Galway Home Brewers Club April Meet-up

The Galway brewers’ April meet took them to the Oslo for a third time in a row. The Galway Bay Belgian beer competition loomed large with prospective entries put to the taste and Ciderhead and Cara had delivered our new 180L whiskey barrel the same day, so excitement was palpable, palatable… whatever.

There was nice variation on show, with 6 Belgian competition entries from 3 brewers (2 saisons, a berry and a raspberry flavoured Belgian, an abbey and a Belgian I.P.A.), some deviant use of kits (vanilla porter, coconut and chocolate stout, coopers real ale hack), a strong flavoured amarillo and calypso A.P.A., wines (some lambrusco-ishly alive orange/grapefruit wine, and 2 john does), a brewferm kriek(sour cherry) kit and a half fermented Yorkshire bitter kit some eejit ruined.

Kev Connell brought pics of the newly delivered (hours beforehand) whiskey barrel that set us all on a woody. Leftover whiskey guards a precious space while it waits for stout fulfillment from the Galway brewers. Many of the brewers involved in the barrel project are now sating their thirsts with preemptive brews, and you could assume our interests have been picqued in all manner of stouts with this looming wait of 6 months or more, black days indeed. There was much talk about the recipe and techniques involved for the start of the meet, bringing those of us lesser brewers up to speed.

Kit, Extract and All-grain beers were all there, showcasing a healthy range of experience levels, and people compared notes on their ever-varied and inventive equipment setups.

Brian and Bianca from HomeBrewWest paid a visit bringing their kicking ‘Brewferm Kriek’ kit brew and two unnamed wines setting all our hungry aroma senses to guestimations.

Enda (St Fursey) brought along an Abbey, a berry flavoured and a raspberry flavoured Belgian brew. The consensus was that the raspberry suited slightly better than the berry while the strong 9% Abbey let you know what an Abbey is meant to be.

Richard (richsib) came bearing two super well balanced Saisons pitched with Belgian yeast that would send any rival competition entrant to fevering.

Eanna (eanna) had his tasty Belgian I.P.A. too, showcasing his Belgian brewing skills.

Kevin Connell (kevco5) had a strong hoppy flavoured Amarillo and Calypso 6% A.P.A.

Jeff’s vanilla porter and coconut/chocolate stout let us know how kits can be used inventively.

Michael (drowningmanatee) brought his Coopers Hack Cascade with 3 different fruits (orange, lemon, and grapefruit) added to three bottles, consensus being on the grapefruit, the orange being likened to washing up liquid at one stage. He also had his Bulldog ‘chewing a wasp’ Bitter that stalled at 1.018 due to low ferment temp, the eejit, and a premature orange/grapefruit wine, sparkling like it was never meant to. Some of us still need a bit to go.

Colin, a kit brewer for years, dropped in to sample the club, hopefully the first of many visits.

Michael got some advice from the experienced brewers regarding his newly sprouting cascade and prima donna hops, and his wort chiller project, showing pics(and taking bad ones) and getting valuable feedback, one of the many benefits gained from being part of the club.

We discussed new beers like the new N.Z. Hopped Voyager from Galway Bay Breweries and Dungarvan’s new Rye based beer, and Brewdog’s Scotch ale ‘Dogma’.

The Oslo were very accommodating as usual reserving us the large table in the front of the bar for roundtable discussion. We moved in to town then to the Salthouse, the Oslo’s more staunchly craft oriented bar for some more brews and conversation until closing.

The club proves a great opportunity for brewers both new and experienced to learn, laugh and unite in the love of all things beer related.

Our May meeting promises to be special as we’re having our first ever Brew Day! Our ever gracious hosts at the Oslo Bar and home of the Galway Bay Brewery are facilitating what promises to be a great day of brewing; featuring kit, extract and all-grain brewing, the fun kicks off at 12pm on Saturday May 25th.

– Michael (drowningmanatee)

Edit: Congratulations to St. Fursey from Galway Homebrewers Club for taking first place in the Galway Bay Brewery Homebrew competition for his Raspberry Lambic. We’re looking forward to seeing it in Cottage-chain bars around the country later this year!