The student's brewing competition drew to a close with the judging this evening, as this 12 Week Certificate course reaches its final week. A fantastic competition by Joe, Maddie and Julia, students on the course, inspired by the talk by Caroline Hennessy given near the start of the course. This led to a fantastic tasting and judging this evening. Six teams entered, having started the brewing many weeks ago.
Joe introduced the guest judges, Scott Baigent from Eight Degrees Brewing and Caroline Hennessy, co-author of Slainte: The Complete Guide to Irish Craft Beer and Cider.
Scott told the students about how he started off as a home-brewer, and how this led to Eight Degrees Brewing, which he and his friend Cam started. Scott spoke about the great awareness of craft beer and craft brewing now in Ireland. Scott said the perfect craft brewer is someone who, in an intuitive way, combines all the aspects and ingredients - the malt and hops - like that of someone with a scientific background who is also a great cook, with a wonderful sense of curiosity, and he encouraged the students to keep brewing.
Joe then introduced Rupert Hugh-Jones, Darina's son-in-law. Rupert looks after the farmer's markets at Mahon Point, Douglas and Wilton. Rupert is also a brewer and he spoke about provenance and his ideal situation where one brews with all the ingredients coming from the farm. Hops are the challenge, of course, but this is balanced by the fact that East Cork has the perfect climate for growing Malting Barley. He said the old quays and malting houses in Midleton are testament to the bygone era of shipping Malting Barley from East Cork to all over the world. Rupert spoke with affection about the amazing beer he brewed for his sister-in-law's wedding. Rupert also echoed what Scott said, that brewing beer is like a cook balancing flavours in a dish.
Then it was the students' brewers teams turn to take the floor and tell us about their brews, names and marketing strategy. This was great fun with delicious beers.
First team up - Joe, Maddie, Julia and Oscar. With their Pale Ale and a Stout which they called "As Time Goes By" - a nod, they said, to the traditional stout drinker aimed as they said at 'the silver dollar'.
Next up - Sorcha, Victoria, Ian and Oonagh with a 2 day old bottled matured beer, and all apologising for still being in their chef's whites. Their stated aim - to solve that everlasting daily thirst. Their Red Ale, called 'Raglan Road' "sings just like the song and hope it sings on your palate." Their other beer called "Wineless" had been so labelled, so that no-one would start talking about wine!!
Daniel, Emma and Erin Stravrianos were up next, speaking about the necessity of brevity. They had managed to bottle-age their beer for 1 full day - beating the previous team by a full 24 hours! Their 'Chocolate Box' stout with chocolate went down very well.
The 'Miss Walshes' were up next - Joanna & Karen flying the flag for their team (Emily and Erin Rowsell were missing on the night. It was Thanksgiving after all!) Their wheat beer with hops, which they described as "an accessible beer for their wine-loving house", was labelled 'BallymaBrew - this turned out later to be the winning beer selected by the judges. Well done to Joanna, Karen, their team and helpers.
Sam, Jamie, Thaddeus and Liam followed, with their 'White Beer' and 'Black Beer' - two for the simple man at home who knows what he wants - their target market, they stated, to much fun and laughter from their fellow classmates.
'Darina's Darlings' were up next and stole the show and the award for Best Marketing. Their beer, they said, was aimed at the female beer aficionado and for the real man. Labelled 'Geranium Original' and 'Lemon Geranium'. "It's delicious!", they said.
Paul and Jim (minus team members Alexis and Kate celebrating Thanksgiving) were the last team, and clearly the brewing competition had taken its toll on all available bottles in the school, as they had one of their beers in a jam-jar, but a decent sized one nonetheless, which they said was the ideal, holding a pint and inspiring the name of their beer - Jam Jar!
With delicious nibbles to go with the beers, a fantastic evening and event was enjoyed by all. Well done to the students, especially to Joe, Maddie and Julia for encouraging all their classmates to take part. A special thanks for guest judges, Caroline and Scott. By the way, anyone looking for the ideal stocking-filler for the craft beer lover in your life, look out for Slainte, and Caroline will be signing copies in Bradley's Off Licence, Cork on Saturday 6th December.
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