What will I brew in 2012?

I started home brewing in 2011. Whilst I have had experience brewing with an actual working brewery, I had never taken it upon myself to brew any of my own. I only managed two brews in the second half of the year and they were really just my trial run's but I was so pleased with them that I am going to set down a bit of a brewing plan for 2012.

First up will be a Simcoe dry hopped Ruby Red IPA (name suggestions welcome) which I think will probably take my FV  up to early Febuary if I kick off soon. Nothing particularly fancy here, no extra ingredigents and just a regular ale yeast but I think it will be a good spring beer which is hopefully when it will be taking shape in bottle after a few weeks conditioning.

When the FV is ready for action sometime in early-mid Feb I will be going for my first ever beer using a lager yeast. I figure that even although I do live in Scotland I probably shouldn't leave it too much later in the year before attempting a lager yeast without some decent cooling equipment. So a Kolsch it will be. Nothing challenging but a good beer to stick away and forget about about for a bit until our (hopefully) very hot summer comes along.

Next up (probably not till April) an I/APA hopped with something big and tropical (I haven't decided what yet). I brewed an IPA as my last beer of 2011 and it was great but I thought it was a little darker than I wanted it to be. This beast will be golden with a tropical nose and a decent amount of carbonation. If I get bored of my Kolsch on those long hot Scottish summer days (ahem) I can always switch to something more hoppy.

                                                      Something like this would be very nice

Next up I want to do something with a bit of fruit but this will be totally dependent on how hot the summer is. I don't plan on having a FV full of beer and fruit if we do actually get a decent summer. No extracts, no concentrates, REAL fruit. Probably something like pink grapefruit or blood oranges. I will likely have to ferment with an ale yeast unless I invest in some better cooling but I might go for one of the fancier yeasts rather than the usual one I buy. 

I figure that with my own life, university work, my job and other commitments that should take me up till the end of the summer. With the uncertainty of what I will be doing after graduation its probably silly for me to plan any further ahead than that right now but winter will probably see me drinking home brewed Nespresso Stout (probably not the cheapest way to do it I know) and if I get a bit braver maybe an Imperial Stout.


Any suggestions for names or ingredients are more than welcome. Have a great 2012 whether you are a home brewer, a beer drinker or you stumbled upon this site by accident.

Golden Pints Nominations 2011

Ok, as promised here are my nominations for this years Golden Pint Awards. As I have been out of the country (once again) for some of the year my choices have been a bit limited but I have given it a go.

1. Best UK Draught (Cask or Keg) Beer- Kernel, IPA Simcoe Centennial ;no words needed
2.  Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer- Magic Rock, Human Cannonball ;THE brewery to watch
3. Best Overseas Draught Beer- Stone Brewing, Ruination IPA ;Fresh in BD Edinburgh, lovely
4. Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer- Lagunitas Brewery, Little SumpIn' ;plain and simply tasty, as it should be
5. Best Overall Beer- Magic Rock, Human Cannonball
6. Best Pumpclip or Label- Magic Rock, All of them. Does that count?
7. Best UK Brewery- Kernel Brewery. Close runner-up; Magic Rock
8. Best Overseas Brewery- Mikkeller; still pushing boundaries and creating some wonderful beers
9. Pub/Bar of the Year- The Euston Tap
10. Beer Festival of the Year- I didn't go to any at all this year
11. Supermarket of the Year- Sainsburys
12. Independent Retailer of the Year- Luvian's, St Andrews
13. Online Retailer of the Year- MyBreweryTap
14. Best Beer Book or Magazine- Zak Avery, 500 Beers
15. Best Beer Blog or Website- Pencil and Spoon, Mark Dredge
16. Best Beer Twitterer- @tania_nexust , top poached egg advice
17. Best Online Brewery presence- Magic Rock. Runner-up; those scamps at BrewDog
18. Food and Beer Pairing of the Year; Too many to choose
19. In 2012 I’d Most Like To… Work in a brewery again
20. Best Beer Event of the Year- 1st European Beer Bloggers Conference

Dear Sir, sorry for my absence

No, this is not a letter of absence that a school child has written but it does feel like one.

Dear Sir/Madam/other readers,

It has come to my attention that my attendance in beer class has been pretty shoddy recently. I have hardly been attending at all. Whilst I have been enjoying many an evening enjoying beer and had many exciting events with Stirling University Craft Beer Society, I have failed to document most of these. I certainly haven't been reporting them back to my fellow students at beer class.

I promise that this is to come to an end. Starting with this afternoon's post on my recommendations for this years Golden Pint Awards. This will closely be followed by some beer reviews and round up of my work this semester with SUCBS.

Yours in beer,

Michael





P.s In all seriousness the past few months have been mayhem but that doesnt excuse the fact that I have hardly written about beer at all. Back with you this afternoon with my nominations for the Golden Pints

SUCBS Williams Brothers Tasting Night

A few weeks ago a merry band of around 15 of us got together to try almost every single beer that Williams Brothers Brewery in Alloa currently make. This was Stirling University Craft Beer Societies first big event of the year but it certainly wont be our last. Here is how the evening went in pictures.......

There was quite a lot of beer!

Vice President (Left), David Lewin and President, Me share a bottle of Cesar Augustus

Some of our members

Opening yet another beer

Clearly not the first of the night from Duvel!

