Friday 23 November 2012

Our Conditioning tanks arrive!

The first pieces of our brewery have arrived in Pontyclun!

We have taken delivery of a dozen 4-Barrel "Grundy" tanks to be used as our conditioners, and to prove it here's Steve organising the unloading...



And here they are all nicely lined up for inspection!


They may look a bit random but, for the price we paid, let's just say they were an absolute bargain and we look forwards to filling them with hoppy beer (and bags full of hops) in the not too distant future.

Cheers!


Tuesday 20 November 2012

More happenings...

Here's the latest update as to what's going on with the new Hopcraft / Pixie Spring brewing venture...

We are still hopeful to be brewing in January although this will more than likely be subject to revision as we progress with the fitting out of the brewery!  January is our target date, however, and we're hoping to stick to it as best we can.

We have our new home sorted out, we are 95% sure we have a brewery ready to be installed, we have conditioning tanks, we have malt and hops, we have offers of yeast (for when we get sorted out properly...) and we have lots of goodwill from drinkers, brewers and publicans all over the country - thanks so much, it means a lot.

So, little in the way of concrete news but things are moving on apace and we hope to have some pictures of the fitting out as and when it happens!  

Cheers!

Saturday 10 November 2012

We have the Keys!

The title says it all, really... 

We now have the keys to our new home in Pontyclun and so things can start to happen as of now; more information as we get it; exciting times!  

1860 square feet sounds a lot but I'm sure we'll soon fill it up...

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Lupulicious

We have hops!!!!


Well, not quite yet, but after our "Hop sourcing director" had a meeting with our friendly hop merchants this week we are now poised to have our name slapped all over near enough 3 tonnes - and the mind boggles as to just how many hop cones that is - of luscious American, German, Australian, New Zealand and even some carefully-chosen British hops!


Apart from Simcoe and leaf Galaxy we got everything we wanted and,amazingly, came away with even more than we imagined possible in the form of new, rare and trial hops which, hopefully, we'll be able to craft into an enticing range of brews; going on what we have available to us there are going to be some interesting brewdays ahead...

So, a huge thanks to Will at Charles Faram for a great time crushing and sniffing a veritable cornucopia of aromatic beauties and we're planning to use them well!

Who's calling me a Hopmonster?


Monday 5 November 2012

What's been Happening...

Quite a bit, actually.

Over the past week we've signed the agreement for our Industrial unit so should, hopefully, have the keys very soon.  Well, we actually have the keys now, but what I suppose we mean is to have the keys to keep!  Once we have the unit we can begin preparing the drains and floor for the brewkit...

... Which we may have sourced over in deepest East Anglia; it's a 12 Barrel kit and, dependant on a few final checks, may fit the bill for our requirements very well indeed.  It's got plenty of capacity to expand and let us do the kind of beers we want so, hopefully, we will soon have sourced the most expensive and essential part of the jigsaw!

In addition to the main brewkit we've been shopping for yet more Stainless Steel in the form of a dozen "Grundy Tanks" to form a battery of conditioners to allow us to dry-hop, carbonate or do whatever we choose to our fermented "green" beer, and in the process may have found a bloke who can do everything we could need stainless-wise.

Casks, that perennial bain of the brewer's life, may also be in the bag and quotes for bulk malt supplies keep coming; happily, Gazza's preferred maltster can deliver and the price isn't bad so, with a couple of base malts in stock, we should be sorted.

And as if all that wasn't enough, we are visiting the hop merchants this week at some point to source our all-important hops for next year and beyond... contracting hops is a necessary evil in these days of ever-increasing demand for the best stuff so here's hoping we can get at least some of what we need!

Phew, that was some week... more news as it happens.

Cheers!

Gazza, Tom and Steve.