Burton brewer Marston’s has offered ale lovers a prize to die for with the chance to brew their own tipple at the famous brewery, which home to Pedigree.
The DE14 Home Brew Club is a group for those in and around Burton who want to share their passion for brewing. They can experiment with new styles and flavours and also tap into the expert knowledge of Marston’s master brewers. The club has a core group of around 25 home brewers.
The latest meeting saw a group of nine home brewers take along examples of their own beers for the group to taste and review. Brewing expertise was provided by Marston’s Head Brewer, Patrick McGinty, a master brewer with more than 20 years’ experience.
The evening began with a ploughman’s and sampling of a couple of Marston’s own experimental beers brewed in the DE14 ‘nano’ brewery housed in its visitors' centre. These are new recipes being trialled as potential new product development for Marston’s. But after the niceties of food and refreshments, the real work began, sampling and talking about each of the brewers’ own brews began in earnest.
Kicking off was Stewart Gibson, an IT worker and a home brewer of 10 years. He brought along his version of a well-known pale ale and was quickly bombarded with technical questions about his ingredients and methodology. Worried about the lack of aroma with the brew, Mr McGinty suggested that it might have been down to too much carbonation or heat during the brewing process.
Next up was James Farley, also in IT with more than 20 years’ home brewing under his belt. He came with a Hoëgarden-style wheat beer and regaled the group with his tips on orange peel and coriander seeds. He had spent his previous weekend camping at the Homebrew Festival in Market Bosworth winning some recognition from the judges for his beers there.
Chris Tyler a retired chartered engineer in mineral processing with 17 years of brewing his own beers produced his American pale ale-style beer. Distraught that it was cloudy, the group assured him that members loved its flavours and aromas. He visibly relaxed with the positive thumbs up he received.
What became clear as each brewer contributed his beer was how important and valuable it was to hear good, constructive feedback, not only from Marston’s own master brewer but also from fellow home brewers. As one brewer plaintively asked: “Is brewer’s despair a recognised condition?” to be answered by Mr McGinty with, “yes and there are a lot of symptoms!”
One brewer had tried to brew a chocolate milk stout by adding some real Belgian chocolate which had coagulated in a sticky mess at the bottom of his brewing vessel; another had tried to ferment out so much sugar that the beer’s aroma had become ‘cabbagey’; and another had added real banana which came out like ‘snot’, he revealed.
Loz Bayliss, who works in production in a local craft brewery but brews his own ale too for the last two years, had made his beer with fresh rhubarb, giving it a lovely sour beer flavour. He had tried to add vanilla for that rhubarb and custard combination but there was no sign of it in the finished beer. As one sampler commented: “It gets better the more you drink it!”
Sharing their triumphs and disasters was cathartic for many and inspirational for everyone, including Mr McGinty, said a club spokesman. He said: “Some of the beers tonight were cracking beers! I really think that they’ve upped their game since we started and I’ve actually had a few ideas myself listening to them tonight.”
Before they finished, the group were set a challenge by Marston’s to come up with the most interesting recipe for a Stout beer, a dark beer, traditionally the generic term for the strongest or stoutest porters. The maker of the winning recipe will be invited into Marston’s in Shobnall Road to brew their beer in the DE14 nano brewery with help from a company brewer.
The announcement brought an audible gasp of excitement from the group, with the exception of Richard Hill, an engineer and home brewer since only last year: “I can’t stand stout”, he groaned!
If anyone else is interested:
Alex Harrison, who manages the group for Marston’s said that any home brewers can come along: “There are no entry requirements other than someone who is currently home brewing or looking to start home brewing and attendees are encouraged to bring samples of their home brewed beers for a tasting session with Marston’s master brewers.
“We are still sadly lacking in any women to express any interest and with three female brewers here at Marston’s we would welcome the presence of some enthusiastic home brewsters to the club.”
If anyone is interested in attending and taking up the Stout recipes challenger please message Marston’s Facebook or Twitter page for details. The next Home Brewers Club meeting will be this month
