Fairwater Facets - Harlequin
The Reading Amateur Brewers Q1 2026 competition is to brew a single-hop showcase using Harlequin hops. Judging will be at the Castle Tap on Thursday 9th April, with Ken from Mysterious Brewing providing the necessary expertise to find our first champion of 2026!
I've gone for a Harlequin variation on my recurring "Fairwater Facets" beer, which is my new name for what started as "Sim Citra". This is my go-to base recipe for a pale and hoppy beer, and with which I use different hops every time.
I had a minor problem with this batch when I was using the dump valve on my fermenter to remove the dry hops - I managed to leave the valve open slighly, so ended up with half my beer on the floor of the garage. I got about 10 litres kegged in the end, so at least I have enough to enter the competition!
Think I might go back to using a hop sock for dry hopping, especially in larger quantities such as this, as I always have a struggle getting the crap to flow out of the dump valve. It always seems to get blocked and is difficult to free.