tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12141765575923929332024-03-14T13:08:07.092+00:00Hopcraft BrewingHopcraft Brewing is a craft cask ale brewery located in Pontyclun, South Wales. We brew hop-forward, tasty beers for the modern palate as well as some other styles all done our way; brewed for drinkability! We don't brew owt we don't like, therefore don't expect to see any bitter, double IPA, New England IPA nonsense or anything with twigs in... cheers!
Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.comBlogger383125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-70353902054349115432018-07-30T00:12:00.000+01:002018-07-30T00:12:05.670+01:00Sardinian "home" collab...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some photos from the recent collab between us, Waen, Raw and the guys from Trulla of Sardinia! A fig & honey milkshake IPA anyone?</span></div>
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<br />Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-20151150992312517872018-06-25T23:01:00.001+01:002018-06-25T23:01:37.176+01:005th Birthday!!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy birthday to us!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, we've managed to reach 5 years in production here in Pontyclun and to celebrate we had some lovely Red Velvet cake and a cup of Yorkshire tea!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also brewed version 6 of "Statement of Intent" which was the very first beer brewed on the 18th June 2013 and tradition now dictates we brew this year's version as close to that date as we can, which in 2018 was the 21st! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This year's version (each year we choose our favourite hops) is a bit of a departure as we felt it was getting a touch "samey" with the usual suspects of hops in every year, and so we've gone for old fave Columbus, newcomer Slovenian Wolf, a touch of luscious Citra (because we all love it) and finally floral, peachy Amarillo... sounds a dream team we reckon!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Look out for it in a few weeks, and to everyone who buys our beer, drinks our beer or supports us in any way, shape or form may we offer a huge sincere thanks and big Valleys cwtch; cheers and carry on carrying on... !</span></div>
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-91151973594631636232018-05-11T19:25:00.002+01:002018-05-11T19:25:39.701+01:00Blueberry Cheesecake pale.... <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What's going on at Hopcraft then? It used to be all beer that tasted of beer (hops, mainly) but now they've gone all Hipster?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, we've been brewing pale and hoppy beers (plus some dark ones) for the last 4.5 years as Gazza like them and doesn't want to brew beer he doesn't like - fair enough, thinks the editor. However, the signs were on the wall when "Campania", our Neapolitan milk stout, made it's appearance a year or so back, and it's now being surpassed in strangeness and interest by some of the new brews!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, next up is an extremely pale ale (Carling coloured but, luckily, not with the same character!) dosed with 80kg of (very expensive) Blueberry puree and lots of (by volume even more expensive) Indian vanilla extract which gives a vivid purple colour and a fruity, vanillary taste which is both complex and interesting, although it's the colour which is the first draw here!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is being kegged and casked next week so, if you'd like to try it, better get a move on and order some / persuade your pub to get hold of some as it won't hang around.....</span></div>
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-13238935879326166462018-05-11T19:02:00.003+01:002018-05-11T19:02:33.702+01:00It's that time of year again!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What time of year? Gorse time, of course!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Gazza and Sue have currently got severe finger punctures from picking gorse flowers from South and Mid Wales for use in our Spring seasonal beer "Bumper to Bumper" which contains gorse flowers to add a complex and unusual coconutty character aided and abetted by the bizarre Sorachi Ace hop which originated in Japan and is surely one of the most unusual hops available with aromas of coconut and dill!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, please appreciate our hard work and pricked fingers (why does gorse have to be SO bloody spiky?) by drinking Bumper to Bumper; cheers :) </span><br />
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-55872895546959992322018-04-26T20:05:00.001+01:002018-04-26T20:05:35.433+01:00I love brewing, but....<div class="_ohe lfloat" style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1d2129; float: left; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I always loved brewing, still do, but don't think running a brewery is about brewing. If you're reading this as an industry outsider you're probably wondering how that can be... after all, you make beer, it goes to pubs, then you make more, surely?</span></div>
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Well yes, that's about as broad brush as the process gets, but there's a bit more to it...</div>
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It's about - as many have said before - much more than the line above, and this needs broadcasting as a lot of people think running a brewery is easy!</div>
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<li>paperwork, </li>
<li>more paperwork, </li>
<li>fixing shit that breaks, </li>
<li>spending money you don't have, </li>
<li>chasing invoices, </li>
<li>chasing wholesalers / pubs / every man and his dog for money, </li>
<li>trying to sell beer in a marketplace increasingly slanted to cost and not quality, </li>
<li>trying to think of beer names and branding (if you're not a rich boy who just pays for all this kind of thing), </li>
<li>learning antiquated free graphics software to do said "artwork", </li>
<li>begging people to pay an invoice early so you can buy malt to brew, </li>
<li>lying in bed wondering how you're going to pay the beer duty / VAT / pumpclip people / electric / gas / water / anyone else who you owe money to, </li>
<li>fixing more stuff that's inexplicably broken just when you need it, </li>
<li>duty returns, </li>
<li>more futile attempts at selling beer, </li>
<li>trying to get yeast to attenuate properly, </li>
<li>waiting in a queue at the bank for the privilege of paying them to pay in money which you've bust a gut to earn, </li>
<li>changing your brewing schedule at the last minute as you got sent the wrong hops, </li>
<li>racking beer, </li>
<li>dry-hopping and sweeping up the resulting green foamy ooze, </li>
<li>collecting empties, </li>
<li>delivering beer whilst trying to find somewhere to park without getting a ticket, </li>
<li>making a cup of tea and forgetting you've left the HLT filling and flooding the place (again),</li>
<li>trying to get your empties back from Inverness or Penzance,</li>
<li>dealing with cretins like kegwatch, HMRC, the bank, Glen Balls.... </li>
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and so it goes on. </div>
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You get the idea? You want to brew, get a job at a brewery, if you want all this shit too then go for it but never say you weren't warned.</div>
