Leeds International Beer Festival Competition

Homebrewers of Leeds!......of Yorkshire....and Yorkshire folk displaced but still proud to hail from Yorkshire!  A gauntlet has been thrown in our general direction from the homebrewers of Lancashire.  They say that our mothers are hamsters and that our fathers smell of elderberries, and we cannot ignore these taunts!  We have also received word from their Manchester HQ which suggests that we’re not up for the challenge.  It's time to show them how we roll(ing boil)!

The competition has been organised by our friends at the Leeds International Beer Festival (@LeedsBeer on Twitter)

The challenge upon us:

Brew a beer style of your choosing, it must be under or equal to 6% abv and must incorporate at least one hop variety from each of the following; Britain, the US and from the New World (Aus/NZ).   We need as many of our group to brew a beer, then we will meet together and choose the five that will go forward to the panel of judges.  The Lancashire homebrewers will do the same.  The judges will then meet, taste, deliberate and choose one beer from Yorkshire and one from Lancashire.  These winning beers will be produced by a breweries in their respective counties, before they are presented to the good folk who attend the Leeds International Beer Festival in September.  Only then will the discerning public choose the ultimate winner.   All proceeds from the sales of the two winning beers will go to a charity of the commercial breweries choosing.

We need to have beers brewed, bottled and to have selected our five gladiator beers by the end of June.  You should be prepared to supply 2x500ml bottles with plain crown caps.  The five beers selected for judging by the Leeds International Beer Festival panel will also need to be submitted with a recipe sheet attached to the bottles.

YORKSHIRE! YORKSHIRE! YORKSHIRE!

Revolutions Brewing Co. Competition - The Results

Mark from Revolutions Brewing writes: "Today (March 27), we are brewing the winning entry in our 2013 competition. It is a 4.5% stout called Uprising designed by Pete Hindle @pchindle – he describes it as “a stout for people who don't like stout”. We can't believe that such people exist, but it's good to think we may have a beer that may convert them!

"Congratulations and honourable mentions to Stuart Goddard, Steve Syson and Zak Avery, whose beers ran the winner close.

"At the time of writing the Maris Otter, Roasted Barley, Black Malt and Dark Crystal is mashing away – the hopping regime later will consist of Goldings, Challenger and, the special ingredient, Nelson Sauvin!

"We must thank our esteemed judges who selected Pete's beer as the winner from the 11 beers submitted for the competition. They are all people that we have collaborated with in some way over the past few months – please check out the plugs for their assorted projects.

"1 – Paul Marshall (Lone Wolf) - @iamlonewolf – Leeds based musician whose new album The Lovers is fantastic - well-worth checking out – as was the 6.9% IPA we made with him – (there is one cask left, it will be available at North Bar for Record Store Day – April 20th). Lone Wolf will be performing at Jumbo Records on the same day.

"2 – Leigh Linley - @leighgoodstuff – Beer and food blogger Leigh has an exciting new book “Great Yorkshire Beer” about to be published http://goodfoodgoodbeer.wordpress.com/great-yorkshire-beer/ - we're in it! We also collaborated with Leigh on our new 3.9% beer E.P. Session Pale, which has been going down well with drinkers throughout Yorkshire and further afield.

"3 – Dan O'Dell - @hideleeds – Dan and Sam (4) collaborated with us on The Blackout, a 4.5% stout (still available from @BeerRitzLeeds / @BeerRitzOnline in bottles) – to accompany the download of the track of the same name. They have also just released their first vinyl pressing on their record label by Leeds band Dept M @dept_m

"4 – Sam Airey - @SamAirey – Welsh via Leeds singer songwriter / promoter and record label chap. Also knows a lot about tequila.

"5 – Anthony Kitching (Kitch) - @framkitch @friendsofham – Kindly provided table space for us all to sit around and pontificate in his busy, successful and quite splendid bar. He really liked the winning beer, so we assume it's a given it will be on the bar in a few weeks!

"6 – Tyler Kiley - @Tkiley1 – Quiet, unassuming American gentleman, who dispenses advice and beers from behind the bar at Friends of Ham with unique panache. We discovered that he has a dislike for beers that taste of dirt.

"7 & 8 – Mark Seaman & Andrew Helm- @revolutionsbrew – Thanks to all the entrants for submitting your beers, the overall quality was tremendous and we're sorry that we can't brew with you all.

"We will advise you all where and when the winning beer Uprising will be available!"

Many thank from the Leeds Homebrew Group to Revolutions for this opportunity, and congratulations (again) to Pete - two years on the trot!

