My first competition

Locally there was a "British Ales" competition on yesterday. I decided a few weeks back to take the Landlord clone I recently brewed off tap, and preserved the last 2 litres in order to enter it. At the last minute I also decided to enter the Riggwelter clone - more of that anon.

The landlord clone was not as well received as I might have hoped. It came 6th in the category, and the scores were not terrible, but I was disappointed with the comments it received. I entered it as a "best bitter", correct i think considering the commercial beer I was cloning has twice won that category at the GBBF. Of the three judges, one felt it was over balanced towards malt, one towards hops, and one thought it was well balanced. Two out of three judges felt it was too light in colour for the style. All judges picked up an astringent/sour finish on the beer. I think this is just due to the age of the beer in the keg (11 weeks), though the judges suggested stressed yeast and oversparging as possible causes. I would certainly rule out oversparging, but it is possible that the yeast may have been acting up a bit, as it was a repitch of WY1469 which caused me some issues with the next beer it was pitched into. I can detect the flavour they are describing, and I'm pretty sure it has only developed in the last few weeks, so I'm putting it down to age.

 I feel it was worth entering, as it will certainly help me to improve this beer next time around. Being marked down in most of the categories (appearance, flavour etc) I can live with, but in the "Overall Impression" category, I expected to do better than 6.5, 6 and 7. In saying that the judges scored it within a 2 point window of each other, so I'll just have to take my medcine.

I made a serious error with my other entry. After considering at length which style to enter it as, I decided upon "Northern English Brown". Unfortunately a brain fart during the online entry process caused me to select "ESB". A sample comment for this one: "A well brewed beer with no obvious flaws, but completely out of style". Again there was a divergence of opinion on some aspects of this beer, with one judge describing it as thin and watery, while the others called it full bodied and creamy. I would certainly agree with the latter. Some offline feedback is that it would have done well as a northern brown, lesson learned I suppose.

Anyway, that's competitions done with for a while.

A New Direction

Lager beer is something I've always had a difficult relationship with. My first ever beer was a Bavarian Helles, drank in a small tavern in a small Bavarian town. I was on a school tour, and once us Irish boys discovered that you could buy beer at 16, there was a nightly escape attempt to discover it's mysteries. That first beer made quite an impression. I wasn't sure whether I liked it or not, but I was certainly interested in finding out more.

Back home the selection was basically down to two. Heineken or Budweiser. Though I later grew to love the Heineken that certain pubs in Ireland seem to be able to conjour up, most of it was in poor condition, almost undrinkable. Budweiser I could never stomach (quite literally!). Pretty soon after my beery beginnings I had switched to stout. Murphy's in particular was smooth and easy drinking with plenty of flavour. Later I discovered the dark roastiness of Beamish.

One trip to Oktoberfest back in 2005 made me reconsider my lager objections. There's a satisfying mouthfeel to the Marzen beer they serve there that is hard to forget. Certainly when you drink Oktoberfest/Marzen beer, and even Bavarian Helles, you can see why the Germans call beer 'liquid bread'. It's chewy and biscuity, and malt forward in a way I hadn't encountered in any beer up to that time.

Of course the difficulty in sourcing top quality german beer on tap, and the virtual absence of any examples of the style in Australian craft brewing, has meant that I have neglected this wonderful part of the beer world - until now!

Yesterday I purchased a Hanna Ph-meter, and I'm planning on making my first ever Lager, a Bavarian Helles, within a month or so. My main guides through this process will be the "Brewing Classic Styles - Bavarian Helles" book, as well as the excellent resources at The Braukeiser wiki. I also own a copy of Greg Noonan's "New Brewing Lager Beer", but unfortunately it's back in Ireland, so I'll have to do without it for now.

Horst Dornbusch's Bavarian Helles book

I am fully aware of the challenges of brewing lager beer, and this is one of the main reasons I want to try it. Though I am constantly tinkering with the hot side of the brewery, the cold side has remained pretty consistent for a good 9 months or so. It's time to put my processes to the test and see just how well I can manage a fermentation schedule.

I'm starting with a Helles so that I can manage to supply the quantity of yeast it will need. The plan is to then harvest this yeast to do something bigger, perhaps a Maibock, which would then be ready for Springtime here down under. I can't wait!