Just some of what we tried

One of my top 5

Our Secretary seems to have lost something in the bottom of the bottle

By this time nobody wanted to be photographed

A final 'artsy' shot of some bottle tops and a table that needs a polish

It was a great night and thanks go to the Williams Brothers for providing the beer, The Albion Bar in Stirling for allowing us to come in and use their function suite and all the members of Stirling University for coming along.

I have been a bad blogger recently. I have had no motivation to write since a small spat with CAMRA earlier this year. We now have a better working relationship but I wont stop talking about craft keg! My motivation is back though and I will be with you again in the next couple of days.

Cheers

It is my beer.....

It has been a long time in coming. But it is here. My very first home brewed beer.

It doesn't have a name and it was made using a kit but I don't care. Its my beer.

It took a few weeks to make and then I had to be patient and watch it condition.

It is in PET bottles just in case it was crap and I was no good at making beer kits.

It has been consumed over the past few weeks by myself and some friends and now there are a sorry 12 bottles left.

It now has a little brother or sister on the way as today I brewed a Nelson Sauvin IPA to join it.

It's sibling will be a bit better looking as it will come in glass swing tops. Just don't tell it

It looks like this until I drink it;

It is my beer


This is not an attempt at poetry. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it is just my beer.......

A public apology to the organisers of SRAF

Its not often I do this. Admit I am wrong that is.....at least in part

Earlier tonight I wrote a rather unfair piece about the recent Scottish Real Ale Festival. I was on a high horse during the time I wrote it and I did not take into account many things. I am big enough and ugly enough to accept that many of the things I wrote were hurtful to organisers and were simply not fair. However I still stand by my initial sentiments that many things need to be done to improve the festival.

I chose not to go this year. So it was wrong for me to cast doubt on the beer list having not seen it in real life. Nevertheless the list I see on paper still could do with a shake up. I still stand by my earlier proposal that the SRAF should have a 'UK' bar. That is to say that some interesting casks from the rest of the UK should be given a section of the festival. I also still believe that more can be done to ensure that the SRAF can secure exclusives and once of tastings like traquair on cask.I still believe that breweries should be encouraged to rotate beer so that we do not have the same from every brewery each year.

I do not want to tell the organisers how to do their job but after an email I received tonight I am more than happy to offer constructive feedback to them. I am now going to respond to that email and I apologise again to regular readers who were given a bad impression of what is usually a great day out in Scotland's capital

The Scottish Real Ale Festival and why I was not there

Disclaimer- This article is not intended to offend. It is not intended to be Anti-CAMRA or a jibe at SRAF organisers but rather some constructive criticism. I currently have no brewery links and this article was not paid for by anyone.

Ok now that I have that out the way I feel I should explain why I didnt attend this years Scottish Real Ale Festival in Edinburgh. After all I am a CAMRA member and I do like a good pint but I just had little desire to attend this year which ultimately ended up with me just staying at home. There was a bit of a stramash before the festival with rumors of an alternative festival in BrewDogs new bar in the Cowgate. This turned out to be true and in true maverick style BrewDog named their festival the 'alternative' Scottish Beer Festival. Fair play to the guys; different markets, different beers and ultimately a different sales technique. That's not the reason why I didn't go to the SRAF though.

Number one reason; the beer list was thoroughly uninspiring. I know it must be difficult to keep a beer list exciting and new every year especially when most of beers available will be similar year after year; well certainly outside seasonals, once brewed beers or new brews. Nevertheless the beer list was at least 85% the same as last years (I havent checked this out as cold hard fact but I have compared both lists). Now I am sorry but that just is not acceptable for a beer festival the size of SRAF. There were plenty of breweries on the list but some of them only had some of their less brilliant beers there. Now I don't want to get into naming names as it is not clear to me who is at fault for this but Scotland really does have much more to show than what was on offer at this years Scottish Real Ale Festival.

Put plain and simply a beer festival is mediocre at best without a good and challenging beer list which rotates if not changes year in year out. Yes the big hitters and the festival winners and favourites are sure to be there every year; I don't have a problem with that. Please just shake it up a little bit more next year. Take some the the bland boring stuff out and source some more from some new breweries that have popped up recently. Dare I say it even have some stuff from the rest of the UK (GBBF have an international bar after all)

I have nothing wrong with other organisational aspects of the festival although naturally the one thing I cannot comment on is the change of venue as I was not there to experience it. However usually the atmosphere is great, as is the entertainment. That will never make up for a bland beer list though. Lets not get too negative here though. I know that I can't expect the best of the best every year. I know that there are constraints ; like what breweries have available and the links that organisers have with the breweries. Lets face it though; It happens once a year. In reality there should be plenty time to organise a good and changing beer list year after year if you are putting on a serious commercial festival. Alloa festival (especially the OctoberFest ) is always well run, very well in fact. I have no idea if any of the same people are involved in beer ordering but if not then they should be.

This years beer list did not make me want to pay for a train ticket to Edinburgh and certainly didn't inspire me to make a day of it like I usually would. I never go to a beer festival with the intention of getting slaughtered but I do usually like to try things I have heard good things about or things I haven't tried before. In terms of this years festival I dare say I could have spent and hour at most soaking in the atmosphere and having a few pints but I wouldn't have had any desire to stay longer. For me that does not make for a good festival. I know there will be those that will disagree with me, especially anyone involved or anyone who had a great time there. This year it just did not appeal at all to me.

I will still be organising a trip to other CAMRA festivals with Stirling University Craft Beer Society (notably Alloa OctoberFest) but unless I see an exciting list for next years SRAF I think I will be staying away again. Nothing against anyone involved but I don't want to see the same beers year after year.