First Brew Day of the Belfast Homebrewers

Following the roaring success that was the inaugural meeting of the Belfast Brewing Club, the next voyage into the unknown for our fledgling outfit was the first club brew day.

Hudson - FrontWith the venue of the Husdon Bar already decided, preferred date and time quickly

Hudson -Back

followed. And once the small matter of what to brew and who to provide what ingredients and equipment was sorted, the only outstanding question was how many inches of rain were we likely to get?

Saturday 20th April finally arrived and, showing great military precision, we converged at the Hudson bar around 11am – 1pm (ish). The SetupWith hearts full of nervous anticipation and cars full of the most eclectic collection of brewing equipment ever seen, we began setting up outside the bar. Passers-by would have been forgiven for thinking this was some sort of bizarre car boot sale. In fact, one or two started reaching for their wallets; most, however, walked hurriedly on. Thankfully, any fears regarding the weather soon proved unfounded, and the sun smiled down on the happy brewers for the entirety of the day. The weather god is a craft ale drinker, it seems.

So on to the business of the day; the brew. And straight away another dilemma – with so much combined brewing experience in such a small space, would the proverbial broth be spoiled as too many cooks let their opinions and egos trip each other up to the point of tears, recriminations and ultimate collapse? Not so; award winners and novices alike set about with an ant-like sense of purpose and before we knew it, the mash was in. Pale malt and Amber malt. Lovely!

One of the big frustrations of brewing at home is all the waiting time for grains to mash, boils to boil, wort to cool, etc. One of the big perks of brewing in a bar, however, is that self-same waiting time. As the brew slowly took shape, we took the opportunity toThe mash goes in sample the great range of ales the Hudson Bar has to offer. We also took advantage of this waiting time to share tips and experiences, and the odd homebrew sample, with the sizeable crowd of brewers that had by this time accumulated. Some had travelled great distances just for this event: There was the multi-award winning Shane (Tube) from Dublin. Not sure what part of Dublin but by the talk of him I ascertained it was somewhere called Bramling Cross. There was Andy from Ballymena; on Saturday he claimed to brew kits but was thinking of moving to extract, by Sunday he was going full ag! And there was Pat from Ballycastle, whose sublimely crisp lagers when combined with the sunshine and the smell of frying burgers from up the alleyway made you think you were at the finest barbeque (as long as you avoided the burgers). Another notable attendant was a CAMRA representative, obviously there to work out how big an area to allocate us at the next Belfast Beer Festival.

The mash was soon completed and so on to the sparge. By this time Michael and Michael from the  Hudson, Sparge both of whom couldn’t do enough for us all day, were taking keen interest in the goings on and asking such pertinent questions as ‘what’s the significance of using a lump of crumpled up tinfoil between the mash tun and the boiler?’ and ‘should that hlt have exposed wires?’ and ‘Can you please sign this release form?’

As the sparging progressed the gas burner was lit and, with everyone’s eyebrows still mercifully intact, we proceeded to the boil: Northdown hops for bittering, Centennial and Cascade at 30 mins and more of the same at 5 mins. By this time the smell from the boiler was directing the nose of many a passer-by to the proceedings. Like the Bisto kids they were lured in. Gone was the once-overpowering smell of frying onions / part cow/ part horse. In its place we had the glorious aroma of boiling hops filling the bar and the surrounding arcade. It was beginning to smell like victory.

The boil was completed after an hour (or so; who was really counting at this stage?) The Boiland now came the final piece of the puzzle – how to transfer the (still hot) contents of the hoppy cauldron of delights into three separate plastic fermenters – without the luxury of a tap or a hop strainer! All I can say is it’s amazing what can be achieved with an auto syphon, a tea strainer (kindly provided by the Hudson) and some old-fashioned elbow grease. McGyver would’ve been proud of us.

And all too soon, as the sun began to set on the day, it was time for Matthew (matthewdick23), Chris (sub82) and yours truly to go our separate ways; older, wiser (and in some cases a little drunker ) with around 10L each of the fruits of our labour to do with it what we wished.

So, what was the overall impression of our first brew day? A day when equipment was forgotten, ingredients were mislaid, long-established techniques were tossed out the window and targets were missed all over the place? Two words –Total Success!

Where next for the brew?

Thanks to everyone who attended and took part, especially those who travelled a lot of miles to be there. And special thanks to the guys at the Hudson for being so helpful and accommodating. If all goes well with the fermenting & conditioning, we should have some very interesting samples at the next meeting.

-Barry (Bazza)

 

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