#ISBFX #Brewday3 : Karen PD Ray - A Series Of Unexpected Events
I don't know why I should wait / I don't know why
I've got to find a way / I don't know why
Something you feel inside / I don't know why
Something you feel inside / I don't know why
Waiting at the back door of my mind
Once or twice in each ISBF Cycle, some of the ISBF Family go rogue. And collaborate on a brew. This year is no different, as Chris & Tim (with friends) headed South to brew something special.
Could they top last year’s Sticke Altbier? Or even the Chocolate & Aji Limon Chili Stout from ISBF8? Would they get arrested for Offences Against The Beer Act 1923 (Abuse of Potatoes)?
Over to Tim to tell us - almost - all…..
It's time for ISBF Brewday #3; so, let’s go on a Friday evening ROADTRIP!!!
As you may well expect, that’s exactly how Chris, myself and our special guest Michelle (formerly of Offbeat Brewing) find ourselves wending our way towards Reading to make something a little bit fun with Andy Parker at Elusive Brewery.
All checked into our digs for the next couple of days, we promptly headed off to meet Andy in Double Barrelled Brewery for a few obligatory beers and to finalise the brew plan…
Andy having arrived literally several steps behind us joins us at the bar as we peruse the beer list. A scan of this cavernous space has us picking out the pool table (on a previous visit I’m semi sure this was a table) and marvelling at the fridge selection and the fact that it is essentially a direct frontage for the cold store behind the bar. Beer selected (in my case a frankly unapologetically good Cali IPA) we get down to expanding on the brew plan for the morning. Beer planned we expanded the conversation to talking about some of the outrageously fantastic beers that formed the basis of Offbeat’s portfolio. Outlandish, Out of Step and Dotty DIPA all fond reminders of beers gone by (and maybe beers gone future, wink wink).
As time is called at DB we asked ourselves (and Jim) one very important question “Are we in The Nag’s Head yet?”. The obvious solution to this quandary was to hop in a strategically placed taxi outside and head straight there. That familiar bar frontage once more in sight and it’s a bee line to the bar to be met with a plethora of offerings including a dab of Elusive (Haem), a far too sinkable beer from Mysterious Brewing (Lo-Fi) and something dark and offensively strong from a retired brewer (doffs flat cap). Some of which may have contributed to a slower than preferable start in the morning.
<Cut abruptly to the next morning>
One of the recurring themes of conversation we have every year on the way over to Elusive is just how much the surrounding housing estate has grown on each recurring visit. The very minute we broach this topic of conversation suddenly a surprise mid-sized Sainsbury’s looms into view. At this rate Finchampstead might gain city status ahead of Reading itself.
On the run up to the brewery a familiar ISBF fixture sneaks into view; none other than Mark “The Gasman” Pursey. Behind him however the Elusive brewery “pilot” Grainfather is up on metaphorical bricks with its inner workings being prodded by Andy and Mark due to a power supply issue. Luckily on this occasion a relatively easy to solve issue; so, with that fragile truce established we cracked on with making a beer! Grainfather delicately repositioned, a nice simple grain bill was put together: 14 kilos of Golden Promise and 500g of Caraglow for a dash more colour.
After we'd finished doughing in the grain, Andy tidied away the evidence of any issues we had with the pilot kit and started to populate the brew sheet for today’s beer. Chris, who's more observant than I am, noticed that the conditioning tank was engineered in Wolverhampton. Not especially exciting unless you consider that in a few short weeks the big kit in the brewhouse is due to be replaced with a newly commissioned brewkit.
As the time draws closer to midday we set to making a few decisions about today’s hops; first up bittering… We’re looking to make a beer with a decent and mouth wetting amount of bitterness, so it’s an early charge of Challenger to the front. Now for the real fun, aroma!!! Andy produces an envelope chock full of fresh, direct from farm New World hop samples that cause Chris to become animated to say the least.
Hops selected we notice that across the way the Siren Tap Yard, or more to the point the Time Hops Festival that Siren are running this weekend. A celebration of some headline hops inspired by pivotal times & places where growers and brewers made magic happen. We’re talking some seriously heavy hitters; Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin, Saaz and Strata across a range of four beer styles that make the most of each hop. We made our way slowly across the way to check out the beers on offer from Siren and their invited friends.
As we strolled back from Siren to check on the progress of the brew, we were greeted by a concerned looking Andy… The Pilot kit was again drawing no power which meant to the wort contained within would be just sat there… Plan B it is then - jug 50 litres of hot wort into temporary containers so that the power issue could be investigated. Obviously, this is no small feat, but out came the wort, the pilot kit was again upturned, and the source of our woes (a broken switch) was quickly identified and bypassed. Power was returned and we were back on track… Well almost!!! Problems like buses always come in threes and here was number three. In our exuberance to get wort back into the kettle, we had accidently left the drain tap open. A small portion of our precious wort was already on its way to the Berkshire waterboard.
Fear not though we have a way to fix this latest mishap, so we do and in timely enough fashion to get the bittering hops prepped and the wort on its merry way to boil… It’s a slow climb towards boil but thankfully one that is now progressing in the right direction. The brewing gods have seen fit to bestow us with mercy because with 15 minutes to go in goes the early aroma addition, followed shortly thereafter by the flame out aroma addition. A divine smelling wee beastie this is, even if it has encouraged me to completely fog up my glasses in pursuit of breathing it all in.
So as not to tempt fate and invite more problems we elected to wait a little and allow the temp on the wort to stabilise before starting transfer to the awaiting mini fermenter. Or as Andy put it “We really don’t want to goose the transfer pump by running boiling wort through it”. As the wort eventually gently bimbled its way across, we turned our attention to cropping some yeast from FV1 (or FV Oregon Trail). There is a knack to getting live yeast out of a conical fermenter under pressure. So obviously today’s brew day having gone so smoothly meant 30 seconds later the brewhouse and Andy had very possibly soiled themselves. That moment of high drama aside wort was transferred, and yeast was duly pitched (once Andy had tidied himself up) and thus we have a beer in the offing!
Post brew day analysis was undertaken swiftly and with minimal prejudice in the taproom next door, and eventually as with every visit to Reading it seems in the familiar confines of you guessed it - The Nag’s Head.
Time for the big reveal (no not the compromising pictures of Andy getting yeast splatter off his jeans), because until now we have deftly skirted around the specifics. The astute amongst you will have noticed multiple references throughout the preceding witterings to colour, bitterness and new world hops. It’d be remiss of us to come all the way to Elusive to force Andy to make some obscure half remembered style that the dinosaurs forgot, so we thought we’d keep it simple by grafting a bunch of super fresh New Zealand hops to a West Coast IPA, a NZWCIPA if you will?!? What will we call it you say? Well due to the absolute chaos of the brew day it could be nothing other than “The Swedish Chef”, feel free to add your own “Bork Bork Bork” when you find it on both the cask and the keg bar in November!
All in all, a fabulous day out at Elusive full of fantastic beer, belly laughs and genuine moments of head scratching concern. Thanks as ever to Andy and all at Elusive for being amazing hosts.
Thanks for that, Tim. Good to hear that no Maris Pipers were harmed!
Now then. Where will you get this beer? It will be UNIQUE to ISBF. And if you haven’t yet got a ticket, better click this link pronto! Because there aren’t many left…
Back VERY soon
Be kind to one another.
Jim x