</span>Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-85301336857009957552018-03-27T21:17:00.003+01:002018-03-27T21:17:46.046+01:00The tentacles of big beer... the very real threat to Progressive Beer Duty.<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><i>(Just to clarify - PBD (progressive beer duty) or SBDR (small brewer duty relief) provides brewers producing under 5000 hectolitres (500,000 litres) a year with a 50% duty reduction of the "headline rate" and then a sliding scale of reduction from 5000hl to 60000hl (6 million litres) which is a lot of beer.... ) With duty relief the duty paid on a 9 gallon cask of 4% beer is around £15, £30 without it. The EU position is<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_beer_duty" target="_blank"> described here</a> as it was originally implemented </i></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>in Bavaria and is now part of official EU policy although it's discretionary and governments can interpret it as they wish to a certain extent.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1d2129;">As you may have noticed we don't generally blog - or talk - about CAMRA much as we're not particularly enamoured with them, but predictably some of the motions at the 2018 AGM have only served to strengthen our opinion. One in particular, no.8, is calling for the reduction in "progressive beer duty" which us small brewers receive from the government to help us compete with larger brewers and their economies of scale. The motion says "</span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;"><i>This Conference believes that CAMRA should campaign for a reduction in the level of Small Brewery Duty Relief coupled with an increase in the barrelage on which it is granted</i>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The proposer seems to be a typical CAMRA "twigosaurus" who likes old-fashioned regional brown beers (he lists in a recent London Drinker a list of regional brewers he likes), but if only it were nothing serious and we could just laugh at <span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">him/them... </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But this isn't funny, it's deadly serious, because if passed this motion would mean CAMRA tacitly, or directly, supporting the call (from big brewers who want their market share back which us pesky micros have "stolen" from them) to reduce or scrap </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">the progressive beer duty reduction for brewers producing under 5000hl a year, or around a million pounds' turnover. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">CAMRA, claiming to support microbreweries, cannot be seen to support such a review which may well result in the reduction or abolition of the small brewer's relief and this result in the closure of hundreds of brewers, setting brewing and the beer scene in the UK back 20 years and putting thousands out of work; i</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">f CAMRA decisively defeat this it will at least show there isn't cross party support for such a review.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, turnover is vanity and all that and I'm not suggesting that all brewers turning over a million quid are raking it in, but it still stands that this reduction was designed to help the smallest brewers compete with the bigger ones and, so the argument goes, once you've expanded to a certain size you don't need the duty reduction any more... you may want it, but you don't need it! </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once a brewer makes over 5000hl a year they are turning over around a million pounds per annum which, in my opinion, means they don't need the benefits of progressive beer duty reductions any more although obviously a tapered cutoff - as we currently have - could be reviewed as long as the results don't impact in any loss for the smallest brewers who need the relief most.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back to the CAMRA motion... which is dangerous because, if the government believe there is cross-industry support for reforming progressive beer duty, then they will go ahead and listen to those who shout loudest which are - surprise, surprise - the rich big brewers who presumably went to the same posh schools as those making the decisions. So, I'd guess they would reduce the rebate to small brewers under 5000hl from 50% to maybe 25% and increase the threshold to maybe 15000hl per year. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This will mean those who need, and in many cases depend, on the reduction to keep their business afloat in very challenging times will have to either absorb the smaller relief or charge extra for a container of beer</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">; exactly how much extra will depend on the amendments to the scheme, but if we assume a 50% cut of the current 50% reduction (meaning small brewers would receive a 25% reduction to the full duty rate rather than the 50% they currently receive) then that will mean adding £7.50</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to EACH CASK of 4% beer, more to stronger ones, whilst those who don't need it due to economies of scale will pocket it or theoretically "invest" it to squeeze out those they have taken it from... as you can see, in the main this "review" is being driven by </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">greed, pure and simple, to have something to which they are not entitled but somehow feel entitled to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">The whole idea of PBD (see the decription at the top of the page) is to give SMALL brewers a leg-up to compete then, once they grow big enough, the theory goes that they no longer need the help and can grow organically. Nothing has changed, this is still the case, but now avarice is coming into play and bigger brewers want money which they shouldn't be entitled to and, to achieve this, they are hell-bent on infiltrating the bodies which will enable them to give the illusion of "cross-party" support among the beer industry... that's how big beer works and it stinks of hypocrisy, turncoatism (is that a word?) and stabbing the little guys in the back. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'd guess that if PDB was halved then maybe 200 (maybe more) brewers would close within a few months, if it were scrapped completely then who knows? Carnage would be my guess as you simply can't add £15+ to a container of beer, it's not affordable, especially when the bigger brewers will be pressing their advantage to recapture the market share lost. This really proves some people in CAMRA have no idea about the beer industry and, if this passes, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CAMRA </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">will become a total pariah within the small brewer sector for supporting what will probably become the death of small brewers in the UK. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is a "pressure group" of brewers, mostly the names you'd expect to be there but - sadly - some who have benefited from PBD but now seem to have forgotten why it's in existence, called the </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><i>Small Brewers Duty Reform Coalition</i> (see graphic below for a list of the members) who are pushing for reform of PBD which, presumably, means sod the little guys and give us big/bigger guys a slice of the free cake on offer... this group is well connected and will do well with giving the Government advice and so it's essential that CAMRA motion 8 doesn't pass as that will play right into the hands of this group.