Moncada Brewery Notting Hill Red

This week I took part in a fun new way of discovering beer: Beer Bods live Twitter tastings and this was the beer we tried this week.

The ingenious idea is to encourage beer drinkers to experiment more by sending them a case of 12 bottles (not free, obviously - the quarterly subscription is £36). You then drink one of the beers each week at a suggested time (9pm on a Thursday evening) and compare notes on Twitter.

There’s also background on the beer you’re tasting on the site which revealed that Moncara was founded by a young Argentinian, Julio, who fell in love with British beer when he came to the UK as a student.

I must say they couldn’t have started with a better beer than the Notting Hill Red for me. It was deliciously full-flavoured (6%), fruity and refreshing with a good hit of American hops and an appealing herbiness. I could imagine drinking it with ‘asado’, Argentina’s much revered barbecue, especially their spicy garlicky sausages. And, of course, a steak.

Interestingly the beer is also ‘natural’ - i.e. they do not use any cask finings, a process that removes yeast particles but also strips out flavour, giving the beer more of a cloudy appearance than most commercially produced beers. They also recycle the by-products of the brewing process: the spent cereal goes to one of the farmers at the local farmers’ market, the hops are composed at a local wildlife garden and some of the yeast goes to a local baker.

The only downside I can see is that you wouldn’t necessarily be around every Thursday but you can still read the story behind the beer and check out what people have been saying about it on the site. (You hashtag your tweets #beerbods.) Interestingly not everyone liked the beer as much as I did - some found it too strong.

You can buy the beers through BeerBods during the week following their featured slot: Notting Hill Red is on sale until next Thursday - or maybe Wednesday - at 12 bottles for £30.

Incidentally BeerBods is a successful crowd-funded project (through crowdcube.com) which hit its initial £100,000 target in 24 hours. I think it’s a really clever idea and an ideal way of helping people like me discover new brewers. It would make a great gift for any beerlover.

Disclosure: I received a free three month subscription from Beer Bods to try out the scheme

So you want to be a microbrewer . . .

A friend of mine’s brother in law apparently wants to take up brewing so I thought I’d ask Twitter for advice. As usual, people were fantastically helpful and gave so many good recommendations I thought I’d post the advice here together with a few links I unearthed myself:

Do some home brewing

Recommended by most including @broadfordbrewer. (I think he already does)

@sky_larking recommended Andy Hamilton in Bristol who runs homebrew classes

There’s a new craft brewing school called Learn2Brew in Essex run by beer educator Nigel Sadler, who also works as operations & commercial Manager of a microbrewery

And there’s a useful article on home brewing here

Do a stint in a microbrewery

Could be that they’ll appreciate an extra pair of hands

@andywilliamsoak recommended the Tiny Rebel Brewing Company in Newport and @chefmpennington the wonderful new Wild Beer Co near Shepton Mallet in Somerset. (If you could brew like them you'd be laughing.)

Go on a course

@3friendsbrewery, @brewdogJHLondon, @grainbrewery and @redemptionbrew recommended Brewlab in Sunderland which has a 3 day ‘Start-up brewing’ course specifically for people who are thinking of starting up their own microbrewery.

@francesbrace suggested Campden BRI in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire which has a similar course for £540 plus specific courses on subjects such as brewery microbiology and beer taint.

The World Brewing Academy runs a seven week master brewing course in Chicago (thanks @questiolina and @billsimpson19) The Siebel institure one of the partners in that collaboration also runs its own shorter courses, including some online courses.

The School of Artisan Food, recommended by @jessicasneddon, doesn’t seem to have one currently on brewing although it has done in the past and may again. It does however have an introduction to artisan cider-making

and an update: Hartingtons School of Food in Bakewell now runs 2 & 3 day courses on setting up a microbrewery as of October last year. (See comment below)

There’s an international list of courses on the Brewers’ Association website here

Go to college

Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh has an International Centre for Brewing and Distilling which offers honours and masters degrees in brewing and distilling. They also offer short courses and workshops

Nottingham University offers an MSc in Brewing Science and short courses

and the University of Sheffield runs an MSc in Microbrewing in the department of in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology

And read . . .

