yep, this is possibly the laziest blog post ever!  A link to another blog!!

This is a write up by my long suffering brewers widow, all about our experiences in Newcastle last weekend when we took part in a beer and food pairing event.  Eight of our beers matched with eight, yes eight courses!

Find out all about it at http://ginsoak.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/bacchus-to-the-future/

Cheers!

It’s been a while since i last bogged of my exploits running the brewery.  It’s been a busy time…

Late October saw us man the bar at the Steel City Beer Festival in Sheffield where we sold Ginger Daze, Hop Ripper IPA, Slaker Pale Ale, St Petrus Stout and our festival special Raisin to Live a 7% black chocolate raisin stout. Yum.  St Petrus won best stout of the festival and also joint Silver in the champion beer of the festival awards. 

The onset of man flu and the brewery courtyard being dug up didn’t help much in such a hectic time but with the flu all but gone and a new level tarmac courtyard i can again concentrate on making beer.  In the last month or so i have started to help Steel City Brewing test brew.  This is a new start-up brewery brewing on my kit (cookoo brewers) and their first brew Hop Manifesto went down a treat at pubs across the nation. It appeared all over Sheffield and as far away as Oxford, Newcastle and Worcester.  The next test brew will take place in mid November and should be in the pubs by December.  I have also brewed Autumnus Porter spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon and a Belgian Dubbel called Tantalus 6.5% which was for the Battle of the Beer competition at the Chesterfield Market Beer Festival.  That is all sold now and i have to say it was a great ale.  Sheffield & District CAMRA chairman called it ‘a beast of a beer’ and The Reluctant Scooper, who named the beer,  described it as a ’smooth Westmalle’. Praise indeed. 

I have just delivered 27 assorted casks to The Bacchus in Newcastle who will be hosting a Brew Co beer and Food Festival on Sunday the 8th November.  Seven hand pumps will feature my beers and the chef is cooking a seven course meal with my beers accompanying each course.  I’ll be on hand to talk dinners and drinkers through the beer selection as well as sampling the ale and stuffing my face with their fine food.

Tuesday the 24th of November sees us resurrect Beer Styles Night at the Devonshire Cat pub in Sheffield.  This time we will be focusing on dark strong real ales and for eight quid drinkers will get to sample 6 beers with a tutored tasting by myself and Ben Tysoe the bar manager.  The nights are always great fun with like-minded drinkers gathering to discuss beer and breweries and taste some fine ales.

Speaking of the Devonshire Cat pub, several bar staff will be attending our brewery on Wednesday 25th to brew their very own Christmas beer.  The actual beer is a secret so you will have to go in and buy a pint which will be on the pumps from mid December.  Needless to say it will be different to the normal offering and it will be damn tasty!

I have a few opinions to air about today’s news on alcohol related stories.  Firstly the Sunday Times reports that the region of Greater Manchester is to become the first in England to impose minimum prices for alcohol sold in its supermarkets, pubs and off-licences in an attempt to tackle binge drinking.   Now i have no problem with stemming the tide of drunkenness especially where young binge drinkers are concerned.  Although, haven’t youngsters always binge drunk alcohol?  When i was a youth we used to pub crawl around town three or four nights a week until we were so drunk the bouncers wouldn’t let us in.  This still happens today, always has, always will.  Its how we learn, by experience and mistakes.  The brewer Brewdog of course made a protest brew called Nanny State, a 1.1%ABV hoppy beer, well more like water in my opinion, but it was well done and hit the spot with drinkers who talked about the reason behind it, Tokyo the 18% beer they earlier brewed which was slated by the Portman group.  It is hard to see where the nanny statedness of it all will end, if regions are allowed to start setting minimum prices surely they will become bereft of breweries and independent local pubs. 

The Mail on Sunday reports that “all eyes will be on the Office of Fair Trading, which will decide whether a complaint made by real ale lobby group CAMRA about the validity of the beer tie has any merit. Industry trade body the BBPA believes abolition of the tie would ’sound the death knell of regional and local brewers across the country”  What a load of old tosh!  Look around you.  With the exception of MacSpoons (and their success is because they are free of tie) which national pub co appears to be doing well?  I will not mention any names but we know who the two main ones are and they are failing miserably.  Turn your attention then to the local free of tie, independently owned real ale pub.  These are flourishing and will continue to do so.  Ta ta pub co’s, your days are numbered, thank God.

We are now slipping through Autumn and summer seems just a distant memory now.  I noticed last night it was dark at 6.15!  Soon we will all be going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark.  I have contracted a bad case of man flu which, as we all know is twice as bad as a common head cold suffered by women.  I feel lethargic and restless and cannot breath properly and what is worse i don’t really feel like drinking beer! 

