Sassy Red Clone 01 February

[Barbara Joppa]

Welcome to the new series of WBC competitions. We have increased the number of events to two monthly. Every other one will be a clone. 

This first clone will be a Mac's Sassy Red - a gateway beer for many kiwis. The date is Saturday, 1st February at Hallertau. Judging begins at 3:00. 

Here's what the website has to say about it:

Sassy Red is a masterpiece of the brewer's art, with a rich bed of malts for all those different hops to bounce up and down on.

Of all the great beers we make, Sassy Red is the boffin's preferred round. It's got the kind of complexity you can really drone on about to your beer fixated friends, with a tapestry of five different malts forming a rich base for gratuitously generous hopping. In this case that involves the finest Motueka hops added at several points in the brewing process.

The heartiness of this ale will compliment any meaty dish such as meat savouries and mini steak sandwiches.

Alcohol by Volume 4.5%

Well, that was wanktastic. Sorry. If you can come up with a better, more useful description, post it for the rest of us.

All new comers welcome. Contact me if you have any questions

See you in February (by the way, I had to change the date as 25Jan is Auckland Anniversary weekend) 

[Barbara Joppa]

Happy New Year, everyone!

I had hoped to have Andrew from Lion come to judge but he is going to be overseas. I currently have Phil booked to judge but I will be looking for a couple more. Let me know if you have any ideas.

I actually have a beer to enter too. It sucks but someone can have my entry fee.

[Dan]

Sadly I won't be able to attend this one or "donate" my $10 to the winner, due to a torn Achilles tendon. No brewing for me for a while either :(

Good luck to the rest of you!

[jt]

I was interested in this, Sassy red was one of the first beers that I tried to imitate (fell badly short and well wide of the mark)

This is what I copied from the old Brewerybar website, probably around 2005. It's got a smidge more detail, but way too late to be helpful sorry

Style:  Hoppy Best Bitter                                                                              

Born on: 22nd November 2002                                                                                            

  Hayden Walker & Clint Andrews                                                                                            

Malt Grist:   Pilsner, caramalt, crystal, dark crystal, chocolate malt

Hop Grist:  Saaz                                                                                       

Original Gravity:  11.7oP                                                                               

Final Gravity:  3.30oP                                                                               

Alcohol: 4.50%                                                                                 

pH:  3.95                                                                                     

Bitterness (EBU):  30                                                                                         

Colour (EBC):  48                                                                                         

Maturation:   2 weeks                                                                            

Brewers Tasting Notes:  The marriage of 5 malts imparts a nutty, biscuity characteristic. Combined with fruity esters produced during a high temperature fermentation makes a complex beer balance by a huge saaz explosion.

A beer for wine drinkers: The bouquet is reminiscent of the spicy stone fruits found in a Gewurtztraminer leading to the silky smoothness of a merlot

[Martin Bridges]

I'll be there tomorrow. I don't have an entry but it feels like ages since I attended one of these and I miss the banter. So I'll be having lunch at Hallertau with my family and then hanging round for the compo. Hope you don't mind me being a hanger-on.

Cheers,

Martin

[Barbara Joppa]

Will be nice to catch up, Martin.

See you all tomorrow. We're back in the brewery again. Hope to start judging at 3pm. I look forward to it.

[Barry]

See you there!

[Barbara Joppa]

Well that was fun. The inaugural WBC Clone competition (clone war?) was held yesterday on a spectacular day. Only 9 entries this time. Was this due to the time of year or because no one wanted to make a Sassy Red? I also understand that many of you didn't remember about the date so I have a few ideas there (see below). Regardless, let's say big thanks to Hallertau for hosting us and to our judges: Barry, Phil, Kelly, and Albrecht.

First: The winner of the Sassy Red clone competition was: Barb! I'm not sure this is such a good thing as the real thing I brought in (I had to visit four liquor stores to find it!) was oxidized.

2nd place went to Rhys

Coveted 3rd place went to Duncan who will let us know the next clone for us to make.

With the change to the judging sheets (we will now use the same sheets as SOBA home brew competition) I failed to keep a record of everyone's score. I can tell you that mine was 29/50 - our fantastic judges marked my beer down a point because they didn't want it to be a bronze medal. 

Now, I have two things:

If you want to get notifications by email on dates of these WBC events or a reminder a week or two in advance, send me an email and I will put you on the list: [e-mail]

I am setting up a beer faults class for home brewers. Date will be on a Saturday sometime in the next month or so. I will let you all know.

[Dunc]

Congrats Barb and thanks for organising. Cheers to the judges. My 3rd was 25/50. Still contemplating clone style.

[Barbara Joppa]

Just had an email from Dunc. He has chosen Hallertau #4 (Deception) Schwarzbier as the clone. I am so very excited for this! I love that beer. Now I need to figure out how to make it.

Challenge accepted!

Clone War II will take place in 4 months - Mid to late May 2014

[Barry]

We'll need that long to lager it. Curse you Dunc.

[Dunc]

Best get cracking then.