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">The whole story needs telling and my fear is that at the CAMRA AGM there will be a lot of the type of member who like regional beer and see "craft" beer as Watneys all over again, so without knowing both sides of the story, i.e. the full facts, will vote for it as they think it will mean less "fizz" and more cheap brown bitter! Which is what it <b>will</b> mean, but also carnage in the brewing industry and many, many businesses ruined... </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">do you want that? </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">No, I didn't think so, so let's make sure motion 8 gets thrown back to the dark ages where it belongs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">A final thought... If motion 8 does go through you can say goodbye to many of the innovative smaller brewers and the bigger/richer ones will gladly take up the slack setting the beer market back decades.. to me, and many people who love beer and work in the industry, this is something that doesn't bear thinking about, and that's as both a drinker of modern beer and a brewer of it too, and will mean the closure of swathes of the UK microbrewing sector and l</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">ess choice coupled with more expensive beer all round and also the increased dominance of large brewers, hence less choice and lower quality beer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">We all know what happened the last time big brewers were in charge of the UK beer scene back in the 1960s and it didn't go very well until, ironically, CAMRA was set up to campaign against things and saved cask ale as we know it... so they need to look back at their history and realise that this is a moment where they will be judged on how they react to this motion; get it wrong and there will be a lot of blood on their hands.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not hyping this up, not using hyperbole, it really is this serious and I'm talking as a small brewer who gets this 50% rebate on duty which makes it viable for us to compete with the bigger brewers. Without it I'd not reckon we would last long in what would become a bloodbath market with the big and rich winning out so, please, everyone who cares about small brewers and the boom in UK brewing, make sure motion 8 is defeated and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CAMRA </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">support no change in PBD, not even reform, as that is a slippery slope which is greased by the big brewers with their huge reserves and will only end one way.</span></div>
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-67702586350802310712018-03-12T18:38:00.003+00:002018-03-12T18:38:44.095+00:00Parti-gyling... what's that all about then?<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Parti-gyling is one of those "brewery speak" terms which a lot of people have heard of but not many know what it means... but bloody hell, it sounds great, like a big foam party in Ibiza or summat, innit?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, not quite! It was originally a brewing method used by brewers to get the maximum efficiency from an amount of grain; the mash was made, run off, then the same grain was mashed again which obviously gave much less extract than the first collection. These worts were sometimes blended together after mashing either fully or partly, sometimes fermented separately then blended, or sometimes never blended and sold as different beers; for example, a brewery might mash a 9% old ale, run off the wort, then remash and collect wort for a second, weaker, beer giving two beers from one load of grain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OK, fine, you may reply, but what's that got to do with modern brewing? Nowadays you just brew what you like, surely? Well, yes and no! Most brewers do so, 99% of the time, but sometimes we may split a brew of beer and treat the different parts separately, for example a different dry-hop to create a different beer from one "mother" beer... We employ the technique of Parti-gyling fairly frequently including in this, our latest beer, and one which sees the return of one of the Pixie Spring originals!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We followed an updated (but very similar to the original Pontyclun brew) recipe for Deliverance right up until the beer was ready to be transferred to conditioning tank and racked to cask. At that point we ran off two tanks of the beer which would become "Change Alone Endures" (which was double dry-hopped, so called because the beer had already been dry-hopped in the fermenter), whereas the remainder of the fermenter was filled into casks and became "Deliverance"!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />See, two beers from one brew... easy! </span></div>
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<br />Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-31254493156170887622018-03-10T21:43:00.000+00:002018-03-10T21:43:00.813+00:00First solo brew!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We 'd planned to do 2 days brewing but we'd reckoned without the "Beast from the East" followed by Storm Emma... it snowed, a lot for South Wales, and so Gazza was in the position of having to decide whether to abandon both brewdays </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with Gav unable to get in</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, or going for a solo brew!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A lot of brewers will wonder what the issue is here as, in most breweries of our size, brewers routinely brew themselves... but they've not seen our kit! Being the Heath Robinson type affair it is, never designed for single brewing with lots of reasons why it's difficult such as the FVs are really hard to clean owing to their shape, so two people are preferable when brewing.... </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">About to mash in!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, Gazza bravely, in the spirit of the gladiators of ancient times, decided to plough on and meet the brew challenge face on ... ! Actually, it wasn't too bad and the various choke points envisaged were surmounted by either a) some clever manipulation of cables/pipes/other stuff, or b) extra time was taken to make sure everything was done and the brew was safely into FV3 albeit a touch cool so needed warming up in order to ferment properly, but hey.... that's a minor point!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This has meant that mashing in single-manned is now defacto for brewdays meaning we can theoretically get finished at a reasonable time!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trying to work out how to do the cleaning single-manned....</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fuck it, let's have a cup of rosie next to some hops...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Digging the copper</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I could thus reach the pump control for cleaning the fermenter!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wort flowing through the aerator into FV3</td></tr>
