Oxford Brewers Group

Get ready for the 2012 Taste & Swap event!

The venue will be the Marston Scout Hut hall on the Marston Road in Oxford

The event will take place on the weekend of the 16th – 17th June (actual day to be confirmed)

Hopefully we will have some of the XT Brewing Jubilee Beer that the group has had a hand in devising the recipe for as part of our collaborative brew to taste.

Bring along some of your beer that you would like to either taste on the day for feedback, or take part in a bottle swap. Bring a bottle, take a bottle is the basic plan.

There is also be a kit brewing challenge. Are you a kit brewer who thinks that kits get overlooked? Are you a full mash brewer that hasn’t revisited kits in many years. Brewing with kits will be uncharted territory for some of us, but for the others it represents the opportunity to put that ‘brewniversity’ knowledge of styles, character malts, hops, water treatment, and yeast strains to the test with the kits you started out with.

There will also be an opportunity to swap ingredients or home brewing equipment. If you have some malt or hops that you would like to possibly swap and try something different bring them along. Same goes for any unused or unwanted home brewing equipment.

Keep an eye on the website for more details!

Posted in Events, Meetings

The Oxford Brewers Group held a return visit to the Wychwood Brewery in Witney on the 25th April. It had been some time in the organising, but well worth the wait.

We had requested a brewer show us round, and we were graced with the presence of both the head brewer and second brewer. Dave, the brewer was a little nervous about touring a group of fellow brewers, and whether the questions we may ask would put him on the spot a bit, but it proved to be enjoyable for all concerned.

It was interesting to see a 150bbl brewery, and understanding some of the complications that dealing with 5 tons of malt per brew can generate (like 3 hours to run off from the end of a 1 hour mash!, and getting rid of 5 tons of now wet malt).

A few interesting points that cropped up were;

• They do not use Maris Otter malt as their pale malt, preferring the likes of Perle (which when buying tons at a time probably makes a noticeable difference in price). They limit themselves to just 150L crystal, chocolate malt and black malt and all beers are made from these.
• From a hopping point of view, they have a bittering addition and an aroma addition. With the aroma addition at the time of the wort being moved to a different vessel for whirlpooling and cooling.
• They don’t cask or bottle on site in Witney anymore. Since coming under Marston’s control everything is put in a tanker and sent to Burton for packaging (if you saw the entry road you could understand why they don’t want to have big lorries up and down there on a regular basis!)
• They do have a variety of hops that they make use of, more hop varieties than malt. Celicia being one that was noted on the walk around.

Posted in Past Events, Visits

Just a reminder about this month’s brew group meeting. It will be held on the 18th April at the Lamb & Flag on St. Giles, start at 7.30pm. Keep an eye out for the brewing books on the table.

Posted in Meeting Reminder

The American homebrew movement has the benefit of a day of their own, 7th May is recognised by the US congress as National Homebrew Day. The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) draw people together at the at a weekend close to that date to help celebrate with the Big Brew Event. This year they are holding it on the 5th May.

The idea is to get brewers together, around the world, to brew. Share in their brewing experiences and generally have a good day brewing with like minded people. It is also a great opportunity to introduce friends to your hobby. Perhaps you have a work colleague or neighbour who has shown an interest in what you do. Why not invite them along to help you brew, and share the spoils of the day with them. You may gain a new brewing colleague!

The AHA provide a couple of recipes for everyone to work from. This year the theme is Brown Ale, and one of the recipes has been provided by Matthew from the Oxford Brewers Group, the Ardley Brown Ale.

Information about the event can be found here and the recipes are available here

Posted in Events, General
Tags: AHA, American, Association, Big Brew, Homebrewers

Just a reminder about this month’s brew group meeting. It will be held on the 21st March at the Lamb & Flag on St. Giles, start at 7.30pm. Keep an eye out for the brewing books on the table.

Posted in Meeting Reminder

At this meeting we will be trying beers to be entered into the CBA club competition. Beers must be in the ‘Bitter’ style.

This month the meeting will be at the Chequers, on the High Street on the 15th February at 7.30pm onwards

Please see http://www.oxfordbrewers.com/upcoming-events/ for more details

Posted in Meeting Reminder

The National Homebrew Competition this year will feature a club only competition.

Clubs select their best beer and send it to be judged by the host club. 3x500ml bottles (or equivalent). Entries are free. Any club affiliated to the CBA may enter. 1 entry per club per competition.

Beers are placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd, with points awarded to contribute to Club of the Year at the National Competition (1st=12 points, 2nd=8 points, 3rd=4 points).

March 2012: Bitters – Hosted by Bristol Brewing Circle – judging on 18 March, entries due by 15 March

June 2012: Wheat Beers – Host tbc

September 2012: India Pale Ale – judged at the National Homebrew Competition, 15 September

The Oxford Brewers Group are going to select their beer to go forward for the Bitters round at the February meeting (see upcoming events). If you wish to enter a beer, please bring a couple of bottles along.

May the best beer win!

Posted in Events, General, Meetings

Just a reminder that the Oxford Brewers Group will be meeting up today (Wednesday 18th Jan) in the Lamb & Flag on St. Giles, from about 7:30pm onwards.

Please see the Upcoming Events section of the website for details

http://www.oxfordbrewers.com/upcoming-events/

Posted in Meeting Reminder

Saturday 3rd of September saw the culmination of the National Homebrew Competition. Originally organised as a regional competition by the Bristol Craft Brewers it adopted the mantle of the National competition after the demise of the annual Sutton event.

The competition is open to all brewers, group and non group members, Craft Brewing Association and non CBA members, Full mash, kit brewers, young, old…Everyone.

Ali Kocho-Williams and his team put a lot of work into getting a venue, sponsors for the event, and setting up a very professional entry system.

The competition attracted 116 brewers, who between them submitted 258 beers. The range of classes was very broad as the competition was run / organised under the American BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) guidelines which provide very thorough style guidelines and tutored training for the judges, with exams to pass to qualify as BJCP approved judges.

A few members of the Oxford Brewers Group submitted beers to the competition, with Matthew Hicks entering a competition for the first time and coming away with a 3rd place in the Porter class. Oxford Brewers Group’s Graeme Coates, who has entered a number of competitions in the past, with good success too, came away with another excellent result. Here is a rundown of Graeme’s notable mentions.

• 1st Place Weizen
• 1st Place Belgian
• Joint 1st Strong Ales
• 1st place and 2nd place in American Amber / Brown Ales
• 2nd and 3rd place overall in Best of Show

As I think you will agree, that is an above average showing, especially for such a strong competition (in UK terms).

Getting a certificate is not the only reason for taking part in a competition such as this though. One of the benefits of having experienced judges taste your beers is that as part of the competition you recieve feedback from the judges on your beer. Even for someone who places as highly as Graeme, this information is very useful in getting an understanding of some of the more subtle faults that may be in the beer. It provides useful feedback from someone impartial and, if you are so inclined, can help you tweak your recipe and method to improve your beer. Many people enter competitions for this reason alone, and appreciate the comments.

Congratulations to Graeme, and to all the brewers around the UK who took part and got a placing or a highly commended mention.

Posted in Events, General