Home Brew in Donegal: February 2014

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

One Step Closer

This morning I passed the BJCP online exam. It's a 200 questions in 1 hour exam, with questions usually about style comparisons, or what elements you'd expect in a beer style.

I answered all the questions, although I'm quite sure not all of them were right. The Multiple Choice Multiple Answer questions were tricky enough.

To celebrate I'm drinking a small glass of under-carbonated and under-attenuated Irish Red Ale, which clearly demonstrates that good at theory is not good at practice.

Nevertheless, I'm now a Provisional Judge, ready to take the tasting exam in Dublin this weekend.

What does one wear to a tasting exam, when it coincides with a Welsh-Irish 6Nations rugby match...

Bookworm:

Brewing Britain, Andy Hamilton

Very excited to get this through the post, for a number of reasons. The book will guide you through every aspect of brewing, from growing and malting barley, growing your own hops, alsorts! However, that's the preamble to the main focus of the book, how to brew 'one of each' of the beer styles familiar to British drinkers.

Brew Like a Monk, Stan Heironymous

This was a loan from a NHC member, and it's going straight on my Christmas list. It's a fantastic book for anyone thinking about brewing Trappist style, or Belgian inspired beers. Frankly, I wasn't, but I well am now!

Brew Your Own Real Ale at Home, Roger Protz.
This book is a great addition to the library. Along with the usual stuff on mashing etc. that I'm familiar with, it's got over 100 grain recipes for cask ales from the UK. Can't wait to try Landlord, Felinfoel, Archer's Golden Bitter, and so on, with extract versions too. Not much about the yeast mind, but I suppose brewers are allowed some secrets.

Stan Heironymus's For the Love of Hops. It's a very pretty book, and very clever. Lots of science on aromatic propertieas, ideas on how to use hops in your beer, how to grow, and much more.

Pete Brown's Shakespeare's Local. I enjoyed it; it was a light read, not too bogged down in history or facts, but a nice glimpse into the life of a coaching inn. Not half as funny as his travelogues, but then maybe time-travel just isn't that funny. Not necessarily a brewing book, mind.