We’ve just had our first homebrew meet up at Beer No Evil and it was ace fun. We had experienced homebrewers come pro brewers tell their stories and give advice to the group as we shared beers. Some delicious some with known faults others that blew our heads off, more on that in a bit.
We were joined by James Tor from Homebrew Brighton too, who we plan to work collaboratively with, getting involved in competitions and any other events. James has an extensive knowledge of beer, infact anything fermentable. It was great to have him come along and comment on beers giving people tips around improving their brews. We also had Worthing homebrew stalwarts Rob Balfour and award winning local homebrewer Simon Kay along for the ride. Again helping advise and take advice on their own beers. Simon even brought one with a fault. A slight over use of something in his water treatment, just to get people’s thoughts and to show what not to do. It was rather smelly, put it that way. Rob bought along a bottle that he had no idea what it was. We think he was just showing off, it was a delicious boozy Belgian affair.
A couple of our regulars at the shop, Paul and Chris came along too. They dropped off a sample of their NEIPA/DIPA a few weeks ago to Gemma and I. We were pretty blown away by it. It seems the group were too - but Paul and Chris still took away some tips to further improve their techniques - watch this space for further developments with Southbrew Co.
Jim Brown, Local homebrewer and award winning pro brewer now - no less than beer of Worthing Beer Festival for his Sussex Small Batch - Tiramisu Stout - gave a little insight into his story and also bought an experimental stout in. Smelt delicious….taste? After everyone had had a sip or glug Jim said “so there you have it, never put smoked Naga Chillis in a beer.”
The great thing about the evening was it brought people together from all walks of life who have a passion for homebrewing. Even some who hadn’t even started yet. It was lovely having people leave having had a laugh but also having learned along the way.
We’ll be making these a bi monthly occurance - if you want to find out more you can sign up to our mailing list. Until then, happy brewing.