Feb 01 ACB Monthly Meeting Minutes – Essex, at The Victoria Inn, Colchester

Attending: Richard Swindells, Graham Smith, James Pettifor, Justin Dean, Tony Tilbury, Steve Bennett, Jon Rolinson, Guy Gallington, Nik Leng. 

Agenda

  • Pre-meeting – Bar beers and discuss Lunch options (to arrive for 13:00/13:30).
  • 12:30: Start meeting with welcomes/apologies.
  • 12:35: ACB updates (5 min).
  • 12:40: Rich S Talk on refilling Sodastream Co2 bottles at home (15 min).
  • 13:00: Tony T Talk on making sour beers (30 min) or Lunch (13:00)
  • 13:30: Lunch (30 min)
  • 14:00: Beer Challenge 30m-1h (Water treatment challenge – pale beer with local water treated to suit the style).
  • 14:30-1500: AOB 

Meeting Minutes

Agenda

  • Pre-meeting – Bar beers and discuss Lunch options (to arrive for 13:00/13:30).
  • 12:30: Start meeting with welcomes/apologies.
  • 12:35: ACB updates (5 min).
  • 12:40: Rich S Talk on refilling Sodastream Co2 bottles at home (15 min).
  • 13:00: Tony T Talk on making sour beers (30 min) or Lunch (13:00)
  • 13:30: Lunch (30 min)
  • 14:00: Beer Challenge 30m-1h (Water treatment challenge – pale beer with local water treated to suit the style).
  • 14:30-1500: AOB 

Meeting Minutes

  • Apologies received from S.Plampton.
  • Rich Swindells mentioned a useful off-flavour download, found on the site, and promised to add a link to it. 
  • Justin kindly ordered Pizzas from Pizza Express.
  • James P brought up points of confusion about the quarterly challenges (minuted in the AGM minutes) on the website. Rich S pointed out there is not a lot of support for a lot of work. Guy Gallington kindly stepped up to volunteer help. RS to message GG and arrange a log on [RS already done].
  • Points raised to improve how we communicate quarterly beer challenges. RS promised to look at this as a matter of urgency. [RS: Already implemented a list of the quarterly challenges and links to the events/calendar page in the website sidebar.]
  • RS raised a point as requested by Colin Miller to ask for a preferred month/date for the Harvey’s brewery tour and clone beer challenge. The majority stated a date in October would be preferable, if possible. CM to find out availability from Harvey’s. [RS informed CM]
  • Justin D pointed out the availability of the Chelmsford Brewery tour and clone beer challenge set for the 20th September ‘25. Justin is following up with a detailed recipe of the clone beer once he’s written it up. To be confirmed. [JD to provide the recipe.]
  • James P mentioned he needs to talk to Alan O to arrange another tour of his place of work and sensory training, based around aroma. [JP to feedback date(s) once he can talk to AO.]
  • The earlier point about the lack of clarity from the website on the quarterly beer challenges arose again and questions were asked about the order of the quarterly beer challenges and some points bout the definition of the beer challenges. The order of the malt and single hop challenges were requested to be swapped to give brewers more time to plan and Colin to split and distribute the hops. [RS spoke to challenge hop organiser, Colin Miller, who is happy to move to Q3. RS updated the website events page and sent out an events page to collect interested brewers. Now Malt challenge is Q2 and single hop challenge is Q3.] 
  • Rich S presented a talk on how he refills a 60l sodastream bottle from a larger donor bottle. He also talked about the Kegland mini 360 sodastream Regulator. The talk will be loaded to the website blogs page.
  • Lunch was taken at 1340 for 20 mins.
  • After lunch we put challenge beers out on the table. 3x pale beers with local water and various, similar treatments (CRS/DWB). Nik L presented an Amber Lager which was decided to the first and best beer. James P presented a Durdon Park Bitter, that was a little past its best, but still a good beer, and decided was second best. Rich S presented a 100% Chevallier English IPA that was very lively and super malty (Barley Sugar notes), seemed to have gone again in the bottle. We all decided this was 3rd. 
  • Tony T then presented a talk on Sour beer methods and how to brew them. This talk will also be added to the website. TT also presented a range of sour beers for the table to sample and get a better idea about the styles he was presenting.
  • Berliner Kindl Weisse – A clean lemon juice level of sourness, it was agreed that the beer was a bit one dimensional, traditionally these beers are mixed with various syrups at the bar and it was agreed that a bit of sweetness would have helped to balance the beer.
  • De Leite Mam’zelle – A mixed culture sour, started life as a blonde ale then added to red wine barrels to allow the cultures to develop. A very harsh acetic acid sourness, perhaps a bit too much for our delicate palettes.
  • Homebrew Sour – A homebrewed sour from James, very strong acetic sourness made this beer rather unbalanced, some agreed it would go well with a portion of chips. Hiding under that sourness was a very good beer, deep malt notes, an interesting example.
  • Duchess de Bourgogne – A traditional Flemish Red ale, 6.2% ABV aged for up to 18 months in oak vats then blended to produced a well balanced beer, deep fruity notes on the aroma, sourness and tartness was backed by a pleasant sweetness on tasting, the best of the bunch.
  • Cucumber and Mint Source – A example of a modern take on a sour beer, not the best example by a country mile. Very strong cucumber on the aroma (and taste) with a one dimensional lactic sourness. Basically just sour cucumber water, if I was to use the exact notes Steve took for this beer all this would say is “Shite!”.

AOB

Quite a few beers were presented for AOB all of them as usual of excellent quality.

  • Best Bitter (Guy) – This was a fresh beer only being bottled in the last 3 weeks, nice condition already some noted a slight phenolic note although all agreed a drinkable beer, suggested by Justin that at least 4-6 week of conditioning would help.
  • Golden Ale (Graham) – A beer made with a mix of malt and hops from left overs, perhaps a bit dark for the style but a good clean aroma and well balanced although perhaps bit more bitterness would make it more to style.
  • Red IPA (Guy) Brewed using a combination of Eldorado and Amarillo for flavouring, fruit salad on the aroma, full bodied and very fruity on the taste. A dangerous beer as very easy drinking given it’s 6% ABV. Maybe a bit more bitterness required.
  • Irish Stout (James P) A ‘Guinness’ clone, but due to stock issues using black malt rather than the more traditional roasted barley, Had the slight acidic twang up front that you would expect from a Guinness, smooth roast flavour, dry and clean
  • Imperial Stout (John R) A big 11% barrel aged Stout, dark brown head with a deep caramel aroma (perhaps a hint of Brett). Thick, Smooth, some tannins but rich.

Thanks to the Victoria Inn, Colchester, for hosting us again. Another great selection of cask and keg beers to keep all tastes happy. Thanks to Justin for buying the Pizzas in (please reimburse him asap).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *