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Apparently winter happened last week on Tuesday between 1 and 4 pm. You think maybe winter is scared of us??
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Enough of that, on with the news:
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Meeting at Republik (Florida road): a quiet meet in the run up to Ales for Tails, at a new venue (new at least as far as meeting spots go) was a welcome change. The food was smashing and our waitress Sinead ran circles around the 10 or so who made it, serving up the smashing grub for which republik is well known! Seth's mead had us all kept warm on a mid-winters night, followed by his wild beer, made from harvested natural yeast! The guys got a taste of the bacon beer, courtesy of yours truly, which seemed to be well received!
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With meetup in mind, this month sees us taking charge of the Warehouse in Westville, courtesy of the good people at Woodcutters! Don't miss out, as its going to be awesome (see the monthly ad!). Take this chance to hand in any unique and interesting brews that you'd like to put forward to Nguni Brewing, who are offering one lucky brewer the chance to upscale their brew to the commercial level, get bragging rights and see it poured at festivals, on tap at your local and bottled on the shelves at your Tops! If you haven't got anything yet, get brewing immediately!
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At the same meeting, it's sour beer time! Seth's challenge series sees its third iteration this year come to fruition. Bring your most mouth-puckering brew and stand to win great prizes, courtesy of That Brewing Co.
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Have a ridiculously great month and happy brewing.
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He is a smooth, cool guy with an appetite for IPA's. He is not often in Durban although he does live here. He is a very technical and calculated brewer. We call him JJ because we can, others call him Mr. Smith...
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Do you have a nickname and what is it?
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How long have you been brewing?
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How did you get into brewing?
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My wife bought me a coopers home brew start up for Christmas of 2014 and that’s pretty much that. Started with a few oros beers and then after only 3, I brought a BIAB system, and then a grainfather the next year.
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How many brews have you done?
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Not even a clue. Started out BIAB and then went to grainfather. How many on each I couldn’t even guess. In the early days it was very often, however my frequency has slowed down.
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What is your favorite step when brewing and why?
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Mashing... in a grainfather I find it fun getting the right water to grain ratio, getting the flow of wort at the right speed and watching the color and clarity change as it filters through the grain.
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What is your least favorite step when brewing and why?
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I’m sure the same as everyone. Cleaning.
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What is your favorite style of beer to brew and why?
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IPA, or anything hoppy. I love the variety of hops and all the different flavors and aroma.
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Favorite speciality malt?
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Good old crystal 60, or Munich/Vienna
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US 05... to go with the IPA.
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Best beer you have ever had?
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I love Woodstock Sugarman. I actually need to buy one again, it’s been a while.
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What is your choice of pouring?
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Have you ever had a 'bottle bomb'?
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Never... I am Doug’s polar opposite, always on the under carb side.
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Do you brew strictly to a recipe or do you tend to do your own thing?
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I make my own recipes, don’t think I’ve every followed a downloaded recipe step for step. I always change a few things.
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Are you pedantic about keeping records of everything you do?
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Have never kept a record except for the list of brews on beersmith, but I have deleted many of them. Not at all pedantic about records.
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Favorite piece of equipment?
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Counter flow chiller. What a win.
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What is the biggest lesson you ever learnt about brewing?
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Take your time before you do anything. Just 5 seconds of thought before doing the next step or adding the next thing. Sometimes you can be distracted and throw the wrong thing in, or forget to use a piece of equipment and it can ruin the day.
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Has being a member of Durban Home Brewers had any influence on your brewing?
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Of course. I have learnt so much from everyone and had many great ideas and tried things based on what I’ve learnt from the group.
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Next meeting - The Warehouse @Woodcutters 17:30 for 18:00
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Judging of Challenge series brews and bring your entry for the NGUNI challenge. New venue for us, should be a good one. Join us for a brew or two and a munchie. Bring along some of your brews you have made, especially the bad ones, so we can all learn and work out what went wrong. Its not all about the good one. Open to all. Let us know if you will be attending by mail: info@durbanhomebrewers.com
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Sour beer time!
Lactobacillus, a bacteria which is not normally welcome in a brewery, is one of the organisms a brewer can use to make sour beer. There are more than 100 species of Lactobacillus, many of which are used in the manufacture of other food stuffs such as yoghurt. Lactobacillus ferments sugars and primarily produces lactic acid, the compound that reduces the pH of beer and produces the sour flavour we are after. Lactobacillus also produces other flavour compounds, so your choice of species will affect your final beer flavour. Lactobacillus does not fully attenuate and will not produce much alcohol, so using yeast in your brew will be important. You have a number of techniques when using lactobacillus, from kettle souring through to secondary inoculation, each producing different sour characteristics.
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Part of the fun on this challenge is where to source you Lactobacillus. Malt grains are full of them, but they can also contain other organisms (be careful). Yoghurt or probiotics can be used to make a lactobacillus starter. You could also source specific strains from suppliers such as White Labs, but those are not so easy to come by locally.
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Choose your sour beer style, your souring technique and your source of Lacto and get creative.
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Judging will be held at the 28 August meeting...
and judging will be done according to BJCP style guidelines. Remember, there are amazing prizes on offer from That Brewing Company for the top three beers.
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Prizes: 1st place - 50kg Pale Malt AND a R200 S43 voucher.
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2nd prize: 'That Brewing Company' T-shirt; a case of 'That Brewery' beer AND R100 voucher for S43
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3rd prize: a case of 'That Brewery' beer and a 'That Brewing Company' cap.
