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?

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!

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 - 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.

July Meet - A Call For Action!

Hi folks, if we want to meet this month, we need to settle on a date. And if we want to do a brew ahead of the meet, we need to move double quick, because time is against us!

If we meet the last week in July (Wednesday 25th or Thursday 26th), we still have time to squeeze in a brew, but we need to do it next week. The other option is to postpone the brew until the next meet (October), and get organised. But either way, we need to set a date for this month!

Let me hear you!

July Meet-Up - A Call For Dates, & Possible Brew Day

Homebrewers of Leeds (and its environs), we need to try and set a date for our quarterly July meet.

For this meeting we have found a new home. The Brewery Tap, part of Leeds Brewery's estate, has very kindly offered to host us for the evening. As you will know if you've visited this fine establishment, it has a small (2.5bbl) brewplant on the premises, and Dave Scott, the manager there, has suggested that we might like to brew something that we can put on the bar for the meet.

So this post has two objectives - the first to set a date for the meet, and the second is to figure out if we can logistically brew a beer for that date, and what it should be. If we can brew a beer, then we need to decide what it will be, and who will brew it - should it be a collaborative effort from anyone who can get involved, or do we want to put one of the better recipes from a previous meet onto a small production run?

This should be fun!

REVOLUTIONS BREWING COMPETITION - WINNER AND UPDATES

Slightly belated congratulations to group member Peter Hindle for his victory in our first homebrew competition, held in conjunction with Revolutions Brewing Co. Here's what Mark Seaman of Revolutions had to say about the process:

"We were very pleased with the overall standard of entries. The judging panel comprised Andrew and myself, Kevin and Ruth who put on Headingley BF, Rhian from Arcadia and Colin Williams, who is our CAMRA brewery liaison officer. (Leigh Linley was moving house, so had to withdraw.)

"We met at Mr. Foley’s where Dean acted as our impartial pourer to ensure a genuinely blind tasting. It was a close run affair at the top of the table but the top three were...

1 – Peter Hindle - @pchindle – with a pale golden bitter, featuring a big peppery / hoppy finish
2 – Matt Lovatt - @braukerl – an interesting beer with a hint of coffee
3 – Gary Lester-Olivier - @bosium – a ruby / chestnut ale with more than a hint of 80/- about it.

"We scheduled the brewday with Peter for next Tuesday 13th. He seems excited about it, so that’s good. 30 odd casks of Replicas should be hitting the pubs just at the end of March"

Congratulations again to Peter, and we look forward to the launch of this beer shortly.

Running Order - Thursday 12th January

Some info about this Thursday's meet-up [edit]AT MR FOLEY'S ALE HOUSE IN LEEDS[/edit]. The hour slot from 19.00 to 20.00 is going to be filled by Dominic from Thornbridge Brewery, who will be making a presentation on how to brew barley wine, answering any questions thrown at him, and should time permit, performing some live kitten juggling.

There will also be a special announcement about a collaboration between the Leeds Homebrew group and Revolutions Brewing Co. Please try to be "in da house" by 7pm for this.

The 8 - 9 slot will be for panel tasting of members beers. We will be limiting this to 6 x 10 minute slots, so if we have more than 6 people wanting to present to group, we will draw lots on the night. Please bring enough beer for a dozen or 15 samples - maybe a couple of litres? There is always the option to share and critique after the structured part of the evening is over.

So in summary:

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.

January Meet: Guest Speaker Announced

Ladies and gents, we're pleased to announce that for our second meet on Thursday 12th January, Dominic from Thornbridge Brewery will be joining us. In fact, not only will he be throwing himself on the mercy of the group, and hopefully passing polite but constructive criticism on the brews offered up by the attendees, but he will also be giving a short presentation on how to brew barley wine.

Given Dom's CV, having worked at Thornbridge and Marble, and the fact that he's just achieved a Distinction in his Institute of Brewing and Distilling exam, we're expecting nothing less than a night of penetrating analysis and forensic pedantry - in a good way, of course.

We have four people able to bring beer so far - if you'd like to bring something, or just come along and be dazzled by Dom, please can you let us know on this post.

Until the 12th, then. Have a good Christmas, everyone!

January Meet Up: Call For Dates

This is an advance a call for dates for our January meet. Thursday the 12th would be the preferred date, as we have an interesting guest lined up, with an interesting topic in mind, and this is their preferred date. However, if nobody can make it, then there's not a lot of point!

So, shall we shoot for Thursday 12th January, 2012? Similar format to the first meet - 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.

Let's have your thoughts!

Also, 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 as last time - first come first served, but if the number of beers goes beyond 6, we'll draw lots on the night.

Venue TBC.

First Meet Up: SUCCESS!

A very belated thank you to all the people who turned out for our first meet last month. To everyone who brought along beers to try - thank you, the standard generally was very high, and I hope you enjoyed sharing your beer in an atmosphere of positive support.

Special thanks must go to Dean at Mr Foley's for giving us the time and space to hold the event, and also to James from Summer Wine Brewery for coming along and sharing his experiences of moving from a home-brewer to a pro-brewer, something that I'm sure everyone in the room listened to with great envy!

The next meet is scheduled for mid-January, and we'll start taking submissions for people who want to showcase their beers at the start of January. Let's aim for 6 or 7 people presenting their beers, over the second hour of the meet. If others want to bring anything to share after that, fine, but the feedback received suggests that giving a smaller number of people 8 or 10 minutes to present their beer and get feedback worked well.

Onwards and Upwards!

Running Order - Thursday 20th October

Here's a draft format for the evening, based on some suggestions received from a member of the London Amateur Brewers. None of this is set in stone, so if you have any strong feelings either way, please let us know.

The hour slot from 19.00 to 20.00 is intended to be a bit of a structured part, and maybe we can persuade one of the many great brewers close to Leeds to come along and say a few words about how they got started in brewing. If anyone is reading this and fits the bill, particularly if you got going through an interest in homebrewing, please email our admin Zak Avery (zak (at) thebeerboy.co.uk)

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.

What has also been suggested is that we limit the tasting slots to around 6, spread over the tasting hour. We'd like to allocate the slots on a first-come first-served basis, although we could also draw lots if we are oversubscribed.

Again, please let us know which you think would be better - if you'd rather a more free-for-all bottle swap type event, we can do that too!

Inaugural Meet-Up/Tweet-Up

We're taking calls for a date for the first meet of Leeds Homebrewers. Early to mid-October seem like a good idea, as that means the second meet will fall in early to mid-January, which will give everyone something to look forward to, and not clash with Christmas plans.

Dean at Mr Foleys Cask Ale House on The Headrow in Leeds has very kindly offered the use of part of the pub, so I suggest that as the venue.

The exact format of how it works will be ironed out as we get nearer the date, but can we suggest that depending on how many people show an interest, homebrewers try to let us know in advance what they will be bringing, and try to bring around a litre of beer (e.g. 3 x 33cl or 2 x 50cl, or a 1 litre PET bottle) to share.

If you'd like to post a recipe, please send and email to zak(at)thebeerboy.co.uk, and he'll send an email back inviting you to be a contributor on the blog.

Please get involved - without you, this is just another page on the web!