To Brewlab and back

Tired of suffering (and I do mean suffering) pint after pint of non-descript, cold, sweet, fizzy beer I decided to do something about it.  Having brewed 'kit' beer for a number of years I had finally exhausted the limited opportunities available, but I didn't feel confident enough to bravely venture into the home mash experience.  There was only one option - learn to brew like a professional.

Of course I could have just as easily approached every micro brewer in New Zealand and begged to be taken on as a menial operative.  And who knows, that may well be an option in the future, but I believed the best way forward would be to enrol in a serious course of study.  An internet search later (and after weighing the pros and cons of various countries and length of course), I opted for the three week Sunderland course run by Brewlab.  I should add at this point that I am originally from the UK so it made sense to choose a British-based course.  Two birds with one stone scenario!  Family visits taken care of and another string to an already over strung bow, but one which will hopefully deliver time and time again.

Course and flights booked, I began looking forward to future brewing success.  Oh how I longed to produce the beers I missed the most.  Premature maybe but I felt it would not be long before I was brewing my very own Fullers 'London Pride' or even Timothy Taylor's 'Landlord'.  The only trouble was I had two months to wait before leaving a damp, grey Auckland for damp, grey Glasgow.

Time flew as did I, and I eventually arrived, 38 hours later, in a surprisingly sunny Glasgow, albeit on the cool side.  Two weeks with the family in Scotland raced away and it wasn't long before I was heading towards sunny Sunderland.

Travelogue interval for those of you who have not had the opportunity of visiting the North East, and Sunderland in particular.  Whilst nearby Newcastle has brightened up, remodelled itself and generally prospered since the miseries of the Thatcher years the same cannot be said of Sunderland.  Only ten miles or so separates the two cities but decades of neglect and hardship are distinctly evident.  Factories long since closed lie abandoned to the elements while the site, in the town centre, of the once proud Vaux Brewery has been left barren for ten years.  So you are starting to get the picture.  Depressed surroundings full of depressed people.  As first impressions go it was disappointing to say the least, made doubly so by the heavy grey sky and incessant drizzle falling from the heavens.

A plus point as far as the Brewlab course goes is that the accommodation is taken care of.  Being attached to the University of Sunderland, student digs came as part of the course fees.  Although my student days were a long time ago!  But the close quarters would undoubtedly help bond the diverse group together...the good old 'Dunkirk' spirit.  And a diverse group we turned out to be.  All of us from the UK but living throughout the world, the one exception being a chap from Israel who felt good old British bitter could be a future hit in his hot, humid land!  Two lads were from London, one from Norfolk, another from Australia, one from Turkey and of course me.

Introductions made, we all set out on our first night to do some moderate 'research' into available beer styles in the North East.  Of course this turned into a monster session, one to be repeated night after night, and we all staggered back to the digs well past midnight!  Not promising but no-one suffered any ill effects the next morning from that initial enthusiastic start.

So we all staggered into the heart of Sunderland to the principle Brewlab base.  It turned out our three main tutors had over 75 years brewing experience, representing both major and micro brewers.  And it is this huge knowledge base which underpins the whole course.  That and an all-consuming passion for the whole process involved in brewing, including consumption, of quality real living ale.

The course was well constructed with plenty of practical and theoretical lessons plus the chance to visit working breweries and have a full, hands-on experience with brewers who live and breathe brewing.

From the word go we all had to construct a beer recipe based on a wide selection of malts and hops, including a few from New Zealand.  As the weather was warm and sunny I opted for a light, easy drinking summer ale based on Maris Otter malt and some biscuit malt.  Green Bullet hops provided the bitterness, around 30 EBU, with a late additional hopping to add some aroma and I was aiming for a moderate 3.8% abv; perfect for a good session beer watching sport or just relaxing with friends.  We all brewed our recipes and then had the long wait for the beer to ferment and ultimately condition into the beer of our dreams.  Patience isn't one of my virtues...

To compensate for the wait we all continued with our nightly research project sampling as many real ales as humanly possible.  In the North East of England, and Scotland, they serve the beer through 'sparklers' which give the beer a tight creamy head.  The downside to this is whatever aroma the beer had is lost through the sparkler and only the most heavily hopped beer survives this process.  Amenable landlords were, however, only too pleased to remove the offending lump of plastic and boy did the beer shine through once it was gone.  What were once bland, insipid beers gained new life and vigour.  Delicious.

The downside to the course, albeit positive, was the time spent in the laboratory analysing off flavours and aromas.  And a wide range they proved to be with some particularly nasty ones; TCP and one described as 'baby sick' spring to mind.  As we tended to have these sessions first thing in the morning the post evenings research did rather haunt us.  Bleary eyed, sore heads and the unmistakable aroma of baby sick...delightful, but even that didn't deter our nightly research!  And our new-found scientific skills were soon put to the test analysing our own beers.  All of which, surprisingly, passed on every level.

The same cannot be said of a large numbers of beers I have tried since, both cask and bottled.  The most common taint found thus far has been the unmistakable 'butterscotch' flavour diacetyl caused primarily by insufficient aeration.  In small amounts some styles of beer benefit from the subtle flavour it adds, but I have come across pints that were simply undrinkable.

This was a well constructed course, tutored by people with a vast experience in brewing who were only too pleased to offer advice, help and support.  As a result I feel full of confidence to venture into the heady world of brewing armed with the skills and knowledge gained at BrewLab.

As an overall introduction to brewing, they do have a three month course for the truly dedicated.  The three week course was excellent and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to take his or her brewing to another level. 

By Mark Kelly

http://www.brewlab.co.uk/