1 SIX FIVE

Story

1 Six five, our story so far…

Like most brewers we started as faithful consumers of the local brew, who have, as trends changed and palate evolved discovered a true passion for delicious beer.
Myself (Saul) and John had both had previous foray into the world or home brewing, but were eventually put off by the inconsistency we were getting out of the tools and processes we had available to us at that stage.
In November, 2013 Dunedin had its first Craft beer and food festival, this sparked a kindred passion for all things beer in us and led to many discussions (over beer of course) about how we could get involved in ‘the scene’.
We spent countless hours researching technique, equipment, grains, yeasts, hops and even water. Many of these discussions included our 3rd partner Tina whose scientific background gave us insight into a level of understanding on subjects we never would have otherwise got our heads around. Turning our duo into a trio.
Around June 2015 it was time to take a leap and invest in some equipment that we felt would aid us in creating a consistent quality product. Again that November we attended the Dunedin Craft beer festival and this time rather than just sampling the product we went attended demos and talks to absorb as much info as we could take in. It was here we were introduced the Grainfather all in 1 brewing system.
We purchased the Grainfather system in December 2015 and have not looked back.
Our very first brew was a Red IPA, we got the recipe off the grandfather website called Red Dingo, purchased our ingredients from the Dunedin Malt house and brewed our very first beer. (Turns out to date this is likely our 2nd favourite beer we have brewed).
It was about here we tried to run before we learned to walk, after the success of the 1st brew, we attempted 3 – 4 brews and had some failures as we did not fully understand the brewing process especially fermentation and that got a little disheartened. Not being quitters, we decided it best we buy a couple of kit beers and really nail our processes and procedures. I can’t stress enough to anyone else starting out what a good idea this turned out to be!
Now having a well-documented and rigorous process to follow for each brew, we each designed and created an original brew. John started with an American Amber Ale, Myself a Milk Stout.
We planned to enter these into the coming 2016 Dunedin craft beer festival, but left entering so late we had no 2nd chance, it was brew and enter. At this stage we were looking for feedback to gauge if we were even on the right track. Whilst we liked the beer, who knows if our palate are any good. Turns out they were!
Opportunity favoured us and John just happened to be heading to Auckland a few days before the SOBA Homebrew competition closed, so we put a couple of bottles in his carryon luggage and dropped them off in Auckland.
Of the 2 competitions the SOBA Homebrew competition was judged first and to our absolute delight we received a silver medal for the Milk Stout. We were over the moon!
A few weeks later the Dunedin Craft beer festival took place. To add to our already frail nerves John went and had a fall, breaking his leg leaving Tina and I to attend the prize giving without him.
It happened, we won our category! Gold medal for the Milk Stout.
Standing up on stage, in front of several thousand people, feeling very overwhelmed by all that was going on around me, I nearly missed the fact that they had just announced we had won the 2016 Champion Brewer as well! What!

This is where our story is paused for now, we will be brewing our Milk Stout with Emersons Brewery in time to be the signature beer of the 2017 Dunedin Craft beer festival, so come along, have a try, let us know what you think and share your experience with all your mates over a beer.