My trip to Essen to speak at Frohnhauser Sudwerkstatt to talk about the history of IPA.
My trip to Essen to speak at Frohnhauser Sudwerkstatt to talk about the history of IPA.
No rush today. I rise at 8:00 and go for brekkie.
As there's no bacon, it's back to scrambled egg and cheese. With fruit for pudding. I sit with Michael Helzer, one of the American judges. We have a good chat.
I send the family a picture of my breakfast. It looks rather pretty, with the sunlight shining across it. Let’s see the bastards complain about that.
After breakfast, I go back to my room to chill for a while. Today there are the talks. Mine is scheduled for 14:00. As the morning ones are all in Spanish, I don't go there until midday.
Surprise, surprise: they're running late.
Hernán Testa, the Argentinian hops bloke is talking about . . . Argentinian hops. The bits I can understand are pretty interesting.
The next talk is by some people who make a hop oil. There's some beer to go with this one. Three different versions of the same beer. One dry hopped with 100% pellets, one 65% pellets and 35% hop oil and one with 35% pellets and 65% hop oil. At least it gives me something to drink.
For my talk, I speak a couple of sentences and then the interpreter translates them into Spanish. It interrupts my flow a bit. But does give me a chance to drink some beer while the interpreter is taking.
My talk is about Irish Porter and Stout. I should probably update it. I wrote it a while ago and have since got hold of a lot more Irish brewing records. In particular, examples of heading, the sort of Kräusen used in Ireland.
I get through my beer so quickly, I have to request a refill. That’s a first. Just making sure my throat doesn’t get too dry. Wouldn’t want to get hoarse. Usually, I only get to take a sip or two, as I keep rattling away.
When I'm done, I sell a few more books. Which is good. I'm nicely building up dosh in my PayPal account. Dolores will be so happy. Why have I never brought books with me to sell before? Because I’m an idiot. That’s why.
There are three talks after me, two of which are in English. One from Martin Zuber about creating Lager recipes for craft brewers. And another by Mike Hall about Bathtub Row, the cooperative brewery he helped.
I stand around and chat a bit when the last talk is done. And drink some beer. Before heading back to the hotel in an Uber with a couple of other judges.
Tonight, there's a visit to Hasta Pronto, another brewery. But I'm too tired for that. Especially as it's a 40-minute ride away. Instead, I drop by the supermarket again. For bread, milk, cheese and pisco. As my hotel whisky is all drunk. And some biscuit things for Lexxie.
On the way back to the hotel, someone says hi. It's John, an American brewer who brews further south in Chile, whom I met in Temuco a couple of years ago.
I watch some YouTube and eat a little. All very quiet and restful. Which is exactly what I need.
I turn in around 23:00.
Disclaimer: Copa ACI paid for my accommodation, some meals and some beer.
You can fins a video report of my trip here:
It’s an early start. I rise at 6:45. And go upstairs for breakfast.
The good news: they have bacon. And mango juice. A win-win. I slurp down coffee and mango juice with my food. I have fruit for my pudding.
I remember to send the family a snap of the glorious scrambled egg and bacon. And a second of my fruit pudding.
The family’s response is rather dispiriting.
“Why do you just send photos of boring plates of food?” Alexei messages me.
“You find my breakfasts boring?”
“Yes, it’s just the same scrambled egg and bacon.”
“That’s not true. Most days it’s been scrambled egg and cheese.”
“That’s even more boring. Just yellow stuff.”
“Excuse me.”
“Send some more interesting photos.”
“OK. I’ll send you some photos of buildings.”
“That’s not much better. Isn’t it autumn down there? Can’t you take pictures of that?”
“The trees haven’t started to change colour yet. And I’m in the middle of the city.”
“You always have an excuse.”
“It’s called a reason>”
“Yeah, whatever.”
The view from the breakfast room is pretty spectacular. That’s what you get for being on the twelfth floor. In the background, behind the high rises of the city, lurk the snow-topped Andes.
I send my family a photo of the view. Maybe that’ll stop the fuckers complaining.
I get outside around 8:00. A few judges are chatting there. But no-one is going anywhere. It's pushing 9:00 when we get to the judging site. Where they aren't ready. Again. Partly because the local judges are all stuck in traffic. You have to get used to things starting late when you’re in South America.
It's 10:15 by the tine judging kicks off. We have four beers left over from yesterday: Three Robust Porters and one Old Ale.
Once we've got those out of the way, it's time for some homebrew judging. Weirdly, none of the homebrew beers have bad faults. Unlike quite a few of the professional beers. A couple of the Stouts are really rather good. Judging is full of surprises.
