Summer Drinking

Today the first corny of my summer ale, Somerset went on tap. The recipe has always been a cracker (if I do say so myself!) and this year is no exception. In fact I think it may be one of the best yet, perhaps the switch from imported Styrians to NZ ones wasn’t so bad after all. Also on tap is the pilot batch of the Peoples Porter, when it first went on last week it had touch of greenness to it, not full blown acetaldehyde but in that direction. Thankfully today its tasting very good, the espresso has blended with the malts nicely, and has given it a touch of acidity that reminds me of the Meantime Coffee beer. I’m off up the coast for the weekend to celebrate my birthday and try not to think about the possibility of a Tory victory, I might have to fill some riggers.

The Golden Ale Challenge

Through the years the topic of house characters has often come up for conversation around the bar. Each homebrewer who provides beer for the taps here has a unique profile that most of their beers conform to, we often said it would be interesting to brew the same beer in each brewery and see what happened.
The Golden Ale Challenge is my attempt at a highly unscientific experiment into the differences between each brewer. With a mind to serving the beers at next February’s Valley Summer Ales Festival I have contacted a range of homebrewers who will each brew a 1045 golden ale with Maris Otter Pale Malt and New Zealand Styrian Goldings and Nelson Sauvin hops.

The rules are as follows:

- Each brewer will formulate a 100% Maris Otter Grist that would normally result in a 1045 beer.

- They will then mash in what ever way they normally mash.

- Each brewer will be provided with 80g of Nelson Sauvin and 80g of NZ Styrians be added in what ever quantity and regime they want

- The brewer will ferment the beer with their house yeast (or if they don’t have a house yeast what ever they feel is right)

It should be a bit of fun.

The Ultimate Summer Ale?

Last night we ducked into the Malthouse after work to recover from the horrors of working in retail during the massacre that is Xmas. After a somewhat ropy pint of handpulled keg Tuatara IPA (odd woody medicinal character that didn’t make for ease of drinking) we ended up drinking Rodenbach Grand Cru. It fit the hot muggy night perfectly , the acidity was incredibly refreshing with the fruity flavours hitting the spot perfectly. It got me thinking about beers for summer. This summer has already seen a itched legal battle between DB and Lion with the former seeking to secure the term Summer Ale as a trademark for its ginger and honey flavoured lager, a ‘beer’ I would not wish on my worst enemy, while latter wanted to use the term Summer Ale for a rather toned down but inoffensive blond lemon grass flavoured beer. Lion won and right fully so, a style should not be trademarked. However I don’t think either beer from the big two has much to do with the English Summer Ale style.

Of course Rodenbach has little to do with that style either but my word it hit the spot on a sweltering night.