Posts Tagged ‘clone wars’
The Clone Wars
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
It’s over! The Clone Wars have been fought and won. Last night for a little over 2 hours Justin, Brad,Scott and myself sampled thirty homebrewed “clones” of my 3 Lions Ale to judge who had managed to come closest to the real thing. Kudos to all of the brewer’s who entered the competition and made a difficult job of it with some quality brews. We sampled each “blind” in flights of 5 narrowing the field to 8 which we revisited and reassessed. Throughout we cleansed our palates with saltine crackers and water and of course had the draft 3 Lions as our reference point (hey, it’s a dirty job but someone’s got to do it). One particular entry stood head and shoulders above the others and was a unanimous winner. Second place also came easy though had not been the one I’d predicted from the first round. Third place sparked some lively discussion and wasn’t my third place pick but I bowed to the majority of 3:1. Overall I think it was a great competition and I’m particularly pleased that so many people entered, I hope all of the brewers out there had fun with it and maybe will look on the much maligned Ringwood yeast and the joys of open fermentation in a new light. The results have been sealed in an envelope and will be revealed at an awards party, likely to be the evening of Thursday 31st at 6pm. I’ll confirm the date in Friday’s blog post. A huge thank you to Brandon for organising the competition and to the volunteer judges and stewards (Jeremy, Denise and Jason (( http://www.beercruiser.net/) from whom I’ve stolen the judging photo below) without whom it would not have been possible. Cheers!
hard at work!
Hey Homebrewers, your Galaxy needs you! It’s The Clone Wars!
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
Are you a homebrewer, then read on! If you’re not, read on anyway, get inspired and join a homebrew club! For the last couple of years we’ve had the pleasure of running a “Clone Wars” homebrew competition in conjunction with the fine folks at The Chesapeake Real Ale Brewers Society (CRABS). The premise is simple … I provide the recipe of one of my beers and all of the technical information and our house yeast strain for those who want it and you, the homebrewer, goes away and tries to clone it … extract or grain brews are equaly acceptable. Myself, Justin (co-owner of the Ale House) and whomever else we can drag into helping (I’m looking at you Mr. Brad Klipner) will judge all of the entries in a single sitting and select the top three that best represent my original brew. Simple, eh? We’ve got some cool prizes and further details can be found here. To get you in the mood, present the recipe and answer any questions that you may have we’ll be holding a 3 Lions Happy Hour on February 1st, 6-9pm at The Pratt Street Ale House … 3 Lions (cask and draft) will be, you guessed, it $3/pint for those entering the competition. You don’t have to be a member of one of the participating homebrew clubs to get involved, independent homebrewers are very welcome. Don’t worry if you can’t make it to the Happy Hour, you can still compete … contact Brandon at CRABS (see the embedded link for details).
Of CRABS and Clone Wars
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
Clone Wars is here people
Ever thought of joining a home brew club? There are obviously a lot of benefits for homebrewers of every “skill” level, from the beginner to the veteran. What better environment in which to develop your techniques than amongst like minded, dedicated enthusiasts. Your peers will gladly share their experience and the veteran homebrewers have the gratification of acting as benefactors to those of lesser experience (although, truth be told, after 16+ years as a professional brewer, one thing I have come to learn is that there is always something to learn!) One benefit that may not be immediately obvious is the chance to participate to some degree with local brewpubs and breweries. It is commonplace these days for breweries to run competitions with local homebrew clubs to produce one-off seasonal brews, for example the recent Heavy Seas “Letter Of Marque” (http://www.hsbeer.com/letter-marque-hop-rye-porter ). Many other smaller breweries run similar competitions including DuClaw, Ellicot Mills and of course, ourselves. Last year we ran a competition (see blog post http://www.prattstreetalehouse.com/2009/09/home-brewing-but-not-at-home/) in which we invited homebrewers to submit entries for a new seasonal beer to be brewed here. The winners were invited in to oversee brew day and the subsequent beer was served at the Ale House and at festivals and bars around the area throughout Baltimore Beer Week and beyond. Of course we will be running this competition again this year (details will be posted in August). Another interesting competition is run by the Chesapeake Real Ale Brewers Society (CRABS http://www.crabsbrew.org/) who run a “Clone Wars Competition” annually in which one of our ales is selected to be reproduced by club members. I supply the club with the recipe and brew protocol and yeast (if required) and they try to clone the brew at home. This year the club selected our Ironman Pale Ale (last year was Best Bitter). There is an interesting post by club president Brandon on his blog post http://huskyrunner.blogspot.com/2010/04/ringwood-yeast-chroniclesthe-ballad-of.html. This competition is particularly dear to me as I enjoy the opportunity to “get my pom-poms out” and do some cheerleading for the much maligned Ringwood Yeast, that is our house yeast strain (see Brandon’s post for his thoughts). The winner of the competition is judged by a select panel here at the Ale House and the winner not only gets to bask in the glory of his/her victory but also a $50 gift token to Wells Discount Liquors and this year will also be invited into the brewery for an Ironman Pale Ale brew day. So, if you’ve been sitting on the fence with regards to joining a home brew club take a leap of faith, you won’t be sorry.
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