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<br />Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-75899247100608624502018-02-21T12:03:00.002+00:002018-02-21T12:03:54.175+00:00A truly global beer...<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Think of Chinook hops and you'll undoubtedly first consider the American fruity, aromatic variety with it's distinctively huge cones. Nowadays, however, this quintessentially American hop, almost as 'Murican as lax gun control and non-existent healthcare, is being test-grown all around Europe and is finding new homes in the old world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chinook has been grown in the UK for a number of years although, from reports I've heard off other brewers and hop merchants, the results haven't been that great. Now, however, there are two new contenders to the Chinook throne in the form of Poland and Slovenia and, again from other brewers, I'd heard that these two were worth a shot.... so we got some!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, here we have a beer made with British and German malt and hopped with lovely Chinook hops from the USA (in the copper) and then dry-hopped with the Polish and Slovenian varieties. At present the beer has just been brewed so we've not got any concrete tasting notes for how it'll eventually turn out, but we're very hopeful that the European Chinook will impart their herbaceous and fruity character making this a beer to search out; it's smelling pretty damn good in FV4 at the moment so I've 110% confidence in it being another blinder of a one-off brew.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stay tuned to find out more! </span></div>
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-26992799267122408472018-02-13T21:47:00.002+00:002018-02-13T21:47:42.119+00:00Dry-hopping in the FV.... a messy activity!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well it can be! We've recently moved from dry-hopping all our beers in CT to dry-hopping in FV primarily with some beers getting a second dose in CT as well... double dry-hopping they call it nowadays I hear!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The issue with FV dry-hopping is that it's done with the beer is at fermentation temperature when it is still fermenting, albeit activity is tailing off and is around 20c. OK, you may think, what does that matter? Well, quite a lot....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you look at the graph below you'll see that CO2 is much less soluble in warm liquids than cold ones, meaning, basically, that the liquid can hold less CO2 in solution at a higher temperature. As the beer is fermenting there is still a lot of CO2 being produced by the yeast and it's bursting to get out of the liquid one way or another.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This would all be fine, but we're about to add the dry hops; when hop pellets are added to the beer they break down into constituent little bits of hop which create millions of "nucleation points"; these sound great but are actually a massive pain in the arse for a brewer... picture those lager glasses in pubs which have a stream of bubbles coming up from the bottom; if you examine these you'll see there is a printed area or blob of glass which acts as a nucleation point to bring CO2 out of solution and therefore forms the stream of bubbles... now transpose that thought into millions of little nucleation points (the bits of hop) and you can imagine how much CO2 is suddenly brought out of solution, and it's got to go somewhere!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, with all this CO2 suddenly being released out of solution and the yeast head still sticky and prominent, the beer froths up. Sometimes it overflows the FV and goes everywhere, at other times it's a bit more subdued! We tried a new technique today of adding a portion of the hops first (20%) to get things started and then planned to add the rest 10 minutes later but, after nothing happened, we threw the rest of the bag in thinking that was that.... bad mistake! Suddenly the yeast head on the FV began to churn and bubble alarmingly, then started to rise.... and rise.... and rise.... until it reached the very top of the vessel, but luckily for us any repetition of previous yeast sweeping from the floor below was prevented as the photo below is as far as it got before receding back!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lesson learned, add a bit first then wait half an hour!</span></div>
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-77208237662347247782018-02-12T11:55:00.001+00:002018-02-12T11:55:06.437+00:00CAMRA, a chance for change?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Gazza, supporting Tiny Rebel? What's that all about then?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">OK, we haven't always got on and as
companies we don't see eye to eye for various reasons... but here Brad speaks a
massive amount of sense (although he's maybe a bit of a moderate for the likes of me 😉) and
what he's saying is, in my opinion, pretty much exactly what the brown beer society - aka CAMRA - need to do in order to
survive in the current fast-moving and, to them, increasingly alien - and fizzy
- beer world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I'd vote for Brad if I was in CAMRA and I am
actually vaguely considering rejoining just to vote for him, a la Corbyn... So,
please read his manifesto, ALL of it, and then tell me it doesn't make a huge amount of
sense to start from zero over again rather than doff the cap to the hardliners
who don't want change and consider anything more modern than 4.2% brown beer
with a few fuggles in heresy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As a vaguely progressive brewer I love cask
ale and feel that most of the beers we brew, which are mainly hoppy pale ales in the 4.5-5.5% range - are best served from a (well looked after) cask, but freely acknowledge that keg/can/bottle all have their place and there are plenty of beer styles which
just don't work in cask but shouldn't be shunned because they are packaged in
keg/can/bottle and, in the case of most small brewers, unfined/unpasteurised
and tick all the "real" boxes except for containing the dreaded "bad"
CO2 (force carbed rather than container conditioned!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Fundamentally, IMO and that of many others who know what's going on in the
industry, beer quality is the key to cask beer's survival as if it's no good people simply won't drink it, and sad to say there
are just too many ropey beers (and brewers!) around. This can be blamed, in the
main, on the lemming-like rush to the bottom quality-wise in the current cutthroat price
war being waged in the brewing industry due to overcapacity and it'll all end in tears, mark my words... the big boys are sitting on the sidelines watching us rip each other to bits and, when the gory scrap has finished, they'll step in and take what they want; welcome to the dystopian future of brewing and beer.. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">divide and conquer as I'm sure AmBev, Heineken and their ilk are thinking looking at us fighting under the table for their crumbs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Quality beer - in
general - costs money to make and CAMRA should be explaining that if you want
more hops in your beer then someone's going to have to pay for said hops and it
shouldn't be the brewer! Conversely, the
Wetherspoon vouchers are a total anachronism for an organisation proclaiming
itself to be independent and, IMO, gives the chain an unfair advantage at the
expense of other pubs, plus with the laughably low prices Wetherspoon pays us brewers for
beer, how are these vouchers encouraging the consumption of quality beer when
all more trade for the chain encourages is more brewers selling beer at or
below cost because the 'spoons is the only option left in town with other pubs
closed down?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
With regards to CAMRA, listening to the stuck-in-the-80s mantra many of them (and usually head office) regurgitate,
it's evident that something needs to be done.