We're done by 12:45. Nothing more to do until lunch at 14:00. Which is why I'm writing this. Got to keep myself occupied. I wouldn’t like to get bored.
In the meantime, I'm shifting quite a few books. Which will please Dolores. With any luck, I'll sell all of the ones I've brought.
Lunch is a steak again. Quite a small one this time. But enough for me. I have a fascinating chat with Hernán Testa, the Argentinian hops bloke while I’m eating. And Michael Helzer, an American. Two pretty engaging and informed conversation partners.
In the afternoon, I'm judging the Best of Show. We have to wait quite a while for the stewards to sort out the beers. But I’ve had worse. I try to keep positive. No matter what my family say.
“You’re so negative, Dad.”
“Just realistic.”
“Cynical, more like.”
I’ve had some bad experiences with judging BOS in the past. Hopefully this won’t be another.
There are five of us. And 29 beers. Which is quite a lot. Nothing I judged earlier, as we didn't award any gold medals on my table. The table is large but there’s only just about room for all the beers.
I send the family a picture of the spirits shelves in the supermarket. Specifically, the Havana Club. I know Andrew will enjoy that.
“Looks just like how I remember it.” He replies.
He’s so sweet.
I watch some stuff on Ziggo and sip my hotel whisky. Before turning in pretty early. A good long rest is what I need. As I’ll be giving a talk tomorrow. I need to be at my best for that.
At least it won’t be an early start.
Disclaimer: Copa ACI paid for my accommodation, some meals and some beer.
You can fins a video report of my trip here:
| 1960 Youngs PAB | ||
| pale malt | 5.500 lb | 79.05% |
| flaked maize | 0.876 lb | 12.59% |
| pale malt extract | 0.25 lb | 3.59% |
| No. 1 invert sugar | 0.33 lb | 4.74% |
| caramel 500 SRM | 0.002 lb | 0.03% |
| Fuggles 120 min | 0.75 oz | |
| Goldings 30 min | 0.75 oz | |
| OG | 1032 | |
| FG | 1005.5 | |
| ABV | 3.51 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 82.81% | |
| IBU | 21 | |
| SRM | 4 | |
| Mash at | 152º F | |
| Sparge at | 174º F | |
| Boil time | 120 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 59º F | |
| Yeast | WLP002 English Ale | |
Listen to brewer John Hatch explain how they brewed at Youngs in the 1990s.
I'm up early. At 7:20. Feeling fairly crap. After a shower, I feel a bit better.
Judging is due to start at 9 AM. Right. No way that will happen. 10:30 AM is guess. At the earliest.
I go upstairs for breakfast. No bacon, sadly. There are both scrambled and fried eggs, mind. I go for the former and cheese. Followed by fruit. It’s not a bad spread. With boiled eggs, too. Pastries, cheese, salami. Not bad at all. It almost makes up for the lack of bacon. Almost.
I send the family a picture of my breakfast. I know they’re fascinated by what I eat when I’m away. And I don’t want to disappoint them.
Surprise, surprise. The start of judging is delayed. First to 10. Then to 12:30. We are in South America, after all. At least we aren’t just hanging around at the judging venue.
I spend the time laying around in my room. Only punctuated by a quick trip to the supermarket around the corner. Where I buy bananas and milk.
At the judging location – the restaurant La Parrilla del Guatón Jerez – there’s some more hanging around. At first outside, then inside.
At 13;30, they still aren’t ready. And we have lunch. Which is a steak and potato salad. A pretty nice steak. I order a beer to go with it. A half litre. Normally, I’d never drink beer during a judging day. Just feel like a beer.
I don’t forget to send the family a picture of my steak. I’m sure that they’ll love to see what I’m eating.
While eating, I have a chance to talk to some of the other judges. Who are a sociable bunch.
Judging is in the same place. Finally kicking off at around 15:00. Only six hours late. A record, I think. Luckily, 3.5 hours of the wait were in my hotel room. Though I could have got up 90 minutes later. Which would have been nice.
I’m table captain. With Valeria, a local I’ve judged with before, and Columbian Jose. Not sure if being the captain is a good thing. Will it mean more work? I hope not. I hate work. That’s why I retired at 63.
We start with five non-alcoholic beers. That's always fun. They’re surprisingly good. Well, surprisingly non-horrible. Mostly.
After that, it’s pretty much all UK styles. Which is par for the course, when I’m the table captain. Not sure it it’s a good or a bad thing,
At least Irish Red isn’t on the list. A style I’ve judged six or seven times. And never had an even vaguely decent beer. It’s not just a matter of personal taste. They were technically bad beers, with serious faults. My heart always drops when I see the style on my schedule.
