Written by Mrs Beer Blog...
Here's the thing, Mr BBGB and I have been involved in creating a brand new beer and its only a couple of weeks away from being ready to go! I know what you're thinking, "those two have dabbling in home brew, blimey, it's bound to be a bit ropey", but you're wrong... It's the real deal. It's a lovely citrusy IPA, brewed by a real brewer, organised by a real retailer and all 360 gallons are at the bottler now!
You might recall that Father Christmas brought Mr BBGB Twelve Beers of Christmas, well Santa's elves got them from an online retailer called Best Of British Beer. It's a fantastic shop who pride themselves in supplying a selection of beers that are lovingly crafted by the UK's best independent breweries. Anyway, a couple of months ago, the guys at Best Of British Beer launched the genius idea of having a virtual brew. In collabration with the award winning Lymestone Brewery, in Staffordshire, they invited their customers to get involved in creating the first People's Pint. This was done by a good old democratic voting system, where virtual brew members e-voted for various elements of the beer, including the strength, hops used, and even the name (all to be revealed when the beer's launched). Mr BBGB and I jumped at the chance of being involved, so we dutifully signed up. Then a few weeks later we got a call from Gill at Best Of British Beer asking if we'd like to go along to Lymestone (with 3 other virtual brewers), on the first day of the brew. No prizes for guessing what the answer to that question was!
So a couple of Tuesdays back, we buffed up Po, my beloved Fiat 500, and headed off through the beautiful Peak District countryside to Lymestone Brewery in Stone, Staffordshire for the big mash up. When we arrived, we were met by Will from Best Of British Beer, Ian and Viv, owners of Lymestone, and Lol the trusty brewery dog (who happens to be a springer, so they were on to a winner with us straight away!). Once the other 3 guests had arrived, Ian, or Brad as he's more commonly know as, began by giving us a bit of background on the place.
Here's the thing, Mr BBGB and I have been involved in creating a brand new beer and its only a couple of weeks away from being ready to go! I know what you're thinking, "those two have dabbling in home brew, blimey, it's bound to be a bit ropey", but you're wrong... It's the real deal. It's a lovely citrusy IPA, brewed by a real brewer, organised by a real retailer and all 360 gallons are at the bottler now!
You might recall that Father Christmas brought Mr BBGB Twelve Beers of Christmas, well Santa's elves got them from an online retailer called Best Of British Beer. It's a fantastic shop who pride themselves in supplying a selection of beers that are lovingly crafted by the UK's best independent breweries. Anyway, a couple of months ago, the guys at Best Of British Beer launched the genius idea of having a virtual brew. In collabration with the award winning Lymestone Brewery, in Staffordshire, they invited their customers to get involved in creating the first People's Pint. This was done by a good old democratic voting system, where virtual brew members e-voted for various elements of the beer, including the strength, hops used, and even the name (all to be revealed when the beer's launched). Mr BBGB and I jumped at the chance of being involved, so we dutifully signed up. Then a few weeks later we got a call from Gill at Best Of British Beer asking if we'd like to go along to Lymestone (with 3 other virtual brewers), on the first day of the brew. No prizes for guessing what the answer to that question was!
So a couple of Tuesdays back, we buffed up Po, my beloved Fiat 500, and headed off through the beautiful Peak District countryside to Lymestone Brewery in Stone, Staffordshire for the big mash up. When we arrived, we were met by Will from Best Of British Beer, Ian and Viv, owners of Lymestone, and Lol the trusty brewery dog (who happens to be a springer, so they were on to a winner with us straight away!). Once the other 3 guests had arrived, Ian, or Brad as he's more commonly know as, began by giving us a bit of background on the place.
History of Lymestone Brewery, taken from www.lymestonebrewery.co.uk
Lymestone Brewery is situated just outside Stone town centre on a site that, coincidentally, used to be a quite large former brewery. Built in 1889 by Montgomery and Company, the brewery was sited on the edge of the town within easy reach of the canal, and later the railway. The brewery changed hands in 1902, when, due to a failed court case over the use of the name Stone Ale, Newcastle under Lyme Brewers, Roland and Edward Bent, bought the brewery, lock, stock and barrel!
The Brewery was altered and enlarged throughout the early 20th century. Production at the Stone site ran round the clock during the Second World War, when Bent's sister site in Liverpool was heavily damaged by enemy bombing. By the time Bents Brewery Co Ltd was closed by Bass Charrington in the 1970's, Bents operated 514 pubs. For some time after the closure of the Brewery, bottling continued on site. However it wasn't long before this was wound down too and all beer related business on this site was relegated to the history books, until Brad came along that is..
Brad has been in the brewing industry since 1990, learning his trade at Titanic Brewery. He spent 18 years with Titanic before deciding that it was time to go alone, and in 2008 he began the process of setting up Lymestone Brewery. It was purely a lucky coincidence that, when Brad eventually found a property to set up his fledgling brewery, it happened to be a building that had been designed over a hundred years ago for that very same purpose.