Revolutions Brewing Co. & Leeds Homebrew - 2013 Competition

Revolutions Brewing Company are pleased to once again invite members of the Leeds Homebrewers Group to compete for the chance to have their beer turned into a full commercial brew.

In April 2012, Pete Hindle joined the guys at Revolutions to make his winning recipe into "Replicas" - the April special from Revolutions referencing the 1979 Tubeway Army album.

This year will see a group member joining Revolutions on their 8 Brewers Barrel kit in Castleford to produce approximately 30 firkins for this April's special - you can look forward to seeing your beer on bars in Leeds, York, Sheffield, London etc with a launch event at a venue TBA.

Here are the brief, but necessary rules.

1 - The closing date for 2 x 500 ml bottles of your beer to be submitted for judging (venue TBA) is February 28th, so get planning and brewing!
2 - The beer can be any style but MUST be brewed to a target ABV of 4.5%.
3 - Any ingredients you wish may be used, but a full breakdown of your recipe should be included with your entry - Revolutions reserve the right to amend the recipe where necessary for practical or commercial purposes, particularly hop availability.
4 - As a bit of fun, and to give you a taste of what it's like to be in the Revolutions team, your beer should named and "be inspired" by one of the following 1980 musical references - (the inspiration you draw is up to you!)

a) Uprising - the album by Bob Marley and the Wailers
b) Embarrassment - the single by Madness
c) Fade To Grey - the single by Visage
d) Mirror In The Bathroom - the single by The Beat

GAME ON!

Bottles For Collection - North Bar, Leeds

Just a quick post to let you know that the good people at North Bar in Leeds have offered any local homebrewers free dibs on any bottles that they would normally chuck away. They are happy to put empties to one side for collection, although it would of course be polite to make sure that if you ask them to save bottles for you, you then turn up to collect them! And of course, as North Bar love beer, they would also be happy to receive beers from any homebrewers who happen to be passing through.....

You can email Matt on info (at) northbar dot com

October Meet - Thursday 25th - Update

The next meet of the group has been scheduled for Thursday October 25th, meeting initially at The Brewery Tap in Leeds, between 6.30pm and 7pm.

However, in a departure from our usual format,. we thought that it would be a good opportunity to have more of a social get-together than a structured meet. If you want to bring bottles along to swap, drop in and meet the group, or just come along and have a beer, please do, but we thought that it might be a good time to review what we've done so far, and what we're going to do next year. More of the same? A change of direction? Do we want to try and do some brewing demos at beer festivals over the next year? Shall we book plant time somewhere and do a commercial brew? Shall we register the group as a brewery and "go legit"? (please don't say yes to this - the red tape of being a gypsy brewer is torturous)

Anyhow, bring along some beers to swap (maybe let people know below what you have available to swap), some ideas, and maybe some dreams, and we'll see you on Thursday evening.

Cheers!

October Meet - A Call for Dates

This is a little last minute but there is still time to arrange a meeting for October. With the 24th and 25th October as potential dates.  Please comment below or on Twitter to @leedshomebrew with your preference. Thanks.

Similar format to the other meetings - 6 people presenting their beers to the group, with the option of bringing along bottles to try after the more structured bit of the night.  While we don't have a guest speaker lined up, this should provide a good opportunity to focus on the beer being presented and a little more time than usual to chat.

So, if anyone has beers that they'd like to bring along to present to the group, let us know below. We'll use the same format of first come first served, but if the number of beers goes beyond 6, we'll draw lots on the night.

18:30 Arrive and get a beer
19:00 Move upstairs to the function room
19:30 Tasting of beers
21:00 Meeting adjourned (stick around for a few more drinks downstairs)

Venue: Leeds Brewery Tap (To be confirmed), 18-24 New Station Street, Leeds, LS1 5DL.

More details to follow as they are confirmed.

Ilkley Brewery's Joshua Jane

Just a quick post to say thank you once more to Ilkley Brewery for supporting Leeds Homebrew.  The brewday was a lot of fun and we were on our best behaviour to make sure we're all invited back.  Myself and Matt Lovatt went along to Bar T'at in Ilkley on Tuesday night for the launch of the beer we brewed, Joshua Jane.  It's a 3.7% nut-brown Yorkshire Ale, brewed with Amarillo and Columbus hops. We enjoyed the beer, the pork pie and the moment.  Look out for the beer in MTT pubs this week and further-a-field beyond that.

(Photos by Ian Stevens).