South Kildare Brewday Report from a Ladies perspective :)

[Kellie]

Ladies Brew Day in South Kildare

Saturday 25th January South Kildare Homebrewers hosted a brew day for the Dublin Ladies Craft Beer Society. The aim of the day was to brew a Scottish 80 Shilling that we plan to enter in to the National Homebrew Competition as Dublin Ladies Craft Beer Society.

The ladies had a fantastic experience and were amazed at everything. They experienced all grain brewing and all got to take a hand in brewing the Scottish 80 Shilling, it's all hands on at our brew days, there is always something to be done, whether that be weighing and measuring the ingredients, cracking the grain, getting equipment ready, or sanitising the fermenter, and of course tasting one of our many beers available at the moment:

Spiced schwartsbier
Vienna lager
Real stout
Spice Pumpkin ale
Bohemian pils
Polish lager schwartsbier
American pale 1 & 2
This years cider

and more

Brendan has been tweaking our system  and it worked fantastically well following the development of a new insulated mash kettle with a hat and the programmed PID automatically maintained a perfect 65c for an hour and quarter. We didn't over sparge this one and got a 78% return.

Christina the organiser of Dublin Ladies Craft Beer Society was given the task of pitching the yeast, we inoculated with a previous batch's (well-proven house yeast) starter and hey presto fermenting within an hour or two and a wonderful yeast cake this morning so again healthy, hard working yeast.

The day went down a treat and the ladies thoroughly enjoyed the day. They are all very excited to taste the finished product and keen to continue brewing as a group to enhance knowledge and skills.

For me becoming a member of Dublin Ladies Craft Beer Society has given me the opportunity to meet some wonderful ladies and experience craft beer from the ladies perspective (as many of you know I have spent countless evenings at monthly meets with mostly men!) and i have to say there are some very knowledgeable ladies out there, who love all things craft beer and certainly know how to socialise and have the craic

We also had a few NHC members drop in throughout the day which is always a delight and great to see new faces, all family members are welcome here in Kildare there is always something to see and do, keeping the kids occupied. To see feedback from our latest new member read here http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php/topic,5509.0.html

So all that is left to say is that 2014 is the year that Dublin Ladies Craft Beer Society hope to continue brewing together as a group, enhance and learn new skills whilst having a good ole time! South Kildare Homebrewers look forward to hosting another brewday and welcoming the ladies down here again

To learn more about Dublin Ladies Craft Beer Society or if you know anyone who would enjoy becoming a member, here is the link to the meet up group, I certainly would recommend it and I am delighted that I joined and have met some great people
http://www.meetup.com/Dublin-Ladies-Craft-Beer-Society/events/158603982/

Kellie 

[johnrm]

Great post Kellie!
Let me know if you want to start a board for the society.
Seeing as this is a minority group but with great potential, should you cast your net wider and have a National aspect?

[Kellie]

Thanks John I will talk to the girls next weekend and see what they think 

[johnrm]

Think big, today Kildare, tomorrow The World!