There is one good thing to come out of the changing seasons though – winter ales.  Last week i brewed a Belgian dubbel (6.5%ABV) made with copious quantities of dark crystal malt for those dark prune flavours exhibited by beers like Chimay.  The Belgian ale yeast i use has given the beer an air of authenticity and tastes typically Belgian, almost aniseed.  Next up i brewed Autumnus (4.7%ABV) which is a porter and as the name suggests is very autumnal in character.  Dark brown/red in appearance it is spiced with cinnamon sticks, nutmeg powder and just a hint of fresh root ginger.  It smells and tastes like an autumn style cake like Parkin. 

Next week i intend to brew the multi award-winning stout St Petrus (5%ABV) but i will not be forsaking the lighter side of ale ands will also brew Slaker Pale Ale and the light golden Ginger Daze.  My thoughts now turn towards Christmas and the staff from the Devonshire Cat pub will be coming to brew their own Christmas special.  I am also working on a project with Sheffield Hallam University where students will design and brew a beer specifically for other students based on market research they carried out.  Running a small craft brewery is hard work and there is never any spare time, but i love it.  So join me in a dark winter ale and lets ride out the rough weather together.  Cheers!

I recently heard a fellow brewer call his new brewery ’state of the ark’ which made me smile in agreement with him. If you go on our website at http://www.thebrewcompany.co.uk/the-brewery.php you will see pictures of the brew house.  Now don’t think that this brew kit is cheap, because it wasn’t,  but basic it is.  Brew kit is very simple, a hot water tank where the water is heated before being pumped onto the malted barley grains in the mash tun which is just an insulated stainless steel vessel. Once the enzymes have done their work and converted the starches in the malt to sugars the resulting sweet liquid wort is drained into the copper, which is just a big kettle.  Simples.  With the addition of a few bits of kit like a grain hopper and auger feed to get the grain into the mash tun, an automatic underback to pump the wort from mash tun to copper and a heat exchanger to cool the wort to fermenting temperature, that is as technologically advanced as it gets!  The real magic of course is done by our little friends Saccharomyces Cerevisiae – the brewer’s yeast. They convert the sugars from the malt into alcohol and CO2 and impart a range of flavours to the finished beer. 

I’ve just had three cask ale beer engine hand pumps refurbished as the seal in the cylinders had eroded. Studying what had gone wrong with the pump engineer made me think how ’state of the ark’ these amazing beer pumps are.  They haven’t really changed since being invented by the locksmith and engineer Joseph Bramah in 1797.  I used a beer engine to dispense my Slaker Pale Ale at the Steel City Beer Festival in Sheffield recently that was made in 1982. I was 13 when that pulled its first pint!  I also hear of breweries starting up with second hand coppers, mash tuns and fermenting vessels  which are decades old.  As are casks which, can last for over 30 years if treated right.

It’s nice to know that brewing cask ale may have advanced in terms of ingredients and efficiencies of production but it is still brewed, fermented, stored and served in the same way it has been for hundreds of years.  I’m glad i work without the threat of having to upgrade to the next technological advancement which is always just around the corner.

Those of you that know me or follow me on this blog, Twitter or Facebook will know that i am currently run off my feet.  All small craft brewers are reporting the same.  Today i phoned around a few brewers to arrange brewery swaps (where we swap each others beer to aid distribution and increase sales areas) and three of the breweries i called had no spare beer to swap!  It comes as no surprise then that this year’s Cask Ale Report commissioned by a collection of regional breweries and the Campaign for Real Ale confirms why we are all so busy.  The report says  ‘The number of  barrels of beer consumed rose from 817,000 to 825,000 between the first halves of 2008 and 2009, an increase from 235 million to 237 million pints. The report said 400,000 new drinkers tried cask ales last year and the number of breweries making them – 660 – was the highest for 60 years’  The report also says that the rise in real ale drinking could ’mark the reversal of a long-term trend towards mass-produced lager backed by slick advertising campaigns’.

Good news indeed, not just for small craft brewers like me, but also for the publican who will wish to stock cask ale as it’s popularity rises again and also great news for drinkers who will get more choice. 

I’ll leave you with this which is also from the report – ‘By contrast, lagers have continued to fall in popularity along with beer generally, with all sales in pubs tumbling by 16 million pints a day since their high point in 1979. Britain’s beer market is worth £18.3bn a year, with real ale worth around £2bn.’ – Now this may seem poor in terms of market share, but i see the upside – there is loads of room for growth.  Most people want good quality, locally brewed beer, full of character and flavour.  Not cider which isn’t cider, or bright blue alcopops, and we the small craft brewers are here to help you on a journey of discovery.  When you’re next down the pub, ask for cask.  Cheers!

