Member Profile: Mark Bilbrough

Compiled by Patrick Baggoley

Like many good brewers, Mark Bilbrough (better known as Billy) started out playing with kits in order to get cheap beer. But the Canberra Brewers helped turn this into a full-blown addiction to American hops and an unsettling devotion to Jamil Zainasheff and the Brewing Network.

Billy’s engineering background makes each brew session an exercise in striving for precision, chasing numbers and playing with gadgets while trying to eliminate unnecessary steps from the process. And this has resulted in some outstanding results.

This year while juggling work travel, family duties and brewing as much as possible (all while listening to BN podcasts), he’s also taken on the role of Competition Secretary, having successfully run our first club comp for 2011 — a huge effort considering we had a whopping 50 beers.

And, like most good engineers, he enjoys the challenge of finding the bottom of a beer glass, whenever possible. Repeatedly. 😉

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Name, (and forum name):

Mark Bilbrough, billy on the forum

Suburb:

Narrabundah

Age:

40!

Occupation:

IT Consultant in Defence

When did you join the club?

February 2008

When, and why, did you start brewing?

I first started brewing when I was living in Newcastle in the early  ’90s – my old man was a home brewer, so I figure it must be genetic.  In the ’90s I was living in a share house and needed a lot of beer for not much money.  I had quite a few misses when I started (but I still drank them), but I do remember fondly those couple of brews where I’d made a good beer.  The obsession kicked in in 2008 once I’d joined the Canberra Brewers.

Inside Billy's keggerator. John Guest fittings used to split gas lines to four kegs.
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What is your favourite beer (commercial or home-brewed) and why?

I’m a big fan of heavily-hopped American ales.  My first Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was a revelation –I didn’t have one until the club did a tasting in 2008, and I’ve been a fan ever since.  I don’t have a single favourite beer – I love Rogue’s Dead Guy Ale and SNPA.  Little Creatures Pale Ale is my go to in bottles, Rumpole Pale Ale @ The Wig, and Hopmeister @ Zierholz.

What brought you to the Canberra Brewers?

I was a lurker on the Defence Recreation-Home Brewing forums for a while and bumped into Shaun G (Brother Solstice) online – he brought me along to my first meeting in February 2008.  When I started I was looking mostly to improve my brewing (and gain more consistency) and to learn about other beer styles.  I’m still improving and have an appreciation for more styles, so being a part of the club has been successful.

How (kit, extract, grain etc), and what, do you normally brew?

I brew all grain (I joined Martin B in September  2008 for a brew day and have been all grain ever since).  I mostly brew ales, but have done the occasional lager.  I like to brew American and British ales, but have done a couple of Belgian ales – I’m drinking a Saison I brewed during the Christmas break.

Explain your set-up and process, from ingredients to packaging, and an average brew session.

My ingredients are mostly sourced from Mashematics and Craftbrewer. I have a two-tier system mounted in a server rack (inspired by Patrick’s Spruce Moose Brew Stand). My setup includes a Monster Mill, HLT is a converted 30L keg, a 55L Willow Esky with false bottom, 50L SS Kettle, March Pump, Plate Chiller and Corny Keg system.  I ferment in Better Bottles (unported) with temperature control in a bar fridge.
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Billy's brew stand, 3-tier gravity fed with pump. Control box (top right) houses
a temp controller (for using immersion element in HLT) and switch for pump.
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Better Bottle fermenter fitted with stopper and airlock in bar fridge, with a
temp controller probe taped to side of fermenter with foam insulation (left). 
Pumping wort from kettle, up to plate chiller and back down to
Better Bottle fermenter (right).
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With a young family, I don’t have the opportunity to brew during the day, so i’m a bit of a night brewer – about every three or four weeks I’ll set the HLT to come on around 4pm on a Friday afternoon and mash in between 6 and 7pm – my brew sessions are normally finished somewhere around 2am (when i’m loaded and tired).