CAMRA doesn't represent the current beer drinker, the modern brewer, the
modern publican or anything apart from old men moaning about how much beer
costs, how they saved real ale and how "Red Barrel" (whatever that was) has returned. It's time for an alliance between brewers and
CAMRA but, for this to happen, there has to be a lot of conciliation on the
CAMRA side as many modern (and semi-modern!) brewers no longer care what CAMRA
say and see them as, at best, an irrelevance and at worse a hindrance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It's time for a clean sweep of the decks and
IMO there's not been a chance like this for a long time... of course, even if Brad
gets elected it's doubtful he will be allowed to achieve much, but it's worth a
try, for the sake of cask ale.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/VoteForBrad/" target="_blank">have a read of his manifesto here</a> and decide for yourself.</span></div>
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-83811424693509480402018-02-12T00:51:00.003+00:002018-02-12T19:15:07.600+00:00Pennine mild... flat cap and whippet optional....<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">People often refer to us as a "craft cask" brewery. Which is nice. And confusing. Myself, I've no idea how to categorise us and see no reason to pigeonhole us as anything; we are a small brewery (small being under the 5000hl annual progressive beer duty limit) making modern style beers in, we hope, a "drinkable" style which means they are meant for session drinking, not sipping... which is what beer is all about.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anyhow, after that self-congratulatory preamble, here's the meat... we have re-brewed one of the beers which is often talked about but rarely requested (surely a paradox?), one which Gazza is intensely proud of, being his little pet project when it first came out! it's now on brew three and, as is traditional at Hopcraft Towers, slight amendments have been made to the recipe to make it better and "awesomise" it; the base malt is now proper Mild malt, the ratios of melanoidin malts has been increased, and the hopping has been amended slightly... but it's still our interpretation of that incredibly rare but incredibly good style of Pennine Mild.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, I'm guessing most people know what a mild is... or think they do. I really can't be bothered to go into the stories, arguments and explanations of what mild is (that's what Google is for) but, suffice it to say, nowadays - if you can find any - it's a 3.5%-ish dark beer with (usually) a roasty taste. All well and good, but there also exists a much rarer style of mild which is mainly found in the Pennines in the North of England - hence the name - but also appears in the Midlands and, although it's now extinct, once exisited in pockets in the Thames Valley and Solent.... golden mild or, to give it it's best known epithet, Pennine mild.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The only real example left in continuous production is Tim Taylor Golden Best, although Ma Pardoe's in the West Midlands is similar enough to be considered a close relative. The beer style is sub-4%, with crunchy malts, biscuity flavours and a sweetish, grainy finish.... not very exciting to read, but when done right it's a corker of a style and very, very drinkable, not to mention very rare nowadays. Some brewers have produced on-off (or occasional) examples of the beer but it's still clinging on to life by it's fingertips.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, as Gazza likes Pennine Mild, he decided to brew one. It look a while to get the recipe right (and it's still not right now) but the first brew drew some good reviews, and more importantly it tasted like a Pennine Mild! We're now on brew 3 and have done a drastic revamp of the malt bill including using proper mild ale malt to give more body and mouthfeel to the brew. The hops, unusually for us, take a back seat with Polish Magnum and Junga providing a spicy, fruity and sweetshop character to proceedings... but very subtly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, brew 3 of a pale mild. I didn't expect I'd be saying that 5 years ago I can tell you. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Enjoy!</span></div>
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-74079920701057580352018-01-25T23:59:00.000+00:002018-01-25T23:59:20.863+00:00FV2 foam party<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're pretty lucky with our fermenters.. well, apart from them being right awkward to clean, they're in amazingly good nick for 40+ year old dairy tanks and we rarely have any issues with them or anything connected to them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We brewed Waen Pamplemousse into FV2 the other week, 2400 litres of it, and everything was going to plan until Gav dry-hopped it with 5kg each of Citra and Cascade... it suddenly went mad and frothed up everywhere! And, because our FVs are upstairs on the mezz, said froth went cascading down onto the floor below... and all over the steel table which is used for everything from saccharometers to glasses to RJT connectors to connectors to tubes to.. well, just about everything else. And what a mess it caused!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This happens occasionally in the CTs when we dry hop, and there seems no rhyme nor reason for it happening in there... obviously it's too much dissolved Co2 in the beer and so the pellets, once they break down into ickle hop bits, form nucleation points which attracts the Co2 resulting in lots of foam! But we've only ever had it happen once in an FV and that was the infamous incident with brew 1 of Snowball and the sugar addition.... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My theory is that, as Sue's beers are fermented warmer than ours, this higher temperature means the beer can hold less Co2 in saturation so maybe this meant that more came out due to the nucleation points than is normal? hey, I'm not a scientist so don't know, I'm just bringing my limited experience of "what happens" to the table...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyhow, this resultant foam party meant the dry hop charge ended up partly all over the floor and stuck all inside the top of the fermenter necessitating what's trendily called a "deep clean" but in reality meant me getting in to scrub the underside of the FV and getting caustic all over my head and arse.... yeah, cheers then, if more were needed yet another confirmation that brewing isn't the glamorous profession people make out!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What I base my rather flimsy theory on!</td></tr>
