Hops and Barley

Gazza has spent today involved in the following activities;

1) Resigning from his current job,
2) Trying to source the hops our name insists we need,
3) Getting quotes from maltsters for base malt, and
4) Searching for second-hand brewplants on the internet.

All in a day's work setting up a new brewery....!

There really are a million and two things to consider and I'm just thankful that Tom and Steve are doing a lot of the work down at the coalface.  It's all starting to make sense, however, and we are still optimistically looking at January 2013 for the appearance of the first Hopcraft beers and the newly-tuned Pixie Spring brews too.

On the positive side, most Maltsters now seem to produce a low-colour Maris Otter malt which opens up our options a great deal; this malt is the one which characterises the "new wave" UK beers - call them Mid-Atlantic, Trans-Atlantic, whatever - from Jaipur to the old Punk IPA, and it's great to have such a wide choice these days.

Cheers!

Welcome to our World...

We are assuming, if you've got this far, that you are interested in hearing just what we (Gazza of Steel City Brewing and Tom / Steve of Pixie Spring Brewery) have planned for our new venture, Hopcraft Brewing... well, you've come to the right place!

First off, the basics.  Pixie Spring Brewery is poised to move out of it's current home, the Wheatsheaf in Llantrisant, into our new base in Pontyclun where we hope, once we have a 10 Barrel brewery installed (which we are currently working on!), we can begin production of the existing Pixie Spring beers plus our new range of Hopcraft brews.  This will be happening, Bacchus and all manner of suppliers permitting, early in the new year and we hope to keep you informed of the progress via this blog plus we will be utilising Twitter and Facebook to push our message to the beery masses!

Hopcraft brewing has come about because both brewers involved, Tom and Gazza, simply love the sticky little green bracts and think that, by working together, they can showcase them to a wider audience than they currently do with Pixie Spring and Steel City.  We plan to cover all bases beer-wise with our production and brew a core range of beers, a rotating roster of seasonal specials, plus a more experimental and dare we say "Craft" creations which will vary from full-on hop monsters to... well, just about anything we feel like doing!

Our new home is almost signed for, the brewery is being sourced, suppliers are being sounded out, favours being called in... everything is moving quickly and we're even beginning to plan some beers!  With this in mind, we'll soon be wooing potential customers (and drinkers!) in preparation for our opening in 2013 so bookmark this blog, follow our twitter feeds, befriend us on Facebook and we'll keep you in touch with what's occurring with us... Cheers!

Gazza, Tom and Steve.