Liffey Brewers homebrew meeting - 28th September @ Thomas House. All Welcome

[eanna]

Liffey Brewers next tasting evening is on the 28th of September in the Thomas House, Thomas Street. All welcome with or without homebrew for feedback and discussion. Kick off is at 7:30.

After the very successful BJCP tasting and feedback session last month we'll do it again for two of the beers brought along. If you would like your beer assessed just say, it's a great chance for feedback to improve your brewing.

If you're attending put your name below so we can estimate the number of BJCP sheets to print.

1. Eanna - Wild Strawberry cider

[Saruman (Reuben Gray)]

I'm back in Dublin full time 

1. Eanna - Wild Strawberry cider
2. Saruman - Might have a pseudo lager type thing....

[diarmuid]

1. Eanna - Wild Strawberry cider
2. Saruman - Might have a pseudo lager type thing....
3. Diarmuid - Coffee Stout

[delzep]

1. Eanna - Wild Strawberry cider
2. Saruman - Might have a pseudo lager type thing....
3. Diarmuid - Coffee Stout
4. delzep - brown porter & IPA

[Blueshed]

can't make it myself but will try and drop a bottle or two with some one to bring.

[imark]

1. Eanna - Wild Strawberry cider
2. Saruman - Might have a pseudo lager type thing....
3. Diarmuid - Coffee Stout
4. delzep - brown porter & IPA
5. imark - surprise

[DEMPSEY]

1. Eanna - Wild Strawberry cider
2. Saruman - Might have a pseudo lager type thing....
3. Diarmuid - Coffee Stout
4. delzep - brown porter & IPA
5. imark - surprise
6. DEMPSEY - bigger surprise

[delzep]

Looking at the back of the press for beers lads?

[imark]

Looking at the back of the press for beers lads?

Kind of... I've peach lambic and a BIG dark sour.

[eanna]

September meeting summary:

We had a great meeting once again in the Thomas House, Kevin behind the bar knows his beer and takes an interest in the tasting which is always a plus.

We started off the meeting with the first beer we were scoring to BJCP standards, an American IPA from Derek. We all scored the beer before reading our score and remarks to the group. It was good to have two qualified and decorated BJCP judges to give their experience in what we should be looking for. The consensus for beer no. 1 was 37 or 38 out of 50, bordering on excellent, but lacking some of the intangibles that would push it into excellent territory.

Next up was a pale ale from Reuben (bordering on a cream ale in taste), which was nice easy drinking. It fitted his goal of a beer for a party perfectly, but the serving temperature had gotten too high as a result of the transport to the meeting.

We returned to the last BJCP analysis of the evening, a Coffee Irish Extra Stout from Diarmuid. He had used cold brew coffee and a "Dry hop" of coffee beans. The resulting beer had a massive coffee aroma and taste which split opinion. The qualified judges scored it lower than the unqualified judges due to the base style being less prominent and overall the beer less complex than a perfect example. From a non-BJCP perspective it was very tasty however. The average score was 38.7/50.

We then had a great brown porter from Derek using WLP002 yeast. It was in the vein of Fullers London Porter but those familiar with that beer said Derek's surpassed it.

We then had the wild strawberry apple cider from myself. Another drink intended for a party, it was deemed good for it's purpose but the added artificial sweetener was not loved by the sophisticated palates of the Liffey Brewers.

To finish the evening, Mark presented two sour beers. The first was a kind of sour Belgian Dark Strong at 12.5% and soured with the dregs of Oerbier and aged for 18 months. It was so delicious that I forgot to take notes on the flavours.

The peach sour was also very good but the consensus was there was maybe too much going on with it. Mark said it was nicer and had a cleaner peach flavour prior to adding it to wood.

At this meeting we also welcomed new member Flavio, who homebrewed in Brazil before coming to Ireland. We look forward to tasting his beers in the future!

[imark]

Cheers for organising and writing-up. Good summary of the evening.

[delzep]

Good write up Eanna 

[DEMPSEY]

good write up

[Blueshed]

Great stuff Eanna.