Present: Dom Anthony, Keith Bailey, Simon Baker, Steve Bennett, Pete Burgess, Dave Caiels, Nick Davis, Justin Dean, Alan Osbiston, Jim Pettifor, Steve Plampton, Nigel Sadler, Tony Tilbury, Roger Yates.
So…our last ACB get together of the year saw us head off up to Bury St. Edmunds for a session sampling Belgian beers at Vespers. Vespers (vespersbar.co.uk)
In an early morning exercise, very reminiscent of the co-ordination of vast swathes of Spitfires and Hurricanes defending London during the Battle of Britain, small groups of middle aged men joined each other at various points of the Anglian railway network to create a homogenous group, moving together up St. Andrews Street North focused on a common goal….finding somewhere for breakfast!!
Eventually, fuelled by ‘Spoons finest (?) fry up, we forged on towards Vespers, where we found the rest of the group, eagerly waiting. It took no time at all for other stragglers and individuals to fulfil the compliment of 14 expectant drinkers.
Early orders were taken with most drinkers going for something light and low in alcohol…wanting to pace themselves for the stronger delights no doubt to come later in the day.
We were housed in an upstairs room with plenty of space for the 14 of us…even if we were all bulked up with our coats, scarves, and woolly hats….yes it was bloody cold in there. We did find the thermostat, but it didn’t seem to make any difference and it was only a couple of hours later that the heating issue was resolved (luckily our brewing is better than our understanding of heating control mechanisms….like switches).
Initially we had a brief discussion/show and tell regarding portable dispensing solutions and Jim P showed us a cap that can be use on normal screw top bottles to provide a gas in and beer out post, allowing a mini regulator (a couple of examples of which also were passed around for inspection) using a 16g CO2 bulb to be connected as well as a beer out tap. Sadly, the beer out tap had been left at home so the dispense of the beer brought by Jim had to be achieved by simply pouring directly from the bottle. The beer in question was a Brut IPA….having had it myself at an Ipswich meeting the beer was perhaps showing its age a bit and had lost a bit of its hop character. At the same time, Justin also passed round his digital spunding valve.
Spunding Valve With Integrated Digital Gauge
A proposal was made, round about this time, that those of us who had had water analyses done by various organisations (e.g. Murphy’s, Phoenix Analytical) could share them for the benefit of others and to possible help build up a picture of “East Anglian” water that might be of benefit to other brewers. Was agreed that we could do this via the ACB website and that Nick D would send a spreadsheet of what had been gathered so far that could be easily added to by others.
We also had a discussion about a future meeting to include a visit to a maltings. We mused on Muntons (Stowmarket) and Nigel S suggested that Bairds in Witham might be an interesting option. Crisps also could be a viable option. Something we can discuss at the AGM.
Another thing that was raised was that in a recent presentation to members of the SIBA Homebrewing community, a representative of Lallemand hinted at the possibility that they would be expanding their range of dry yeasts to include equivalents of currently popular wet yeasts next year…Nigel said he would see if he could confirm this with one of his sources.
Nigel also confirmed that Brewlabs were offering a range of yeast slopes for sale to the general public once more as well as reporting that yeasts are now being developed for flavour enhancement
A couple of other beers were also presented by members. Alan served up a Tripel, Steve a Belgian Dark Strong and Dom a West Coast IPA. A few folks at this point headed back downstairs to get a second sample of Belgian beer….some upping the ante as some suspiciously dark and strong looking beers made an entrance.
After a light lunch of cold cured meats, cheese, bread, pickled onions, pork pie and scotch eggs, we got on to the actual guided tasting session that was organised for the day. Our host, Max, serving up various beers and talking us through some of the history behind some of them as well as a little bit about some of the breweries behind the beers.
We started off with a Brugse Zot, a Belgian Blonde ale of 6% a lovely light beer with a sweetish malt character, hints of light fruit and a crisp finish. Next up was a Westmalle Dubbel, this was interesting as, although many of us had no doubt experienced the bottled version, I’m not sure a large number of us had previously sampled the beer on draught. At 7% this Trappist Dubbel has a complex taste with notes of caramel, malt and some fruity esters. I must admit, I personally find that Dubbels often don’t deliver on some of the promised flavour complexities and bottled Westmalle Dubbel has always been a beer that I can happily take or leave (give me a Tripel any day!!)….however this draught version (and if my hazy memory serves me well…it was a fresh keg) had a depth and complexity and roundness of flavour that, prior to the day, I’d always found lacking. Very nice indeed
The 3rd beer in the flight of samples was a 7.5% Belgian Triple from Averbode. This Abbey beer is brewed by Brewery Huyghe who some may be familiar with via their Delirium and Mongozo ranges. This proved to be an excellent example of the style.
Finally we finished up the guided tasting with a St Bernardus Christmas beer at a nice round 10%. On receiving the beer it was commented that the same beer, served earlier in the day, tasted significantly different with a lot more flavour, having had the opportunity to warm up. We had been finding that many of the beers were on the chilly side of cold but learned that Vespers only have a single refrigeration unit, which generally keeps their beers at a quite chilly 7-9 degrees, which is maybe a touch too cold for some of the richer darker beers. Someone made the comment that it was taking a while for the beers to warm up….whereupon our host asked us if we wanted the heating actually switching on…seemingly our prior attempts to increase the thermostat had been in vain…and we’d seemingly missed the actual on/off switch on the heaters. We did eventually warm up a bit but still most of us remained in our coats and scarves.
Thereafter the day descended into a general Belgian beer free for all with various trips to the bar resulting in a variety of beers being sampled and shared between us all.
Towards the end we asked if they had something “special” tucked away “off menu”. A variety of bottles were produced (I believe that several sampled a lovely Gouden Carolus Imperial Blond) and the costs of a bottle of Chimay Blue Grande Reserve Barrique Oak aged 2019 were shared between a few of us. All agreed that it was a truly superb beer.
As the afternoon drew to a close and perhaps legs started to fail some of us we eventually departed and headed for home. For some of us this was via a stop off at the Beautiful Beers bottle shop to purchase a few “samples” and then a further stop at the Brewhouse whilst we waited for the appropriate train to arrive to transport us home.
I’m sure I have forgotten some of the other stuff that happened or was said and I apologise to those who said something useful and constructive, that I have omitted from this fairly fuddled account of events.
Overall I think we had an enjoyable day at a great venue. Our host Max couldn’t have been more helpful and Vespers is certainly a place that could be revisited….but perhaps during warmer times!!!