The Session #73: The beer audit – what the hell is a beer audit??

So what is The Sessions all about? Well, on the first Friday of every month bloggers around the world write a post on a specific topic, which is suggested by that month’s host. You can find more background on the Brookston Beer Bulletin.

This month’s topic has been set by  Adam at Pints and Pub and it’s the beer audit.  Adam must be some kind of nerd and does an audit of the beers he has at least twice a year (why Adam why?) . By way of explaining this month’s topic he says,  ”I’m interested to know if you take stock of the beers you have, what’s in your cellar, and what does it tell you about your drinking habits.”

Beer audit, what the hell is a beer audit?

Even if I knew what one was why the hell would I want to know about it, or heaven forbid actually partake in one?

OK that s grumpy me in action but its been a long week. 4.30 am start on Monday to fly to Perth for work, 2 days on the road, a day long meeting then fly home to Melbourne, getting in at midnight, just long enough to have a quick kip, shave, shower and suit up to head to Canberra for more meetings where I admit I may not have 100% paid attention then home, finally. Now I’m in the office cranking through some work prior to heading out for a beer to celebrate the 1000th brew for the Holgate brewery and my graduation from beer school (a Graduate Certificate in Brewing from the University of Ballarat).

So after all this why the fuck would I do an audit? well its a beer audit so maybe. No actually audits are not my thing. Audits are painful things conducted by auditors, who are really just accountants with poor personality skills. Would you invite them round for a beer? I think not. Actually my brother-in-law is an accountant, I hope he isn’t an auditor?

Anyway I digress. I do not do beer audits, I do however keep a lot of beer on hand, mostly homebrew and the odd special few bottles that I’m keeping for something.

The homebrew stored mostly fits in 3 categories;

1. Beer I brewed but do not like.
2. Beer that needs some ageing (yes I like these ones)
3. Beer I have forgotten about, often put away to make space, or to keep for a competition or just at the back of the cupboard. When I moved house last year this added up to about 6 cases of homebrew, some fitted into category 1 and 2 but mostly it was forgotten.

The special beer is usually just stuff you don’t drink every day because its;

1. Expensive – well it makes sense to not drink this all at once
2. Sour/buggy/wild – a little more ageing time, a little I don’t want one every evening
3. Big beers – same as  above, and they last so long
4. Sometimes its just a beer purchased for a special occasion
5. Forgotten about. Oh the joy of finding a bottle of Cantillon you’ve forgotten about!

I do not make lists of beers, I do not keep count, I do not know exactly what I have at hand when it comes to beer supplies. I do not intend to start doing anything that resembles an audit.

Audits suck.

I will however keep having plenty of beer on hand and leaving exactly what, where and how much as a mystery. And I will continue to brew more beer, now that I’m qualified it seems like the right thing to do.

No to finish this work and get onto a few celebratory drinks.

Cheers D

PS – I’m sure Adam isn’t a nerd and is in fact quite a nice person, even if he is some form of auditor.

 

 

 

Mead and Gueuze

I’m moving house which involves of course packing and cleaning. Thats not a surprise I know, however what you find when doing this can be.

In May 2010 I made a batch of sweet mead that with a bucket of honey from Beechworth given to me by Stu and a $15 stick mixer from Coles that I killed in about 12 minutes. I also added some yeast. Well its sat in my wardrobe in a demijohn for the last 2 and a bit years. I’ve kind of put of doing anything with it as it was in a vessel with no tap, meaning I have to siphon it to bottle it. I’ve never siphoned booze before, and for some reason the idea of it just didn’t sit well with me. However I’m moving, it needs bottling. Now its done, siphoning was no sweat at all, and the clean clear sweet mead is now bottled. Not that I know anything about mead but this stuff isn’t too bad. It’s a sweet mead so it tastes kind of desert wine like. Not a bad drop, just need excuses to drink desert wine style stuff now. I was impressed at how clear and clean it was after being left to its own devices with no special care at all. Only problem is if I want more mead my process takes two years. May need to look at shortening that one up.

On to more fun topics I have found a lit of beer. No really lots of beer. It seems that even though I havent been brewing that much lately, not having a party to empty a bunch of kegs has left me with a bunch of beer, lots of saison, some barley wine and some triple. I also found a bunch of sour beers, some Orval, Cantillon – Gueuze and Lou Peppe, and some other bits and pieces, including a bunch of Red Hill Russian Imperial stout, at least a couple of vintages (I just need to remember which is which?). There really is a lot of beer, much of which is now in my “cellar”, otherwise known as the pantry in the old abandoned house at my folks farm.

Anyway as a reward for packing and cleaning I’m having a bottle of 08 Cantillon Gueuze (100% Lambic Bio). I’m sure I’ve written about this beer before, its awesome. I wont bang on about it but its sour and funky and complex and wonderful. An excellent reward to a long day.

Nuf said, been a long day, more moving to do on the weekend “Sigh”

Cheers D