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. & 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!

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.

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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......

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.

Revolutions Brewing Co. & Leeds Homebrew - Competition

With the aim of creating yet more interest in West Yorkshire brewing, Revolutions Brewing Co., in collaboration with Leeds Homebrew, have announced a homebrew competition.

The prize is a full 8BBL commercial brew (reserving the right to make any necessary technical tweaks) of the winner in a competition to produce the best 4.5% homebrewed beer of any style - the winner can of course come and participate in the brewday.

It will be released to market in April 2012 as part of our Rewind 33 series under the name REPLICAS (referencing the 1979 Tubeway Army album) - the beer will certainly appear in pubs throughout Yorkshire and further afield, including The CRAFT Beer Co. in London, Mr Foleys in Leeds and The Maltings in York, where the winner can enjoy a pint and bask in the warm glow of craft brew glory! It should also appear at beer festivals such as Rothwell, Doncaster, Leicester and Newark. We will encourage the winner to participate in publicity activities.

Here are the rules, such as they are:

1. The beer should be brewed to a target ABV of 4.5%.

2. It can be any style – (except Milk Stout please – we’re doing one in February!)

3. It must use only European hops – a) to test you all on a level playing field and, b) to avoid any issues of scarcity of US / NZ versions when it comes to the commercial brew.

4. You must divulge your full recipe and method. We reserve the right to “tweak” it for technical and / or commercial reasons.

5. We will set up a judging panel of people outside the group, including ourselves, to determine the winner.

6. Entries must be submitted in bottles by 28th February 2012 – judging will take place on February 29th – the brewday will be in Castleford in early March.

7. Please submit your bottles with your name, contact details and recipe to us at the address below, or alternatively drop them at Mr Foleys or Beer-Ritz marked for our attention.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, FIRE UP YOUR BREW KETTLES!

Revolutions Brewing Co, Unit B7, Whitwood Enterprise Park, Speedwwell Road, Whitwood, Castelford, WF10 5PX

Northern Craft Brewers: English IPA Competition

Adrian of Northern Craft Brewers has flagged this event up - it might be of interest for anyone with a penchant for historical accuracy! They are running an English IPA competition in tandem with their March meet-up. There are more details on their website.

There's just about enough time to brew an IPA, stuff it in a barrel with a couple of kilos of hops, and warm-mature it for a month before bottling it for the competition.

Good luck!