Notlaw
Dubbel Dragon
I assumed it was your forum CT. Does the owner post on here?
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MyQul
Chairman of the Bored
Yes but not often . If you need/want to contact him
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/members/Admin/
Notlaw I don't own the forum its owned by the same company that run home brew talk our sister site http://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum.php
Notlaw
Dubbel Dragon
Cheers man. Is that one any good, worth a gander on there too?
geetee
Landlord.
I think the homebrewtalk is a US site so suppliers and electrics will be different and all ABVs will be bigger!
If you have a lot of time on your hands i would say yes, its huge compared to this one -
Threads: 530,734, Posts: 7,243,244, Members: 201,241
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HBT is definitely worth a gander. Them Americans have pushed all the brewing boundaries, and there's about a million of them making beer at home. And they take it very seriously, so we can learn a lot from them, as our UK breweries are doing as we speak. The whole craft brew thing has effectively come back here from over there, in a re-vamped form. HBT is very busy and has loads of info. If you ever google a brewing topic you will get HBT threads appearing near the top of the search results.
Notlaw
Dubbel Dragon
Registered on there now... I'll have a look one night when our lass is at work.
Same name?
Notlaw
Dubbel Dragon
Yes, still Notlaw. No avatar though, says thats only for premium members.
geetee
Landlord.
They can get a bit precious and forthright I have noticed in the past, that would never happen here would it?
Never.
They are pretty intense some of them American brewers, but they have definitely raised standards and taken beer to very new places, probably as a result of their highly competitive national psyche? If you want to be the best, dedication's what you need. :thumb:
I have always found the vast majority of British ales rather bland and unappealing, decades of being crystal and Fuggled to death wore me down, so the American effect has been most welcome in Clibland. Though I have also re-discovered what is good about British ales, and how to make British ales that appeal to me, the value of a really nice yeast combined with the right malts and hops and IBUs etc, not that I always succeed, I'm still learning.
It is a lot easier to make a really tasty pale beer to my tastes with American hops and neutral dried yeast than it is to make a really good British pale ale, in my experience - but a really good British pale ale is a wonderful thing, and I've made a few, but I'm still getting there. Darker British beers are much more reliably successful, I find. I've started bittering British pale ales with American bittering hops, and this seems to work well. So Chinook, Columbus or Cluster for example at 60 minutes, and British hops for flavour and aroma. Cos I like a strong bitterness. I also mix US and UK flavour hops sometimes, this works well for me, The UK hops get a boost and the US hops get toned down a bit. More complexity.
Yeast wise, I'm slowly veering towards using British yeasts for everything, but not the low attenuation varieties that leave a lot of sweetness behind. Wyeast 1728 and Whitelabs WLP006 are working well for me. Kind of a half way house between Whitelabs 001 /US05 and the very British WLP002/005. I think one of those two yeasts (1728/006) could become a house yeast for me, to use most of the time.
Maybe I'm a bit mid-atlantic on malt too - I don't go for loads of crystal like a traditional British ale might have, but I don't go for thin maltless beers either. I like a bit of crystal or caramalt in my pale ales, for a bit more body and to balance the higher bitterness I like.
Anyway, those US brewers have plenty to teach us Brits, there are some insanely knowledgeable brewers posting on HBT. Oh, and if you are into Vic and Bob style humour, you will find hours of amusement on Youtube by watching American home brew videos. :thumb:
HebridesRob
Landlord.
Americans :lol: :nono:
geetee
Landlord.
I was on the Brewlab course last year with 9 American brewers, some who worked in brewing industry and others home brewers wanting to start breweries. They do indeed have a competitive nature, Double IPAs become Double Double IPAs and 7-8% is a decent session beer. Their enthusiasm is infection and they did not have much time for British beers. Their idea of a Micro brewery is 10 times bigger than ours and raising at least $100,000 dollars to start one did not really put them off
One interesting fact I learned is that they are not taxed on the ABV of the beer just the volume shipped. This is one reason why they go for bigger AVBs as it does not incur any extra duty as in the UK.
They may not have much time for British beers, but they do appear to love our malts and our yeasts. Which, in all truth, are the key strengths of British brewing. So what they seem to do is make a lot of beers that use English yeasts and malts, and then twist them with American hops and/or other ingredients. Like UK brewers are increasingly doing. But they are constantly looking for new things, and they seem obsessed with different yeasts and wild bacteria which provide infinite possibilities. They are serious geeks, those at the sharp end, and they want to act and talk geek! Meanwhile our mainstream breweries chug along with the same yeast,pale and crystal malts and Fuggles and Goldings, never exploring anything. Two wild extremes.
And, in all truth, a lot of beer brewed in Britain is made to be drunk by people who have no idea what good beer is, and have no sense of adventure whatsoever, and that applies to real ale as much as mass produced lagers etc. Who are the UK brewers who make English beer styles and really care about the product and really know what they are doing? There are some, but even they are often dogged by less than ideal serving practices in pubs and bars. And how many use dry yeasts for convenience, for example? With hops being less of a factor in English styles, the yeast and the malt are very important, I think. It's vital that English ales are made with quality yeasts and are fermented by people who know what they are doing, I reckon.
If an American tasted a really good example of an English ale, they would really like it. And they would struggle to make it. Cos it's an elusive thing, in my experience. For example, I've had several pints of Exmoor Gold over the years. It's always pretty good, but I remember one being really superb, like a religious experience! And it was certainly down to the fermentation. And that's the same beer brewed in the same place by the same people.
And, in all truth, a lot of beer brewed in Britain is made to be drunk by people who have no idea what good beer is, and have no sense of adventure whatsoever, and that applies to real ale as much as mass produced lagers etc. Who are the UK brewers who make English beer styles and really care about the product and really know what they are doing? There are some, but even they are often dogged by less than ideal serving practices in pubs and bars. And how many use dry yeasts for convenience, for example? With hops being less of a factor in English styles, the yeast and the malt are very important, I think. It's vital that English ales are made with quality yeasts and are fermented by people who know what they are doing, I reckon.
If an American tasted a really good example of an English ale, they would really like it. And they would struggle to make it. Cos it's an elusive thing, in my experience. For example, I've had several pints of Exmoor Gold over the years. It's always pretty good, but I remember one being really superb, like a religious experience! And it was certainly down to the fermentation. And that's the same beer brewed in the same place by the same people.
MyQul
Chairman of the Bored
This thread has certainly wandered off topic a bit :whistle:
Well it wasn't going anywhere. :whistle:
brumbrew
Regular dufus
Holds fist in mouth to prevent comments about super Tuesday.
There is nothing super about super Tuesday. :-?
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To keep going with the off-topic-but-interesting: a friend of mine who is a New Yorker absolutely loved British ale when he came to visit. His words:
"There's a subtlety and a character there that we just try and overdo; metaphor?"
Disclaimer: this was after six pints of HSB
"There's a subtlety and a character there that we just try and overdo; metaphor?"
Disclaimer: this was after six pints of HSB
