The big night came and went, with some great beers to try at the end after the results.

I met some new faces in the local home brew community, trying their beer they entered too and going by it was only their 3rd brew they are getting things right and was probably better than some of the brews I did at a comparable stage.



Regarding my result.....

From what I learnt after the results talking to Malcolm Irving from Irving & Co. Brewers, I came 5th in my category of 'Light beers' (in terms of pale ales, IPAs, APAs, blonde beers, Amber ale, Red ale or English Bitter an Black IPAs) (judged on taste, aroma, colour, clarity, drinkability, name/presentation/label). 

I am pretty happy with this result, being that there was over 25 entries in my category and drinking some of the others there was a lot of great beers, many from people who have entered in the past and brewing for far longer than myself. So 5th in my first competition is probably a fair result.  

I was a long night for the judges sampling over 40 beers across all the different categories.

If the competition comes around next year would I do it again? Yes! Would I do it with G.E.B again? probably not....Not for the reason it came 5th but with the fact it was good to get feedback on this beer so I would like to enter another for the same reason.



What beer would I enter? I currently have 2, Fimbulwinter  my black IPA or Saison of Love, my dry hopped saison. Both I will brew again this year.

As for G.E.B its now part of Brann Brew's 'core range'

Until next time......Happy Brewing

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Ok, so I wont say that I know everything by a long way, but I can say I know enough to get by currently and certainly enough to hold a conversation or enlighten someone on the facts.

Since taking this seemly "different" hobby up 7 months ago, (Yes a friend classified home brewing as different hobby - a very endearing way of putting it, which I would have to agree to a certain point of view as it is different to the usual video gaming, football, sports nuts that we all know)



I have noticed that there are three categories of people:

• Ones that find out you make your own beer strike a conversation about the basics (such as how long it all takes, how much it all costs and what things you need etc) - new years eve (2015) surprised me as I was able to hold a few friends attention regarding home brewing for longer than I thought, then peoples hunger kicked in and I lost them to the party food table!

• Ones that like beer....a lot and again strike a conversation on the basics but this time they ask what beers you can do with it, flavours and all the like. I was at my bosses recent leaving run and someone caught wind I made my own beer and started asking questions.
  He thought that you needed lots of equipment taking loads of space so his wife stopped him even thinking of brewing his own. I enlightened him to that fact that all my equipment & bottles (apart from my brewing bucket and new wort pan) are stored in 4 boxes in the airing cupboard. I wouldn't get away with it all around the house so I do my best to keep it for my eyes only!

• The people that either have been thinking of doing their own brew or know someone who does. I have been lucky in a way with this one, as a fellow work colleague's wife has been mentioning to my colleague that she wanted to get into it for along time, Ive been kind enough to give him bottles of every batch Ive done (sometimes more than one bottle of the same batch). This fully converted him to the idea and ordered a beginners kit for his wife's birthday. He has been, apart from my Dad, has been the biggest fan and spreads the word a bit too well.....soon I might have a queue of people at my desk to asking for a bottle of my next batch! 

With working in a male majority environment I have found that I can get a lot of feedback from my beers, most often it is good as they are surprised by the standard of what you can do with just a basically a few buckets, this was just with my first few batches from a kit too.

A few people didn't like my  Fimbelwinter Black IPA as it wasn't their type of beer or just a bit too bitter for them.
They have all said at some point though that they would happily pay for my beer at a pub, sometimes they have even said it was better than some of things they've tasted.

This new hobby is a great conversation starter, keeps you in the good books with work colleagues (it works for me!) and if this all converts someone else into the fold then all the better. 

I have converted 1 person in 7 months and have got at least 2 other people seriously thinking about the venture, not a bad success rate I don't think. 

Until next time.....Happy Brewing!

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