New member of the Hopcraft team!

I think a lot of people know this by now, but we've decided to come public with it.

Everyone, I'm sure, knows Sue Hayward and her longstanding links to Hopcraft, so it was a natural progression when she decided she'd like to join us for some sales, consultancy, collaborative brewing and other bits and bobs too....

So, here's hoping everyone will welcome her to the good ship Hopcraft and here's to lots of sales and the continuation of the Waen beers which have proved very popular so far.... and we might even celebrate by brewing a Waen beer which hasn't been seen for quite a while! 

Watch this space....

Would you drink this?

Well, obviously you wouldn't.  Even I wouldn't and I bloody love hops, but this is more foliage than beer for even me to drink!

You may be wondering just why I've got a glass (or a polycarb, much safer in a brewery!) of what looks like grass cuttings swimming in... let's not go there.  Well, this is what us brewing types call a "tank sample" and is the first beer out of the conditioning tank, taken as a sample from the "racking wand" (contraption used to fill casks) because you don't want to be wasting time filling nicely washed and sterilised casks with beer which is only fit to tip down the drain.... no, you want to taste and smell the finished beer first, the final QC checks if you will, before it gets passed for packaging, so this is a very important job.

So, this is me QC'ing Waen Lemon Drizzle for casking.... obviously you can't take a mouthful, so you have to smell it first then strain some through your teeth!  Or, wait 5 minutes until the hops have settled and it's then a lot easier.... but who's got 5 minutes to spare, no us that's for sure!

All the hop debris and yeast settles out in the cask (aided by finings) so what you see at the bar - hopefully - doesn't resemble a tank sample, unless you're in a craft beer bar in London then it might look pretty similar to this...

New clothing!

Well, it's about time.... we don't really do clothing as we don't have many options to sell it (we've not got time to post them out!) but we thought it was about time we had some more made as our brewing T-shirts and hoodies were showing signs of old age and, more worryingly, impending self-destruction....

So, here you go....  only for sale at the Brewery or, if arranged beforehand, from us at any meet the brewer / tap takeover / pub visit!  Just get in touch hops@hopcraftbrewing.co.uk to sort this out.

Front is the Hopcraft cog, back the new Soviet-esque design, guaranteed to annoy and confuse Cyrillic readers and professors of Russian history....

Collaboration with a difference.....

We've recently done a collaboration Sue from Waen along with the guys from Totally Brewed in Nottingham who, like us and Sue, aren't afraid of hops!

So, what better beer to brew, then, than a nougat porter???

We've used roasted rye to give a toasty, spicy edge and then added honey plus honey, chocolate and almond flavourings to give (what Gazza thinks for what that's worth) a beer which actually does smell and taste of nougat... well, honey at least!

There's not a lot of it about so get weaving if you want to try it!