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Hellooooo 2019, let your sun shine all over me. This is going to be a great year, I feel it in my yeast. Lots of new ideas, competitions and events. Time will reveal all, in the mean time, on with the newsletter....
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Committee news
In case you missed this last month, the committee roles have been finalized. Its my pleasure to introduce to you the committee:
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- Chair Brewer and Events Planner: Dough Berry (bent his arm)
- Weiss Chair and BTS Guru: Ryan Swart
- Bean counter: Adrian Ryley
- Secretary of State: Mnr Schalla Van Der Walt
- Beerology (challenges and education): Seth Deghaye
- Sponsorship's: Zack Buchan
- Marketing: Justin Loreal Kiffness Clark
- Facebrick: Francois Anderson
- Website and Koerant: Adrian Garrett
- Bax Bencher and Trophies: Craig Bax
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Membership
Have you considered joining as a paid member of Durban Home Brewers for 2019. Why?? Because....
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- You get an uber cool shirt, free, with your name on it.
- You also get the option to buy a limited edition DHB cap at a vastly discounted rate.
- Buy DHB key ring bottle opener at members price.
- You get to enter all the BTS comps for 2019 for FREE (first entry in each comp.)
- Possibly have your brew at Clarens Beer fest in 2020 (read on below to see how)
- You get to enter the 'Challenge Series' creative brew competitions.
- You get to hang with us at our quarterly 'members only' meetings where we announce the BTS winners
- Awesome beer educational talks on very real and relevant topics that could be crucial to improving your brewing.
Justin and Zack are working on some very interesting ideas that will be exclusive to paid members. We are looking at other benefits that will make your membership worthwhile, BUT we cannot do any of this if we don't have the buy in from you, the guys who brew. We need numbers to enable us to justify to sponsors and donors that the club is worth investing in. The more we have the more we can get and give. So, complete the form, pay your fees and become a member, DHB needs you.
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January brewer:
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Do you have a nickname and what is it?
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Yes, from way back in my surfing youth, but not repeatable in general public.
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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 very clever family bought me a proper starter pack from Bros for my 50th birthday. Besides my two new small pointy nosed surfboards, it was the best present I got.
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How many brews have you done?
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I did three semi grain using Bros recipes. I was able to do three brews in the kitchen and then I was banished to the gara...I mean BrauHaus! Then I transitioned to full grain (a bit by mistake, because I bought a full grain kit recipe at Bros thinking it was a semi and didn't read the fine print on the bag) which has been both fun and frustrating at times. I once forgot to get the dark grains crushed for a Stout Clone and wondered why it looked a lot like a Porter. Live and learn. All told I think I am at around 20 brews now. Seems I might be behind the curve at this stage, will be aiming to do more regular brews this year with entries to all the BTS.
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What is your favorite step when brewing and why?
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Drinking the finished product, silly question!
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I really enjoy the attention to detail this artistic pursuit needs. You can be creative as hell in what you use, but you cannot neglect the small details. I enjoy the mash, because this is where most of the magic happens.
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What is your least favorite step when brewing and why?
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Sparging. I seem to burn myself every time.
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What's your favorite style of beer to brew and why?
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IPA - because if you can handle the taste of a solid IPA, then all of the flavours of the beer world lie before you. Also in the world of Castle, Castle Light and Hansa, let he who can stomach a solid IPA cast the first aspersions.
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I also really enjoy dark beers, which is why I adapted an IPA recipe with Carafa and other Dark Malts (and then added my licorice twist).
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At this stage pretty much the Noble Hops - Hallertau MittelFru, East Kent Goldings. Keen to play with some others this year
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Favorite speciality malt?
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Carafa - it's dark af! Brings some amazing flavour with small quantities
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Best beer you have ever had?
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Unibroue - Grand Reserve 17 - a strong dark amber Belgian Ale, 10% ABV, Dark Ale on the Lees, Brewed with Spices, Aged with French Oak, Bottle Refermented Ale.
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Whats your choice of pouring?
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Bottling smaller bottles - 330ml, 400ml, 500ml
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Have you ever had a 'bottle bomb'?
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Not yet (desperately holds thumbs)
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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 try to stick to the recipe. Even if it is one that I have made up. I do this so that I can hopefully recreate the same beer if it is good.
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Are you pedantic about keeping records of everything you do?
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I am pretty pedantic, although my writing is not as pedantic, so I sometimes struggle to work out what I wrote at the time. I take notes of all the things that have happened during the brew process, including 5 minute temp readings during the mash. I think it is important if you are going to brew the same beers on a regular basis. There is no way you can be consistent with repeated recipes if there are no records.
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Favorite piece of equipment?
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The "wok burner" I bought from some dodgy shop in Pinetown. It allowed me to significantly shorten the post mash boil time, however, you cant take your eye off the boil pot with this thing. I have spent a lot of the saved time cleaning the boil over spillage from the gara.....BrauHaus floor. Truthfully I love all my kit, because without it I would not be brewing my own.
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What is the biggest lesson you ever learnt about brewing?
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Don't forget to take your OG and FG! It is also important to take a temperature reading at the same time so that you can adjust the OG/FG to standard readings. I have had to guess the ABV in at least two of my brews.
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This year I intend to pay more attention to the water chemistry. I am lead to believe that this is especially important when brewing Dark Beers.
