Search for the Perfect Pint

For those who didn't attend the last Homebrew meeting allow me to introduce myself, I'm Andy Hamilton not the short comedian or the larger darts player but a beer writer from Bristol. At present I am writing a book called The Search for the Perfect Pint and I am touring the country drinking beer in the name of research. I gave a talk at the last meeting as I must say it is always a pleasure to drink good beer and an even bigger pleasure to drink it with enthusiastic brewers and drinkers. I'd like to extend my thanks to all of you Leeds Homebrewers for the warm welcome and to Zak for the invite to come and talk at the last meeting. I left that night hugely impressed (and hugely pissed after carrying on into the small hours with Seb).

Impressed as almost every brew that we drank was above the quality of many of the commercial beers I’ve tried in the process of searching for the perfect pint. It seemed daft to walk away from that evening without any homebrew recipes, sadly I can be pretty daft so that’s exactly what I did.

On the way back to Bristol I had plenty for time to think as the megabus driver (who regaled us all at the start of the journey with a story of how he got brain damage in the megabus toilet) decided to take us via Barnsley on an epic 8 hour journey back home. I thought I should ask the brewers of Leeds if they wanted to share any of their amazing beer recipes, well to be honest I thought that on the night but I was too busy enjoying myself.  After d a quick chat with Zak we decided that this post would be the best way to come cap in hand.

What I am looking for are tried and tested homebrew recipes that exemplify various different styles of beer and/or recipes that subvert styles in order to give a truly magical brew. In many ways this leaves the field wide open for anything that you might wish to share as long as you think it’s pretty good as I know you all to be pretty good judges of beer.

I will of course brewing all of your recipes myself, but if you felt like sending  any tasters down then that will make my life a lot easier for the selection process.  I can’t guarantee that every recipe will make it as of course I’m aiming for quality rather than quantity in this book. But I really don’t think that will too much of an issue with you lot if the last meeting has anything to go by. If you wish you may send me more than one recipe, each one will have your name published alongside your brew along with your blog or website (if you have one). Every recipe will be most gratefully received.

It would be impossible to say at this point how many copies will be sold and how many people will read your work, but I can be guarantee that there will be a copy of my book in the British Library with your name in it until the end of time (or until the end of the British Library, whichever is first). Hopefully too you’ll get that fuzzy feeling from knowing that brewers all around the world are brewing beer to your recipes.

I’d also like to extend an invitation to all for the piss up book launch next September (2013)  and I’d strongly advise against the Megabus as a means of transport down to Bristol. I’ll send exact details nearer the time.

If you have any questions or want to get in contact then please email me at Andy@theotherandyhamilton.com and cheers!