Most of the flights are pretty small, just a couple of beers. Which I like. Other than Scottish Export, of which there are nine examples. Probably about as many as are brewed in Scotland nowadays.
The captaincy doesn’t involve much extra work. Thankfully. Other than clicking a couple of buttons. And, after my career in IT, I’m rather good at clicking buttons.
There’s only one beer with butyric acid – baby sick – across all the flights. Which is a plus.
Some of our scores are quite far apart. But we manage to come to a consensus without too much arguing. And keep up a pretty decent pace.
We don’t award a huge number of medals. Just a silver and a couple of bronzes.
It's getting late and we still aren't done. We finish at 20:00, with four beers unjudged. We'll do them tomorrow. Despite only judging for five hours, I feel knacked. It’s been an odd and slightly frustrating day.
The plan is to go to brewpub Mango. I decide to give it a miss and go back to the hotel. It’s just getting too late. Even if I just have a couple of beers, with travelling time, I’ll be lucky to be back in the hotel by 23:00.
I buy a sandwich in the hotel, feeling to knackered to walk around the corner to the supermarket. I watch Champions League quarter final highlights on Ziggo. While sipping a little hotel whisky. Just for medicinal purposes, obviously.
When I’ve finished my sandwich, I realise that I haven’t sent the family a photo of it. Hopefully they don’t notice. I’d hate to let them down.
I turn in at 23:00. It's an early start tomorrow. We're being picked up at 7:45. Well, that's the plan. Let's see if that actually happens.
Just a couple of sips of whisky. I’m too desperate for sleep to drink more. Andrew would be so disappointed in me.
La Parrilla del Guatón Jerez
Av. Padre Hurtado 1460,
Vitacura,
Santiago.
http://www.laparrilladelguatonjerez.cl/
Disclaimer: Copa ACI paid for my accommadation, some meals and some beer.
You can fins a video report of my trip here:
It's a late start. My flight is at 21:10. I get a cab at 18:00.
“How much Spanish do you know, Dad?” Alexei asked yesterday.
“Not quite as much as Portuguese.”
“Practically none, then”
“I know some words. Banos. Gracias.Por favor.”
“As I said, practically none”
“It’s all I really need.”
“Old people like you always need to know where the toilets are.”
“Exactly.”
“I was taking the piss, Dad.”
“I know.”
“You’re weird.”
“I know.”
The airport isn't too busy, as it's getting late. It's not long before I'm in the lounge grabbing whisky. and a little something to eat. Though I do drop by the duty free to get some hotel whisky. I’m amazed to be able to afford an Islay whisky: Bunnahabhain
I don't go crazy. As I've a long flight. A very long flight. 18 hours, all told. Too long to turn up smashed. Being deeply cynical about the food I’ll be served on the flight, I get down some food ballast.
The flight is pretty full. Almost every seat taken. Just before we take off, a flight attendant comes along and says something to the woman next to me. Who then disappears off somewhere. I assume she's been upgraded. Just after take-off, she returns. Which is a bummer. Where has she been?
After an hour or so they feed us some slop. It's just about edible. Especially after I sharpen up my wine with some illicit whisky miniatures.
Eating done, I have a good kip. A long kip. Like seven hours. Then I doze for another couple of hours. Which is the best way to handle such a long flight. The first leg to Buenos Aires is 13.5 hours. I don't even watch anything until the last couple of hours. When we're served a breakfast. Of which I just eat the fruit.
We have the fun of deplaning in Buenos Aires. And going through security again. Before hanging around at the gate for a while. Such a joy, early in the morning.
The plane is much emptier on the second leg, with both the seats to my left empty. Which would give me a great view if the Andes. If the wing weren't in the way.
We’re served a warm, savoury pastry. I eat some of it. My stomach is playing up a bit. Just what I need.
As we start to descend into Santiago, there's a cloud layer completely obscuring the city. Or is it smog? It's hard to tell from up here. Let’s hope it’s the former. For the sake of my lungs.
I dodge the long queue for immigration with my oldie priority. Of which I'm very thankful.
All the time gained is lost as I wait ages for my bag to pop out. I thought it was supposed to have priority?
My lift is waiting for me. Thankfully. I had a couple of airport transfers not show up recently. Which was dead fucking annoying.
We rumble along the motorway for a while. Past light industrial units and dusty hills. My hotel is on the other side of town. But tunnels makes the journey relatively short.
