The run up to Christmas is a busy time for breweries and the meeting room was filling up with gift wrapped potential pressies and it was another great turnout for our November meeting in terms of people and beers. A total of 10 different beers to get through meant a great night was in store.

We started with the Maris Otter SMaSHs with four versions of the beer using Wild, Styrian Wulf, Vic Secret and Simcoe hops and it was amazing the variety that just the hops brings to the party. From here we accelerated through colour and strength.

A spot on Punk IPA clone, RyePA and Malty bitter lined the way to a year old DIPA. This was supposed to be an example of something that had gone wrong but instead showed the healing power of ageing or conditioning beer to iron out any problems. Don’t dump your beer – hide it for a surprise next year.

Then came the Russians.

We were lucky enough to get to try a young and old Russian imperial stout. The youngest was very young indeed. Paddy drew it out of the FV where it was mid fermentation and full of promise. The elder came from A&E and was a boozy delight. Perfect for sitting around the fire in a bleak midwinter with a pipe and a glass to keep you warm. A great way to finish the night.

The biggest problem we’ve discovered with holding the meeting on the last Wednesday of the month is that in December it falls on Christmas day; and it was agreed that people are likely to be busy. So we’re skipping a formal meeting in December and replacing it with a Social Saturday planning and stagey session. Details to follow but the rough plan is meeting for a Christmas drink on Saturday 28th in the afternoon at the brewery and then strolling over to the fantastic Hoppy Place to try something exotic and rare.

Finally it was agreed that the first meeting of 2020 we’d all endeavour to brew the same recipe – probably something like W&E’s Knight of the Garter – something that makes it hard to hide faults behind roasty malts and heavy hops. Keep an eye out on here for the recipe very soon.