First cut of the National Homebrew Fest beer menu

[admin]

Consider this version 0.1 alpha! Or as Bertie used to say, a lot done a lot left to do. I have to admit I'm very excited about this, and there are more beers to be added, aswell as more info on medals won etc.


1. Richie Hamilton - TBA

2. James Keane - Twice as Weiss - Hefeweizen (44)

James says about himself "I'm one of the many blokes who caught the brewing bug. I started on the picnic cooler setup and migrated to the Braumeister a couple of years back. Brewing is a great hobby. A hobby that truly gives back as much as you put in. Recently I have been involved in some collaboration brews; these have been a joy and I can't wait until we crack the 200 litre oak cask of imperial stout we brewed at Christmas.
I go to beer festival in Europe every year, and have done for the last twelve years. Ten of these have been in Germany. I love the German attitude to beer, their meticulous nature of preparing the beer and of course their taste in beer. It was these trips that got me into these beers and especially into Hefeweizen beer. To me there is nothing like a fresh cold hefe-weizen."

James is one of the founders the National Homebrew Club, and is its current President.

Beer: The beer that James has brewed scored highest of all the Hefeweizens at the National Brewing Championships 2013 and ultimately came 3rd in the German Beer category, and one of only five beers to score 44 in the first round.. The Grist is very simple 50% wheat and 50% pilsner malt. James does a stepped mash as he reckons the acid rest makes a difference in this particular beer. The acid rest is 15 minutes at 43°C, which is done before the main mash stages. The yeast, WLP380, is one of James's favourites as it give plum, fruit notes, and a little banana. The beer is conditioned at 19°C for 5 days and 20-21°C for 5 days.

After 10 days this beer is pretty much good to go. This is because it doesn't require a cold clearing and the yeast is a positive influence. On the flip side this beer doesn't travel well and its shelf life is only 3 months.

"I hope you enjoy this beer as much as I do !!"

3. Reuben Gray - Dark Stranger - Stout (44) - 4.3% ABV

Reuben says "I've have been an amateur brewer since late 2008. I started with kits, moved to extract and then all grain and quickly from bottle to kegs in a kegerator. I have dreams of setting up a brewpub, even if they are pie in the sky at the moment. I brew anything and everything and while I don't have a favourite style, I am very partial to a heavy stout and an in your face IPA."

Reuben is currently Chairman of Beoir, which supports craft beer in Ireland.

Beer: Dark Stranger Stout won Silver medal at last year's National Homebrew Competition. It was one of the few beers to reach the highest marks on the day of 44. This was the third beer of the same name, based on Reuben's first all grain recipe called Cloaked Stranger. So it was technically the fourth version of the beer. What makes a difference between Reuben's beer and most stouts is the amount of dark malt he uses. Contrary to what you might think, there's not a lot of dark malt used in commercial stouts. The darker the malt, the less fermentable it is so the beer ends up thicker beer and a bit sweeter than expected but with full roast to balance. 37% of the grain bill was dark malt and Reuben uses a mixture of everything from amber to black malt and roasted barley with brown malt in between. It comes in at only 4.3% abv. The recipe is available on Reuben's blog, taleofale.com.

4. Will Davis - Seebry Steam Cider - 6.1% ABV

Will is a founder member of the National Homebrew Club and has been brewing for over 30 years. In those old days it was the kit and kilo from the chemists. However a degree in chemistry and the improving materials available on the market spurred him on. After various gaps from the hobby he is now a regular all-grain brewer.

His other interest is cider making. Growing up near to the Hereford and West country cider producing areas must have inffused some skills into him (probably from drinking the stuff at a tender age). This skill was evident when at the first National Brewing Championships as he won Gold and Bronze medals for his cider!

His cider on offer is a classic "Turbo" cider made from Lidl "cloudy" apple juice as at this time fresh juice is not available. Additions are raisins, malic acid and nutrients.

It is about 6% abv, pasteurised and sweetened with reduced apple juice.

