Like many other people during lockdown, I joined a zoom beer group, we met every Sunday evening to chat and enjoy a beer or two. Many of us only knew one another through beer Twitter, but, when lockdown lifted, we decided to meet in person. Given that we are spread across the whole of the UK from Stirling in Scotland, down to Surrey near London it’s not always that easy, but we get together at least once a year.

I was so pleased 10 of the crew (affectionately named the Dutland Arms, after a Sheffield pub crawl experience) were able to make it to Rochdale for a brew day and our first birthday bash.

After several discussions, we agreed on a Scottish 80/-. This beer fits with a tale I came across of a young lady in Shetland who was cursed (or blessed, whichever way you look at it). There will be more of that tale in the ‘Gray Wolf’ beer page coming soon.

We cranked on the White Horse Collab playlist and got to mashing in. Each of the crew taking turns to lift and pour the grains into the hopper, before Vicki (of Beer Without Frontiers podcast fame) did the honours by pressing the auger start button.

Although everyone in the group is a keen beer fan and nearly all had been on at least one brewery tour, the only one who had experienced a commercial brew day was Mic – an ex-pro brewer in fact. There were lots of questions about the various pieces of equipment and processes.

Brewing involves quite a bit of waiting an hour or more at a time for the mash, the boil, or transferring wort from one vessel to another. When I’m brewing by myself this time is pretty much occupied with cleaning and preparing for the next step. However, many hands made light work, so there was plenty of time to chat, relax and enjoy one another’s company.

Finally the yeast was pitched and we were able to clean up and get ready for the birthday bash itself.