Real Ale at the Races

Never let it be said that we let a bad beer selection get in the way of a good time. This weekend I made a mad dash to Otaki for a very short weekend away for my good friend Mulchin’s 30^th Birthday. I had to be back for work on Sunday and ended up having to race the train an extra stop in order to catch it home!

On Saturday we visited the Otaki Maori Racing Club meet at the Otaki racecourse. We knew the usual suspects were on offer from bar so decided to sort our own beer out. We set up a beer engine in the back of the van and enjoyed the good stuff

To make the weekend special I had organised 3 soft packs, a concept similar to nasty cask wine but bigger and without the nasty wine, filled with bright moderately conditioned beer. So my title is a little disingenuous as it was really bright ale at the races but that didn’t have the same ring to it!

Through the weekend we enjoyed Twisted Hop Goldings Bitter, Three Boys IPA and Three Boys Oyster Stout. All were tasting absolutely fantastic. We had the IPA at the races and it certainly hit the spot.

Boys Bitter

I’m brewing a new beer today. Its not often that I come up with whole new recipes as I tend to spend my brew days trying to improve the ones I have. I have a bit of a thing for low gravity beers that can still be characterful. Cask Conditioned Real Ale (there! I will use both terms as that seems to be topic on the month on the blogs) tends to allow low gravity beers to shine with out hiding there attributes under high carbonation and low temperatures.
I have come up with a dark copper coloured, hoppy, boys bitter called Southern Star.

Southern Star (3 keg batch)

Target gravity 1033

Grist:

- 5kg Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
- 1kg ADM Pilsner Malt
- 500g Dark Crystal

Hops:

- NZ Goldings 37g (60min)
- NZ Goldings 60g (5min)
- NZ Cascade 60g (1min)

Yeast:

S-04