My standard process is for a single infusion at 3L/kg and batch sparge. Boil anywhere between 75 and 90 minutes, whirlpool, chill and into the fermenter.

I try to make my brew process as quick and repeatable as possible.  I skip those steps which don’t make a significant difference to the result (step mash, fly sparge etc).  I am saving up to turn my brew system into a HERMS, but this is a speed and process consideration, I want to strike close to my strike temp, and then let technology make sure that the mash is maintained at the right temperature.
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Billy's keggerator, featuring four Perlick taps plus a stainless-steel drip tray (left). 
March pump mounted under kettle, which is used for recirculating wort in
mash, draining mash tun and pumping finished wort through plate
chiller (right). Pump fitted with T-piece to help purge air bubbles.
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I package in kegs – one of the nice things about the Better Bottles is I do a closed system transfer straight into the keg – either applying CO2 or use a sanitary filter to kick off the siphon.

I have a four-tap kegerator, and typically keep all my beers at the same pressure.  I carbonate by leaving my kegs connected at serving pressure for a week … and then I drink them.

What is the most complicated, or unusual, beer/technique you've tried? (and did it work?)

I’ve had some success doing a no-sparge of a low gravity beer – you can read about it here. Because of the large mash tun, I find low gravity beers a challenge for single batches – so no-sparging was a good way to reduce my efficiency in order to increase the grain and therefore liquor.  It worked – I hit all my numbers and ended up with a perfectly drinkable 3.5% Scottish 70/-.
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Billy's mash tun, converted rectangular Esky with camlock fittings for outlet and
return. Uses beerbelly rectangular false bottom and Mashmaster 3" temperature
dial (left). Inside of mash tun after wort drained, showing wort return arm (right).
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What is your favourite or most-prized piece of brewing gear and why?

The glass mug I got for my first place in the 2009 Nationals for my American Brown Ale.  It was a very lucky case of a great beer, in the right place (Canberra) at the right time.  I’ve had an immovable smile on my face ever since.  I can’t wait to win it a friend.

What is the best piece of brewing advice you've ever received?

Relax, don’t worry…  actually there are a couple of bits of advice that have stuck:

• Don’t use bleach (Steelo & DarrylB) – why take a chance with cheap cleaning/sanitation products not designed for beer. This was given after my first competition entry where my beer got smashed for the nasty chlorine smell.
• Reduce your headspace in the bottle (Stagger) – I was a bit lazy in filling and Stagger showed me the perfect fill.
• Focus on temperature control and fermentation first (Jamil Z) – it is easy to make wort, your beer will improve out of sight if you can control (and work) the ferment.

What do you hope to get out of being in Canberra Brewers? 

I hope to continue to improve my craft, and hang out & drink beer with other beer geeks.  I love the knowledge sharing, bulk buys, club deals and awesome brewers ready to share support and advice. This year I want to give back to the club so I’ve taken on the role of Competition Secretary.  I hope that I can help Canberra Brewers win another Champion State at the Nationals.
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Recipe:

18 Floor Milled Brown
10-C American Brown Ale
Author: Jamil Zainasheff Brewing Classic Styles

Size: 27.02 L
Efficiency: 80%
Attenuation: 77.0%

Original Gravity: 1.051
Terminal Gravity: 1.012
Color: 19.98
Alcohol: 5.16%
Bitterness: 36.3 IBU

Ingredients:

5.15 kg Ale Malt
0.25 kg Light Crystal
0.23 kg Chocolate Malt
0.13 kg Medium Crystal
0.13 kg Amber Malt

20.3 g Horizon (10.9%) boiled 60 min
38.36 g Amarillo (8.6%) boiled 15 min
65.46 g Amarillo (8.6%) steeped after boil

1x 11g pack  Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05
0.5 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 0.0 min

Mash: 60min @ 67 °C
Sparge: (Batch sparge) 19.9 L @ 75.6 °C, 15 min; Total Runoff: 32.51 L

Notes:
Name comes from some of the grain falling on the floor, then swept up and put into grain bin.