Next Meet - Call For Dates

So, next meet is called for early February. Shall we try and agree a date? We will hopefully have a very special guest to come and talk to us too.

We have been offered space at The Bridge in Kirkstall. It's a little way out of town, but close to Headingley train station, so if anyone has any objection to this, please speak up.

EDIT 23/01/2014 - Our proposed guest, James Kemp, is unable to attend on Fridays. Please let us know what days are preferable in light of this.

Next Meet - Tuesday October 22nd - Veritas, Leeds

The kind people at Veritas, Leeds have given us the use of their dining room for the evening, so the next meet is called for 6.30pm on Tuesday 22nd October.

Meet from 6.30pm, with a talk from Matt and Chris at the Yorkshire Hops project at around 7pm, then bottle swaps, presenting beers to the group, whatever you fancy really.

If you can give an indication of numbers below, or if anyone would like to bring beers along to present and/orshare, that would be a great help.

See you on the 22nd!

Next Meet - A Call For Dates

Just a quick post to see if anyone can find time for a meet later this month?

And as if that wasn't enough to tempt you, the fine chaps at Yorkshire Hops have agreed to come down and have a chat with us about what they're up to - how they got started, how the project is going, and (perhaps most importantly) whether we can sponsor some hop plants and get our hands on some fresh hops from next year's harvest!

Matt from Yorkshire Hops says that the best evening for him would be a Tuesday, so shall we shoot for the either of the last two Tuesdays this month, the 22nd or the 29th? Early meet, Leeds central, early finish?

LIBF Competition - Update (and a happy ending)

Sorry for the lack of activity on here recently - it seems as though everyone is busy with other things.

A quick update on the competition for Leeds International Beer Festival. After gladiator night in the previous post, three beers ended up going through to the final selection process, the eventual winner being Matt Lovatt's summer ale - a pale, slightly tart beer designed for maximum summer refreshment.

 At the festival, the beers from the respective homebrew groups were judged against each other, and in a marginal decision, Leeds vanquished their Mancunian rivals by 3 votes to 2. Hurrah for the White Rose!

Matt's beer was brewed for the festival at Kirkstall Brewery, who clearly liked what he did, because they offered Matt a job. Hurrah again!

LIBF Competition - GLADIATOR NIGHT!

Home brewers of Yorkshire, the time is nearly upon us. With any luck, you will have bottles capped and conditioning by now. The meet to choose the five gladiator beers is set for 6pm, Monday 24th June, at Friends of Ham.

We've not had a meet for a while, so as well as bringing beers for the taste-off, feel free to bring bottles for swaps too. The five beers chosen on the night will need to be presented to the final LIBF judging committee by the end of that week. Exactly where, we don't know yet, but it may well be that they are handed in to the organisers at Leeds Town Hall.

Thanks go to Friends of Ham for their generous offer of hospitality, which will be repaid by the purchase of beers on the night.

YORKSHIRE! YORKSHIRE! YORKSHIRE!

Leeds International Beer Festival Competition

Homebrewers of Leeds!......of Yorkshire....and Yorkshire folk displaced but still proud to hail from Yorkshire!  A gauntlet has been thrown in our general direction from the homebrewers of Lancashire.  They say that our mothers are hamsters and that our fathers smell of elderberries, and we cannot ignore these taunts!  We have also received word from their Manchester HQ which suggests that we’re not up for the challenge.  It's time to show them how we roll(ing boil)!

The competition has been organised by our friends at the Leeds International Beer Festival (@LeedsBeer on Twitter)

The challenge upon us:

Brew a beer style of your choosing, it must be under or equal to 6% abv and must incorporate at least one hop variety from each of the following; Britain, the US and from the New World (Aus/NZ).   We need as many of our group to brew a beer, then we will meet together and choose the five that will go forward to the panel of judges.  The Lancashire homebrewers will do the same.  The judges will then meet, taste, deliberate and choose one beer from Yorkshire and one from Lancashire.  These winning beers will be produced by a breweries in their respective counties, before they are presented to the good folk who attend the Leeds International Beer Festival in September.  Only then will the discerning public choose the ultimate winner.   All proceeds from the sales of the two winning beers will go to a charity of the commercial breweries choosing.

