Sunday 3 January 2010

52 Beers in a year


Today I am embarking on a journey of experimentation. Alongside the 10-14 brews of the various Sharp’s beers, I am brewing a beer every week for a year on a smaller scale (60litre). I will be using around 50 varieties of hops 40 varieties of malt, the whole spice aisle at my local supermarket, 20 or so different sugar sources, many fruits, 30 or so types of yeast, a few different bacteria and every conceivable form of process variation (time, temperature etc). Despite my technical excellence and all-round greatness I expect a proportion of what comes out to be shite. That’s all part of the fun. None of the beers are going to be average! If the batches are good they are going to be bottled or sent to beer festivals as ‘specials’. The best few will become full time Sharp's brands (marketing department permitting).

My first brew is a 10% ABV pale ale, brewed with a Belgian Abbey yeast and 10grammes of late and dry hops (Bobek and Brewer’s Gold) per pint. It smells fantastic in the fermentation vessel. This beer is imaginatively titled 1 (pronounced waurn). I will update my blog every week on the progress of the beers. If anyone has any suggestions for a beer that I could make, please leave a suggestion in comments.

14 comments:

Ed said...

Have a flick through 'Radical Brewing', you'll soon have a few more ideas.

ZakAvery said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ZakAvery said...

My suggestion is that you make sure you send me a few of each? Thanks.

What might be a good deployment of local ingredients? Cornish Fudge Porter? Seawater Leipziger Gose? On a more realistic level, a hopfen-weisse would be good to see for late summer/early autumn. Unfiltered lager. Some wild-fermented beers. Barley wine and small beer from the same mash. Gruit. Sahti. And something aged up a mountain in a puffin-shite encrusted barrel?

Melissa Cole said...

How about a real oyster stout? It would seem that the use of actual oyster has ranged from concentrates which somehow aid head retention and richness to the use of shells for finings but I'm not sure if anyone else in the UK actually makes a true oyster stout.

At this time of year, how about a chestnut stout - using fire-roasted chestnuts? Pomegranate amber ale? Take advantage of the inevitable glut of tangerines & clementines in the supermarket aisles and use their dried peel? Quince is also in season still - how about adding membrillo/quince paste to a beer? It would be quite fermentable I'm guessing and could add a nice edge to a red ale.

Anyway, I'm boring myself now! Enjoy! x

BeerReviewsAndy said...

How about an nice big hoppy IPA with some chilli in it? I recently went to brew a batch of dark chilli beer with crown brewery and would love to see someone do a nice spicy IPA.

Mark, Real-Ale-Reviews.com said...

Oyster stout, agreed! And hopfen-weisse too.

I'm a big fan of using local and seasonal ingredients (with something a little more exotic thrown in for diversity perhaps). If a fruit beer then one in tune with the season; spicy warming beers for January; citrus pales in the summer; a celebration ale for my birthday in February perhaps?! ;-)

Adrian Tierney-Jones said...

How about a dark saison for the autumn?

Neil Bowness said...

Love the concept, will be interesting to follow.

How about a barley wine? I tried a new one recently (brewery name withheld until formal launch...) but would like to see a few more make an appearance. Something along the lines of a 'new Old Tom' for these cold winter days?

Mark Dredge said...

I'd like to see a really good, tasty 2% ABV beer. As Zak and Mark said, hopfen-weisse and something wild. What about a pumpkin porter with turmeric, cardamon and dried chilli? Like a spicy chocolate curry. Sounds awful but intriguing. Pirate's grog, aged in rum barrels? Great idea, look forward to seeing what gets brewed!

Stuart Howe said...

Christ! Some fanstastic if a little challenging suggestions. Some that I definitely would not have come up with. my next post will be a list the first 10 brews.

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