Soon I'm checking into my hotel. Unfortunately, my room isn't free. Luckly, Chris arranges for me to use the room of a couple of German judges while they're out exploring the city.
I'm just starting to get nicely relaxed when the phone rings. It's reception telling me that my room is ready. Great!
Despite kipping on the plane, I'm knacked. And spend most of the day dozing on the bed vaguely watching NHK English service.
My stomach isn't feeling great. Nor is my left side, where there’s a throbbing pain. And I can't get properly to sleep. I don’t even feel like drinking any of my duty-free whisky. Oh, the joys of growing old!
Chris is supposed to pick me up at 18:45 to take me to the judges' dinner at Flannery’s Irish Geo Pub. He hasn't turned up by 19:20 and I take an Uber with Mike Hall.
With my stomach turning somersaults, I can't eat or drink much. I manage a token chip and a few mouthfuls of beer before heading back to the hotel. Where I turn in almost immediately. It's only 22:00. I don’t even have a sip of hotel whisky.
With my stomach still feeling shit and the pain in my side, I have a disturbed sleep. Waking multiple times. Bum.
Flannery’s Irish Geo Pub
Encomenderos 379,
Las Condes,
Santiago.
You can fins a video report of my trip here:
| 1960 Youngs SX Ale | ||
| mild malt | 5.00 lb | 68.38% |
| crystal malt 150 L | 0.67 lb | 9.16% |
| flaked maize | 1.00 lb | 13.68% |
| pale malt extract | 0.1875 lb | 2.56% |
| No. 3 invert | 0.33 lb | 4.51% |
| caramel 500 SRM | 0.125 lb | 1.71% |
| Fuggles 105 min | 1.33 oz | |
| OG | 1034 | |
| FG | 1007 | |
| ABV | 3.57 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 79.41% | |
| IBU | 20 | |
| SRM | 19 | |
| Mash at | 150º F | |
| Sparge at | 170º F | |
| Boil time | 105 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 60º F | |
| Yeast | WLP002 English Ale | |
Listen to brewer John Hatch explain how they brewed at Youngs in the 1990s.
| Beer production and consumption in the 2 bits of Germany 1950 - 2000 | |||||
| DDR | BRD | ||||
| Year | Production Soft Drinks | Production Beer | Per capita consumption Beer in liters | Beer consumption | Per capita consumption in liters |
| 1950 | 923 | 3,820 | 22 | 18,176 | 35.6 |
| 1955 | 1,416 | 11,772 | 52 | 67 | |
| 1960 | 3,546 | 13,424 | 68.5 | 52,633 | 94.7 |
| 1965 | 4,765 | 13,633 | 79.5 | 72,063 | 122.1 |
| 1970 | 6,470 | 16,642 | 95.7 | 85,603 | 141.1 |
| 1975 | 11,443 | 20,380 | 119.2 | 91,408 | 147.8 |
| 1980 | 13,094 | 23,633 | 139.7 | 89,820 | 145.9 |
| 1985 | 14,409 | 24,288 | 140 | 88,977 | 145.8 |
| 1989 | 17,661 | 24,843 | 141 | 88,586 | 142.7 |
| 1990 | 98,283 | 142.7 | |||
| 1991 | 113,871 | 141.9 | |||
| 1992 | 114,424 | 142 | |||
| 2000 | 103,309 | 125.6 | |||
| Source: | |||||
| Die Brau- und Malzindustrie in Deutschland-Ost zwischen 1945 und 1989, VLB, 2016, page 301. | |||||
| DDR beer production by Bezirk in 1987 | ||||
| Bezirk | Beer Production in 1000 hL | |||
| Bottle | Draught | Tank | total | |
| Cottbus | 207.9 | 52.3 | 0 | 260.2 |
| Dresden | 2130 | 423 | 869 | 3422 |
| Erfurt | 1094.1 | 271 | 384.9 | 1750 |
| Gera | 859.5 | 215.1 | 362.3 | 1436.9 |
| Halle | 1319.5 | 456.5 | 536 | 2312 |
| Karl-Marx-Stadt | 2051.3 | 344 | 751 | 3146.3 |
| Leipzig | 1441 | 506.7 | 335.3 | 2283 |
