“South Dublin Brewers” August Meet at The Dark Horse, Blackrock

Once again, many thanks to The Dark Horse in Blackrock for kindly hosting our meet and especially to Carl for looking after us so well. We had a wide selection of beer styles on parade this month. John (vonHolt) made his debut appearance at a South Dublin Brewers meet and brought along a few bottles of his honey ale. This fruity 6% ale delivered quite a kick and was fermented with Safale S-04. The orange blossom honey addition was subtle but certainly added an extra dimension to the beer. Special mention to John for the snazzy labels on the bottles!

Conor (Bubbles) was up next with a big stout. Unsure whether to call it a “Foreign Extra” or “Russian Imperial”, it was left up to the assembled company to decide. The verdict was that it probably fell into the Foreign Extra Stout category, as the alcohol flavours were quite subdued due to a cool fermentation and it didn’t deliver the boozy kick that is often found in stronger Imperial stouts. This stout comprised of Maris Otter, Crystal 40, Crystal 75, Roasted Barley, Chocolate Malt and Wheat Malt. It was hopped with Magnum and East Kent Goldings.

“South Dublin” regular Bruce (Brewtus) followed up with a really interesting Hefeweizen. It was fermented with WLP300, which can be a tricky yeast without proper temperature control. Luckily, Bruce has a digitally controlled fermentation fridge and was able to ferment at a constant 17°C, producing a nice level of phenolics and a little banana character. It had a pleasantly light mouthfeel and would make a nice session beer. The simple grist comprised of 60% pilsner malt and 40% wheat malt, giving the beer a fantastic grainy aftertaste. Bruce informed us that the recipe was based on Jamil Zainasheff’s recipe in “Brewing Classic Styles”.

We were also joined on the night by newcomer Billy (Cannobi1) and his mate Joe, the designated driver. Billy had brewed a St. Peter’s IPA kit, his first homebrew. The result was a really smooth and fruity dark ale. Everyone agreed that the beer was a huge success for his first homebrew and everyone was blown away by the prominent hop flavour in this kit, which is often lacking in pre-hopped kit beers. Well done Billy, and now get going on that second brew!

It was now David’s turn to open a bottle of his delicious Baltic Porter. David’s recipe was based on Rossa’s “Black Tsunami Porter” which won the Abbeyleix Beerfest homebrew competition in 2012. Aged for several weeks on French oak chips, it was proclaimed delicious by everyone present. Declan (Shanna) has just recently put a batch of this beer on, and I can testify that the smell from the mash is something else.

Declan had warned us to expect under-carbonation from his Scotch ale. Despite having been chilled down for a couple of weeks, the flip-top opened with a bang and emptied half the contents all over the table. (There’s always one, isn’t there?!) To be fair to Shanna, he did say that the main problem was that there was plenty of carbonation in the bottle, but that the beer wasn’t able to hold onto any of it. After a few sips we endeavoured to solve the problem and it was suggested that an overly hot fermentation may be the cause of the lack of head retention.

Bruce was up again, this time with a sublime saison, a dry and thirst-quenching Belgian farmhouse ale. Comprising of pilsner malt, wheat malt and CaraPils, the WLP565 yeast (in conjunction with gradually ramping up the fermentation temperature to 28°C) brought out the subtle, spicy phenolics of this yeast. Everyone agreed this beer was an absolute triumph. More please!

Conor also brought along a second beer, this time a hopped-up American amber ale. A rich and caramelly beer, this seemed to go down rather well – the Simcoe and Amarillo hops really shining through, despite being in the bottle for 9 weeks.

Last, and certainly not least, was Declan’s “Danger” ginger beer. We were told to brace ourselves. A mistake calculating the original gravity led him to compensate by adding a large quantity of dissolved table sugar to his ginger beer. This, along with the addition of an obscene quantity of root ginger made a hefty ginger ale which Declan claims had only recently become drinkable after several months aging. In actual fact, everyone found it quite drinkable if a little sweet. More than one person remarked that it would make a fine Christmas drink. Just don’t drink more than one bottle, Declan!

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