Women dominate beer group awards

Women involved in the beer and pub sector dominated the awards given at the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group (APPBG) Annual Dinner in Westminster recently with four of the seven awards going to five women.

The presentation was made by Mike Wood MP, the Chairman of the APPBG at the Beer Group’s Annual Awards Dinner in Westminster which attracted over 200 MPs, Peers and senior industry figures.

Sara Barton from Brewster’s Brewery in Grantham was nominated by the Institute of Brewing & Distilling as ‘Brewer of the Year’ for her brewing innovation, advocacy in communicating about beer and for blazing a trail for the current generation of female brewers and beer lovers.

Annabel Smith and Jane Peyton won a joint ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. Annabel was described as one of the countries most respected beer quality trainers; one of the driving forces behind Dea Latis and hosting beer and food matching events for female MPs, the most recent being held last November.

Jane is a writer, broadcaster, events host and drinks educator. She holds the Guinness World Record for leading the world’s largest beer tasting; hosts a popular beer tasting tour of historic London pubs and instigated Beer Day Britain. Both were two of the UK’s first female beer sommeliers in 2012.

Ruth Smeeth, MP for Stoke North was awarded the honour of ‘Beer Parliamentarian of the Year’. Ruth has brewed her own beer, worked an evening behind the bar at the Bulls Head in Burslem; she has hosted two receptions in Parliament for Dea Latis and is the Beer Group’s Labour Vice chair.

Finally, Great British Bake-Off winner, Candice Brown, was named as the Beer Drinker of the Year.

Other awards at the dinner were:

• Special Award: Colin Valentine and Tim Page, CAMRA
• Pub Parliamentarian of the Year: Ben Bradley, MP for Mansfield.
• PubAid Award:  Stonegate Pub Company

The photograph shows Jane Peyton, Annabel Smith and Sara Barton toasting their awards

Three Dea Latis Members’ First Brew To Be A Guest Ale

A collaboration ale devised by three Dea Latis members and Brewster’s Brewing Company is to be featured as a guest ale in three Fuller’s London pubs.

Chocolate Cyn, a rich spicy Porter 4.8% ABV is the first beer brewed by Jane Peyton (School of Booze); Marverine Cole (Beer Beauty); Shea Luke (Real Ale Girl) with Sara Barton, founder of Brewster’s in Grantham. 

In mid March Fuller Smith & Turner will stock it in three London pubs – the Artillery Arms near the Barbican; the Victoria, Bayswater; and the Mad Bishop & Bear at Paddington station.

Jane Peyton is a freelance brewery tour guide of Fuller’s brewery and it is that connection that opened the ‘guest ale doors’ at Fuller’s.

Let us know if you try it!

All female beer brewing competition won by Dea Latis member

Trumpet heralds at the ready:  DeaLatis member and confirmed beer advocate Louise Ashworth is the winner of a competition for women to create a recipe for their perfect beer. Louise’s fabulous recipe triumphed and later in Spring she will be travelling up to Grantham to brew ……. Wheat Watchers! 

Jane Peyton, Principal of the School of Booze devised the competition in collaboration with Sara Barton at Brewsters Brewing Company as a way of inspiring women to consider brewing beer.  Entrants were asked to take inspiration from one of DivineFairtrade chocolate brands and come up with a beer that they would want to drink.  The prize was for the winner to brew their own recipe with Sara at Brewsters.

Louise described her inspiration for Wheat Watcher’s “My idea is for a wheat beer with raspberries as I think that a lot of women, and men, can be put off from drinking real ale as they think that it will be too bitter. I think that wheat beer is delicious and can be more accessible for non-ale drinkers than many other styles of beer. Unfortunately it isn’t always easy to find a wheat beer in the majority of pubs. I would really like to see wheat beer more widely available and hopefully the beer that we are going to create will be onsale in a large number of pubs.”

Jane and Sara were really impressed with the quality and inventiveness of the competition entries.  Dozens of women entered (and a few men too!) and Sara judged the entries blind.  She chose these recipes as the top 3:

 1st place: Wheat beer with raspberries. By Louise Ashworth

Inspired by Divine Dark Chocolate with Raspberries.

2nd place: Stout with raspberries, cardamom and black pepper. By Orla Lambe

Inspired by Divine Dark Chocolate with Raspberries.

3rd place: Golden ale with chestnut honey and thyme (the honey is supplied by the entrant’s friend from local bees) by Hazel Paterson

Inspired by Divine’s Fruit and Nut

Sara chose Louise’s entry as the winner because she “liked the contrast between the light fruity style of the wheat beer and the dark chocolate with raspberries and felt it would really complement the flavour of the chocolate. Wheat beers are a very interesting complex product with interplay between malt, hops and yeast in particular giving a deceptively full flavoured brew. I am really looking forward to producing the winning entry and am sure it will go down well with publicans and drinkers alike.”

Another really inventive entry was by another DeaLatis member – Niki Skaife, publican of the excellent Masons Arms, Bishop Monkton, near Harrogate.  Niki received an honourable mention for her delicious sounding Mild with Sloe and Juniper.

Jane and Sara had such fun with this competition – and judging by the amazing recipes that came in, so did the women who entered.  It was obvious by all the recipes that us women love flavour! 

When Louise’s Wheat Watcher’s beer is brewed we’ll let you know – maybe you’ll find it on the bar of a pub near you…..

A Dream Come Brew

Have you ever dreamed of brewing your own beer in a proper brewery as opposed to a bucket in the airing cupboard?  I have.  Many times.  Then last year I met Sara Barton, founder of Brewsters Brewery at the launch of Project Venus’s brewing collaboration – Venus Jade.  I confessed my aspiration and Sara responded with an emphatic ‘Do it!’

Turns out that I was not the only DeaLatis member harbouring the brewing fantasy because when I mentioned it to Marverine Cole (@BeerBeauty) and Shea Luke (@RealAleGirlShea) they also had that ambition. We discussed our ideal recipe and decided on a dark spicy winter ale. So on a very auspicious date 21/1/12 (it’s a palindrome) the three of us accepted Sara’s invitation to ‘do it’ and we travelled up to Brewsters Brewery in Grantham and did it!

And as I write this, a wonderful yeast that smells of green apples is bubbling away and turning our 30 barrel brew into delicious beer.  What an incredible thought. But who knew what hard physical work it is to brew beer?  Hauling the malts around, hoisting buckets up high, pouring the contents into mash tuns and coppers, and then the cleaning afterwards.  Oh the cleaning – raking out the mash tun, poking around in the hot copper to extract the thousands of whole hops, washing out vessels and leaving the brewery as we found it.  But what satisfaction!And what fun.  All three of us virgin brewers felt as though we were in the best toy shop imaginable – and one in which lunch was served with Brewsters Pale Ale, and Brewsters’ brand new Black IPA (called Cruella) decanted straight from the conditioning tanks.  Heaven.

In a couple of weeks Brewsters will cask and bottle condition the beer for sale through their ‘Wicked Women’ range. We’re waiting to mention the beer’s name until the launch party in late February or early March – most likely at London’s Tap East with its incredible range of beers (thanks Glyn!) so hopefully you’ll come and taste the difference.

Huge thanks to Sara, Sean, and Richard at Brewsters for making our dream come brew.  I’m even more in love with beer than I was before and my maiden voyage on the brew boat has made me even more obsessed with brewing.  We’ve done a winter brew, but there are three more seasons in a year.  So how’s about it BrewsterSara, Beer Beauty, and RealAleGirlShea?

By Jane Peyton, Principal of the School of Booze