| Magdeburg | 1255.2 | 364.8 | 200 | 1820 |
| Neubrandenburg | 404 | 185 | 331 | 920 |
| Potsdam | 702.9 | 262.7 | 366.6 | 1332.2 |
| Rostock | 923 | 175 | 354 | 1452 |
| Schwerin | 724 | 127 | 86 | 937 |
| Suhl | 576.5 | 148 | 106 | 830.5 |
| Franfurt an der Oder | 173.3 | 99 | 131.1 | 403.4 |
| Berlin | 1693 | 466.2 | 639.8 | 2799 |
| total | 15,555.20 | 4,096.30 | 5,453.00 | 25,104.50 |
| Source: | ||||
| Die Brau- und Malzindustrie in Deutschland-Ost zwischen 1945 und 1989, VLB, 2016, page 301. | ||||
| DDR beer production by Bezirk in 1987 (%) | |||
| Bezirk | Bottle | Draught | Tank |
| Cottbus | 79.90% | 20.10% | 0.00% |
| Dresden | 62.24% | 12.36% | 25.39% |
| Erfurt | 62.52% | 15.49% | 21.99% |
| Gera | 59.82% | 14.97% | 25.21% |
| Halle | 57.07% | 19.74% | 23.18% |
| Karl-Marx-Stadt | 65.20% | 10.93% | 23.87% |
| Leipzig | 63.12% | 22.19% | 14.69% |
| Magdeburg | 68.97% | 20.04% | 10.99% |
| Neubrandenburg | 43.91% | 20.11% | 35.98% |
| Potsdam | 52.76% | 19.72% | 27.52% |
| Rostock | 63.57% | 12.05% | 24.38% |
| Schwerin | 77.27% | 13.55% | 9.18% |
| Suhl | 69.42% | 17.82% | 12.76% |
| Franfurt an der Oder | 42.96% | 24.54% | 32.50% |
| Berlin | 60.49% | 16.66% | 22.86% |
| total | 61.96% | 16.32% | 21.72% |
| Source: | |||
| Die Brau- und Malzindustrie in Deutschland-Ost zwischen 1945 und 1989, VLB, 2016, page 301. | |||
| Key operational data of Berlin breweries 1944 | |||||
| Brewery | Production of beer and beverages in hl | Total employees | Special production/headcount in hl/a | Special production/Total workforce in hl/a | Energy consumption in kg/hl 2) |
| Berliner Bürgerbräu | 201,915 | 211 | 1309 | 914 | 13.62 |
| Böhmisches Brauhaus-Löwenbrauerei | 268,628 | 354 | 1226 | 783 | 16.25 |
| Bergschloß-Brauerei | 104,821 | 107 | 1442 | 957 | 22.7 |
| Bötzow-Brauerei | 113,311 | 218 | 776 | 513 | 18.15 |
| Engelhardt-Brauerei, Abt. Stralau | 161,607 | 203 | 1468 | 817 | 17.44 |
| Engelhardt-Brauerei, Abt. Pankow | 155,730 | 183 | 1426 | 874 | 20.07 |
| Engelhardt-Brauerei, Abt. Charlottenb. | 55,215 | 78 | 1222 | 689 | 13.25 |
| Groterjan-Brauerei | 276,270 | 420 | 1083 | 622 | 7.45 |
| Hochschul-Brauerei 1) | 30,503 | 57 | 824 | 535 | 21.98 |
| Monopol-Brauerei | 97,724 | 99 | 1396 | 1303 | 18.28 |
| Kindl-Brauerei. Abt, Neukölln | 392,522 | 508 | 1570 | 837 | 20.76 |
| Kindl-Brauerei. Abt, Weißensee | 272,657 | 321 | 1855 | 931 | 22.17 |
| Schloß-Brauerei 2) | 150,972 | 185 | 1399 | 851 | 17.58 |
| Schultheiss-Brauerei, Abt. Kreuzberg | 421,659 | 511 | 1310 | 872 | 14.42 |
| Schultheiss-Brauerei, Abt. NO | 304,497 | 524 | 675 | 563 | 18.25 |
| Schultheiss-Brauerei, Abt. Schönh. Al. | 245,648 | 326 | 1150 | 802 | 11.46 |
| Schultheiss-Brauerei, Abt. Spandau | 233,024 | 351 | 938 | 693 | 16.88 |
| Schultheiss-Brauerei, Abt. Nd.-Schw. | 220,137 | 254 | 1121 | 899 | 16.15 |
| Schultheiss-Brauerei, Abt. Stromstr. | 193,899 | 335 | 830 | 604 | 14.08 |
| Willner Brauerei | 14,167 | 41 | 616 | 383 | 26.44 |
| Total | 3,914,906 | 5,286 | |||
| 1) Already bomb damaged | |||||
| 2) In kilograms of hard coal at 6600 heat units/kg | |||||
| Source: | |||||
| Die Brau- und Malzindustrie in Deutschland-Ost zwischen 1945 und 1989, VLB, 2016, page 111. | |||||
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