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All this just for doing what you love doing, brewing beer. How can you go wrong.
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Challenges for the rest of 2019:
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November - Wood Aged Beer
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BEER BROS BTS 2019:
- September 2019 - OPEN Style, Freestyle, free range, you choose.
- December 2019 - IPA, APA and Pale Ales.
NOTE:
Due to circumstances beyond their control, Nguni have moved up the date for the incentive to have your beer brewed by them. Your upscalable beer needs to be presented at the August 28 meeting. Please bring a sample of your brew you would like to enter with you to the meeting.The winning brew needs to be ready for the Hoptober Fest to be held 05 October.
Brewer of the year scores:
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Note, there was a miss-calculation on the part of the editorial staff (we fired his arse) so here are the TRUE scores,
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Reds |
Stouts |
Open |
IPA |
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| Brewer |
score |
Score |
Score |
Score |
Score |
| Adrian Ryley |
36,63 |
35,50 |
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72,13 |
| Ryan Swart |
34,88 |
36,25 |
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71,13 |
| Greg Hardie |
35,50 |
35,13 |
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70,63 |
| JP Otte |
28,50 |
25,75 |
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54,25 |
| David Lombard |
22,50 |
31,63 |
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54,13 |
| Matthew Coetzer |
27,00 |
25,75 |
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52,75 |
| Doug Berry |
17,00 |
31,63 |
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48,63 |
| Dave Harrison |
22,75 |
21,25 |
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44,00 |
| Schalk van Der Walt |
36,38 |
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36,38 |
| Seth Deghaye |
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34,88 |
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34,88 |
| Etienne van Tonder |
34,75 |
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34,75 |
| Warrick Van den Heever |
33,33 |
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33,33 |
| Thomas parry |
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31,00 |
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31,00 |
| Wade Potts |
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25,75 |
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25,75 |
| Andre Van Rensburg |
25,50 |
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25,50 |
| Jay Venter |
25,50 |
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25,50 |
| Clifford |
24,25 |
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24,25 |
| Anthony Desmarais |
23,75 |
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23,75 |
| Deon Bosman |
22,75 |
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22,75 |
| Claire Bevan |
17,00 |
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17,00 |
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Beer Bros - Under new management
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Plenty new stock across the board: equipment, kits, hops, yeast, grains. If you haven't been to the shop or the website, you need too, you will be impressed.
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New times:
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Monday to Friday 8 am to 5 pm
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Ales For Tails Feedback:
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"The 4th edition of the Kloof SPCA Ales for Tails was incredibly well supported again this year. Twenty Home Brewers pledged a variety of 45 different brews offering the public an insane flavour experience. Craft drinkers were given the opportunity to vote for their beer of the day. In 3rd place was Francois Anderson's Hazelnut Brown Ale, 2nd place was Rob's Munich Helles and the winner came from Sam's IPA. At this stage the amount raised has not been finalised yet. Warren would like to thank everyone involved again for their support and he is looking forward to doing it all again in 2020 🐶🐱🍻❤"
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Thanks Warren for organising this awesome event that is for a very worthy cause. See you in 2020 with vision
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Hoptober Fest - 05 Roctober 2019
Since SA on Tap has been cancelled .... KZN Craft Revolution is filling the craft fest gap. Block off the date 05 October for a revolutionary craft fest, the first of many (we hop), HOPTOBER FEST. Coming to a venue near you, well at worst an Uber drive away. Watch this space for more details.
Ooh, yah, this is the fest where some lucky home brewers upscaled brew will be launched by Nguni. Get your samples in at the next meet at Woodcutters - 28 August 2019.
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AGM time - September meet.
For the surfers among us, its time to go buy a new pair of board shorts and for the rest of us, its time to dig out the old faithfuls and get the blazer scrubbed up. For those who have not yest joined us for the AGM, this is our only formal event and board shorts and Blazers are the dress code for the event.
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On a more serious note, if you would like to join the committee because you are a good oke and you feel you would like to contribute more to the running of the club or you have a fantastic idea for the club and you want to run with it or you are a journalist and want to do what I am doing or you are a financial wizard and you can convert our shekels into mega bucks or if you are into social media and you want to see us trending on twotter or you are a marketing genius and can sell Oklahoma to the Americans or you are in touch with your inner secretary and love to take minutes or you just feel its right to give back to the group, then we need you to complete the nomination form on the website and mail it to info@durbanhomebrewers.com, but on the other hand Darren, you could nominate someone else who you believe should be on the committee, in which case, you do the same, except put their name on the form. www.durbanhomebrewers.com/agm/
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Beer Boot Camp
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24th August 2019 - Johannesburg - The Big Smoke.
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So if you didn't make the Powwow, there is Beer Boot Camp. Beer boot camp is a full day symposium focusing on delivering a high quality educational experience to South African brewers and beer enthusiasts. Delegates will hear from leading brewing specialists from around the world, as well as experiencing practical sessions, beer tastings and of course networking and socializing opportunities. There is a awesome line up of speakers including Jennifer Tally, Fal Allen, Michael Ferguson, Clement Djameh, Peter Brown and John Keeling. Not sure who they are?? Check out their bio's and all the other beery info on the Beer Boot Camp website: https://beerbootcamp.weebly.com/
Let us know by reply mail if you are keen to go to this event. We are looking at sharing costs for transport and accommodation.
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Support SPCA
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Zap them a few Randelas with the Zapper Q-code below.
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