February South Eastern NHC Meet

A fine Saturday morning heralded the meeting of the association of brewers from the South-Eastern corner of the country – well four of them at least.

The second meet of the year in Revolution Bar, Waterford saw three regulars to the NHC meet, and a new-comer, but not a newbie brewer, meeting in the upper floors of the pub, their usual reserved spot. In attendance were Kieran (Tucan), Sean (Featherbedbrew), Damien (NewtoBrew), and another Sean (Beerdoh). Revolution is a key hub for the Waterford craft scene which, over-time, is seeing an ever firmer grip on more and more people’s drinking habits. This serves as a great central spot for most of the group to meet  in, and the beer is good too, which helps.

Although numbers were small, spirits were high and homebrew abounded nevertheless. Both Kieran and I had offerings. The quality of these meets and the beer consumed is going from good to great, with more and more traction from newer members being seen each month also. It is always interesting to hear how people started off their foray into homebrewing, and to pick up on lessons learned from the more experienced members of the group (Kieran’s been brewing since the early 80’s – I wasn’t even born until 1988!)

As with most of our meets, the banter was full-on and frantic!  It went from Rotisseries, to Paintballs & Customs and Excise, right through to water profiles and yeast cake pitching. Although the Wexfordians were slightly down on numbers (MAF and Spud) they were still head and tails over that of the Blaa’s!

Kieran kicked off proceedings with a tasty amber ale. With a base of Marris Otter, a dark Crystal at 145 EBC, and a lovely round-off of Amber malt, this was a fine example of the style. The beer had quite a dry finish thanks to the US-05 used in fermentation. A lovely toasty hint, coupled with an after taste of caramel met with a well rounded malty character to ensure that the decision was unanimous as being a fine drink, meaning that the few bottles that were available didn’t last long! This beer was hopped with a Hallertauer variety, and was only mildly apparent as the maltiness of this beer took over – a character of the beer that Kieran mentioned he had wanted. The beer was originally kegged, but in spite of being bottled it was still quite well carbonated. With a lovely amber colour and perfect clarity, this was a great example of the fine beers that can be brewed at home.

In between beers we discussed using torrified wheat for head retention. It was commented that it is worthwhile including some of this in most styles, as it does help with head retention. Ever the DIY-er Kieran had a method of doing this to wheat that he sources himself – it turns out that a 5L Keg turned Rotisserie / BBQ Grill does the job quite nicely, even if it results in a few explosions here and there.

Not only this wonderful nugget of experience, but it was also noted, that re-using the primary yeast cake is a good way to forego having to make a large starter for a high gravity beer, for instance. This is a method that is used amongst some of the other regular brewers in the club, and going on the quality of the beer, a method that this brewer will be trying soon!

Next up was a Munich Helles that I had brewed a number of weeks ago. Helles Bells I like to call it. Lager Malt and a nice dose of Munich malt. It was hopped using Hallertauer as a bittering addition. This beer was brewed almost to style using Jamil’s book Brewing Classic Styles. The only difference being – I don’t have lagering capabilities. But thanks to Kevco’s generosity I was able to use a Wyeast 2112 California Lager yeast instead. This resulted in a notably drinkable beer, with a distinct lager color and slightly grainy aroma and taste. It was noted that the beer was a bit too fresh, and this was true as it had only been in the bottle 10 days and had not undergone any lagering at all. This is probably a good candidate for a session beer!

After this we tried another of my beers – an oatmeal stout. This was made using some left overs I had. Quite a bit of Vienna malt, lager malt and Munich malt were used as the base. Additions of 250EBC crystal, some roasted barley, toasted flaked oats and some Special B gave this beer a good roastiness, deep ruby colour and decent mouthfeel. As with the lager it could’ve done with aging a bit longer and it still tasted quite fresh. However it did show nice signs of promise and in time could well be a decent beer to savour of a cold night.

We were periodically joined by two other regulars Wayne (Swinng) and Derek (Lugh) who were in the area and dropped in to say hello! Always welcome, but bring more beer next time please! 🙂

The final beer of the day was Kieran’s baltic porter. This was showcased at the previous month’s meet and was met with resounding delight. An intensely robust, flavoursome and roasty concoction that reminds anyone drinking it what beer is really about. The grain bill for this as you could imagine, is quite full – Vienna malt, chocolate malt, black malt, biscuit, 145 EBC crystal, along with a base of Marris Otter, a good dose of wheat (head retention) and some oats for a nice mouth feel. This is definite proof that a beer with such complexity really does benefit from at a nominal aging period of a number of months. The bittering and aroma was down to a 60 minute addition of Chinook, a 15 minute addition of Cascade and 10 minute addition of Chinook. With a beer as malt focused as this however, the hops are there to add bitterness, and a slight depth needed just to accentuate the maltiness that bit more. It’s difficult to describe in words exactly how this beer comes across, but it is intensely malty, with a lovely dark chocolate aftertaste, it has a soft alcohol finish, but not overly apparent, just warming. The sweetness of the beer comes through nicely too, it finished around 1.017 if I recall correctly – and this complements the overall effect beautifully. Overall this is a fine beer, and one that will be remembered for some time.

Ultimately, despite smaller numbers, a fine example of why homebrewing in the South East is getting better all the time. After the formal proceedings were over, the group descended to the main bar for a decent cure of 5 AM Saint and Punk IPA. We didn’t need our tastebuds any longer!

I apologise for the lack of pictures – no excuse – I just forgot to take any! I’ll make it up to everyone next month, but some of you will be sorry… let’s just say with faces like these we could advertise dog food well!

– Beerdoh

 

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