3rd August 2024

Attending: James Pettifor (Chair), Tony Tilbury, Peter Burgess, Steve Plampton, Colin Miller, David Beaton, Graham Smith, Steve Bennett, Justin Dean

The meeting was held at a new (to the ACB) venue: The Arbor House, High Street, Ipswich https://www.thearborhouse.co.uk/ . We were made very welcome by the staff, including making us aware of the 10% CAMRA discount on cask beers, of which several were sampled. Many opted for the very fresh Lacons Cloudless, an American style Pale Ale with typical New World aromas and flavours. The Mauldon’s Suffolk Pride was also sampled by a few, but was noted to have a significant diacetyl fault. Some also sampled some of the cans from the good selection available in the fridge.

We began by reviewing progress towards the Home Brew Competition which bis scheduled for Saturday 16th November and is once again being hosted by our friends at the Briarbank briarbank.org. Nick Davis has had to step back from his leading role in this due to other stuff in his home and work life taking precedence. James Pettifor has agreed to take the lead, but needs assistance, particularly with sourcing Sponsors over the next few weeks – Steve Plampton and Colin Miller agreed to help. James will put together a list and assign potential sponsors to be contacted, but will also check with Nick whether he has a list from last year and with NAB for their recommended contacts.

A question was raised as to whether we would be able to hold a post award ceremeny sampling session so that members and any visitors can sample the beers. This opened a up discussion about the number of bottles entrants would need to submit so as to ensure sufficient beer was left over to allow sampling of good and not-so-good entries and also the implications on the number of left over beers to be disposed of.

Currently, the number of entrants is restricted to 80, but we may increase this nearer to the competition, provided that we have sufficient judges available – last year it was necessary to hold additional judging sessions with local judges due to the low numbers of judges. So if you think you could help with the judging, please do volunteer!

As an aside, there was also a discussion about training for judges with a suggestion that we could run some training sessions and encourage a number of ACB members to learn more about judging per BJCP and potentially become accredited judges. To be addressed separately.

We then briefly addressed the upcoming ACB AGM and Graham Smith confirmed that he has spoken with the manager at the Red Lion in Manningtree and booked their back room between 12 noon and 5pm on the 12th October. He also added that his chat with the manager also has overcome their concerns around ACB members bringing home brewed beers into the pub for sampling, clearing the way for a future Saturday meeting at the Red Lion.

Colin Miller gave a further update on the Hook Norton brewery visit on 2nd October. Currently 12 members are attending with 7 confirmed to be brewing a clone attempt. Hotels and other accommodation have been booked and the visit confirmed for 10am start with the brewery tour first before later sampling of beers. If any other members wish to join the visit, please contact Colin ASAP.

Beer Challenge

Once again the monthly beer challenge focused on American hopped beers with 5 beers submitted for judging. This time we chose not to declare the beer style, but to judge the beer on its’ merits – although American hop character clearly being one of the targets.

Results:

1st: James Pettifor with an American Pale Ale (4.9%, keg) – this was his attempt at brewing Beyond the Firs, albeit with some changes driven by a desire to use malts and hops in stock. A couple of members noted diacetyl in the beer. It was also a few months old, so the hop character had certainly faded.

2nd: Steve Plampton’s Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone with a 100g Citra dry hop addition.

3rd Peter Burgess’ Summer Lightning clone, but made with Citra hops.

4th: Tony Tilbury’s black/brown IPA. Same beer presented last month and also now getting a little, so lacking the prominent hop character, but a good beer nonetheless

5th: Graham Smith’s American wheat beer made with HBC 586 experimental hops.

In truth, they were all very acceptable beers with a number of members finding it hard to separate them by many points.

Any Other Beers

Steve Plampton’s Czech Pale Ale 5% – Sadly this had turned sour so was not drunk.

David Beaton’s English bitter 4.2% – Dave had brought 2 bottles, one clear glass, the other amber. So we sampled them separately to see if we could find any evidence of “skunking” with some claiming that it requires a mere 5 minutes for this to happen. No members detected any skunking, but it was thought that the beer in the amber bottle presented as crisper, maltier and with more hop character.

James Pettifor’s Session Porter 4.0% – based on the Porter recipe which was seen as the best in the recent ACB v Newcastle beer competition, but scaled back and using CML Beoir yeast. There was nearly a fight over who could take home the second bottle, so we decided to drink it!

Tony Tilbury’s Belgian Golden Ale 8.2% – Presented with the typical Belgian style esters and phenols, but also a slight acidity. Maybe because it was several months old. A good beer nonetheless.

The meeting then closed with members migrating to the garden and then onwards to the Arcade Tavern and eventually their homes.

Thanks to all for attending what was a very good venue. I feel sure we will return!