Date: 6th June 2026
Venue: The Arbor House, Ipswich
Attendees: Nick Davis, Alan Osbiston, Jim Pettifor, Graham Smith, Colin miller, Steve Plampton, rich Swindells, Steve Davies.
1: Introductions
A new face in the way of Steve Davies joined us, so traditional round table introductions were done and we gave Steve a brief overview of the ACB and the sort of things we get involved in.
For his part, Steve is not a homebrewer, but is an employee of Earl Soham and has an interest in commercial brewing, with a particular focus on hops and yeast. He actually met some of us when we went on the trip to Hook Norton a year or so back. I hope Steve enjoyed the day and that we will see him back at another event in the near future.
2: Shed Brewer’s Festival
Positive feedback from the festival, the event was sold out and all the beer that was brewed was consumed. General feedback from the attendees was very good.
One thing that was new this year was that instead of just doing the normal tasting sessions with the public, the concept of Triangle testing was introduced where people were challenged to pick out and describe differences between three samples of a beer. This seemingly was quite popular and is something that we could introduce into our own meetings.
3: Brewery Tours
Colin M is in ongoing contact with Batemans Brewery and we have a provisional date of 12th September booked in with the visitor center manager. Colin is currently trying to see if the head brewer can be involved as well.
The clone beer (assuming we get the recipe) is planned to be Batemans 5G, a light amber session IPA.
Further details will follow as things are firmed up.
4: 3-Way Comp
At the end of our previous 3-way (Esses/Suffolk/Norfolk) comp earlier this year it was decided that we would have a go at Belgian beers.
Subsequent discussions have resulted in the following 8 chosen styles…
- 23B Flanders Red
- 24A Witbier
- 24C Biere de Garde
- 25A Belgian Blonde
- 25B Saison
- 26A Single
- 26C Tripel
- 26D Belgian Dark Strong
We envisage doing the swap and distribution of beers sometime in January 2027, with a view to starting tasting in early February 2027.
An “event” will be created on the ACB site as a reminder, but people will need to co-ordinate at local Essex and Suffolk midweek meetings in order to organize themselves and decide on who is brewing what.
Specific dates around the delivery of beers to local hubs, the swap, and the tasting dates will be decided upon sometime closer to the end of the year.
5: South Pacific Flavours Challenge
Just a reminder that our August meeting will be the one where we taste our entries for the South Pacific Flavours beer challenge. Anyone is welcome to brew and enter a beer. The premise of the challenge is that your beer should showcase typical flavours that might be considered “South Pacific” in nature….maybe Pineapple, Coconut, Kiwi, Mango etc etc. There is no restriction on the actual style you can brew.
6: BJCP Training
The current BJCP training sessions held at the Vic are continuing with enthusiasm. Several people have sat and passed the online examination. There is a tasting exam set for the 18th July and currently Alan Osbiston, Kevin Surridge Dines, Tony Tilbury and Guy Gallington are set to sit this exam.
7: ACB Homebrew Competition
The competition is due to be held on Saturday 21st November at the Victoria Inn in Colchester. The theme for this year’s competition is European and Commonwealth styles.
Currently scheduled for 120 entries and the cost is set at £10 per entry (2nd entries if we have them will be at a discounted rate).
The competition website is currently under development and is expected to go-live for registration and entries on 1st July.
8: AOB 1 (i.e. proper AOB)
Couple of points from Nick…
- Can future monthly meetings have some minutes produced please…it helps with knowing what has gone on at other meetings other than the simple consumption of beer
- Concern was raised over the amount of money currently being held in our PayPal account…£563. This money has purely been generated by means of our annual ACB Homebrew Competition and is likely to grow further after this years comp. we need to start thinking about ways we can usefully use this money to provide benefits to members. Options could include…
- Purchasing of Off-Flavour tasting kits
- Support of travel costs on distant brewery tours (e.g. mini-bus hire)
- Web-site support / development
This will be an agenda item at the next AGM, so it would be good if people could put their thinking caps on and come up with a few suggestions. Not every suggestion will be adopted…we are not looking to blow all £500, just for useful ways of benefiting from the cash we have at hand.
8: AOB 2 (i.e. Any Other Beers)
There seemed to be a bit of impatience to get stuck in to our homebrewed samples so even before lunch we had 3 versions of the Abbot Ales clones from the last challenge to taste.
- Steve Plampton @ 4.7% brewed with home made invert using Muscovado sugar
- Rich Swindells @6.0% using Tate and Lyles Golden Syrup
- Colin Miller @5.0% also using Golden Syrup, partially inverted.
Following the conclusion of the main meeting agenda we then sampled…
- 4.4% TT Landlord Clone – Colin M
- 4.5% Pale Ale – Jim P
- 4.6% Pale Ale – Rich S
- 5.1% Pale Ale – Graham S
- 5.0% Smoked Helles – Nick Davis
- 4.6% London Brown Ale – Colin M
- 4.8% Guinness Clone – Jim P
- 6.0% Saison – Steve P
- 8.0% Stout – Colin M
- 15.0% Belgian Imperial Stout – Nick D
Finally, in an effort to reduce his stocks of “sharing sized” bottles, Nick cracked open a bottle of Chimay ADS Grande Reserve from 2022 at 9.0%…a strong, dark brown beer with fruity, chocolate and spicy aromas.
Further watering continued with a number of beers from the bar for another couple of hours. Once more the Arbor House were excellent hosts and the food was of its usual high standards.