The floors in the "brick built unit" are sloped and all run to drains originally installed when the brewery was first built. The main room is a production area of some 15 metres which was likely to have been the old fermenting rooms, this area now houses the Lymestone brewing room and has a mezzanine space for dry storage. Also on the site is an old well, the original water supply for the brewery, and from which Brad hopes to eventually get Lymestone's water from too.
Anyway, the real fun begins...
Lymestone Brewery is situated just outside Stone town centre on a site that, coincidentally, used to be a quite large former brewery. Built in 1889 by Montgomery and Company, the brewery was sited on the edge of the town within easy reach of the canal, and later the railway. The brewery changed hands in 1902, when, due to a failed court case over the use of the name Stone Ale, Newcastle under Lyme Brewers, Roland and Edward Bent, bought the brewery, lock, stock and barrel!
The Brewery was altered and enlarged throughout the early 20th century. Production at the Stone site ran round the clock during the Second World War, when Bent's sister site in Liverpool was heavily damaged by enemy bombing. By the time Bents Brewery Co Ltd was closed by Bass Charrington in the 1970's, Bents operated 514 pubs. For some time after the closure of the Brewery, bottling continued on site. However it wasn't long before this was wound down too and all beer related business on this site was relegated to the history books, until Brad came along that is..
Brad has been in the brewing industry since 1990, learning his trade at Titanic Brewery. He spent 18 years with Titanic before deciding that it was time to go alone, and in 2008 he began the process of setting up Lymestone Brewery. It was purely a lucky coincidence that, when Brad eventually found a property to set up his fledgling brewery, it happened to be a building that had been designed over a hundred years ago for that very same purpose.
The floors in the "brick built unit" are sloped and all run to drains originally installed when the brewery was first built. The main room is a production area of some 15 metres which was likely to have been the old fermenting rooms, this area now houses the Lymestone brewing room and has a mezzanine space for dry storage. Also on the site is an old well, the original water supply for the brewery, and from which Brad hopes to eventually get Lymestone's water from too.
Anyway, the real fun begins...
The first job was all about malt! Brad began by introducing us to the various types of malt available, as well as their flavours and the characteristics they lend to the final brew. We even tasted a couple of types to help demonstrate the potential effect they can have on the flavour, in fact the two we tried are the two being used in our IPA. Firstly, the mix of malt is weighed out into a large hopper ready for mashing-in, a process where the malt is dropped through the hopper directly into the mash tun and mixed with hot water.
Once the correct volume of water has been introduced, it's left while the natural sugars from the malt are slowly extracted (maltose), combining with the water to create the wort - the base of our beer.
The next stage is lautering, where the wort is filtered from the malt and the remaining malt is rinsed by sparging it with more hot water, ensuring the wort is clear and free of excess malt. When this is done and the wort is separated from the malt into a separate vessel, the remaining wort is boiled in order to ensure that it's sterile. This is the point at which hops are then added. Time for another lesson me thinks..!
Brad gave each of us a type of hop. While rubbing the hop between your palms, the oils in the hop are released, allowing you to have the full aroma experience. Starting with old-style traditional English hops, Brad took us through the different types of hops he had, ending with the newer, contemporary style hops with wonderfully fresh fragrances. This HAS to be experienced... truly amazing. We all agreed that the results of the vote for hop types was the right way to go, and Brad suggested a bit of an experimental way to add the three (yes, three!) types (the true secrets will be kept between us!).
So the hops are added while the wort is boiling, imparting their flavour, aroma and unique bitterness to the wort. And at this point, as our work was pretty much done, we left our brew in the good hands of Brad and made our way home. Brad finished the next stages over the following few days, transferring the hopped wort into a fermenting vessel, cooling it, pitching with yeast and allowing the fermenting to progress...
And then it's just a waiting game...
Mr BBGB and I would like to sincerely thank Will and Gill at Best Of British Beer and Brad, Viv and the wonderful guys at Lymestone Brewery for giving us the opportunity to get involved in this project. It was a truly awesome day out for a certified beer geek and his wife, and I for one can not wait to get quaffing the finished result.
Our virtual beer will soon be available to order from www.bestofbritishbeer.co.uk, we'll let you know when!
So the hops are added while the wort is boiling, imparting their flavour, aroma and unique bitterness to the wort. And at this point, as our work was pretty much done, we left our brew in the good hands of Brad and made our way home. Brad finished the next stages over the following few days, transferring the hopped wort into a fermenting vessel, cooling it, pitching with yeast and allowing the fermenting to progress...
And then it's just a waiting game...
Mr BBGB and I would like to sincerely thank Will and Gill at Best Of British Beer and Brad, Viv and the wonderful guys at Lymestone Brewery for giving us the opportunity to get involved in this project. It was a truly awesome day out for a certified beer geek and his wife, and I for one can not wait to get quaffing the finished result.
Our virtual beer will soon be available to order from www.bestofbritishbeer.co.uk, we'll let you know when!