We need to have beers brewed, bottled and to have selected our five gladiator beers by the end of June.  You should be prepared to supply 2x500ml bottles with plain crown caps.  The five beers selected for judging by the Leeds International Beer Festival panel will also need to be submitted with a recipe sheet attached to the bottles.

YORKSHIRE! YORKSHIRE! YORKSHIRE!

Revolutions Brewing Co. Competition - The Results

Mark from Revolutions Brewing writes: "Today (March 27), we are brewing the winning entry in our 2013 competition. It is a 4.5% stout called Uprising designed by Pete Hindle @pchindle – he describes it as “a stout for people who don't like stout”. We can't believe that such people exist, but it's good to think we may have a beer that may convert them!

"Congratulations and honourable mentions to Stuart Goddard, Steve Syson and Zak Avery, whose beers ran the winner close.

"At the time of writing the Maris Otter, Roasted Barley, Black Malt and Dark Crystal is mashing away – the hopping regime later will consist of Goldings, Challenger and, the special ingredient, Nelson Sauvin!

"We must thank our esteemed judges who selected Pete's beer as the winner from the 11 beers submitted for the competition. They are all people that we have collaborated with in some way over the past few months – please check out the plugs for their assorted projects.

"1 – Paul Marshall (Lone Wolf) - @iamlonewolf – Leeds based musician whose new album The Lovers is fantastic - well-worth checking out – as was the 6.9% IPA we made with him – (there is one cask left, it will be available at North Bar for Record Store Day – April 20th). Lone Wolf will be performing at Jumbo Records on the same day.

"2 – Leigh Linley - @leighgoodstuff – Beer and food blogger Leigh has an exciting new book “Great Yorkshire Beer” about to be published http://goodfoodgoodbeer.wordpress.com/great-yorkshire-beer/ - we're in it! We also collaborated with Leigh on our new 3.9% beer E.P. Session Pale, which has been going down well with drinkers throughout Yorkshire and further afield.

"3 – Dan O'Dell - @hideleeds – Dan and Sam (4) collaborated with us on The Blackout, a 4.5% stout (still available from @BeerRitzLeeds / @BeerRitzOnline in bottles) – to accompany the download of the track of the same name. They have also just released their first vinyl pressing on their record label by Leeds band Dept M @dept_m

"4 – Sam Airey - @SamAirey – Welsh via Leeds singer songwriter / promoter and record label chap. Also knows a lot about tequila.

"5 – Anthony Kitching (Kitch) - @framkitch @friendsofham – Kindly provided table space for us all to sit around and pontificate in his busy, successful and quite splendid bar. He really liked the winning beer, so we assume it's a given it will be on the bar in a few weeks!

"6 – Tyler Kiley - @Tkiley1 – Quiet, unassuming American gentleman, who dispenses advice and beers from behind the bar at Friends of Ham with unique panache. We discovered that he has a dislike for beers that taste of dirt.

"7 & 8 – Mark Seaman & Andrew Helm- @revolutionsbrew – Thanks to all the entrants for submitting your beers, the overall quality was tremendous and we're sorry that we can't brew with you all.

"We will advise you all where and when the winning beer Uprising will be available!"

Many thank from the Leeds Homebrew Group to Revolutions for this opportunity, and congratulations (again) to Pete - two years on the trot!

Revolutions Brewing Co. & Leeds Homebrew - 2013 Competition

Revolutions Brewing Company are pleased to once again invite members of the Leeds Homebrewers Group to compete for the chance to have their beer turned into a full commercial brew.

In April 2012, Pete Hindle joined the guys at Revolutions to make his winning recipe into "Replicas" - the April special from Revolutions referencing the 1979 Tubeway Army album.

This year will see a group member joining Revolutions on their 8 Brewers Barrel kit in Castleford to produce approximately 30 firkins for this April's special - you can look forward to seeing your beer on bars in Leeds, York, Sheffield, London etc with a launch event at a venue TBA.

