Had a great meeting on Thursday night with Charles and Elaine from In Certain Places to discuss how the project is going.
Here’s a quick run down of where I’m at.
– Brewing a 7.1% IPA early next week which should be ready for The Preston Beer Festival (15th March – 19th March)
– Contacted CAMRA about the project and also Northern Craft Brewers
– discussing the idea of a Science Bar which will be open for the duration of the Guild, this would be the perfect setting for a TOV ale. We are planning a series of events for the bar. Lectures, Chemistry magic shows, films, bands. The idea is inspired by the History of the Univesrity and its timeline going back to Horrocks. Especially the Society for The Diffusion of knowledge
– Whilst thinking about how to archive the recipe I decided its probably more interesting and engaging to run a Transit of Venus Real Ale Competition
The Transit of Venus Real Ale Competition
I love the idea that I’ll never know if its recreated – but would like to give it a good chance.
So the new idea is to have a Transit of Venus Real Ale Competition. The winner will have their name engraved on a special trophy (reminiscent of 70’s pub Darts Trophies – my Nana had a few). The Trophy will have small metal plaques with the dates for the next 1000 years worth of transits with space for future winners.
The central column will be like a time capsule and the winning recipes will be stored there. I invisage that the Trophy will be on display either at the Harris Museum fro the duration of the Preston Guild 2012 in September or at The Science Bar – I am in discussions with The Continental pub and They Eat Culture as collaborators.
In relation to the Real Ale competition I was wondering if it could be held in Much Hoole – some of the residents could be on the judging panel? I can’t decide if the competition should be on June 5th or earlier. I’d like the winning ale to be professionally produced and it could be 1 of 3 ales in the box set.
– whilst being shown around the temperance society archives I realised that what stands out are the objects – I was shown Joseph Livesys football rattle. This was also the case at The Harris when I was shown some material relating to Moses Holden. So it seems only right that to stand any chance of setting up a tradition that there is an object and its made of something that won’t perish and that the object contains the information.
I’ve been speaking to a guy in the USA – Chuck Bueter who is producing a real ale for the TOV as well,
He collaboarted with a brewery for the tRansit in 2004 and is also making a wine and a coffee which will be called The Black Drop.
I’d mentioned to him about using The Black Drop Effect as a name for one of the TOV ales (considering making 3)
The website that he posts on, which is edited by Steven Van der Roode) has an amazing archive of transit observations around the world.
http://www.transitofvenus.nl/history.html
I wonder if all these places would like to buy our beer?
I’ve just sent an email to CAMRA ( the campaign ro real Ale) to enquire about ways they can help promote the collaborative project with Arkwrights brewery. Also to get their feedback about the project and test the water regarding having them keep the recipe archive for the future.
Heres a link to their site with a quick synopsis of how Ale is made
http://www.camra.org.uk/makingale
since sending this email I came across The northern craft brewers.
I’ve sent a similar email to try and gather support and hopefully use their network to get the message out about a potential brewing competition for the TOV.
http://www.northerncraftbrewers.co.uk/index.html
Moving closer to making some beer. the guys at The Real Ale Shop who run Arkwrights brewery have sourced some yeast that will allow us to brew our 7.1% IPA.
“It’s a Belgium yeast will got upto 7.5% quite easilyand has been known to reach 11.5%. It is used in some of the Trappist beers, the guy I spoke to about it really recommended it, he said it will give the beer an English Fruity taste and do a good job bringing the flavor and aroma out of the hops.” – Neil Murphy
A Real Ale for The Transit of Venus
This idea has been brewing for a while now (sorry).
So I’ve been looking into the Transit of Venus since early last year. The Horrocks observatory is a few minutes away from me on Moor Park – I’ve been trying to get access to it and after many failed attempts I think I’ve found someone who can get me in to have a look.
The inspiartion for the ale came from reading about Captain Cook and his journey to Tahiti to observe a transit of venus… to be completey honest I thought he’d taken lots of lemons on board as an experiment to combat scurvy. It turns out it was Saurkraut. I guess I have real ale on the mind quite a bit. I’ve helped serve at a few real ale festivals at the Continental (one of the finest pubs in Preston) and there is a real ale shop on Lovat rd which is just round the corner from my house. I’d been discussing the idea of getting them to make an ale for an exhibition.
So I think these thoughts collided and beacme one idea for a Transit Ale with a lemony twang.
What I’d like to do is make a real ale which can only be drunk in a year when there is a Trasnit of Venus – so twice every 120+ years. I’m hoping that The Harris museum and Art Gallery, Lancashire records office and UCLAN will keep the recipe in their archives until the next transit.
I really like the idea of starting a tradition, but I especially enjoy the thought that I’ll never know if it ever becomes one. A bit like people who design parks and gardens never seeing the finished result. Also the possibility of a celebration that is goverened by the planets. This seems to tie in nicely with the Preston Guild. In fact its the only time the 2 events have happened in the same year.. need to figure out when they are next likey to coincide.
I’m hoping that we are going to start brewing the first prototype Ale next week. I’ve been visiting the Real Ale Shop every week and discussing it with them. They found a recipe for an IPA (India Pale Ale) from the 1700’s – its 7.1%abv. If all goes well it will be ready for the Preston beer festival – happens in March