After the last four days serving beer at the beer festival i just can’t seem to motivate myself today.  Being away from the brewery for so long appears to have had the effect of a holiday and forcing myself back into the cut and thrust just isn’t working.  I’ve delivered beer to here this morning… http://www.arkwrightarms.co.uk/ - a great pub, seemingly in the middle of nowhere but it is well patronised, gets through an inordinate amount of real ale and cider and has won more awards than you can shake a stick at.  They have numerous beer and cider festivals including mini micro fests where one brewer takes charge of their dozen or so handpumps for the weekend.  The food always smells great and with a warming fire glowing in the tap-room you always feel welcome. Worth a visit.   Next on the delivery schedule was http://www.nottinghamcamra.org/FestivalSite/festivalindex.html a huge festival with over 600 ales on offer starting this Thursday through Saturday.  Set in an ideal central location at the Nottingham Castle.  Difficult to drive to but easy to find on foot.  I for one will be paying it a visit on Saturday.  The guy on goods in said they expect 16,000 people over the three days!  As i entered the castle site there was a press huddle taking pictures of someone in ancient ceremonial dress.  The chap in question moved just as i was driving past and i almost clipped him with the front end of the van.  Good job i didn’t, as it was the Sheriff of Nottingham!  There are many casks to be washed for tomorrow as i rack into cask the first test gyle of Hop Manifesto from new brewers http://www.steelcitybrewing.co.uk/ - thing is i’m back to motivation which, i just don’t have today.  I’m off home, the cleaning can wait until tomorrow.  Perhaps i’ll purchase a foreign beer or two from the dram shop on my way home….

It’s been three days of standing behind makeshift bars, three days of serving thirsty inquisitive drinkers, three days of educating those who don’t know anything or little about real ale, three days of hard work, but more, , three days of reminding myself why i brew real ales.  Talking to the people who drink my beers, rather than those who purchase it (publicans) gives me an insight into what people like.  Showing them the ingredients, the different types of malts, letting people touch and smell the hops that go into my beers, explaining the wonder that is fermentation and what they can expect in terms of flavour, colour & aroma in my beers makes me realise how tactile beer brewing and drinking can be.  People need to connect with the beers they drink, know what component parts make them, understand how much thought and attention I give each and every ingredient, how much I care about their experience.  

It’s good to connect with the end consumer so i know i am doing right or wrong.  Fortunately the feedback this week has been really positive.  (Two awards prove that) I don’t particularly live life wishing to be patted on the back for my work.  But when it happens, i am humbled but grateful. More than anything, i am happy what i do, makes others happy.  Raise a glass… Cheers!

Yesterday was an early morning mash in (6am) so i could be out of the door by mid afternoon.  What is more important than brewing a gyle of Hop Ripper IPA?  What would make me get up at 5am to finish early?  The Champion Beer of the Steel City Beer Festival tasting panel – that’s what! 

Now i’m a sucker for free beer, and even more so to meet up with other brewers and publicans and drink ale exclusively before anyone else.  There were some treats and some, well lets say, not so treats.  Unfortunately i pulled the short straw and the first beer style to be judged by my table was mild. This is my least favourite beer style, but one of the three presented for judging was tasty, but we all agreed it didn’t taste like a mild.  Difficult to judge then, because was the pear like fruitiness what the brewer intended?  Was it his interpretation of a style?  We’ll never know, but judging ale in a taste off is more complex than it first appears.  Marks were given for appearance, colour, head retention, aroma, flavour and aftertaste.  The next style was more to my liking – strong bitters.  After the tasting the assembled brewers and landlords tucked into the 100 beers on offer at this years festival, and i don’t mind telling you, i felt a little delicate this morning!

Our very own St Petrus stout (5%) won the Stout category and also won Sliver in the overall beer champion category coming second only to Thornbridge Jaipur, which by my reckoning is pretty good.

See the full list here… http://www.sheffieldcamra.co.uk/beerfestival_champions.htm

I will be serving five of our ales at the festival which runs for the next three days in cemetery park Sheffield.

Today i delivered 24 casks of ale to the Steel City Beer Festival. 12 of mine, 10 swaps from other Yorkshire craft brewers, a free cask for volunteers and a kilderkin full of my festival special Black Chocolate Raisin Stout.  The two large tents are up, as are the stillages and beer was arriving from all over the place.  CAMRA volunteers were eager to help off load the casks and were frantically stillaging and building racks.  The sun was shinning and all we can hope is that it continues to do so.  It’s going to be a great fest so make sure you come and support it, oh and drink lots of my beer!

Sales have been good today having already sold more beer for next month than i currently have in stock.  I need to brew on Wednesday as i wont have time this week as i am manning my bar at the festival until Saturday.  Next week i’ll be brewing three times.  More stout, a spiced porter and a special for the Chesterfield beer festival competition.  More about that nearer the time. 

I checked in on No1 fermenter before leaving tonight, and Steel City Brewing’s first test brew ‘ Hop Manifesto’ was fermenting away happily now being at 1021.7 SG. Another couple of days and it will be at its final gravity and ready to chill.  The big launch of this new beer will be at The Harlequin Inn Nursery St Sheffield on the 14th of October 7pm.  There will also be two variants available, one without dry hops (all are dry hopped with Amarillo) and one called Life of Brian which has lemon zest added directly to the cask. This is for Brian Moore’s (a beer ticker of some note) 70th birthday.

A new delivery of hops came the other day.  Aurora, Sovereign, Chinook, Centennial, Simcoe, Perle and East Kent Goldings. I don’t think about the invoice price coz it makes me weep!

There’s a twitter stream below….