Here are the brief, but necessary rules.

1 - The closing date for 2 x 500 ml bottles of your beer to be submitted for judging (venue TBA) is February 28th, so get planning and brewing!
2 - The beer can be any style but MUST be brewed to a target ABV of 4.5%.
3 - Any ingredients you wish may be used, but a full breakdown of your recipe should be included with your entry - Revolutions reserve the right to amend the recipe where necessary for practical or commercial purposes, particularly hop availability.
4 - As a bit of fun, and to give you a taste of what it's like to be in the Revolutions team, your beer should named and "be inspired" by one of the following 1980 musical references - (the inspiration you draw is up to you!)

a) Uprising - the album by Bob Marley and the Wailers
b) Embarrassment - the single by Madness
c) Fade To Grey - the single by Visage
d) Mirror In The Bathroom - the single by The Beat

GAME ON!

Bottles For Collection - North Bar, Leeds

Just a quick post to let you know that the good people at North Bar in Leeds have offered any local homebrewers free dibs on any bottles that they would normally chuck away. They are happy to put empties to one side for collection, although it would of course be polite to make sure that if you ask them to save bottles for you, you then turn up to collect them! And of course, as North Bar love beer, they would also be happy to receive beers from any homebrewers who happen to be passing through.....

You can email Matt on info (at) northbar dot com

October Meet - Thursday 25th - Update

The next meet of the group has been scheduled for Thursday October 25th, meeting initially at The Brewery Tap in Leeds, between 6.30pm and 7pm.

However, in a departure from our usual format,. we thought that it would be a good opportunity to have more of a social get-together than a structured meet. If you want to bring bottles along to swap, drop in and meet the group, or just come along and have a beer, please do, but we thought that it might be a good time to review what we've done so far, and what we're going to do next year. More of the same? A change of direction? Do we want to try and do some brewing demos at beer festivals over the next year? Shall we book plant time somewhere and do a commercial brew? Shall we register the group as a brewery and "go legit"? (please don't say yes to this - the red tape of being a gypsy brewer is torturous)

Anyhow, bring along some beers to swap (maybe let people know below what you have available to swap), some ideas, and maybe some dreams, and we'll see you on Thursday evening.

Cheers!

October Meet - A Call for Dates

This is a little last minute but there is still time to arrange a meeting for October. With the 24th and 25th October as potential dates.  Please comment below or on Twitter to @leedshomebrew with your preference. Thanks.

Similar format to the other meetings - 6 people presenting their beers to the group, with the option of bringing along bottles to try after the more structured bit of the night.  While we don't have a guest speaker lined up, this should provide a good opportunity to focus on the beer being presented and a little more time than usual to chat.

So, if anyone has beers that they'd like to bring along to present to the group, let us know below. We'll use the same format of first come first served, but if the number of beers goes beyond 6, we'll draw lots on the night.

18:30 Arrive and get a beer
19:00 Move upstairs to the function room
19:30 Tasting of beers
21:00 Meeting adjourned (stick around for a few more drinks downstairs)

Venue: Leeds Brewery Tap (To be confirmed), 18-24 New Station Street, Leeds, LS1 5DL.

More details to follow as they are confirmed.

Ilkley Brewery's Joshua Jane

Just a quick post to say thank you once more to Ilkley Brewery for supporting Leeds Homebrew.  The brewday was a lot of fun and we were on our best behaviour to make sure we're all invited back.  Myself and Matt Lovatt went along to Bar T'at in Ilkley on Tuesday night for the launch of the beer we brewed, Joshua Jane.  It's a 3.7% nut-brown Yorkshire Ale, brewed with Amarillo and Columbus hops. We enjoyed the beer, the pork pie and the moment.  Look out for the beer in MTT pubs this week and further-a-field beyond that.

(Photos by Ian Stevens).

Homebrewers Copper Dragon Brewery Visit, 7th Oct

This post has been in the pipeline for a while now so apologies for being rather slow in delivering...

