://www.chesterbrewing.co.uk).

Proceedings started with the presentation of Charlie’s prize for winning the Liverpool Brewdog competition last month. A bottle of Stone’s Brett aged IPA. Very nice indeed!

Instagram_20151230_3462 — Congratulations Charlie!

The Beer List

Another brilliant selection of beers this month which was headed up by Ben and Neil from Liverpool homebrew club showcasing some of the beer line up for their shiny new commercial brewery, Top Rope Brewing! Good luck guys (but based on the quality of these offerings you won’t need much luck to become successful pro-brewers!)

June’s Beers:

Ben (S): Hefeweizen and Pilsner
Top Rope Brewing (Ben J and Neil): Orange Soda Goze, Overkill IPA and the 4 Horsemen of the Choc-opalypse.
Neil: 5AM Saint Clone
Charlie: Cherry Kriek, Basil & Chestnut Wheat
Guy: Pale Ale (Fuggles & Bramling X) and English IPA
Mark: Chocolate & Coffee Milk Stout

… and that was June done and dusted. Thanks to our guests for joining in the fun and hopefully we’ll sort something special out for a future meeting.

We’re back at Cellar Bar on July 28th for another ‘mostly normal’ tasting session. See you there!