Mama Beer judged best brew
‘‘I thought it was rude to drink all his [husband’s] beers . . .’’ Nelle Bilcliffe
Nelle Bilcliffe may be new to beer brewing but she has bagged top honours at South Canterbury Home Brew Competition.
The Waimate-based Bilcliffe took home three awards – champion beer, a gold medal and also the best female brewer – for her Mama Beer brew at the annual Oxtoberfest event hosted by the Oxford Restaurant Bar and Brassiere at the weekend.
‘‘This is my first time, and I’m delighted (on winning the award),’’ Bilcliffe said of the event that attracted 31 entries.
‘‘My husband has been brewing for eight years, and he also won a couple of bronze medals this year,’’ she said.
‘‘I thought it was rude to drink all his beers from the past eight years (laughs) and I wanted to learn to make some of my own beer and brewed it only for the competition.’’
Bilcliffe said the name Mama Beer was just playing around with words.
‘‘I’m a girl brewer and have got two teenage children and the name was a bit of a play on words.
‘‘It took me about six hours to brew the saison and the ingredients used were grains, water, hops and yeast.’’
She is more of a textbook brewer, compared to her husband who is more of a creative brewer, experimenting with ingredients, with the couple growing their own hops on their lifestyle block at Makikihi.
The judges, DB’s Zane Marshall, Ship Hop’s Hadley Rich, The
Oxford’s Michael Doran, and Felicity Bruce, were wowed by Mama Beer, saying it had great aroma, great carbonation and head, nice grainy notes, great full mouth feel and finish, and all went back for more.
Clarissa Doran, co-owner of The Oxford, was delighted that a lot of first-time home brewing entrants had won awards.
The trio of Andrew Darling, James McCarthy and Matt Anderson won silver medals for their Indian pale ale Riwoka Shocker and porter beer Night Warrior.
The bronze medals were bagged by Joe McKenzie’s smoked lager and Belgium triple, Gareth Bilcliffe’s Knockout Blonde and red ale Fred, Scott Russell’s saison and Kristen Stevens’ American pale ale Waihi Wild Hop.