You may remember the homebrew competition that myself, Beer Ritz and Copper Dragon set up a while back entitled: Operation Remix. I mentioned at the end of the competition that there would be a special event for any homebrewer or would-be homebrewer to take part in.

Come the 7th of October (the first Sunday) we will be having a little get together at the Copper Dragon Brewery for a bit of fun, drinks and prize giving! An invitation has been given to homebrewers far and wide, Beer Ritz staff and the judges and everyone who took part in the competition to come down to the brewery for the night.

Brew beer? come along!

The itinerary for the evening is as follows:

18:00 - 19:30 > Brewery tour and question time
19:30 - 20:00 > Prize giving. (winners who can't attend will be mailed)
20:00 - 21:00 > Couple of drinks in the brewery and a beery chat.

The Bistro serves food until 6pm on the Sunday, so if anyone needs a bit of feeding before hand they're welcome to turn up earlier. I've been informed that the brewery is just a short 10/15min walk from Skipton Station, and is easily located on Google Maps for those who have not visited before.

We hope to see you all there on the 7th of October at 18:00. It'll be a great opportunity to gain a bit more brewing know-how, whilst having a good time with like minded people over a nice beer.

See you soon!

Roosters Competition: And The Winner Is....

(reposted from Roosters.co.uk)

There were no fewer than fourteen entries for the home-brew competition we announced at the last Leeds Home-Brewers’ meet up at the end of July – a number that far exceeded our expectations – with the judging having taken place yesterday afternoon at the Mitre in Knaresborough.

We put together a five-man judging panel that comprised of Adam Gray, the manager of The Mitre, Stuart Goddard and Des Tinline, manager and assistant manager respectively of Ake & Humphris, a top notch wine and beer shop in Harrogate, with two representatives from Rooster’s completing the line-up.

Adam, Stuart and Des all have a strong pedigree when it comes to wine tasting and judging (Adam holds a WSET Diploma in Wines & Spirits and is a qualified trainer, having previously worked in such a capacity for Oddbins. Stuart, a home-brewer himself, has over ten years’ experience of tastings and working in the off-trade, whilst Des is a wine and beer enthusiast, who’s been actively tasting for more than fifteen years), so it wasn’t a difficult job when it came down to choosing who should help us with the competition.

Given that there wasn’t a set brief for the competition, with the emphasis being on quality, rather than brewing to a particular style, we had a wide range of beers to sample, from a classic English bitter to a pumpkin brown ale, with pretty much everything in between. We organised the beers in order of perceived intensity, from pale ales all the way to the other, darker end of the spectrum.

Judging was based on appearance, aroma, flavour, mouthfeel and an overall opinion, with each judge giving a score out of fifty, before discussing the beer as a group. It was agreed, as it is with such competitions, that, once all the beers had been scored, the highest and lowest scores would be removed from that beer’s total, with the remaining number being divided by three. This was to ensure that any personal preference or dislike towards a particular style could be eliminated from scoring, as we wanted this to be all about the quality of the beer, how well it had been brewed and whether it was a good representation of the style.

Suffice to say, the quality of what had been offered up was very good, very good indeed, with the final result being a close-run thing.

The names of the brewers behind the beers were kept in sealed envelopes and only became known to everyone around the table once the winning beer had been confirmed. So, without further delay, in reverse order, the top three beers on the day were as follows…

3rd Place -
Saison De La Maison (6.1%) – Neil Gardner
A delicately-balanced Saison, this beer was an understated triumph. Far from being brash and in your face, it was a beer that quietly went about its business in ticking all the boxes for the style, without being over the top or ramming it down your throat. Lovely stuff.

2nd Place -
Amber Ale (6.5%) – Jon Ainsworth
There wasn’t a great deal to get excited about in terms of aroma with this beer, but the complex bitter-sweet flavours that had been brought together resulted in a very well-balanced and moreish beer, with a good length of flavour, that proved tricky to put down.

