oxfordbrewers

The 2010 Taste & Swap day took place at the now customary Marston Scout Hut Hall.

The event was split into a few sections. Firstly we tasted the comparison brew.This year's comparison brew was a mild ale recipe selected by Eric Byers. The group was distributed with a set of ingredients to brew with, and instructions for the brew procedure. The aim was to keep everything pretty much the same between the different brewers and to vary one item. This year it was yeast. Jeff Rosenmeier turned up with a mightily impressive 5 different yeast strains varying from plain old Hovis bread yeast through to spotaneaous fermentation as a result of wild yeast. Other members of the group tried a variety of yeasts from Danstar's Windsor yeast through to Burgundy wine yeast.

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The variation in taste and flavour was very noticable across the beers with the stand out yeast perhaps being the Hovis bread yeast that at first thought would be dismissed but actually workedquite well in the recipe. One thing that was noticed was that those brewers who undertook water treatments like liquor salts and calcium additions seemed to produce a slightly harsher or more distinctive tasting bee, not necessarily in a bad way, but once it was apparant who had treated their water, it was easy to spot.

 We then moved on to a rather impromptu talk by Andy Roberts. Andy is a member of the group who had the opportunity to spend a number of months working at a brewery. That combined with his academic background in microbiology Andy presented an interesting talk on how different life working at a commercial brewery  is compared to the idyllic homebrewers dream of making all your own beer and selling it. The hard graft of cleaning and filling casks and cleaning out the mash tunscombined with the commerical pressures of running a 2 shift system andkeeping the fermenters busy by never having beer sat, it is either fermenting or emptying ready for the next gyle (sometimes as short as 45 minute turn arounds!). The importance of cleanliness was brought home by Andy's tale of having to uncap and pour away 14,000 bottles of beer due to a faulty batch.

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 Finally the group got around to trying a number of different beers that members had brought along. A hearty selection of different beers were presented from pale hoppy summer style beers through to very distinctive Lambic types, all brewed by members of the group.

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 Roll on the 2011 Taste & Swap!

The group were fortunate enough to arrange a tour of the well known and long established Hook Norton Brewery that resides in Oxfordshire. The brewery has a long history, and has brewed in its current location for well over a century.

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The tour was a great opportunity to have a look round the facility, though the group did feel somewhat let down by the quality of the information provided by the tour guide. Although we had made it quite clear that we knew what we were talking about when it came to brewing, the guide was just that, a guide with no previous experience of brewing and limited knowledge other than his script.

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All that being said, the brewery was very hospitable, and the great summer weather combined with the quiant village and the group's buffet lunch at one of the village's pubs made it into a very enjoyable and unique day out.

The OxfordBrewers Group held their second taste and swap day at the Marston scout all in Oxford on the 21st June 2008. Such was the success of the first event in 2007 that it was decided to hold it annually.

Taste and S...

Taste and S...

 The meeting was started by Will, who briefly explained the plan for the day. This involved a talk from group member, Jeff Rosenmeier, who is also the joint owner and head brewer at the Lovibonds brewery, on the subject of going pro. The group also had undertaken a comparison brew and we had a tasting to see how similar they were. There was also the opportunity to taste the beers that the members had brought along.

Taste and S...

Taste and S...

Taste and S...

Taste and S...

 brought along a sour porter, and a sour dough bread

Taste and S...

Taste and S...

Jeff Rosenmeier gave an interesting talk on how he had progressed from a homebrewer to a professional brewer, with his own brewery in Henley

On June 7th 2008 the Oxford Brewers Group were invited to tour the White Horse Brewery. Located on the southern side of oxford in the area of Stanford in the vale the brewery is situated in an unassuming industrial unit.

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 Our tour guide was Mac, the head brewer at White Horse brewery. We were introduced to him through the Midlands CBA meeting in Banbury where he gave a very enthusiastic talk on their brewery and his background.

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 Mac kindly left us to our own devices with several handpumps and plenty ofbeer to amuse ourselves we made the best of the afternoon while heshowed round some morrismen (in their regalia, bells and all!)

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