Your mission, should you choose to accept, is to brew a clone of a commercially available beer.
Calling All Adventurers!
We are embarking on a new type of competition… Pimp My Kit! This competition is for club members only, but anyone is invited to participate as a judge. Muntons has generously sponsored our group with a stash of Muntons Gold Continental Pilsner Beer kits. The goal is to make the kit into something of your own. If you were not able to get a kit from the supplied stock, have no fear. They are fairly easy to purchase from most homebrew shops online (e.g. the Malt Miller and Home Brew Shop.co.uk).
The Rules:
The Goal:
To take an ordinary beer kit and make an extraordinary beer!
You may enhance, adjunct, or supplement the kit however you wish, as long as it is safe for consumption. No need to follow the kit instructions (you probably wouldn’t have anyway).
Warning! One kit will be made as per instructions and that beer will be tasted alongside each of the entries to discern if an improvement was achieved.
Please reach out if you have any questions. All questions will be posted here so everyone is aware of the Q&As.
Q: Can we change out the yeast? A: No, the provided yeast must be used in some way.
Q: Can we microwave the supplied yeast and use it as nutrient for an additional yeast? A: Yes, this is acceptable under the rules.
I am sad to say that there were no pumpkin beers this month. I will definitely try for next year!
Attendees: Dena, James, Alex, Jon, Ed, Jamie and Mark (Oyster Boys Brewing), and Theo.
All around, a fantastic evening!
Last night we had a chance to say farewell to Joe and Jean. We are excited to hear how their new adventures turn out as they promised to keep in touch. It was also great to hear how people were getting on with their competition brew for next month.
I am sad to say, I forgot to specifically ask for the favorite of the night. However, if I remember the responses correctly, it was Steve T.’s Extra ESB at 6.3%. An amazing, malt forward bitter with notes of caramel.
May’s beer:
This month we had a great turnout and many goodies to try. With eleven participants, it is getting a little more difficult to spread a single bottle around. However, there were so many different styles and even a cider, it made for a fabulous evening.
April’s beverages:
We are gearing up for the June recipe roulette competition. I believe all members that are interested in participating have drawn a flavour. Drawings are as follows:
We are still in need of judges and prizes for the competitions. If you have the connections for us, please give us a shout on Facebook.
Small steps in gearing back up
With many people on holiday and the major heat wave effecting public transport, only four of us were able to make it in to enjoy some of the blissful air con upstairs of That Beer Place.
New member, Steve, joined us for the first time bringing our favorite beer of the evening, a Mosaic and Cascade IPA.
July beer and other beverages:
We are looking forward to next month for the Anti-Imperial Stout competition. Charlie has issued the challenge to use a recipe provided by https://drinkersforukraine.com/ to get us all back into the swing of brewing. We hope to see you there on August 15th!
Oof!!! What an evening…
The decision to write this blog post so early the morning after may turn out to be a mistake!
February’s meet was a busy one; 9 people, 19 beers, 1 great evening and 1 even greater hangover!
February’s Beers
The quality of beers on offer this month was truly exceptional! Nicki’s Double Grapefruit IPA, Chris’s Chilli Stout, Charlie’s Three Bean Stout, Guy’s Braggot, and Ed’s selection of Stout’s are all worthy of mention and each of them could have won Brew of the Month on any other occasion!
The victor though, with 4 votes, was Charlie’s Three Bean Stout. Cacao, Tonka Bean and Coffee, all blended into a barrel aged, 12% Stout. Absolutely fantastic. Well done Charlie!
Keep your eyes peeled for the recipe coming soon!
Goddam it’s cold outside…
Even the arctic weather couldn’t deter six hardy souls from coming to our second January Meeting though it has to be said there was a pretty limited representation of our homebrewing talents with only 3 beers on offer! That being said, the quality of the brews was fantastic as always and a good night was had by all!
January’s Beers
Due to the limited offering this month we didn’t vote for a Brew of the Month!
After taking a break last year, 2019 sees the return of our Recipe Roulette competition! For this year we have been donated some hops by the generous folks at Top Rope Brewing added to which is a randomly picked ingredient from a very varied selection! The draw is as follows:
There are some spare picks so if I have missed anyone from the list please give me a shout and I will add you on!
The competition will be judged at the April meeting on Thursday 25th April and the prize pot up for grabs currently includes donations from Top Rope Brewing, Grainfather, Cloudwater and Cellar Bar with more still to be confirmed!
Happy brewing and Good Luck!!!
Brew of the month!!!
The first meet of 2019 showcased a wide variety of beers but the standout favourite amongst all the drinkers was Charlie’s Raspbery Ripple Pale Ale! Congratulations Charlie!
Charlie’s recipe for the Raspberry Ripple is:
Charlie brewed this to just 2 litres volume using a standard 60 minute infusion mash and reports as OG of 1.052 and a final ABV of around 5%. The fruit was freshly picked from his garden, frozen and thawed to break down the cell walls in the fruit, and then added to the fermenter along with the vanilla and custard powder after 1 week of fermentation had passed.
While it’s tricky to see in this photo the Raspberries have given the beer an amazing red colour and the additions of vanilla and custard powder have taken away a lot of the tartness you would expect leaving a very drinkable summer pale!
Perfect for early January then!
Off to a freezing cold start in 2019 with our belated Christmas Meet, kindly hosted this week by Beer Heroes Chester! From those that braved the cold we had quite a varied selection of beers being showcased this month.
January’s Beers (Part 1)
Charlie: Birch Sap Pale, Mulberry Pale, Raspberry Ripple Pale
Ben: Jaipur Clone, Simcoe & Chilli DIPA, Epic Pale Ale
Ivor: Northdown IPA v1, Northdown IPA v2, Strawberry Northdown IPA, Barley Wine
Ivor brought a selection of beers made on his new brew kit. Three variations of a Northdown, Challenger & Fuggles IPA and also a new Barley Wine.
I delved deep into the bottle stores and brought along a selection of old beers brewed in 2017/2018. Some had lasted better than others and it was clear that glass bottles were far better for long term storage than plastic. The two beers stored plastic bottles had not aged successfully to say the least!
Charlie brought along three variations of his green hopped Pale Ale. The first flavoured with Birch sap, the second with Mulberries and the third he named as a Raspberry Ripple Pale. Loaded with nearly 1.5kg of fruit per litre and sweetened with custard powder this was a real crowd pleaser and rightly the winner for the first ‘Brew of the Month’ award of 2019!
Cheshire Brew Crew 