1st Place -
Transatlanticism (6.8%) – David Bishop
A hop-forward porter in the modern style, this beer screamed HOPS at you from the glass. Bursting with juicy fruit aromas amidst a touch of coffee, backed up by a big hit of roasty bitterness, the carbonation was spot on and it retained its head well. A worthy winner.

We’d like extend our gratitude to all those who took part and will arrange for a small token of thanks to be delivered for each brewer to either Friends Of Ham or Beer Ritz, depending on where the beer had originally been dropped off, along with the judging sheets for each beer. We hope the brewers involved will find the feedback useful.

Homebrew Festival at Coopers

For those of you who are involved with, or just following the progress of the Leeds Homebrew ‘club’, you’ll know that we’ve established a small group of brewers from around Yorkshire, who meet regularly to share their enthusiasm, their knowledge and most importantly their beer.   You’ll also know that the group have enjoyed the support of a number of breweries, including Summer Wine, Thornbridge, Revolutions, Copper Dragon, Ilkley, Magic Rock and Roosters.  When I see those names written down I can’t quite believe it.  Good times!

We brew beer at home, and then meet up and drink it with friends.

There hasn’t been a chance to sound the group out about the latest brewing venture, but since the last meeting in July myself and Neil Gardner have been contacted by Paul Huntington, manager of Market Town Taverns Coopers Bar to discuss the possibility of organising a homebrewing event to be hosted in their function room.  The Homebrew Fest would give around twenty homebrewers the chance to brew a beer of their choosing and show it off to the discerning public, all in the name of good fun and good beer.
The plans are in their infancy but the next step is to invite those interested to put their names forward and plan to have a beer ready for drinking on Saturday 24th November.  A small entry fee will be required to secure your table, allow the organisers to plan ahead and to make sure we have twenty brewers on the day.   The fees will be donated to a charity (yet to be determined).

As well as being able to show-off your bottled beer, there will be an opportunity for a few people to cask their beer and serve it on the bar in the function room.  Please let myself, Neil or Paul know if you would like to do this (4.5 gallon casks can be provided upon request).

There will of course be a prize or two for the best beers of the event.  The finer details of how this will be judged and by who will be confirmed nearer the date.

So there you have it, all you need to do is register your interest and schedule a brew day!  The tables/pumps will be reserved on a first-come-first-served basis and anyone is welcome to get involved as long as you can travel the distance on the day.

Homebrew Fest 2012

@Coopers Bar & Brasserie

24th November

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!

Rooster's & Leeds Homebrew

If you were at the meet-up last night, you'll already know that Rooster's Brewery are the latest kind souls to offer a hand of friendship to our group. Unfortunately, the hand is holding a card, and on that card, in bold capital letters, it says just one word: FIGHT!

Yes, it's competition time again. No sooner have we announced the winners of our previous competition, generously hosted by Ilkley Brewery, than Rooster's come along and plop another one into our laps. This time, the gloves are off. Rather than brewing to a brief, as with the Ilkley competition, this is a very different challenge - brew whatever you like, just make sure it's better than everyone else's!

So, what's hard about that? Just brew the best beer you can, make sure that you try hard, but don't go over the top and seem as though you're trying too hard. Maybe have a think about the last beer that made the transition from homebrew to trial plant - Rooster's very own Baby-Faced Assassin. Big and bold, but balanced and beautiful. Pale golden ale or chocolate and chilli stout - just make it the best beer you can. No pressure.

----------------------------------------------

Leeds Home-Brew Competition 

Deadline - September 14th (Beers to be dropped off at Beer Ritz or Friends of Ham any time up to this date)

Judging - September 15th/16th

The Rules...

The rules are there are no rules! Well, within reason. Each entry must be a clean and balanced beer in terms of flavour for the style. Any style can be entered. Big aromas welcome. An ABV. of 5-7% is recommended.

2 x 500ml bottle of each entry will be needed for judging, with the (potential) name and style of the beer stated on the bottle. The name of the brewer of each entry will be recorded separately by Beer Ritz and Friends of Ham until a winner has been chosen. DON’T PUT YOUR NAME ON THE BOTTLE! 

The Prize...