@redemptionbrew recommends Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head’s Brewing up a Business. @ArborBrewerJon suggests The Microbrewer's Handbook by Ted Bruning.

There’s also a useful article on tastingbeers.com how to set up your own microbrewery here

If you have any other suggestions or tips, particularly for readers outside the UK, do post them below

Which beer to drink on New Year’s Eve?

If you’re planning to toast the new year with a beer rather than a glass of champagne which one should it be? A quick Twitter survey revealed a whole raft of interesting options

Many went for the nearest the beer world has to offer - a celebratory ale: Adnams Sole Bay in the case of Adrian Tierney Jones (@atjbeer), Deus (@hautcedre) and Malheur Brut - the choice of beer writer Pete Brown (@petebrownbeer)

Others felt strongly it should be a local beer from a brewery they already patronise. As Chris King of @NorthernWrites aptly put it “something you love, something you know. Amount of times I’ve saved a big bottle for NYE and it’s been naff/drain pour” while beer writer Melissa Cole @melissacole clearly had her eye on going down her local. “Doubtless something by London Brewing Co @Bull_Highgate”

Of the beer styles available stout and imperial stout were popular as perhaps more surprisingly was gueuze though there was, of course, a contingent which favoured hugely popular IPAs and pale ales.

For a party Ben McFarland and Tom Sandham of @thinkingdrinks were planning "@MeantimeBrewing imperial pilsner & @thornbridge Jaipur".

And my own choice? Most probably @wildbeerco's Ninkasi (along with beer bloggers Boak & Bailey) though I do have a couple of handsome full-sized bottles of Italian beers (below) from Mastri Birrai Umbri which we didn’t get round to on Christmas Day - a doppio Malto and a Birra Speciale Rossa which I’ll report back on when we drink them.

Here’s the full list: (Thanks, Twitter!)

@petedrinks Will definitely be having some of my own Coffee Porter, to start but for midnight, I might crack open a

Craft beer and BBQ

Although I regularly recommend wines to pair with barbecue - most recently in my Guardian column - I’m actually an equal fan of beer. In fact I think many types of barbecue work better with it.

It appears that a majority of you agree. Craft beer came out top in a straw poll I put up on my Facebook page last week with almost twice as many votes as the most successful style of wine, a gutsy shiraz. You have to allow, of course, that beer fans are always more ready to fight their corner than winelovers but still . . .

So what kind of beer? It depends who’s coming and what kind of barbecue it is. If it’s all about the event - just a relaxed cook-up for family and friends I’d say the emphasis should be on a beer that’s refreshing and by that I don’t mean an ice-cold flavourless lager (not a popular choice in my poll).

If you’re looking for something different why not try a cloudy witbier or wheat beer, maybe even with a slice of lemon as they serve it in Lille or a citrussy single hop beer made from citra hops. Those would also work well with a seafood barbecue. A seasonal summer beer would be a good one to kick off with too.

For a real crowd-pleaser I’d pick a hoppy IPA, my favourite match with pulled pork and sausages. Amber ales and lagers are also good all-rounders and a saison or saison-style beer should impress any beer geek - a good match for beer-can or barbequed chicken.

With American-style barbecue like slow-cooked ribs or brisket I’d prefer something darker. A brown ale, a dark lager, a stout, porter or even an on-trend black IPA. And if you like to ramp up the smoky flavour you could try a smoked beer but that might be a little too much of a good thing.

You might notice that I’ve mentioned almost every style of beer. The message? Beer goes with barbecue. Period.

Image © saschi79 - Fotolia.com

If you don't agree - or want some wine options - see my article on which wine pairs best with barbecue.