Like 1215, Wednesday 25th September 2019 will forever be etched in the history of Windsor as the date of the first meeting of the Windsor and Eton Homebrew Club – held at the brewery itself.
A strong turnout was welcomed by Paddy, Windsor and Eton’s head brewer who conducted held a quick masterclass on tasting. Attendees ranged from professional brewers through to first timers.
Around ten people brought a sample of their own beer and these were passed around, tasted and discussed – reviewing strengths and opportunities to improve then. The quality of these discussions was high and most certainly benefited from having good representation from both clinically-insightful professional brewers and professional consumers (!). Beers presented ranged from a straightforward best bitter, through a delightful Scottish Wee Heavy, and a blackberry porter right through to some smoked ales – hopefully something for everyone. Particular kudos to Fran who brought along her very pleasant first ever beer and a bag of foraged hops!
Even more noteworthy was that Brexit was not mentioned even once; the beers must have been good.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday October 30th. Meet at 19:00 in the brewery bar, or 18:30 if you wish to have a quick tour of the brewery.
The October 30th meeting will consist of a talk and free-form tasting of attendees’ offerings (min 2 x bottles of your beer so there’s enough to go round).
As a reminder, for the November 27th we’re undertaking and experiment looking at a SMaSH beer (Single Malt and Single Hops) so that the only differences arise from the hops used and technique. Suggested base is Maris Otter malt, brewed to c5% ABV, fermented using Nottingham yeast and using whatever hop additions take your fancy. For those brewing from extract kits, use whatever kit you fancy. We’ll be providing more detailed instructions pretty soon on here.
In the meantime, spread the word – no RSVP is required – just turn up on October 30th, with or without samples.
Happy brewing,
Ian Scott