A Rooster’s goody bag (!) and the opportunity to brew the beer on Rooster's trial plant with Rooster's Head Brewer. The beer will then be bottled (in 750ml bottles) and sold commercially via Beer Ritz in Headingley (and BeerRitz.co.uk)

Rooster's Brew Day - Friday October 12th

The Small Print...

All ingredients will need to be disclosed to Rooster's and although, where possible, the winning beer will be brewed to the same (up-scaled) recipe, it may have to be tweaked according to Rooster's needs.

July Meet Round-Up

Thanks to everyone who turned out last night for a fun evening at The Brewery Tap. In fact, here's a list of people that we would like to thank:

Thanks to Leeds Brewery for the hospitality and chance to experiment on the in-house brewplant.

Thanks to Ilkley Brewery for coming down and announcing the winners of the competition to spec and brew their autumn seasonal. And congratulations to Matt Lovatt and David Bishop, who took joint first place in the competition, and will now spend weeks bickering over the exact formulation of the winning recipe, which will be a blend of the two.

Thanks to Andy Hamilton for coming and visiting the group, showing an interest, and hopefully getting something useful for his upcoming book. And also thanks for the preview reading of a passage of the book (but don't try a Welsh accent ever again)

Thanks to Stuart from Magic Rock for bringing malt samples, supplying yeast at very short notice, and passing opinion on the members beer. I think he was quietly surprised at the quality.

And thanks too to Tom from Rooster's for announcing the next collaboration project (that's what we're a calling competitons these days), of which more shortly......

July Meet - TOMORROW! - Wednesday 25th July

Just a quick reminder that we will be meeting tomorrow, Wednesday 25th July, at The Brewery Tap, 18-24 New Station Street, Leeds, LS1 5DL.


As well as a talk from Andy Hamilton, we will have Ilkley Brewery popping in to announce the winner of their competition - an American Brown Ale - which will be going into production later in the year. The announcement will be at the start of the evening (we think!), so if you're in the running, please don't be late!


Also lurking in the shadows will be Stuart Ross of Magic Rock (not to be confused with Stewart Ross of Ilkley Brewery....), who very kindly supplied the yeast at short notice for the production brew of Matt Lovatt and Will Brigg's Possession Amber Ale, which will be on the bar tomorrow. Thanks also to Alex from Leeds Brewery for supervising the brew day.


As if that wasn't enough to drag you away from your mash tuns for the evening, Tom from Rooster's Brewery will also be in attendance with news of another collaborative experiment between the group and Rooster's Brewery. It may be in the guise of a competition, but that word makes it sound so, well, competitive, doesn't it?.....


See you tomorrow!



18:30 Arrive and get a beer
19:00 Welcome / Talk / Q&A
20:00 Tasting of members' beers
21:00 Meeting adjourned. Carousing optional.

July Meet - Wednesday 25th July

Apologies if this is a bit of a snap decision, but the next meet has been called for Wednesday 25th July, with a room being kindly provided by Leeds Brewery at The Brewery Tap, New Station Street, Leeds, LS1 5DL.

With good fortune and a following wind, we should have a beer on the bar that night brewed by members of the group. My suggestion is that Matt brews Possession under the supervision of Alex on the kit at The Brewery Tap, although of course this is an open invite for people to come along, get involved, throw in hops, dig out spent grain, and generally see what it's like to brew on a large stainless steel plant rather than in plastic buckets in the kitchen! Mash in will be at 7am on either Tuesday 10th or Wednesday 11th.

Our guest on Wednesday 25th will be Andy Hamilton (not the stand-up comedian, but "the other Andy Hamilton", as even he is forced to describe himself). Andy will be giving a short talk and Q&A about the idea of "booze for free", and will be in Leeds for a couple of days while he researches a book about beer and homebrewing. Please do come along and show him some proper Leeds hospitality (that sounds much more menacing than it's meant to).

The meeting will follow the usual format:


18:30 Arrive and get a beer
19:00 Welcome / Talk / Q&A
20:00 Tasting of members' beers
21:00 Meeting adjourned. Carousing optional.