TROPICAL stout is a style of beer usually found in parts of Africa and the Caribbean – but now a home-brewed variety made in a garage in St Peter has landed a prestigious national award.
Given that the focus of his day-job recently has been keeping an eye on Jersey’s soaring summer temperatures, it seems appropriate that meteorologist Matt Winter took inspiration from even warmer climes for his Black Magic Tropical Stout.
Having entered the brew in the Strong Stouts and Porters section of the Champion Homebrewer of the Year competition, organised by the Campaign for Real Ale, Mr Winter was pleasantly surprised to receive news about winning the category.
And a few days later there was an even greater accolade as the potent home-made tipple went on to scoop the overall “best in show” prize after being blind-judged by experts alongside ten other category winners at the Great British Beer Festival in Birmingham.
“I didn’t enter with any expectations, and I was more than happy to get through to the final,” Mr Winter said. “There was a chance to get over to Birmingham, but it was very short notice and would have been expensive, so in the end I stayed home and found out by seeing a Facebook post – it was hard to believe at first.”
The award was culmination for a hobby dating back around ten years, gradually becoming more serious after Mr Winter moved to the Island in 2018 to take up his position as a forecaster at Jersey Met.
“Like most home brewers, I started off with kit that was basically malt extract and a plastic tub – you added hot water and fermented it in your front room,” he said. “After a while I decided I’d like to brew from scratch, using grain and hops and yeast and making my own recipes.
“Gradually I moved down that pathway and got more into it, upgraded my equipment and the end-results got a bit better.”
The journey was also helped by fellow enthusiasts in Jersey – the Island has a small network of homebrewers who have the chance to compare notes, learning from each other’s successes and failures.
Black Magic stemmed from a challenge between members of the group to brew a style of beer they hadn’t tried before.
Mr Winter drew tropical stout from the hat and came up with a recipe including five dark malts and a sprinkling of Demerera sugar that came out at 7% alcohol by volume and went on to impress almost everyone who tasted it.
Kevin Travers, judging coordinator for the final, described Black Magic as “full-bodied and incredibly complex with a sweet aroma, loaded with dark fruits and a smoky finish”.
Could this success mean that Mr Winter might try moving from his homebrewing hobby to making beer profesionally?
“I think lots of people that brew at home have that pipe dream, but as soon as you go down that route, it obviously becomes less of a fun hobby, and more of a serious business, and you have to think about margins and costs and premises and all that sort of stuff,” he said.
“You hear lots of stories of breweries starting up and then going bust, and there’s a mortgage and bills to be paid, so it’s nothing that’s going to go any further than a very enthusiastic hobby at the moment.”
- Anyone wanting to find out more about the Jersey Homebrewers’ network should email info@beer.je
