Thursday 26 July 2012

Rooster's & Leeds Homebrew


If you were at the meet-up last night, you'll already know that Rooster's Brewery are the latest kind souls to offer a hand of friendship to our group. Unfortunately, the hand is holding a card, and on that card, in bold capital letters, it says just one word: FIGHT!

Yes, it's competition time again. No sooner have we announced the winners of our previous competition, generously hosted by Ilkley Brewery, than Rooster's come along and plop another one into our laps. This time, the gloves are off. Rather than brewing to a brief, as with the Ilkley competition, this is a very different challenge - brew whatever you like, just make sure it's better than everyone else's!

So, what's hard about that? Just brew the best beer you can, make sure that you try hard, but don't go over the top and seem as though you're trying too hard. Maybe have a think about the last beer that made the transition from homebrew to trial plant - Rooster's very own Baby-Faced Assassin. Big and bold, but balanced and beautiful. Pale golden ale or chocolate and chilli stout - just make it the best beer you can. No pressure.

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Leeds Home-Brew Competition 

Deadline - September 14th (Beers to be dropped off at Beer Ritz or Friends of Ham any time up to this date)

Judging - September 15th/16th

The Rules...

The rules are there are no rules! Well, within reason. Each entry must be a clean and balanced beer in terms of flavour for the style. Any style can be entered. Big aromas welcome. An ABV. of 5-7% is recommended.

2 x 500ml bottle of each entry will be needed for judging, with the (potential) name and style of the beer stated on the bottle. The name of the brewer of each entry will be recorded separately by Beer Ritz and Friends of Ham until a winner has been chosen. DON’T PUT YOUR NAME ON THE BOTTLE! 

The Prize...

A Rooster’s goody bag (!) and the opportunity to brew the beer on Rooster's trial plant with Rooster's Head Brewer. The beer will then be bottled (in 750ml bottles) and sold commercially via Beer Ritz in Headingley (and BeerRitz.co.uk)

Rooster's Brew Day - Friday October 12th

The Small Print...

All ingredients will need to be disclosed to Rooster's and although, where possible, the winning beer will be brewed to the same (up-scaled) recipe, it may have to be tweaked according to Rooster's needs.

July Meet Round-Up

Thanks to everyone who turned out last night for a fun evening at The Brewery Tap. In fact, here's a list of people that we would like to thank:

Thanks to Leeds Brewery for the hospitality and chance to experiment on the in-house brewplant.

Thanks to Ilkley Brewery for coming down and announcing the winners of the competition to spec and brew their autumn seasonal. And congratulations to Matt Lovatt and David Bishop, who took joint first place in the competition, and will now spend weeks bickering over the exact formulation of the winning recipe, which will be a blend of the two.

Thanks to Andy Hamilton for coming and visiting the group, showing an interest, and hopefully getting something useful for his upcoming book. And also thanks for the preview reading of a passage of the book (but don't try a Welsh accent ever again)

Thanks to Stuart from Magic Rock for bringing malt samples, supplying yeast at very short notice, and passing opinion on the members beer. I think he was quietly surprised at the quality.

And thanks too to Tom from Rooster's for announcing the next collaboration project (that's what we're a calling competitons these days), of which more shortly......

Tuesday 24 July 2012

July Meet - TOMORROW! - Wednesday 25th July

Just a quick reminder that we will be meeting tomorrow, Wednesday 25th July, at The Brewery Tap, 18-24 New Station Street, Leeds, LS1 5DL.


As well as a talk from Andy Hamilton, we will have Ilkley Brewery popping in to announce the winner of their competition - an American Brown Ale - which will be going into production later in the year. The announcement will be at the start of the evening (we think!), so if you're in the running, please don't be late!


Also lurking in the shadows will be Stuart Ross of Magic Rock (not to be confused with Stewart Ross of Ilkley Brewery....), who very kindly supplied the yeast at short notice for the production brew of Matt Lovatt and Will Brigg's Possession Amber Ale, which will be on the bar tomorrow. Thanks also to Alex from Leeds Brewery for supervising the brew day.


As if that wasn't enough to drag you away from your mash tuns for the evening, Tom from Rooster's Brewery will also be in attendance with news of another collaborative experiment between the group and Rooster's Brewery. It may be in the guise of a competition, but that word makes it sound so, well, competitive, doesn't it?.....


See you tomorrow!



18:30 Arrive and get a beer
19:00 Welcome / Talk / Q&A
20:00 Tasting of members' beers
21:00 Meeting adjourned. Carousing optional.

Thursday 5 July 2012

July Meet - Wednesday 25th July

Apologies if this is a bit of a snap decision, but the next meet has been called for Wednesday 25th July, with a room being kindly provided by Leeds Brewery at The Brewery Tap, New Station Street, Leeds, LS1 5DL.

With good fortune and a following wind, we should have a beer on the bar that night brewed by members of the group. My suggestion is that Matt brews Possession under the supervision of Alex on the kit at The Brewery Tap, although of course this is an open invite for people to come along, get involved, throw in hops, dig out spent grain, and generally see what it's like to brew on a large stainless steel plant rather than in plastic buckets in the kitchen! Mash in will be at 7am on either Tuesday 10th or Wednesday 11th.

Our guest on Wednesday 25th will be Andy Hamilton (not the stand-up comedian, but "the other Andy Hamilton", as even he is forced to describe himself). Andy will be giving a short talk and Q&A about the idea of "booze for free", and will be in Leeds for a couple of days while he researches a book about beer and homebrewing. Please do come along and show him some proper Leeds hospitality (that sounds much more menacing than it's meant to).

The meeting will follow the usual format:


18:30 Arrive and get a beer
19:00 Welcome / Talk / Q&A
20:00 Tasting of members' beers
21:00 Meeting adjourned. Carousing optional.


Wednesday 4 July 2012

July Meet - A Call For Action!

Hi folks, if we want to meet this month, we need to settle on a date. And if we want to do a brew ahead of the meet, we need to move double quick, because time is against us!

If we meet the last week in July (Wednesday 25th or Thursday 26th), we still have time to squeeze in a brew, but we need to do it next week. The other option is to postpone the brew until the next meet (October), and get organised. But either way, we need to set a date for this month!

Let me hear you!