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Has being a member of Durban Home Brewers had any influence on your brewing?
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Without a doubt. The willingness to share information, recipes and general banter is amazing. If you are reading this and have never been to a meeting, you are doing yourself a disservice. Come to the meetings, bring beers to swop, let others taste and give opinions. They are brutally honest at times, but this is the only way to truly improve ones brewing. Thanks to the DHB Team and the committee members for keeping it real.
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First meeting 2019
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Lets get the year started with a groovylicious meeting at S43. Please bring swaps and tasters. All attending need to support S43 by purchasing a meal and at least one drink. Check you there.
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2019 Meetings
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Chairman Dough has been doing some homework, slot these dates into your diary or keep an eye out on our diary on the website: www.durbanhomebrewers.com
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The first quarter is fast approaching and we are looking at making this year as informative as possible, keeping our meetings to as many breweries as is sensible. The following venues have been earmarked for our first few meetings!
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That Brewing Company, 43 Station Dr, Morningside, Berea 18:00 (Confirmed)
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Keg and Trout, Oxford village, 9 Old Main Rd, Hilldene, Hillcrest (Confirmed)
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Brew to Style 1/2019 Member and Entrants meeting. Westville Old Boys Club 18:00 (TBC)
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Republik, 217 Florida Rd, Windermere. 18:00 (TBC)
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Durban Brewing Co. 10 Moreland Dr, Red Hill, Durban North. 18:00 (Confirmed)
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Brew to Style 2/2019 Member and Entrants meeting. The Standing Room @ Shongweni Market. 18:00 (Confirmed)
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An ask, is that if you come to these meetings, we all bear in mind that they lose revenue on drinks with us, so we must all order food or a few beers off their taps when visiting these places.
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New year, new challenges.
The idea behind the challenges is exactly that, to challenge you and your brewing abilities. See it as a way of gauging how skilled you are. Can you diversify and take on a new slant or are you there already?
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Big thank you to Seth for running with the Challenge Series again in 2019. Here are the challenges:
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February - Low Alcohol Beer, 2.5% - 3.0 %. Pack in the flavour without the alcohol.
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May - Weiss/Wit Clone (Clone to be decided)
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August - Lacto Brew – brewing with Lactobacillus
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November - Wood Aged Beer
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Note: Educational talks are done based on the challenges set and the outcomes from these challenges. The talks are given at the quarterly 'members only' meets. More reason to join as a paid member.
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Check the new banner.
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Massive thanks to the crew at Beer Bros for their very generous sponsorship of BTS for 2019.
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BEER BROS BTS styles for 2019, as voted by you, are:
- March 2019 - Reds and Amber Ales
- June 2019 - Stouts and Porters
- September 2019 - OPEN Style, Freestyle, free range, you choose. The committee decided to allow one of the BTS comps to be open so that you can enter any brew that you want too as long as you can identify the specific style. BUT, you need to take careful notes and records as the first placed PAID member of this competition will have their beer brewed by NGUNI Brewery for CLAREN beer fest in 2020. That is an awesome prize!! Well done Kiffness for organising this.
- December 2019 - IPA, APA and Pale Ales.
Brew Of The Year 2019:
Again, a great competition to enter. All you need to do is enter a massive beer for BTS, score seriously high (highest individual beer score of the year) and you could win a groovy prize. Zack and Kiffness are working big to secure us great prizes for 2019.
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Brew Name Of The Year:
2019 will see a new competition added to the BTS stable. Beer Name Of The Year. Each 'BTS comp' and 'Challenge Series' will include the best beer name from the entries received. Names of brews need to be relevant to the brew and original. Winner of each comp will be decided on by the presiding judges at each comp. At the end of the year, the winners will all go into an online voting poll, where paid members will get to vote and decide which brew name will be judged as the Brew Name Of The Year. Prize still be decided.
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Collab Brew Date:
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Craft Fest is back:
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Beer Bros
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Bros have extended their loyalty program due to your patronage. What a win, pay by Zapper and get a R 100.00 voucher for every R 1 000.00 spent. If you are not paying Bros with Zapper, maybe you should change... I did.
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Support a good cause by drinking beer.
Yep, you read it right, support a worthy cause by drinking beer. Its what we do anyway, drink beer, but how you ask?? Easy, next time you are Tops in Hillcrest (only available here) look out for the new brew '36 on Main' It is labeled as a blond, but its more of an amber, but that's not the point. We (some of the committee) tried it last Saturday and its goooood. Similar to a Darling Native. Only R 29.00 per 440 ml.
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So whats the story behind this brew? Well.... a while back Mike from Tops and Trevor from 1000 Hills Chef School were chatting over a coffee. Needless to say, the conversation turned to beer and how could they give back through their collective resources. One thing led to another and '36 on Main' was born. So, Trevor and Mike have brewed this great beer at Trevor's Brewery at 1000 Hills Chef School and Mike is selling it at Tops at Spar Hillcrest. Now the best part is that all profits received from the sales of this great beer will go towards a scholarship to put a youngster from the local community in the valley through chef school availing them of a life changing opportunity to set the course for the rest of their life. We can do our bit to assist by buying lots of these great beers and enjoying them, knowing with each sip, we are changing someones life for the good forever. So go on, be a good oke and buy some, they are yum.
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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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