The Brewers Showcase – May

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

Dark beers made up this month’s Brewers Showcase with a Robust Porter being presented by Mark ‘Billy’ Bilbrough and a Schwarzbier by Charles ‘Chuck’ Newton.

Upon hearing about the Brewers Showcase earlier this year Billy had already made his mind up to do something for the cooler winter months – a Robust Porter.

Inspired by his homebrewing hero Jamil Zainasheff, Billy modified the recipe from ‘Brewing Classic Styles’ slightly to allow the beer to be enjoyed earlier with little aging.

He also discussed the origins of the style, how it changed and disappeared for quite a while and how it was then rediscovered and has once again become a popular style.

Chuck on the other hand decided to brew a Schwarzbier which despite having a little hit and miss history with lagers was quite happy with how it turned out.

Being one of the first times using Midnight Wheat he said he was very happy with the character it imparted into the beer and would definitely use it in his stouts in the future.

Chuck then explained to the members more details about the German dark lager and how it came to be also mentioning he would be interested to see how it fares in the upcoming club competition.

Big thanks to both members for continuing on the Brewers Showcase and educating the club on two of the darker and popular styles of interest to brewers.