Golden Ale Challenge 09

It’s taken me awhile but here is the Golden Ale Challenge round up. Last months Autumn Ales Festival included the Golden Ale Challenge where different brewers brewed a golden ale at the same strength with the same ingredients. We ended up having 3 entry’s One from Brendan, one from Ed and one from me. Ed and myself both brewed English style Golden Ales with the character of the NZ hops shinning through. Brendan on the other hand chose to brew a Kolsh. Ed’s Sugerloaf Gold was definitely the best beer, it was bursting with hop aroma , brilliantly clear with a nice malty backbone. My Golden Challenge was a touch on the young side with a bit of diacetyl and raw grain flavour coming through. Brendan’s Kolsh was pretty good, alittle hazy and estery with a subdued hop character that the style dictates. Half way through the evening both Brendan and Ed admitted they had broken the rules and used Golden Promise instead of Maris Otter (Brendan even tried to make out it was some kind of act of solidarity with his Scottish heritage!) so I won by default. I was drinking Ed’s however. I will come up with a porter challenge for winter.

Autumn Ales Fest 09

Good things

A few good things have happened over the last fortnight. Fulham have trounced Manchester United (If only I were still in contact with Andrew from Huddersfield) Autumn has well and truly started and I have got a gig as a beer columnist for the Capital Times.

Autumn Ales Fest this Sat, the beers are tasting great.

Autumn Ales Fest

I havent got time to do a nice poster so here goes ...


Autumn Ales Festival

When ? Sat 28th 3pm on
Where ? Private Ale House 381 Ohiro Rd Brooklyn Wellington
What? Beers from some of Wellingtons best homebrewers including the
Golden Ale Challange entrys.

All Welcome, koha for food appreciated.

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.

Winter 08

Ah what a weekend! It started with the West Coast IPA Challenge on Thursday. Epic Brewing Co and Hallertau Brewbar both brewed an American style IPA Epic using imported ingredients, Hallertau using local ingredients, the results were put to the test back to back at the Malthouse. Then Friday saw International Brewers Day Celebrated with the unveiling of the commercially brewed SOBA Homebrew Champion Bock again at the Malthouse.

Saturday was the big day and despite heavy rain we still had a house full of punters. The beers were flowing and the food disappeared in record time (note to self, more grub next year!) Thanks to all who helped out by brewing, working bar, designing menus and to all who came to drink. A fantastic night. Right I’m off to lull my hangover with an episode of The Power of Art.

p.s. the sparkler seen on the beer engine was for Stanley Green a pale ale from pro brewer Invercargell Brewing Co. The beer was served from a plastic bladder in a cardboard box and was totally flat requiring the 'bling'.

Manning the Taps…

…Well we will be in a week’s time. I have spent today rearranging the bar for next weeks festival and setting up the extra beer engines that I have borrowed for the event. 6 of the seven engines that will be used next week are now in place. Time for a pint of Revival Stout to reward me for my work I think. There is something very satisfying about running a beer festival, I highly recommend it!

Valley Summer Ales Fest 08

What a fantastic night. Good beer, good food, good people. Thanks to all who brewed and to all came to drink and to Dave Batt who designed the Menus and then was to ill to attend. Cheers.

Beerlist

O-Street Festive Gold 4.6%abv (dry hopped Golden Ale)

O-street Somerset 5%abv (Golden Ale)

O-Street Chilka IPA 5.8%abv (Hoppy IPA)

Brendan’s Kitchen Sink Lager 5.3%abv (fruity lager)

Front Porch APA 6.7%abv (strong New World hopped pale ale)

Front Porch 60 4.2%abv (Scottish style session beer)

Emerson’s Bookbinder (NZ hopped New World Ordinary Bitter, pro brewer)

Plus various bottles from Ed.

Festival Gold

It was a 5 am start today. Today is the last brew day for the late summer ales fest in march. I mashed in early so I can be all cleaned up, home and hosed in time to have a wee poke around and tasting session at Shed 22 Macs Brewery this evening. I’m brewing a new beer today, Festival Gold is a single varietal brew combining Golden Promise pale ale malt and copious amounts of Goldings hops. I think it will be a cracker.

Summer Ales Festival Announcement

Each year I celebrate my favourite season, winter, with a winter solstice knees up. Last year I developed the concept a little further and ran a winter ales festival where myself and other local home brewers provided kegs of beer and the masses flooded into my bar to enjoy a range of old ales, porters, stouts and even a draught imperial stout. I have been inspired to run summer ales festival so on Saturday the 08 of march I will be putting on the Valley Summer Ales Fest. As the summer seems to have got away on me a little it will be more of a late summer ales festival with a few autumn styles thrown in for good measure. Any readers of this blog who will be in Wellington on the 08^th of March are welcome to come along, either to present their beer or to simply sample what is on offer. Cheers.