Notes from the ACB Monthly Meeting held Saturday 7th September 2024 at Victoria Arms, Colchester.
Attendees: Steve Plampton, Tony Tilbury, Justin Dean, Alan Osbiston, Kev Warnes, Gerard Galvin, Richard Swindells, Colin Miller
On a warm sunny day we started with a pint in the garden before heading up to the meeting room at the Vic.
Hook Norton Brewery Visit & Clone
The ACB are going on tour with members heading to Hook Norton Brewery next month (1-3 October). The itinerary is a Brewery tour and clone tasting of their famous bitter, “Old Hooky”. The tasting will be judged by the Hook Norton brewers.
We sampled some Old Hooky and made the following notes:
- The beer is lighter than the suggested 31 EBC, we estimated 22-25 EBC.
- The nose has orange/marmalade from Goldings hops (Challenger is used for bitterness with Golding & Fuggles for flavour & aroma).
- Caramel flavours from 170 & 100 Crystal Malts.
- Some sulphate from the high mineral water.
- Bitterness is 32-34 IBUs.
- Medium body with some residuals from yeast.
- Yeast has a fruity character, suggested using an English yeast, such as Windsor.
The brewers at the meeting made arrangements for travel.
Good luck to the brewers entering a clone beer. We hope to see some notes from the day and to sample the winning beer.
Club Competition
Registration for the All American ACB Showdown is now open.
- As of today we have 34 entries.
- It’s our club comp so would be great if we can get as many from ACB to enter as possible.
- Add to social channels – TT will do Facebook groups, maybe Nick D. can do HBF?
- Currently 7 judges.
- All that can help out to indicate on the comp website.
- No update about Sponsors.
Advent Beer Box
Good response so far with 16 brewers already registered.
We would like 24 so sign up soon while there are still places.
TT to push on Facebook, KW to send reminder from website in a month or so.
Annual General Meeting of Anglian Craft Brewers
AGM is planned for Saturday 2nd November at Red Lion in Manningtree, agenda and meeting link published.
We will include the green hop beer challenge final – see below.
Green Hop Beer Challenge
Many brewers are brewing or planning a green hop beer over the next few weeks. From home grown Cascade to Foraged Wild hops there could be quite a range. It would be great to compare and contrast these beers so the following challenge was agreed:
- Local judging at October mid week in Essex & Suffolk.
- Best 2 from each local judging to be tasted at the AGM on 2nd November.
Onto the main event of the afternoon:
Brewing Liquor: Balancing the Ions
Alan Osbiston
Alan gave a fascinating talk about Brewing Liquor.
Starting with Requirements for Brewing he explained essential ions for perfect mash & fermentation, then condiment ions for better tasting beer.
The second topic “Know Your Water” lead to some interesting discussions that have continued on Slack.
Finally Alan shared his process for Liquor treatment and demonstrated his very clever spreadsheet for calculating additions.
If you would like to read more, the slide deck is linked from the pictures and Alan will soon make his spreadsheet available for us to use when he has completed the acid addition section.
A great talk, many thanks Alan. Tony is considering turning the spreadsheet into a calculator on the website…
We discussed a potential sensory visit to Alan’s workplace before he retires. Options for Jan/Feb/Mar to be considered.
American Hops Beer Challenge
We had two beers for the challenge:
Steve’s APA: Sierra Nevada Clone brewed in July at 5.5%. Northern Brewer and Cascade with a Citra Dry Hop and BRY-97 yeast.
Gerard’s HOBO Gold brewed in August at 5%. Columbus, Citra, Simco & Cascade hops and US05 yeast. Dry hopped in a Cornie, then bottle conditioned.
We thought both beers were good, hoppy and easy drinking and could not pick a winner – thanks for bringing. We did however notice quite a difference in the HOBO Gold in brown & clear bottles – the beer in the brown bottle was fresher, we got some green apple from the clear bottle.
Gerard’s beer was brewed (alongside an Abbott clone) for a wedding. A quote from the wedding “the Abbott was the star of the show, the APA was good but not a patch on the Abbott“!
Any Other Beers
Just one beer – a bitter from Kev. This beer used Brown Malt and was hopped with Bullion. The beer was soft and easy drinking but over carbonated so had a carbonic bite.
With the meeting closed, we retired back to the garden at about 3pm and enjoyed a few more beers from the pub.