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-44872767241951797902018-01-14T22:03:00.000+00:002018-01-14T22:03:02.206+00:00New grain hopper, chute and hydrator installed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After 4 and a half years of service (it was planned as a stop-gap to last a year tops) our old ramshackle malt hopper and mashing in regime has been replaced!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The old one was knocked up quickly to get us brewing but, due to never having enough time or money, we've never got around to replacing it... until now. We'd become aware that the bottom of the chute, made from marine ply, was becoming increasingly rotten and looked as if it may give way mid-mash depositing up to 300kg of expensive grain all over the floor (and probably Gazza too) so once we'd acquired the old Waen Brewery hopper and hydrator - the device which mixes the grain with hot water - it was time to swap over!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only, it wasn't.... the new hopper sat in a corner for 6 months until the condition of the old one dictated that we really, really needed to replace it PDQ.... so, the start of 2018 was declared "new mashing in week" and we prepared for the headaches such a project inevitably brings on. Fortuitously, a Screwfix has recently opened just behind us, so we were confident we could buy any bits needed, making things a lot easier.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the end, luckily, we got the whole thing done in 3 days and that's including rebuilding the hydrator from scratch! there are still a few bits and bobs to tidy up, but the upshot of this work is that we now have a completely piped-in pump under the hot liquor tank which can recirculate the tank to mix it and pump water below to the mashing in process at the turn of a lever, not as before where multiple disconnecting and reconnecting of flexible hoses was the order of play. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The big improvement, however, is in the time saved mashing in - we estimate that the complete process with the old setup would take anything up to 45 minutes, whereas with the lovely new kit it takes 15 minutes maximum! This saving of 30 minutes on the brewday will be extremely welcome. plus the new hydrator mixes the grain really well making one-man mashing a distinct option now! The hopper also does something the old one never managed to do which is empty itself without any brushing or goading of grains which is yet another enormous improvement, and finally the hydrator is much lower in the pipe meaning the marine ply of the hopper won't get wet and rot like the old one...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, win-win all round and a great start to the year for us!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the hopper and chute being bolted together</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The completed (nearly) setup with the grain hopper and hot liquor tank</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gav sawing pipe for the new hydrator</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ-nQIGcf3GbvDvTE4MkZQ60Br_HetrTkW9BeA6GrkbDdDKTLlxGr8RA9kCs7Yp__2EUsi9M16sgMObDY67R6DhGNb9C_RFBszMUm-iKdEZnlMRMazG6wY74BHMUI6INL8TPMxEs3DM9l4/s1600/hopper3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="922" data-original-width="878" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ-nQIGcf3GbvDvTE4MkZQ60Br_HetrTkW9BeA6GrkbDdDKTLlxGr8RA9kCs7Yp__2EUsi9M16sgMObDY67R6DhGNb9C_RFBszMUm-iKdEZnlMRMazG6wY74BHMUI6INL8TPMxEs3DM9l4/s640/hopper3.jpg" width="608" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">looking inside the grain chute</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg20HIoEEL3YC1edxoj45O0iI65Lk-xz7J_DVNI_MUXbObk4jBMEDhoFiWR2w8-_eAvWgVU3XVVNX8A16lkIsxboBRGQdjUEFM7Bs9Tj5fAHzTFwwf_g1qI4YYWghcNI81vO45jFxDLswoQ/s1600/hopper4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="745" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg20HIoEEL3YC1edxoj45O0iI65Lk-xz7J_DVNI_MUXbObk4jBMEDhoFiWR2w8-_eAvWgVU3XVVNX8A16lkIsxboBRGQdjUEFM7Bs9Tj5fAHzTFwwf_g1qI4YYWghcNI81vO45jFxDLswoQ/s640/hopper4.jpg" width="432" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New valve on the sparge arm (which we don't actually need!)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsPoz7KU2nfbaW_mClwZlSyDovoKLeHQUbmX9YJo2jEQVB5q5iGauJnntsLCPMA4Zr2GEziaopDqdtirDzZVjuOtF3b5nOT5rjBBWzKq12-nb0-u38tR6bBfNVyL6MIJk3qoUl0FcMUQqw/s1600/hopper5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1210" data-original-width="907" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsPoz7KU2nfbaW_mClwZlSyDovoKLeHQUbmX9YJo2jEQVB5q5iGauJnntsLCPMA4Zr2GEziaopDqdtirDzZVjuOtF3b5nOT5rjBBWzKq12-nb0-u38tR6bBfNVyL6MIJk3qoUl0FcMUQqw/s640/hopper5.jpg" width="478" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The new grain chute and hydrator in situ with the liquor hose attached to the hydrator</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAYBoiqfrNK6H03MRPWjIxya6poGQrhiGfrojI2cUrmYehVkXEjiIXUxvnAcENtE-Fva_QyX6kWWLG1aNQAn0nSJvVCXBVqbOgkUGI3l9cMVDzgIzh_u1MVUp8d6MZIPiAWPbMOlsF5FhT/s1600/hopper6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1210" data-original-width="907" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAYBoiqfrNK6H03MRPWjIxya6poGQrhiGfrojI2cUrmYehVkXEjiIXUxvnAcENtE-Fva_QyX6kWWLG1aNQAn0nSJvVCXBVqbOgkUGI3l9cMVDzgIzh_u1MVUp8d6MZIPiAWPbMOlsF5FhT/s640/hopper6.jpg" width="478" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">almost done! Nice pipework.... </td></tr>
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<br />Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-14244476950688213392018-01-06T23:37:00.003+00:002018-01-06T23:37:50.150+00:00Xmas shutdown over, back to it.....<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Two of the most amazing words a brewer can hear.... within reason, of course.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For us brewers not in possession of a brand which is demanded relentlessly by a slavering populace Xmas is probably the only time of the year when we can be away from the brewkit and actually not having to think about brewing, hops, beer, yeast, casks or have anything to do with the day job except, probably, to drink the fruits of our labours.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Because a beer, once brewed, requires anything from 6 days to two weeks to become ready for packaging most brewers mash in their last brew the week before the final working week of Xmas to enable the beer to ferment, chill and to be packaged and/or put into tanks ready for the new year... some brewers will brew the final week and come in over the holidays to look after it, but luckily (or maybe not, meaning our beer isn't in high enough demand) that's not our position!