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Beer Today, Gone Tomorrow by Rtn Justin Hill
Fancy a purple pinkie?
On August 1st, three Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Braintree Rivers gathered for a day's boiling, mashing and sparging. Although this might sound more like the sort of thing that you'd usually see Jamie Oliver or Delia Smith doing on primetime television, this was not the case. However, something was most definitely cooking.
On an overcast, cloudy Saturday, Rotarians Chris Rowe, Steve Wallbank and Justin Hill met at the Felstar Brewery and Vineyard near Braintree. Our mission? To brew a beer to raise funds for Rotary Foundation's Polio Immunization programme. Straightaway, we should point out that none have us have any brewing experience, but under the benevolent gaze and instruction of Felstar's owner, Franco, without whom this would not have been possible, we were about to get a crash course in the art of brewing; all in the name of Charity, of course.
Firstly Franco asked us the type of beer that we were looking to brew, to which we replied that basically we were aiming to brew a best bitter, not too strong , not too weak. Once this was established it was down to the hard work of carrying half-hundred-weight bags of Pearl Barley to the stainless steel mash tun, which Franco was already filling with pre-heated water or 'liquor' as it is known. Having added the barley, and malt to the liquor, Chris and Steve were using shovels to mash a viscous porridge of sorts. Keeping this mixture at a temperature of about 73 Degree centigrade allows the enzymes in the malt to break down the starch in the barley into sugars, producing the liquid know as wort. Over the next hour and a half hot water was added to the mash to assist the breaking down of the starch into sugars, a method known as 'sparging' which was handled beautifully by Steve. At the same time the wort was being drawn off to the copper and we were getting ready to add the hops that give the beer its character of taste and smell.
Nowadays hops are imported from around the world including New Zealand and the U.S.A, and it was from the latter that the two varieties of hop that we used for our beer hail from. Chinook hops, which have a smell redolent of fresh mint were added along with Amarillo hops with their citrus smell as our brewing day came to a climax.
After six hours all that remained to do was to clean up, dig out the mash tun and transport the spent Barley to wheelbarrows to be fed to Franco's Pigs, chickens and geese (nothing is wasted). The beer was the transferred to mature in storage tanks for three weeks before being bottled.
And the result? Well, in our opinion an excellent thirst quenching Best Bitter with lots of flavour and the added bonus that at least £1 from every bottle bought will go to Rotary Foundation to help banish Polio for good. Why take our word for it, though? The finished product is now for sale at the price of £2.50 per bottle, or £2 per bottle if you buy five or more, and will be on sale at Rotary 1240 District Weekend. Alternatively, contact Chris on 01376 339333 if you would like more information, or to place an order.
Thank you to Franco at Felstar for making this possible and CHEERS!!
[released September 2009]
Glorious sun shines down on golf day
A fine set of clubs
The 2009 Braintree Rivers Rotary Club charity golf day enjoyed bright sunny skies on a hot June day. Competitors spent many hours playing their way around the 18 hole course in the Colne valley, with a car on offer for a hole-in-one and many other individual prizes up for grabs.
The event raised £2,500 for Make-A-Wish Foundation UK, Granting magical wishes to children and young people fighting life-threatening illnesses.
Please join us in thanking out sponsors, guests and competitors for making this years event such a great success.
[released July 2009]
