Quick, you have a bag, and in it there are 3 types of base malts, 8 specialty malts, 6 types of hops, 5 types of yeast, and 4 “specialty” items. What kind of beer are you going to make? Utilize the smoked wheat flakes and make a creamy rauchbeir? Use the ginger and lemon peel for a saison? Oh and just one more thing: there are 14 other professional brewers with the exact same ingredients, all trying their best to win a yearly brewing competition, The Iron Brewer.
A competition like no other in Ontario, The Iron Brewer is organized by the Master Brewers Association of Canada. Coordinated by brewer-about-town Paul Dickey, Iron Brewer brings together some of the best brewers in the province, and pits them against each other. The format is simple, a group of 15 brewers (which are winners of a lottery system, as there are always a heap more who want to participate) are all given an identical package of potential ingredients. They have to make a batch of beer using only ingredients from the package. They don’t have to use them all, but they cannot add to them. What this means is, you see a hot ingredient pop up a lot, this year it seemed like a sexy idea to use the Oak-smoked wheat malt. Which I was happy with.
Most of the competition either happens at a brewery, or at the brewer’s home. Indeed, last year’s winner, James Tien of Muskoka Brewery mashed-in early one morning using a pot on his stove. A while later he checked in on it, and found his wife about to serve herself some for breakfast, having mistaken it for oatmeal. The public part of the event (for the rest of us) is a party thrown at Molson’s Six Pints Beer Academy (the old Duggan’s and Denison’s brewpub), and they do a wonderful job at it.
All of the brewers turn up around 2pm, and within 20 minutes or so, beer is flowing. Each brewer makes a short presentation on their beer. Talking about what they made, why, any interesting production notes and anything else relevant. Once the presentations are done judging starts in earnest, with everybody sipping, note-taking, note-comparing, and of course, re-sipping.
The Professor — Jon Downing of Niagara College Teaching Brewery
Far and away, the most complicated beer cam from Jon Downing. If the art of brewing is still a mystery shrouded in superstition and awe, ignore this part, as it won’t be nearly as impressive. Jon used some of every ingredient in the package. Seriously. And his process was something called “continuous mashing”, which I had never heard of. Herein, is what he did: He made a simple base beer on the first mash, using base malts and some of the hops to make a simple light refreshing beer. That wort then became the liquid he used for the second mash, where he introduced the specialty malts, some complex hops, and a different yeast. That second wort was then used for the third mash, where he finished using the specialty flavours and the last of the malts and hops. Along the way, he drew off some of the wort and pitched yeast in, so he made three different beers, and served them in order. The first light lager was a bit like a sorbet, cleansing your palate and hinting at what is to come, the second sets the base expectations for the beer, though to be honest, when I tasted it, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. The final product, however, was just divine. Smokey with a wonderful hot ginger pop, the beer was rich and complex, chewy with leather from the malts and a nicely bitter hop presence. Jon said it was sort of a spiced dubbel, and I can see what he means. It was my top pick (though not the winner for the day).
Other stand-outs for me included Jamie “Twice a Bridesmaid” Mistry’s “American” ESB (which placed him second-place again, for the third year in a row). While I mocked him by pointing out that any time you produce a beer that isn’t quite to the style guidelines, you just call it an “American [style]”, it actually was a neat representation. Body and malt presence like a traditional ESB, but with a lighter colour and a bright American hop aroma. Also lovely were Mark Murphy’s Oatmeal Brown ale, James Tien’s ultra-smooth pale and Andy Preston’s hop-spiced Belgian-style Blanche “Awkward Haze”. This last one was interesting. Rather than using the traditional Belgian-style spices of clove, coriander and citrus peel, he just used different hops; some that added citrus notes, some to add spiciness, and it really worked well. Not at all like a Belgian IPA, it was clearly a classic Blanche, but with a gentle hop influence. Incidentally, it was also the winner on the day.
Where judging and socializing meet….
In addition to the brewers serving up their beers, a few of the sponsors who provided ingredients had tables set up, showcasing some of the latest and greatest in hops, malts and yeasts. Brock and the crew from Burger Bar provided dinner, including hop/miso mayonnaise for the burgers, so everybody was well fed. And, of course, the Six Pints bar was open, just in case you needed a bit more variety in terms of beer.
In all, it was a really fun event to attend, and had an interesting atmosphere. You see, the brewers could be anybody, as long as they were registered with the Master Brewers Association of Canada. So there were brewers from various Molson breweries (Molson Toronto, Creemore, Six Pints), brewers from a lot of craft breweries (Denison’s, Amsterdam, Muskoka, Lake of Bays, Black Oak, Mill St), Niagara College, and even one home-brewer (apparently). Because of this, the crowd was a fairly mixed bag, with brewers and brass from various breweries, LCBO folks, a few writers, and (I’m sure) some other adherents. Conversation ranged from brewing techniques, to marketing, to LCBO specialty releases, and beyond.
A very cool day, and one I hope to attend again next year. Just in case you’re curious, below is the list of ingredients the brewers got to work with. There was enough malt for a 20-30 litre batch of beer.
Ingredients
Base malts:
Muntons Marris Otter
Dark Bohemian Pilsner Floor Malt
CMC Superior Pale
Specialty Malt
Oak Smoked Wheat Malt
Dark Bohemian Wheat Floor Malt
OiO Barley Flakes OIOWheat Flakes Toasted (Torrified) OIO
Brewers Oat Flakes (Quick)
OiO Rye Flakes Toasted
Thomas Fawcett Chocolate Malt
Best Malz Chit Malt
Franco Belges Caramel 120 Malt
Specialty items:
Raspberry Puree
Lemon Peel
Ginger Root
Whirlfloc Tablet
Hops:
– Amarillo
– Challenger
– Legacy
– Magnum
– Willamette
– A certificate for whole Bertwell hops
Yeast:
Safale US-05
Saflager S-23
Mauribrew Weiss
Safbrew T-58
Possibly a new cask yeast