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The final brew of the year was Waen Chilli Plum Porter, and once that was put away into the conditioning tanks - every one full so we don't have to brew for the first few weeks of January - we took a well-earned break from the whole beer thingy, which is always needed a couple of times a year (at least, seemingly more as we go on) to clear the head.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, this week we're back to running a brewery. Sue has already been selling loads of beer today, and I've been thinking about new beers and other projects and Gav has been relaxing at home! but now we're back, and we begin with a few days of planning what we're hoping to achieve this year, and further down the line, and also some large maintenance tasks which need doing; replacing the grist hopper and hydrator, a full caustic brew, backflushing the heat exchanger, the usual kind of boring brewery things!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, stick with us and I promise that in 2018 we'll try our very best to bring you the best beer we can, improving on last year's already (in my sceptical opinion) vastly improved production. But, we can't make it if you don't sell it and drink it, so please keep the faith!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There will be massive pressures on breweries this year; prices of raw materials relentlessly increasing, scarcity of the "hollywood" hops to make our beer, increases in rent/rates/tax, and more things we've probably not considered yet - such as beer duty increases and suchlike - but we're determined to try and get through this year and consolidate what we've achieved this far. I can see a lot of breweries going to the wall during 2018 if things continue as they are and it won't just be the bad ones, it'll be those with poor liquidity, cashflow issues and investor problems which go, and these may well be some of those producing the better beers at the moment. Money is no respecter of quality, so those with large reserves will probably be able to ride the carnage out and then come out to pick over the carcasses of the fallen... sounds melodramatic but it really does play out like that in brewing, and we're determined not to be one of the fallen!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We're poised to break the 1 million quid turnover mark (in total, not this year!) very soon so may well brew a special beer to mark us becoming millionaires overnight... that's how it works, right? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Keep the faith people, we'll keep making it if you keep drinking it :) </span></div>
Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-77441253884721745792017-12-13T09:26:00.000+00:002017-12-13T09:26:15.775+00:00Our collab beer arrives from Northern Ireland!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's here!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our pallet of beer from the excellent Farmageddon brewery in Northern Ireland, including 12 casks of the collab we did there "Wreckin' Crew", has landed at Hopcraft Towers!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you want one, let us know... it won't last long.</span></div>
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-37573743155805786102017-12-06T22:05:00.000+00:002017-12-06T22:05:01.613+00:00Brew 300!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, that's another milestone reached....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No, not getting into credit with the bank account (yeah, right....) but reaching 300 brews done on the big kit here at Hopcraft Towers! I can't be bothered to work it out exactly, but that's over half a million litres of beer produced since we started here in 2003!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As is now customary, we've brewed another batch of our "centenary" beer which is made each time we reach another 100 brews; "every hop i love is dead" is, obviously, a play on words of Type O Negative's track "everyone I love is dead"... for no other reason than it's a great track, and a great name for a beer! Plus the pumpclip works too, which they don't always!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, here's to the next 100 brews and if you keep drinking it, we'll keep making it as long as we can!</span></div>
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-90416964877964130492017-11-19T15:24:00.000+00:002017-11-21T22:59:21.442+00:00The glorious October revolution<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's 100 years almost to the day since the Socialist revolution in Russia, so to celebrate this (being the whining lefties we are) we cleared the brewing schedule to create a brand new beer to remember the event, "Red OCtober"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You might have supposed we'd brew an Imperial Russian Stout. But no, I don't like them and anyhow they're impossible to sell in cask. OK then, how about a red ale? erm... sorry, but we already have one on the sales list.... well, what about a Kvass? yeah right, try persuading people that's worth drinking especially from a handpull!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As you can see, we didn't really think this through.... so, despite the shambolic nature of the decision to brew the beer, brew it we did! It'll be a 5% or so extra pale with shedloads of luscious Citra, Summit and Columbus hops, so expect a fruity, hoppy bolshy beast!</span><br />
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-76479340423428342032017-10-28T16:44:00.001+01:002017-10-28T16:44:07.152+01:00Pinch point....<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, after 4 and a half years of brewing, it's finally happened; we've reached some sort of maximum throughput at Hopcraft Towers! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I hear you say, "some sort" is a bit vague, is it or isn't it at capacity? To which I answer "sort of".... and I'll explain why.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have 4 fermenting vessels, 2 of around 2500 litres and 2 of around 1800 litres (I say "about" as they are 40 years old ex-dairy tanks and we have no idea on their actual capacity except from experience of filling them with beer, so it's a bit vague) and 12 conditioning tanks of 680 litres each. One "normal" brew fills 2 tanks whilst a "big" brew fills 3, with usually a bit left over for playing around with.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thus far we've always had tanks free to move beer into from the fermenters because we've racked beer into cask/keg then cleaned the tanks ready to receive more. The issue we're now having is that we have beer in the fermenters ready to transfer and are right on the limit of how many conditioning tanks we have free, which is admittedly a planning issue, but also dependent on things such as enough clean casks to fill up and enough hours in the week to actually do the racking of casks!