The second beer from the Stone & Wood side project, The Mash Collective, is out and about on taps and in bottles. It brought together an eclectic collection of people to create the beer, Aureus Chrysalis: a tattoo artist, musician, furniture maker, an engineer and a chef. The result is a Belgian Dubbel / Scotch Ale hybrid – which you can read about here.
According to the team at Stone & Wood (who’ve also just brewed their annual Stone Beer, which you’ll be able to read about on Crafty soon), The Mash Collective is about “looking beyond the brewing industry for help, because we're interested in the sort of spontaneous ideas that are born when people from different walks of life are thrown together.
“We chose this particular crew because they're not only the best at what they do, but they each have a very unique approach to their chosen craft.
“The goal for TMC is to not just to create a beer with their help, it's also driven by the idea that everyone – including ourselves – will return to their lives and their jobs inspired by the process, the people they've met and the experience they've shared.”
Among those taking part was Melbourne-based home brewer Richard Grant (taking control above – second from left), who has shared his experience creating Aureus Chrysalis with us…
How did you become part of the Mash Collective?
I entered a competition in last year's Good Beer Week that was sponsored by Stone & Wood and held at the Courthouse Hotel in North Melboune. It was a dinner where the Courthouse food was matched to Stone & Wood beers and after the meal home brewers who had entered submitted their beers and offered them up for judgement by the people in attendance.
The people voted and the winner was the brewer whose beer had collected the most votes. I anticipated that most brewers would bring IPAs and so I brought my favourite Abbey Ale which is a big malty monster and it delivered.
Had you done anything like this before?
I've been a home brewer for 23 years and been on many brewery tours. I once helped Ralph Nischwitz and his team bottle one of their Heidi Alt beer batches at Mountain Goat but brewing 4,500 litres is a bit of a step up from 23 litres!
What was your input?
Rick Bannister sent out a range of emails (see below with Richard’s answers) as pre-work. On the Friday night of the brewing weekend Brad Rogers facilitated a session where we tasted a lot of beers and gave our thoughts on factors such as maltiness, hoppiness, colour, mouthfeel, bitterness, finish etc. Then we had a discussion where the collective reached consensus as to what we wanted our beer to be like. Brad had a scale from one to ten and we were around the seven to eight on many of the factors listed.
On Saturday morning we started milling grain at 7am and worked all day under the guidance of Jamie Cook and Nick Walsh running the brew in two batches of about 2,300 litres which were combined in the fermenter. We were pitching the yeast at 7pm that night.
How was the experience?
We had a blast. The crew at Stone & Wood are super nice guys and The Mash Collective team got along really well. I know a fair bit about the brewing process but it was great to dig in and brew in commercial volumes with a good flexible micro-brewery set up.
What do you make of the beer?
I've only had one so far, on tap at the Great Northern in Carlton. I'm waiting for my bottled supply to arrive. Initial impressions are that we got close to what we were aiming for so I give it about a 7.5 out of 10. I'd probably aim to beef up the mouthfeel if I did the recipe again. I'll have to drink more before I decide what other tweaks I might make.
The pre-meeting emails between Stone & Wood and Richard
What’s your desert island beer? (The one you’d be happy drinking for the rest of your life if you got stranded someplace)
Chimay Red
What was the first beer you ever brewed?
A Coopers real ale kit with added liquid malt and 15g Fuggles and 15g Goldings hops.
What was the very first beer you ever drank?
Coopers Sparkling Ale
List five ingredients you have always wanted to brew with but never have?
Centennial hops, rye malt, spices (this could be a broad range so I'll count this as five and think more on particular spices)
Most underrated beer style in the world?
Scotch ale
Name three of your favourite beers and why you like them?
Gouden Carolus Cuvee van de Keizer Blauw/Blue
Just about the perfect big Belgian beer. Fruity aroma and strong malt character with a great balance of flavours and mild alcohol warmth belying the true alcohol %. A great beer to finish a meal with, works well with strong cheeses and coffee.
Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA
I discovered the American interpretations of the IPA style when living in the US. As with many things in the American culture once they take hold of an idea they run with it to extremes. Imperial IPAs operate under the principle that more is better, more hops, more malt, more alcohol you name it. The Dogfish Head 90 minute is one of the first of these and still one of the best, bitter as all get out but enough malt to compensate, great colour in the glass with a solid mouthfeel and a long lasting finish.
Stone Sublimely Self Righteous Ale (Black IPA)
These guys are all about aggressive flavours but somehow they get them to balance (in most of their beers). This one is one of the few black IPAs (I think that it's a very hard style to pull off) that I've tasted that works. Great balance of dark malts and big hops working together to be an aggressive, strong but surprisingly well balanced beer.
Describe your perfect beer using the following elements:
Colour : Dark brown to black with ruby tints
Aroma : Strong evidence of malts and hops
Bitterness : Quite bitter but softened by the strong malt presence. 60-80 IBUs
Finish : I like to savour the beer after it has gone so a lingering finish leaving a lining of malt throughout the mouth is good with enough early hop addition to make this finish not too malty/sweet
Mouthfeel : Big bodied and thick
This beer will be released in March (the start of Autumn) do you think that should affect the style of beer? If so, how?
Generally I don't allow the weather to affect my beer selections. Moving into the cooler months does however cause some people to consider stronger more highly flavoured and possibly darker beers.
If you could take the flavour (or flavours) from another food or drink and have it in a beer, what would they be?
Something like the richness of plum pudding.
Choose one: A big beer with high alcohol content and lots going on or one that’s lower alcohol and more subtle and refined?
I love big complex beers!
Got any crazy ideas, processes or ingredients you’d like to see used?
I've been intrigued by the recent freeze distillation movement pioneered by BrewDog in Scotland.
