Homebrew competition: Mannenliefde (ended)

//Update

We were very proud to host Sander, the head brewer at Oedipus as a judge for this competition. He told us the origin story of Mannenliefde and even took some very early homebrewed samples with him. We asked him what defines Mannenliefde, and in effect what defines a good clone. According to Sander the key lies in finding a good balance between the use of spices (szechuan pepper and lemon grass), the hop bitterness and profile, that should be a bit Sorachi Ace forward, and the profile of the saison yeast.

We had a pretty good turn-out with 7 beers competing. Some were really faithful renditions of the original, some were a more creative take on the original (yes, I’m looking at you Paul!). It did become kind of difficult to score the beers against eachother – and the further away we got from drinking the original the harder it got to remember how close the brewer got to a perfect clone.

After sampling all the beers it was time to give share our scores. We started with the Foebar attendants votes. At the end of the vote there was a close competition between three of our brewers. When we asked Sander to share his vote this changed and we got a clear winner.

The winner of the third Foebar homebrew competition, clone Oedipus Mannenliefde, is …. Karl! Congratulations Karl on besting us at brewing. Please enjoy your eternal fame, or at least until we forget about this / the next competition happens. Karl got the closest to finding the balance that Sander described, hops, yeast, and spices. Congratulations on brewing a great clone beer and high praises from a professional brewer.

//end of update

For our February homebrew competition we will brew our first clone beer. It’s only fitting to clone one of the modern Amsterdam craft classics: Oedipus Mannenliefde!

Mannenliefde is a refreshing saison made with lemongrass. It was also the very first brew by Oedipus, back in 2012. It has been almost impossible to miss – so I’m sure you all have all sampled this beer. If not, it’s become a staple beer that’s available in almost all supermarkets in Amsterdam.

Oedipus has been pretty generous with their ingredients. This is straight from their website.

Malts    | Pilsner Malt, Wheat Malt, Biscuit Malt
Hops     | East Kent Golding, Sorachi Ace, Citra
Yeasts   | Saison yeast strain
Spices   | Szechuan pepper, Lemongrass

https://youtu.be/5SASEblmWLw
The background story (in Dutch)

The competition will take place during our February 12 meeting at Foeders. Like always the FOEBAR competition rules apply and can be found here.

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