Brew-ha-ha: Natural Selection on making beer

The rise and rise of craft beer's been great, hasn't it? Our pubs are packed with delicious flavours and exciting ideas, and there's always something new to try, but it hasn't come about out of nowhere. As The Skinny can attest, there's a good amount of precision and training required to turn what are basically the ingredients for a nice loaf into a delicious beer. The Brewing and Distilling MSc at Heriot-Watt University has been responsible for a host of the country's best craft brewers, and each year the graduating class put out a beer in collaboration with Edinburgh's own Stewart Brewing, under the Natural Selection banner.

This year's effort – Common Ancestor – is a 5.2% ABV California Common that's described as "an effervescent ale/lager hybrid, with caramel, citrus and pine notes". Patrick Smith of the Natural Selection group says the thinking behind the beer is to create a drink that quaffers will find intriguing but moreish at the same time: "A lot of craft beer these days is pushing the boundaries of creativity, as well as weirdness. We wanted to brew something that was full of flavour, but something that you could have several pints of and still enjoy – not one of these beers which you drink a schooner of and think “that was interesting, but maybe I’ll have something else”.

"A California Common fitted this nicely, it’s a very underrated style and is unexplored by craft brewers, so gave us the freedom to adapt it."

Of course, if you're anything like us, any time you read about brewing there's the temporary thought that it'd be great fun to give it a go. We asked Smith and the Natural Selection team for some advice on what to do – and what not to do – when considering making your own beer; here is their advice.

Do... get feedback on your ideas: "We initially started trialing with various herbs, such as rosemary and juniper. We had some very bad feedback from rosemary early on, so that helped us steer clear of brewing 5000 litres of shower gel!"

Don’t... ignore how you’ll source ingredients: "A lot of the popular hops are all tied up in contracts with big breweries, so getting your hands on them isn’t always easy; we were lucky enough to get enough Chinook and Dr. Rudi hops on the free market. We also had problems sourcing sufficient yeast, after assuming the 10g bags we were using would also come in 500g bags. This meant that when we scaled up from 100 litre trials to our main 5000 litre brew, we had to grow a culture of yeast beforehand, which added an extra level of complexity."

Do... speak to as many people as possible: "There is a wealth of knowledge out there; the chances are, if you’ve thought of something to add to your beer, or have a new technique in mind, then someone else has already attempted it. Visit your local homebrew shop to rack their brains, join a homebrew club and search on the endless threads on brewing forums."

Don’t... assume that scaling a beer up from homebrew to commercial brewing will be easy: "You get totally different efficiency of the ingredients, such as extracting the bitter components from hops, as well as the yeast behaving differently on the size and shape of the fermentation vessel."

Do... have fun! "At the end of the day, it’s just beer. Brewing is a great way to socialise with people, explore different ingredient’s and create something that’s perfect for your own tastes."

Don’t... assume everyone is going to want your beer: "Marketing and sales are equally as important as the quality of the product and, as the beer scene in the UK is crowded with great beers, persuading people to buy your beer is getting increasingly difficult."

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Natural Selection launch Common Ancestor at OX184 on 29 Jun, tickets £12.50 / £7.50; admission includes one free pint of Common Ancestor, a commemorative glass and bar snacks; £12.50 tickets also include a talk with beer journalist Roger Protz. Common Ancestor will be available at bars in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Newcastle and London.