JOIN OUR QUEST TO BREW THE PERFECT BEER!
A MATTER OF OPINION
We were inspired by a presentation by Assistant Professor Rod White of Nottingham University, at a Nottingham CAMRA branch meeting entitled 'What Makes A Good Beer Great?'
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That led to a blog entry penned by Lincoln Green Founder, Anthony Hughes - the idea is simple; we get a panel of tasters together to give structured feedback on the beer we've brewed and tweak the recipe. Then we ask the panel for their views on the revised brew - and continue until we reach a consensus that the beer is truly 'great'!
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INTRODUCing
The one where we tell you what this is all about...
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Watch our first video about what we're doing with 'What Makes A Good Beer Great?'
Keep an eye on this page and our social feeds for more updates on our progress.
EPISODE 2
The one where we update you on Batch#01...
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Watch feedback from our Tasting Panel and hear from Carl Heron about the changes we'll be making to Batch #02 based on the comments from both the Panel and our customers who filled in the form on this website.
A MATTER OF SCIENCE
Lincoln Green's Head Brewer, Carl Heron, knows a thing or two about beer. Having worked previously as Head Brewer at Sharps Brewery in Cornwall, he's a Master Brewer and lectures at Nottingham Brewing Sciences too.
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Carl will be heading the tasting panel, collecting and interpreting their feedback into recipe changes for each brew. At the most basic level, beer is comprised of water, malt, hops and yeast, but there are many different ways to influence the final flavour profile. From the profile of the brewing liquor (water), heat of the mash, through to the time and temperature of the fermentation - all represent opportunities to fine tune a recipe.
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OUR TASTING PANEL
We've selected a panel of 20 people who will provide us with detailed feedback about each batch of beer we brew. You can see that the list includes members of the Lincoln Green team, industry members, Nottingham University experts, beer enthusiasts from Nottingham CAMRA and regulars from our pubs - so they should help provide a truly balanced and objective view:
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Anthony Hughes - Lincoln Green
Carl Heron - Lincoln Green
Anthony Hewitt - Lincoln Green
Jonathan Edger - Castle Rock
Stephanie Brindley - Murphy & Sons
Andrew Ludlow - Nottingham CAMRA
Steve Armstrong - Nottingham CAMRA
Ray Kirby - Nottingham CAMRA
Paul Davies - Nottingham CAMRA
John Westlake - Nottingham CAMRA
Jez Schomer - Nottingham CAMRA
Rod White - Nottingham University
Joss Dutton - Regular Customer
Tony Beck – Regular Customer
Dawn Beck – Regular Customer
Phil Gospel – Regular Customer
Steve Guynan – Regular Customer
Leigh Metcalf – Regular Customer
Danielle Jeffery – Regular Customer
Peter Clayton - Regular Customer
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK...
Our Tasting Panel have been trained in flavour profiling and giving feedback to ensure consistency between each batch - they are providing us with quantitative feedback, in that their scores can be compared between each batch of our recipe that we produce.
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If you're interested in the forms we're using to collect this data, you may download a copy here.
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We also want to gather qualitative feedback from our customers - your descriptive comments about how you feel about the beer will help add value to the Tasting Panel feedback.
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Click the button below to provide us with your thoughts:
HOPS
We use Charles Faram hop merchants for our all out hops at Lincoln Green. For Batch 1 of 'What Makes A Good Beer Great?', we've used three classic hop varieties that are known for a satisfying 'more-ish' quality.
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Fuggles and Goldings - are two great British hops used in many classic beers. It is reputed that Mr Fuggle of Brenchley in Kent originally selected this variety as a seedling in 1861. Fuggle was the dominant hop variety in England for over 70 years until the development of high-alpha varieties made it less economical for bittering purposes. The delicate, minty, grassy, slightly floral aroma produces a clean, refreshing, full-bodied flavour present in many traditional ales.
Goldings have been grown in England for over 100 years and, as with Fuggles, were named after the grower who developed them. A traditional English aroma variety highly valued for its smooth, sweet, delicate, slightly spicy aroma, they're considered to be THE finishing hop for British Bitters, Pale Ales and IPA's.
Our third addition is Celeia - Originally named Styrian Golding 'C', Celeia has become the most widely grown of the Slovenian Fuggle cultivars, for good reason. It's a 'brewers hop' variety best used late in the boil for a clean and refreshing twist of herbal citrus.
MALT
We source our malt from Crisp Maltings, based in Fakenham, North Norfolk and have used Clear Choice for its intensely smooth mouthfeel, mild maltiness and warm honey sweetness.
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Dextrin malt has been added as a foam and body enhancer, whilst Cara Gold adds a little warmth to the colour together with rich fruity aromas and an intense sweetness.
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BATCH #01 RECIPE
If you're a keen homebrewer and want to give it a go, this is the recipe for a 23 litre batch:
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Crisp Clear Choice Malt 4.2kg
Dextrin Malt 200g
Cara Gold Malt 26g
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Fuggles 42g - boil for 50mins
Fuggles 41g - boil for 30mins
Golding 23g - boil for 30mins
Celeia 62g - add at flame out
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Brewers Notes
Aim for a mash temperature of 66'c and for 60 minutes.
Liquor to grist ratio 2.5 times.
Use SO4 yeast.
Original gravity 1.043.
Final gravity 1.010.
Alcohol Content: 4.3%
Bitterness: 45 IBU
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