Music To My Ears : #ISBF6 Brewday No 2 at Five Towns
“I've got a girl out there, I suppose
I think she's dancing
Feel like Dan Dare lies down
I think she's dancing, what do I know?”
One of the things that I've attempted to do with the ISBF brewdays - in the last couple of years at least - is to introduce new people to Brewing, in particular to breweries whose beer that they love.
It's always gratifying when they get that appreciation of how that delicious liquid in the glass is made, how each brewery works, how - in the case of ISBF at least - these aren't factories we're dealing with, but small, often tiny places with a soul all of their own.
Today's friends have been “friends of mine” (the music references start here) for almost *coughs* years and are two of the loveliest, most fun, generous people I know.
They are also music obsessives. With the music of David Bowie a particular obsession. Mike & Jo are the custodians of the tunes at #ISBF6, go say hi, they don't bite…..
With Malcolm being a huge Bowie fan also, can you guess where we're going here……
Over to Mike & Jo….
“When we were asked by Jim @BeersManchester if we would like to take part in a brew day we were flattered and excited to say YES!
And then when Jim asked who our preferred choice of brewer would be there was only one choice for us and that would be Malcolm at Five Towns in Wakefield.
Malcolm has become legendary at the ISBF winning beer of the festival 4 out of 5 years but for us there is a more intrinsic link and that is our love of music and more specifically a shared passion of all things David Bowie.
The date was set for the 28th Sept and at 5.30am we set off to Wakefield (collecting Jim on the way) with six cooked sausages to sustain us on our journey as we had been on a low carb diet for a couple of weeks (and the last time we saw Jim he had turned our heads with delicious carb loaded goodies …. Not this time Mr Cullen)
Jim had asked us a couple of weeks before what beer we would like to brew and we decided on a Cherry and Chocolate stout and Malcolm was very receptive to the idea.
While on the M62 Jim had asked us both to steer Malcolm away from adding Lactose to the stout and we agreed even though I thought it was a little unfair as it was Jim who nicknamed Malcolm “Captain Lactose” (and my favourite dessert is a black forest gateaux)
When we arrived Malcolm was already prepared for us and within minutes he and Jim were having a “Lactose Off” but keeping to our word we agreed that it should be lactose free so people like Jock Joyce (Don't you mean Rex? Ed….) can drink it.
We were then shown some of the ingredients we will be using today :- Barley , Bramling Cross Hops (quite apt as we live in a place called Bromley Cross) , Morello cherries and farm made organic cacao powder.
The water must be pretty special in this part of Yorkshire as Malcolm brings us stunning beer after stunning beer.
Once the water was up to strike temperature we made a beautiful porridgelike wort (don’t forget we have been carb free for a couple of weeks and it was very very tempting to dive in with a spoon each)
We all had a go at mashing but you could soon tell who the novices were as they had wort splashed all over them (Yep that will be us)
Next up was a quick music chat while we discussed Chrissie Hynde’s new covers album and we played 2 cover versions that will be played at isbf6 … Sweet Like Chocolate by Hollie Cook and Come As You Are by Little Roy.
Once the brew was up to the requisite temperature for the correct amount of time we added the aromatic Bramling Cross Hops (to complement the Cherry flavour)
While we left the hops to infuse we had a break with the lovely Beverley and a hot brew of our own.
And then for the first (but not last) time that day we broke our no carb rule and had a delicious breakfast sandwich (I wouldn’t normally call it a sandwich but a bacon/sausage barm cake but I am sure it would be called a bread cake or some such in Wakefield)
When we returned to the shed of wonder we added the cacao powder and mixed it in slowly.
As this dark liquid transferred to the fermentor (American spellings? To the SEA with you! Pedantic Ed….) we added the final ingredient (we were away with the fairies when Malcolm added the yeast) and this was lots and lots of morello cherries.
(An over enthusiastic cherry puree addition. Not murder in the fermentation vessel. Honest. Ed…..)
After cleaning as much as Malcolm would allow us, having an excellent time digging out the mash and draining off the excess water via the high tech drainage system, we all had had a quick freshen up and jumped in the car to head to the Calderdale beer and cider festival in Halifax.
Unsurprisingly two of the first beers to sell out were Five Towns Beers (they are not daft them people on the other side of the Pennines)
So, what is the beer called and where can we sample it?
To be honest it HAD to be a Bowie beer and as we do the music for ISBF and we decided to name it after a Bowie single from 1979 off the Lodger album and called it “D.J. I Am What I Play”.
And for 5 sessions starting on 31/10/2019 (or Halloween…. Ed….) you can taste it at #ISBF6
www.salfordbeerfest.com
Love on Ya
Mike and Jo Dewsnip”
Always a pleasure doing this. Like Mike & Jo said, Malcolm is a bit of an ISBF legend, what with his beers winning the popular vote at ISBF 4 years out of 5. And with our beer line up, that takes some doing!
If you haven't yet got one, there are still a limited number of tickets available for the Thursday evening, Friday lunch and Saturday evening sessions. (Click the tickets tab…..)
The beer line up is almost complete. Oh my…..
Back soon.
Be kind to one another.
Jim x