After sparking his interest in brewing from cider making from his own apple trees in 2012, Homebrewer Joe Lee has spent over 10 years working on his own recipes by starting with cider making and IPA Homebrew kits, to now recently becoming a competition winning homebrewer for his beer “When Willamette you again”.
Speaking about the start of his homebrewing career, Lee explains, “My wife bought me a home brew kit for Christmas and I tried a Young’s American IPA malt extract kit, which was excellent. It was not until Covid I got into all grain, gradually building up from 1 gallon batches on my kitchen hob to 5 gallon bathes in all one system”. He continues “I was hooked on all grain, amazed how good my first batch of a Citra IPA sated compared to my malt extract kits. I also really enjoyed the process and the nerdy and scientific rabbit hole you can go down with brewing!”
The competition would provide the winner the opportunity to brew their own recipe at the Huddersfield based brewery Mallinson’s Brewery Company and see it sold at collaborating pub, The Sportsman.
Speaking about the ideas behind his recipe, Lee explains, “I was planning on trying to brew beer similar to Abbeydale Moonshine (who doesn’t love Moonshine?) when I heard about the competition, so I decided to do this as it met well with style guidelines of the competition. The main hop in the beer was Willamette, hence the terrible pun that my wife suggested!”
After judges chose him as winner, Lee headed to Mallisons Brewery Company to create his beer into a product to be sold with friend and second place winner, Graeme Dodgson. Lee said, “It feels amazing to see my beer on the bar. As part of the prize, I was given eight pints of it that I shared with my friends. I was proud to see it on tap, seeing my friends and others enjoying it, and it being demolished so quickly” after he explained that the beer had only been put on that day and by the time he had left the pub, they had already started their third cask.
Lee took on the task of brewing his recipe with friend and second place winner, Graeme Dodgson who since bought a cask and took it to Elland Beer Festival in and following the beers initial success, the product then went on to be named the events’ ‘Beer of the Festival’. Making his home recipe, a double competition winner.
Lee adds, “I feel inspired to continue developing my recipes and enter more competitions”, as he shows no intent to slow down following his success, entering the Stockport and South Manchester CAMRA home brew competition to see how his own recipes bid elsewhere.
“I got into brewing seriously when I bought my first house in 2012 which had 3 apple trees in the garden, so I got into cider making. My wife then bought me a home brew kit for Christmas and I tried a Young’s American IPA malt extract kit, which was excellent. It was not until Covid I got into all grain, gradually building up from 1 gallon batches on my kitchen hob to 5 gallon bathes in all one system. I was hooked on all grain, amazed how good my first batch of a Citra IPA sated compared to my malt extract kits. I also really enjoyed the process and the nerdy and scientific rabbit hole you can go down with brewing!”
“I was planning on trying to brew beer similar to Abbeydale Moonshine (who doesn’t love Moonshine?) when I heard about the competition, so I decided to do this as it met well with style guidelines of the competition. The main hop in the beer was Willamette, hence the terrible pun that my wife suggested!”
“It feels amazing to see my beer on the bar. As part of the prize I was given 8 pints of it at The Sportsman that I shared with friends. I was really proud to see it on tap, seeing my friends and others enjoying it, and it being demolished so quickly (they were on the third cask of it by the time I left the pub having only put it on that day). Also, I get more leeway from the family now, so I can brew more!”
“I feel very inspired to continue developing my own recipes and enter more competitions. In fact, I have just entered the Stockport and South Manchester CAMRA home brew competition to see how my beers fair. I will be doing quite different beers in this one”.
- The Homebrew Heroes competition was organised by The Sportsman Pub in Huddersfield, supported by Mallinsons Brewery Company.
- Came first with Graeme Dodgson a very close second. Both me and Graeme did the brew day at Mallinsons.
- Graeme bought one of the casks and took it to Elland Beer Festival where it won Beer of the Festival.
Freya Barwell