5. Cathal McDermott - Farmhouse Ale - 6.2%

6. Tom Evans - Brown Ale - 5.9% ABV

Tom is also from Wales, but is settling into Donegal. "I've been brewing since I got a kit for Christmas some years ago, and am now cobbling stuff together to turn the shed into a femto-brewery. I'll be brewing some ordinary beers this winter, and come summer I'll be brewing some historic beers using ingredients I've had to grow myself (Yarrow, Wormwood, Sage and so on)" he says, and his recipe for an Irish Red Ale is being published in a British book later this year.

Beer: Amber Goblin is a Northern English Brown Ale. The recipe is based on Orfy's fairly accurate Hobgoblin Clone, but with Amber malts added, just to see. It's a rich, malty beer, and fairly strong at nearly 6%.

The malts are Pale, Amber, Chocolate and some Crystal, bittered by Target, and hardly-hopped-at-all with Willamette and Hallertau. It'll be fermented with Nottingham Ale yeast, though the original was done with US-05 as it's all he had.

This beer scored 38 on the first round and was described as:
Medium body, caramel, roasty, medium/dry finish. Earthy hops, some fruity esters.

"Hope you like it!"

7. Jason Carroll - TBA

8. Chris Todd & Moira Lewis - Ormeau Dark - Oatmeal Stout - 6% ABV

We're delighted to have this beer as brewed by the brewers themselves. Chris says "After inheriting homebrewing equipment from Moira's grandfather we started experimenting with beer kits, fruit wines and ciders. The wines and ciders fell by the wayside as we progressed to malt extracts and tinkering with hopping schedules before stepping up to all-grain. Ormeau Dark is one of our more regularly produced beers and, to date, is the most successful achieving 1st place in the Stout category and Best of Show at the National Brewing Championships in 2013."

Beer:
Grist:  Maris Otter, Dark Wheat, Crystal, Carafa type II and Black malt
Hops: Magnum bittering, Styrian Bobek and Cascade for bittering and aroma
Tasting notes:  A dark creamy oatmeal stout with rich roasty burnt caramel flavours and a bitter dark cocoa finish. The late addition of Styrian Bobek and Cascade hops give it a floral spicy aroma on the nose.

9. Rossa O'Neill - American IPA - 5.3%

Rossa began all grain brewing 7 years ago after taking a family friends advice of ditching the kits and buying a bag of grain.

The Loreto brewery was born in 2008 when he bought a house that was built on the old Loreto Abbey estate. The brewery may well have blessed water as Rossa has made a habit of brewing award winning beers since his move. Rossa enjoys sharing brewing know-how with beginners and when he is not working he spends far too much time reading, thinking or philosophising about brewing.

Beer: The beer Rossa has brewed is a modern take on the IPA style. It contains hops from Australia and America, Galaxy and Citra. It is a collaboration of tropical fruit flavors.

10. Roger Burslem-Rotheroe - Red - Irish Red - 5.9% ABV

Roger is one of the more exotic types we have in the National Homebrew Club, hailing all the way from South Africa. In typical fashion though Roger fell for an Irish woman and now makes great beer and food in Co West Meath. "I'm a beer aficionado that brews towards award winning beers. Not afraid to brew any style of beer, sharing my rewards with my friends and family" he says modestly.

Beer:
Grist: Maris otter, Carared, Crystal 145,
Roasted Barley
Hops: East Kent Goldings

Tasting notes: Balanced beer with moderate malt character with toasted and subtle caramel notes

11. Enda Cleary - Frambtastic - Belgian Fruit Lambic

Enda says "After a couple of false starts during my college days, I have become a passionate home brewer.  Like most homebrewers I started out on kits and soon graduated to all graining brewing. I founded the Galway Home Brewers Club after finding that people were quite happy to drink my beer but weren't interested in talking about brewing all day. When I'm not brewing beer, I often find myself planning, upgrading and building brewing equipment."

