Attending: Richard Swindells, Dom Antony, Andy Whittaker, John Watson, Graham Smith, James Pettifor, Justin Dean, Nick Davis, Steve Plampton, Tony Tilbury, Kevin Sturridge-Dines. 

Meeting Minutes

Agenda

The agenda for the day was set for Introductions and any club planning information. Green Hop Beer talk and beer tastings. VDK testing talk. Break for lunch. Nick D showed off his new SS counter-pressure bottle filler. Finally the AOB section of any other beers.

Introductions

We covered proposing a new chair, if we need one and just run it by committee as we have been. The role of chairman is mostly that of an overseer, keeping in touch with the progress of projects and ensuring they remain on track and moving. Also that of a figurehead and someone to represent the face of the club. Mini organisational committees take care of most of the leg work. The structure is proposed to remain flat across the board and we invite members to help out on committees and work groups wherever they can.  

ACB AGM – We spoke about using the Red Lion in Manningtree as a venue we haven’t used for a while and the location is good for the majority of Suffolk and Essex members. We looked at Saturday 20th January being a good date for the AGM. Graham Smith volunteered to enquire about us using their meeting room for a potential venue.

ACB 2024 homebrew competition – Nick Davis motioned that we look to move the date for the 2024 ACB homebrew competition – looking to move to late June and potentially find a new venue is the Briar Bank can’t host us due to it being peak wedding season. ND to lead up an investigation/work party for new date and venue.

Shed Festival 2024 – We spoke to Rich at teh Vic and requested dates for next year’s Shed Festival and he suggested the weekend of May 18th. The weekend of May 25th was also mentioned, but the 18th was preferred. 

Brewery Tour 2024 – We spoke about the organisation of another brewery tour in 2024 with a trio of venues suggested: 

• Hook Norton Brewery (Colin Miller to complete fact finding)
• Woodfordes Brewery (Steve Plampton suggested we’d be well looked after as he knows the brewery owner and he’s keen for us to attend and provide private tour – Steve Plampton to fact find)
• Burnt Mill brewery tour and tasting event – (James Pettifor to complete fact finding)

Any Other Business – None.

Green Hop Beer Talk and Tasting

Richard Swindells held a 10 minute talk on his Green Hop Beer, covering the recipe and process including main considerations and thoughts on making a green hop beer. Afterwards he poured the Green Hop Beer in question, a green hop Fuggles inspired creation and opened it up to the floor for feedback. Interesting comments: Low phenolic, spiciness, nice hop bitterness, overall a good beer. 

Kevin Sturridge Dines and John Watson also kindly brought along their own Green Hop Beers made from home grown hops to try, with KSD bringing an English IPA with a small bittering charge of goldings and the rest a large 700g charge of homegrown hops. General feedback, good beer, would benefit from more bitterness for balance. 

John Watson’s IPA used 25 IBU of Challenger and the rest came from his home grown Cascade hops. In his notes, JW spoke about the beer being very fresh and only 2 weeks in the bottle. Feedback included diacetyl across the table. JW is going to keep bottles to bring to a future meeting and see how the beer ages and if the bottle conditioning period works to remove the diacetyl. 

John’s beer exhibiting VDK compounds worked marvellously to move seamlessly to the next planned talk on VDK Testing, by Richard Swindells.

VDK Testing

RS held a 10 minute talk on the value of VDK testing your final beer. It was mentioned that others have done this, but called it “Forced Diacetyl Testing”. The basic premise is to warm the sample to between 70 – 80C and keep it there for 30 minutes to simulate ageing the beer to test it for diacetyl. The test makes diacetyl compounds really obvious and avoids you packaging your beer before the yeast has had time to clear up fermentation pre-cursors. 

Nick Davis Shiny Stainless Steel Counter-Pressure Bottle Filler

ND kindly brought his new online purchase of a sturdy stainless steel counter-pressure bottle filler. The build quality was superb on first inspection. Impressed, we wait for an update from Nick once he’s used it in anger. Questions included how it works with higher pressures and ease of use. 

Break for Lunch

Most of us headed over the road to the chip shop to take sustenance and line stomachs for the large selection of AOBs coming after lunch. 

Any Other Beers

As mentioned, there was a large, and wide, selection of bottled beers on the table. ABVs started at 5% and rose to an eye watering 16% mead. 

Andy W brought a Wadsworth JCB clone 5% – good beer – benefit from more bitterness.

James P brought his BoS winning Witbeir 5.1% at NAB – Great beer but showed lower than expected haze, good tight head, could benefit from more Belgian character, with low phenolic spiciness noted. 

Steve P brought the last two bottles of his Broadside clone beer 6.2% that was brewed in Feb 22. Aged superbly with raisin notes and all the good aspects of oxidative ageing.

Rich S brought an all Chevallier and Goldings SMaSH beer 6.4% – lovely beer, notes of oranges on the nose and flavour with a firm bitterness to carry the malt backbone.

Nick D brought a Smoked Porter 7.1% with home-smoked wheat malt to bring a lovely gentle smoked aroma with the sweet malt backbone. Lovely beer.

Dom A brought a Citra hop-bomb NEIPA 7.5% – we all saw lemons and drifted off to another planet for a mystical yellow submarine adventure. It certainly got people talking, with varying levels of hop love or otherwise. Controversial beer. (personally I enjoyed it).

James P brought an american Barley Wine 9.3% – Good beer with US hop character and a smooth alcohol.

Kev SD brought an English Barley Wine 9.8% – Good beer with chewy body and good hopping.

Steve P brought a Barley Wine 11% – I’m drifting off and now my notes are intangible – I think it was another good beer with a smooth alcohol and malty body and good balance of hop flavour and aroma.

Finally – Nick D brought a Mead at a mere 16% for us to try. No one went blind – Good. Smooth, warming alcohol riding a wave of delightful honey flavours and aromas – superb. 

Finally, we stayed for more beer and some of us decided to start on the Belgian beers – great idea, as I slept like a cat all evening, into the next morning. Lovely.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the meeting was a great chance for members to meet up and for us to kick off arrangements for next year before the AGM, so we can report in to that to record agreed dates and organise 2024 quickly.