Author: Dena

The April meet was a quieter affair following the excitement of March’s competition and through some spectacular planning on my part I went on holiday and left the guys to it!

April’s Beers
Ben J- American Honey Porter (5%) and Hoppy Brown Saison (7%).
Neil R – Rye Centennial Brown (7%)
Guy- Honey Porter and Milk Stout.
Charlie – Barrel aged Sorachi Ace Saison (no ginger) 5.4%.

Normal service to be resumed next month. Well… I say normal… we’re actually off to Brewdog Liverpool to take part in their homebrew competition!

February’s meeting had the potential to be a quiet one after setting the Recipe Roulette competition last month and arranging for it to be judged next month. Fortunately though we had Mark from iMake come down to give a quick demo of a very shiny Grainfather system. The general consensus amongst the brewers was that it looked like a very well made piece of kit and had as small enough footprint to enable All Grain brewing in even the smallest of flats/sheds/cupboards! At around £650 it was also decent value as parts of the kit (particularly the counter-flow chiller) were very good quality to be included at that price!

Mark, being the fine gentleman that he is, also brought in a great selection of Mangrove Jacks yeasts to add to the competition prizes for next month… and if that wasn’t enough he also came with a couple of bottles of his own homebrewed Mild and Porter for us to taste (and very good they were too!). What a guy!

We also had a guest appearance from Ben Jackson who co-runs the Liverpool Homebrewers Club. Ben brought along his White IPA, an American IPA and also a Milk Coffee Stout. Ben is a Barista by trade so had really gone to town on the coffee he used in the Stout and it certainly made all the difference. A cracking beer and would have got my vote for “Beer of the Night” although this time around we actually forgot to vote for it!

The Beer List
It was another varied selection of beers this month. Charlie went to town and brought 4 different fruit beers. Even through three came from the same base beer each was very different from the others. My Black IPA was a little young but just about ready, Pete’s Hefeweisen was a very nice example and Guy brought along a Pilsner brewed from a kit with a couple of modifications – he wasn’t totally happy with how it had turned out but wanted the groups ‘expert‘ (cough!) opinions as to what may have gone wrong! Lots of advice was given and hopefully we helped him in the right direction. We’re looking forward to more testing in a couple of months!

February’s Beers:

• Ben (S): Black IPA
• Ben (J): White IPA, American IPA and Milk Coffee Stout
• Pete: Hefeweisen
• Guy: Pilsner
• Charlie: Apple & Grape Wit, Apricot, Passionfruit & Physalis Wit, Raspberry Wit and a Raspbery Lambic
• Mark: Mild and a Porter

… and so that was February out of the way, much busier than expected! We will be back on March 31st for the judging of the Recipe Roulette competition, prize giving and of course… more great Beer! See you then!

And so it begins. Again.

January 28th 2016 saw the final meeting of the Brewdoo Homebrew Club and Chester Brew Crew (boooo!), but fortunately, otherwise this would have been a very short blog, it also signified the first meeting of something even more awesome…
Cheshire Brew Crew was born! (huzzah!)

Somewhat strangely for the members of both groups a healthy dollop of ‘organisation’ was injected into this meeting. Contact details were collected to allow for easier communication in the future, the new club name was agreed, the inaugural Spring Competition was set and we even still had time left over to sample ten of the best homebrewed beers being drunk in Cheshire that evening! 10! Brilliant!

Spring 2016 Competition
The first Cheshire Brew Crew Spring Competition was named ‘Recipe Roulette’. Each member picked at random a Hop and an Additive. The Hops were fairly straight forwards but the additives came from a very varied selecting which included Coffee, Chilli, Basil, Tea, Star Anise amongst others! It will be down to the participants as to whether they brew a full All Grain batch of their beer, or brew from a kit. They can pick whatever style of beer they wish, with just one specification:

The finished beer must taste of BOTH your ingredients

Luckily for most of the entrants (and our guest judges) there were no truly shocking sounding combinations pulled out the hat, though there are a couple that may prove a little challenging!

• Ben: Amarillo & Orange Peel
• Neil: Chinook & Tea
• Bill: Citra & Star Anise
• Charlie: Sorachi Ace & Ginger
• Chris W: Cascade & Chocolate
• Pete: Galena & Coffee
• Chris B: Galaxy & Oak Chips
• Lloyd: Fuggles & Liquorice
• Greg: Northern Brewer & Vanilla

The competition will be judged at the March meeting on 31st March and there are a selection of prizes up for grabs kindly donated by the folks at Malt Miller, BrewUK and iMake (who make the Grainfather)(it’s not a Grainfather – sorry!)

The Beer List
Of course the main focus of the night was Beer! A varied selection of samples was provided for tasting and without exception they were all great examples of what can be produced from the comfort of your own home!

January’s Beers:

• Ben: Brewers Gold SMASH and Jasmine IPA
• Bill: Honey IPA
• Pete: Cascade Pale Ale
• Charlie: US-Hefeweisen and a Cherry Smoked Imperial stout
• Chris W: American Pale Ale (Columbus, Cascade, Chinook)
• Lloyd: American Pale Ale (Amarillo, Columbus, Falconers Flight) and a Stout

Pete also brought along a bottle of Brimstage Breweries 1000th Brew Special Edition for us to try. There is no doubt in my mind that the Cherry Smoked Imperial Stout from Charlie was the “Beer of the Night”. It was an absolutely amazing combination of ingredients and definitely something that I have been inspired to attempt in the future. Well done that man!