OnTap Magazine

MEET A HOMEBREWER Philip Hood recently placed third at the South African National Homebrew Champs with a collaboration beer he brewed with long-term brew partner, Doug Orsmond. Chartered accountant by day and a member of the Johogs (a chapter of the Worthogs Brewers homebrew club), we asked Philip about his journey through beer. PHILIP HOOD OT: When and why did you start homebrewing? PH: I've always loved beer. It's literally been woven into the tapestry of my entire adult life. Catching up with my dad over an ale, marrying into a German family, exploring local brews on travels and discovering craft beer fanned an absolute passion for what has become quite a defining part of me. I started brewing when I was given an NFP homebrewing starter kit for my birthday one year, and took the plunge into homebrewing with a couple of mates on (American) National Homebrew Day (first Saturday of May) in 2015. OT: What’s the best beer you ever made? PH: I've almost always brewed with a fellow homebrewer and really good mate - Doug Orsmond. We've been honing a collab IPA that we brew once or twice every year (our 3D IPA) and recently really hit the jackpot with our 3DRye IPA that won us first place in the JoHogs league tasting that month and third place at the South African National Homebrew Champs last year. Bursting with Citra, Simcoe and Mosaic, we got some rave reviews, loved drinking it ourselves and were super proud of this brew! OT: What is your biggest brewing disaster? PH: Unanticipated loadshedding, accidentally disconnecting the wiring of the "kettle", experimental techniques deployed in split batches, some dodgy harvested yeast and misreading calculations of quantities of bottling sugar have led to a number of near disasters, but fortunately never ended in any brews being completely ditched. I think we've been pretty lucky in this regard. They haven't all been the best beers ever brewed, but even the ones that seemed rather dubious at bottling typically improved over time. It would have been a bigger disaster to have given up on them, or given up entirely. OT: Describe your system in a sentence. PH: Brew-in-a-bag in a rewired urn - the ultimate, really hands-on, poor man's Grainfather. OT: Do you have any brew day quirks or traditions? PH: Bottling rather than kegging our beers, we always make sure to fill a couple of 660ml editions which we fondly refer to as the Directors' Specials. These are set aside to be enjoyed during the boil at the following brew day. OT: What would be your ultimate clone? PH: I absolutely love Belgian Quads. Having attempted a Belgian Dubbel, which admittedly only really got better with age, I'd love to successfully pull off a St Bernardus Abt 12 clone one day. OT: What is your main homebrewing goal? PH: To brew more regularly so as to be able to attempt more of a variety of styles each year and to keep improving on techniques. It's been a really rewarding journey from extract, through extract and some grain, to all grain brewing and we keep finding something that we get better at doing. ontapmag.co.za | Autumn 2024 | 47