“Its Only A Bloody Thing Or Something” - #ISBF9 Brewday 1
Do you ever have a moment of dread? That moment when you think “Good God! What have I done???”
Well that was how I felt, knowing that Chris & Tim were headed South. To brew something weird, with the lovely Andy Parker at Elusive.
Turns out that they’re actually trustworthy! Who knew? Take it away Tim…..
Has it really been a year already?!? Well that can mean only one thing, it’s time to pull out all the stops and go make a follow-up to last year’s ISBF x Elusive beer. Now this year due largely to clashing calendars we earned the auspicious honour of claiming the first collaboration brew for this edition of ISBF.
Recipes and ideas were chucked back and forth until we thought we had something concrete that would be workable and wouldn’t immediately elicit groans from Finchampstead!!! Alas this meant that despite Jim’s insistence that we brew the legendary Potato & Lactose IPA, once more it could not be realised (next time, mon ami). It was a chance evening of mildly lubricated discussion in the ever excellent (The) Colmore in Birmingham however that helped to focus us on something wholly more German.
A Sticke Altbier; the unrestrained and secret version of the classic Dusseldorf Altbier... A beer that retains the classic old-world style of Altbier but with a more robust approach, making the most of extra malt and hops. The perfect style therefore to bring to a beer festival such as ISBF that enjoys a wealth of depth and diversity across its beer selection. The perfect beer to test the technical ability of one Andy Parker and his two assistants for the day.
Now because geographically myself and Chris are in the Midlands this means any road-trip to Finchampstead will also coincide with a visit to that most holy of back street boozers… The Nags Head!!! Which is where we found ourselves meeting Andy on Friday night to discuss the upcoming brew day and decide on a definitive direction for the recipe. Now it just so happens that Andy has recently published an incredibly detailed guide to home brewing, co-authored by Jamil Zainasheff (seriously go buy it HERE). Over the course of a few pints it transpired that Andy and Jamil had visited Dusseldorf and more specifically one of only a few breweries that regularly produce a Sticke Altbier – Uerige Hausbrauerei. Seemingly also by an astounding coincidence the trip resulted in the recipe which we would be enacting the following day…
As Saturday morning looms into view so does a taxi to whisk us over to Hogwood Lane and Elusive Brewing. As the brewsheet was produced, Andy mentioned that today was Elusive’s Gyle 800. A fab number, and one that we fully intend to do justice to. We got to it, weighing out the sizable (for a Grainfather) grain bill; mostly LCMO, with a touch of Caramunich I and Carafa Special Type I. It is worth noting that most of the colour of the beer is provided by these small additions. Carafa Special Type I is quite the unique malt in that it adds colour without contributing too much in the way of roast or bitterness. As the mash tun came up to temp, we got to discussing that very German mash profile; Decoction or Stepped Mash?!? Decoction being the very traditional way of removing a portion of the mash and boiling separately to improve the enzymatic conversion of sugars. Where once this was seen to be the most efficient mashing profile, a stepped mash has become more popular mainly due to advances in malting techniques, but mostly because in Andy’s own words “Decoction mash? Who needs that, it’s a pain in the arse!”
So, a stepped mash it was then, with 20-minute rests at each step (52, 62, 72, Boil). That done, dusted and in the bag, it was time to commit ourselves to a hop schedule. We could absolutely go nuts here, but restraint is the name of the game with German beer styles, so the Citra/Mosaic/Sorachi triple header was shelved in favour of something far more noble. Jamil’s recipe calls for a combo of Perle/Tettnanger for bittering and an aroma addition of Spalt at 20 mins before flame out. This is where we decided to go a little bit off-piste; sticking with Perle only for bittering, but swapping in Mittelfruh for aroma and then a Saaz dry hop at an appropriate point during fermentation… all very exciting eh?!? Wait, what, was that? Czech Saaz, you say…
Small acts of war against German brewing tradition aside, the thinking here was that Saaz as a dry hop would lend this beer a bohemian edge and amplify the aroma qualities of the Mittelfruh added at the end of the boil. Flame out and transfer of 57 litres of quite delicious smelling wort began. It was then we noticed that transfer was taking slightly longer than was expected; which was diagnosed as a combination of delinquent pump and a thick layer of trub lining the bottom of the kettle.
Transfer done and gravity sample collected at 1058, slightly lower than expected but still within a couple of points of our target gravity. Ready then to take an extended slumber with a mighty pitch of Wyeast 1007. So we’ve told you “the why” and “the how” of this beer, we’re fairly sure you can guess “the when”... Which means it needs a name, and what’s the wurst that could happen there? Say hello to “Services to Sausages” landing typically in both cask (pin) and keg at a grassroots charity beer festival near you.
As always, Andy, being the nicest guy in brewing, was more than generous with his time and particularly with post-brew pints from the superb Elusive Tap Room. If you haven’t been, you surely should! These pints were followed with “some cans hanging around from a collab”. I mean, only Heavy Riff goodness! And then a bottle of Maiden… which quickly segued into closing the tap room and heading over to Siren’s tap room. About 45 seconds walk away. Here we managed to buy Andy some beers back, before a “Mrs Andy” aka the lovely and amazing Jane gave us a lift to Wokingham station so that we could get a train back to Reading. There might even have been a stop off at the Siren bar in Reading, but things were possibly getting a little hazy at this juncture.
Another tremendous day out with Elusive, some great beers drank, and hopefully a fantastic beer brewed for you all to drink in November. Thank you so much to Ian for keeping Chris up to date with the cricket, Jane for being amazing, and last but absolutely not least, Andy for being an amazing host. As always.
See you in November!
Thank you Chris & Tim. For the words, the pictures and for forgetting you were there to brew a Potato & Lactose IPA!
Most of all, thank you to Andy for having us. And for brewing this beer EXCLUSIVELY for a little Grassroots Beer Event in Salford. (I’m getting teary….)
Tickets for our humble bash are still available here. With Friday evening session now almost sold out.
Back soon. Be kind to one another.
Jim x