Meeting

Details

Bill Cooper's Report for Brewer's Contact

Since I last reported in June 1999, Scottish Craft Brewers have continued to meet at least five times a year.  We have over fifty people on the mailing list and we have seen nearly all of them during this period, although the paid up membership is somewhat below forty.  Members have come from a remarkably wide area of Scotland and we have spread our meeting venues accordingly, taking in such places as Livingston, Falkirk, Perth, the Heather Ale Brewery at Strathavon, and the Houston Brewery in Renfrewshire, (where we had our agm this year), and the Kilgours Maltings at Kirkcaldy.  The next agm. is planned for the Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh, the committee seemingly having decided that the attractions of a brewery visit outweigh the disinclination to attend an agm.  Charlie Clark took over from me as secretary at the agm in April 2000 and I must say it has been a delight to have the benefit of a youthful approach.  Sadly Charlie has to stand down through work and domestic pressures as soon as a replacement can be found.

Expert guest speakers have included Professor Geoff Palmer from Heriot Watt University Brewing Department, Bruce Williams of Heather Ale Brewery, Fergus Clark of Inveralmond Brewery and Donald Moore of Houston Brewery, but recently we have relied on home grown talent and it is both amazing and re-assuring to realise the spread and depth of knowledge that exists within the membership.  We are however looking forward to a return visit from Clive La Pensee for our November (01) meeting in Fife, and for January we are hoping to have Clive Donald of Brupaks again.

We arranged a very successful weekend Advanced Brewing Workshop at Brewlab in Sunderland in September, attended by fourteen members, most, if not all, of whom were grant aided from the Individual Learning Account scheme.

We have just published details of a home brew competition for Scottish resident home brewers, sponsored with generous prizes by Heather Ale Brewery, and with the winning recipe to be brewed at the brewery for commercial sale.  Entries must be in by the end of January (02).  Details are available from all Scottish home brew shops.

Falkirk Victoria Harriers

At the end of September we returned to the popular venue at Falkirk.  We had a good meeting with plenty of discussion about:

·          The Beer Competition

·          Holding a joint meeting with the Northern (England) Craft Brewers – Hope to have this over a weekend in early June 2002 in northern England, combined with a visit to a brewery

·          A standard beer recipe for a future meeting – Agreed that we should postpone this until after the beer competition – probably April 2002.

Brewlab weekend

14 members enjoyed a very good weekend on the Advanced Brewing Workshop at Brewlab in Sunderland University.  Saturday was spent comparing various brews with different combinations of malt and water treatment to achieve a specified final gravity.  Many readings were taken of pH, gravity, temperature, colour, bitterness and haze and calculations of boiler efficiency and hop extraction.  We managed to blow all the sockets in 2 labs, but did manage to achieve a final brew.  On the Sunday, after another few pints in another few hostelries, we spent some time trying to focus and count yeast cells under the microscope.  We also were taught how to make yeast slopes and a large number of phials were produced to be brought North for further work.

Craigs Farm

Back in June we had a good meeting covering some new topics at members request which seemed to go down very well.  Topics covered included kegging and enhancing extract kits.  Audience numbers were down slightly due to a few call-offs due to holidays and other commitments but those members that could attend found the sessions very interesting.  Thanks go to Ian McKernan, Ian McManus and Aled Murphy for setting up the sessions.

AGM

Houston Brewing Company

A fantastic turnout to the AGM in April, and thanks to everyone for attending.

After the meeting, we had a superb lunch from the Fox & Hounds washed down with some very fine ales.  This was followed by a tour of the brewery by the Head Brewer, Derek Moore where we had a chance to get an insight into his methods of brewing; this was of particular interest given that his background was originally from home / small-scale brewing some years ago.  Due to the small size of the brewery, we had to split into groups so this gave us all a chance to have a chat, and sample some beer !  Unfortunately there was a bit of hanging around, and perhaps some of us might have liked more time in the brewery ….. However, we’ll know the next time …… the pub and brewery were delighted with our visit and we’re welcome to go back at any time, either as a group or individually.

Above left: Robin, who presumably got dressed in the wrong order that morning. Above right: Davey Wright has definitely reached the silly grin stage. Below: Norrie caught "stealing" some yeast from the brewery.

Craigs Farm

Further to the success of the Discussion & Demonstration day at the previous meeting, we ran a sequel at Livingston that covered some of the other aspects of craft brewing, and included a demonstration of a full mash with running commentary from various members.  The topics covered were:

·          Mashing demonstration                            Ian McAnally

·          Hops (Growing and Types)                     Charlie Clark / Bill Cooper

·          Computers and Brewing                          Les Howarth

Thanks to everyone who took part, and it was really encouraging to see a good turnout at the Livingston meeting.