Brewery Upgrades

I'm planning some brewery upgrades which is keeping me busy at the moment. A quick list of parts being researched include:

• A stainless steel counterflow plate chiller for cooling boiled wort.
• HLT temperature control via PID controller.
• The beginnings of a yeast culture bank
• Small Pipe and flow updates to reduce oxidation on transfer of wort.

As things get added/confirmed, I'll endeavour to add a few details.

A new breed of pub!

I spent a day in Newark recently, a small town north east of Nottingham, which has a history steeped in the traditional malting business. I had heard of a new venture where a small beer-only pub had been set up purely to serve good quality real ale from microbreweries to it's clientele. The bar environment was basic (no carpets and just a small electric heater), but served every purpose I needed it to. There was plenty of seating, it was warm and the atmosphere was a friendly one. The walls were adorned with breweriana and gave the place a rustic feel. Traditional bar games were available to play, but I wasn't there to chance my arm at a game of Jenga! The bar had a healthy selection of beers ready to go, all with pump clips, tasting notes and a small clear jar showing a small sample of the beer for reference (colour and clarity). The bar area was fantastically clean and dry with no "sticky" bits. Service was exceptional, quick and personal. After seeing the jar of pickled eggs on the bar, I wished I hadn't been so quick to order the huge cooked breakfast from elsewhere earlier :-) A large blackboard stated how many unique beers had been sold, along with the number of casks sold. The current numbers at the time of my visit were 335 unique and 375 casks sold. Impressive considering they have only been open approximately 4 months. The beers I tried in my 3 hour visit were as follows: Ay Up - Dancing Duck Brewery Trenchfoot - Mr. Grundys Heads Up - Vale of Glamorgan Dreadnought - Nottingham Brewery Shire Wood Porter - Milestone Co. All beers were in great condition, bright and if applicable, plenty of aroma. It was a pleasure for me to be able to go into a bar and try 5 different beers, only having tried one of them before (Dreadnought - scrummy!). This idea for a pub encompasses an interesting new approach. Keep the building small and the bar area as open as possible, to keep trouble from developing in hidey-holes and corners. Serve only real ale to keep out the lager louts and hooligans getting trounced on cheap alco-pops. This leaves space for a true community to develop. A community held together by good friends and good beer, something I am less able to find as times move on. I can highly recommend a visit if you care about beer and the environment it's served in. Newark holds a surprising history in brewing and was a great day out.

N.B Images taken from Justbeers public website.

Delays

Sorry for the delays in new posts folks, Just got a few things to deal with in real life. Rest assured that there are more reviews on the way. I have a few more brews in the beer cupboard to share with you since the last post :-)

Iceberg, dead ahead !!

Tasting a bottle of Iceberg tonight, produced by the Titanic brewery in Burslem, Stoke on Trent.
 I am always keen to try any new Titanic brewery beers I see, as they seem to cater for my tastes.

Iceberg comes in a clear bottle, has a pale-yellow to golden colour and a slight haze (I had left this to settle in a cool dark place, and the bottle had a visible yeast sediment.  I therefore think the haze is due to wheat proteins in the beer).  The head once poured was quite open and granular and had a perfect white colour.  A thin head stayed on the beer all the way down the glass.

There was a gentle aroma from the beer, but nothing crazy.  Just a mild vanilla toffee smell.

Titanic brewery class this as a light wheat beer, and it certainly didn't disappoint.  Hop and malt were in perfect balance for my taste, I prefer a bitter beer but your mileage may vary.  Some may say that the malt sweetness isn't enough and the hoppy citrus bitterness dominates.

I didn't see it coming!

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale:

My first taste of an American pale ale, This is supposed to be one of the best examples.  The website suggests the following stats:

• 5.6% ABV
• 37 IBU
• Magnum and Pearle bittering Hops
• Cascade aroma Hops
• Pale and Caramel malts

Appearance gives a light amber colour with a full off-white head with good retention.  The 350ml bottle I had had a visible sediment in the bottom confirming it had been bottle conditioned.  The carbonation was lively and visible, and I was expecting a gassy drink, but it was surprisingly light, just enough CO2 to enhance the flavour.

A great bitter hoppy taste, really pulls in your cheeks with it's astringency, Plenty of citrus fruit and it lasts for while after tasting.  The beer isn't too malty but it may just be competing against the hops in this instance. I would say a gentle sweetness.

A clean citrusy aroma was noticeable when pouring and this stayed for the duration of drinking.  The aroma helped to accentuate the bitterness and cleanness of the taste.

I think I will be keeping an eye out for other examples of this style, as I am intrigued to see whether it indeed is true to style and whether it survives the importing process well. Purchased at Tesco supermarket for approx £1.70

First post

just a quick hello for now, currently working hard to bring content over from my other site craftbeeruk.

On another note, I have tried a nice bottle recently, "Jack Frost" by Fullers brewery in Chiswick.  A balanced, fruity, winter warmer, with a very light blackberries taste (hardly noticeable).  Rich full bodied Malt, balanced by a hardly noticeable earthy Hop finish.  It's £1.99 in Sainsburys at the moment.  I think it's exclusive to them.  I highly recommend you give it a try