Beer: The beer Enda brewed is a Lambic style Framboise; it took first place in the inaugural Galway Bay Brewery Homebrew competition and is soon be Ireland's first commercially brewed Lambic style beer – a true reflection of how far the Irish craft brewing scene has developed.

This beer is all raspberries and yeast! The yeast used has the catchy name of Wyeast Laboratories Belgian Lambic Blend 3278. It's a yeast which has been developed to include contains yeast and bacteria cultures used to produce beers specific to Lambic region. A large amount of raspberries were added after primary fermentation and left in the beer until all raspberry colour and flavour was extracted into the beer; this gives the beer an amazing amount of flavour.

The grain is a simple bill of one part wheat and two parts Marris Otter. In order to allow the raspberry flavour to come through, only a small amount of Saaz (30g) were used at the start of the boil and no late hop additions. Saaz is well suited to this beer style due to its very low Alpha Acid level which results in low bitterness and allows the raspberry flavours to come through.

12. Shane Smith - 8086 - Double IPA (44) - 7.2%

Shane, a Leixlip native, started brewing in November 2009, jumping straight in at the deep end with All Grain brewing. Now almost four years later and 140 brews under his belt he says he still feels like a beginner. "I'm continuously finding new (to me) beer styles that are just amazing. I'd like to be able to brew them all really well some day, but I don't know if that's humanly possible, there are just so many".

Beer: The beer on show today is a simple Double IPA and is also one of only five beers to score 44 in the first round of the National Brewing Championships. It is brewed entirely with Bramling Cross hops, so much so that it would never be commercially viable, but it's something interesting and new that can be done with old world hops. It's named in honour of another Leixlip resident, Intel, creators of the world famous microprocessor to which they gave the name "8086".

13. Alex Lawes - Scaldy Porter - American Porter

Alex says "I started extract brewing four years ago. Got my sanitation right after about 5 brews and moved onto all-grain. Since then I've brewed all styles with the exception of lagers, sours and lambics although that's what I'm working on now. I've only ever entered three brewing competitions really but two of those were for Diageo. Both beers were the highest scored in each competition from a judging panel that comprised of the heads of global supply for the company, and I managed to score higher than all the Guinness master brewers. I never expected such a result. I'm just a bar man. It really gave me confidence to brew and since then I've focused on teaching as many people to brew as I can and to just trust their taste buds to try different stuff. The beer today is one my friends demand when the weather gets cold. Thought it would be a nice for the day that's in it."

Beer: Grist: pale malt, chocolate malt, flaked barley, smoked malt, Munich, brown malt, light crystal, dark crystal. Hops: Galena, East Kent Goldings

[lordstilton]

Looks like a great day out

[Will_D]

We can't afford colour up here Can't spell either but thats deliberate:

[delzep]

8086 label as brewed by myself.

isn't that an "o" rather than a "0" (zero)? 

[delzep]

but the "0" is in fact an "o" (as in the letter) surely?

[delzep]

Paying attention?

I haven't even mentioned the misspelling of "triple" yet 

[Will_D]

We can't afford colour up here Can't spell either but thats deliberate:

Will, is that a scene from Malahide? Looks very quaint, I should get out there more often

But more to the point, do you have a higher res version of that which won't pixelate when printed?

I will haveto see - If I can remember where I found the image.

Is it not OK for a pump clip?

[St. Fursey]

Here's the Lambic-style Framboise

[Rossa]

[sub82]

Our two tone label...

[sub82]

Aye man cool - will get onto it!

EDIT: Updated the label above!

[brenmurph]

 
someone tell me how to add a pic to the message body please rather than as an attachment?

[irish_goat]

someone tell me how to add a pic to the message body please rather than as an attachment?

You can upload it to somewhere like ImageShack or Photobucket.

then post it like this

Code Select Expand

[img]http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2238/3wtj.jpg[/img]



To be honest though the thumbnail works grand, one click and it's full sized.