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Until earlier this year we kept one of the tanks unused (for a number of reasons, principally it had a dodgy CO2 injector valve) but it became apparent that we needed all 12 in use and so completed a project to bring CT1 into service. All well and good, but now we've come to the point where we have beer in the fermenter ready to move down into tank but no tanks available to receive it.... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The "board of truth" shows that we have three beers in FV, two of which have been fined and are on chill (both are below 8</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">°</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">c now) but only two CTs available for filling, and those need caustic washing first (denoted by the red crosses). Two tanks have been dry-hopped ready for racking this week (2 and 6), but this can't be done until Tuesday as the dry hops need time to infuse into the beer, and we're realising that we need to allow more time for this to happen so it can't be rushed! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Therefore, there's no option but to wait until Tuesday to transfer Idaho7.... this is a couple of days longer than I'd like, but sitting on chill won't do it any harm so no dramas! However, it's nice to see that we're producing close to capacity, and it's also good to see where the pinch point is in our production process and that we need to increase our conditioning tanks in order to be able to throughput more beer....</span></div>
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-18493561018782205772017-10-25T15:10:00.001+01:002017-10-25T15:10:35.280+01:00Collaboration brew in Bucharest - Hop Hooligans<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The day had finally come... we were off mob-handed to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, to brew a beer with (IMO) the best brewery in the country! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hop Hooligans are less than a year old but have already changed the face of beer in their home country with a steady stream of challenging, tasty and downright excellent beers flowing from their 800 litre shiny brewplant just south of the Bucharest city boundary, and the country now looks fair for a beer revolution along the same lines as the world-beating one currently underway in Poland.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anyhow, how did we get to do this unlikely collab then? Well, Gazza tried a fair few of their beers earlier this year and he and Sue got talking to the guys who run the brewery, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cristian and Mircea, so it kind of all went from there!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We agreed to brew a strong chocolate orange stout and so over we went to Bucharest for 3 days of sightseeing, drinking beer and brewing.... can't be bad :) </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvZ60xj1LSDUedZ5shorOk4zzULPjUog1klp8HudpgXBWhQI0her0UfJPJPNWUl_k81agqjigyvDYdeA7G0Op7Jad3D5KjBn1gDfB5zDr24sajda0Ta64msfMZ1kL_M1MtO_-OCkPsPC68/s1600/bucharest+0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1440" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvZ60xj1LSDUedZ5shorOk4zzULPjUog1klp8HudpgXBWhQI0her0UfJPJPNWUl_k81agqjigyvDYdeA7G0Op7Jad3D5KjBn1gDfB5zDr24sajda0Ta64msfMZ1kL_M1MtO_-OCkPsPC68/s640/bucharest+0.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">sampling beers at Luton airport</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu62tXQacQWHcUdw05ezfsUCeeZjHtcUb_97aVy_udg6nf928hBX_8n5IRJSt64tAP9TSw7f_ge1kur3o5aS6FGwFe3s9dgAHdyQZjd6BAHahONZKdol5GnfgJIvJQHh8g5YCsBzsZ_he5/s1600/bucharest+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu62tXQacQWHcUdw05ezfsUCeeZjHtcUb_97aVy_udg6nf928hBX_8n5IRJSt64tAP9TSw7f_ge1kur3o5aS6FGwFe3s9dgAHdyQZjd6BAHahONZKdol5GnfgJIvJQHh8g5YCsBzsZ_he5/s640/bucharest+1.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here we go!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-TbJmJwqu3Iyb0hPaN_p01edyAsiMJDMU7EEeh6Zdst135bmhmK0KcTI8Y1NUp9c32ZhCGlu4ofen44a0pxR30PzZMwOm7o2OX7yWfwli_sG1KSnA-8qKcwy0SYTq0xybHuXYotFqU03A/s1600/bucharest+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="540" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-TbJmJwqu3Iyb0hPaN_p01edyAsiMJDMU7EEeh6Zdst135bmhmK0KcTI8Y1NUp9c32ZhCGlu4ofen44a0pxR30PzZMwOm7o2OX7yWfwli_sG1KSnA-8qKcwy0SYTq0xybHuXYotFqU03A/s640/bucharest+3.jpg" width="360" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">hung over, in a car off to the brewery!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMst3uxZPPcRIyjiiWtH0OrCU9GHQ99uiIQRkcItyFizSy5hicYx61Ubew3Tp30e4Q4kWKwBwdFE-fj0XCH5GqR3O0LRpHF6Yr3ttrmNBCEQ5jUEXUP9_nVDoONWFiT6hZQGfui5CKmB3U/s1600/bucharest+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMst3uxZPPcRIyjiiWtH0OrCU9GHQ99uiIQRkcItyFizSy5hicYx61Ubew3Tp30e4Q4kWKwBwdFE-fj0XCH5GqR3O0LRpHF6Yr3ttrmNBCEQ5jUEXUP9_nVDoONWFiT6hZQGfui5CKmB3U/s640/bucharest+4.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pretending to be brewers</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaXZWHoB03nt0lqMNxNMhehI6Rmek1ifYoNezqqIpAN8ioWUbO5-zHeUhNskxCMzHHU1TGtbCh9A-L2hHNRHiWEO4dtL-B8LNHjhgRcD7u2xSnE9jfeL6rfm6jDB2mh_tTIgaBvfIr-6aS/s1600/bucharest+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="533" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaXZWHoB03nt0lqMNxNMhehI6Rmek1ifYoNezqqIpAN8ioWUbO5-zHeUhNskxCMzHHU1TGtbCh9A-L2hHNRHiWEO4dtL-B8LNHjhgRcD7u2xSnE9jfeL6rfm6jDB2mh_tTIgaBvfIr-6aS/s640/bucharest+5.jpg" width="354" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mircea preparing the yeast</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioR_neZ9hr80pugukUgAUnWhZskk9GLlniVEtVjAK8jVDDYaWI239_N6WWoAC7CNq3nboUmH2OKVNWUDIG2SHaREJPk0XOifmJOz_YbYVfGf2SIakDngueBjVn8M5k6wIGeBIAXruGAPfJ/s1600/bucharest+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1440" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioR_neZ9hr80pugukUgAUnWhZskk9GLlniVEtVjAK8jVDDYaWI239_N6WWoAC7CNq3nboUmH2OKVNWUDIG2SHaREJPk0XOifmJOz_YbYVfGf2SIakDngueBjVn8M5k6wIGeBIAXruGAPfJ/s640/bucharest+6.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mircea prepping the FV</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkEMyVo1Q4nvrQ6kE_lU60bDk-mglSUSe1xB1JKl23KwTs8eO-9djnjA-lcrUBkYlO0XvbA-B6y-sXssb-OvwJtvsV19NXjF-NRQKeODvkkaL6ZsYadapx3dHVdxjmQ7hFJU1zJ3UNFqtj/s1600/bucharest+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="533" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkEMyVo1Q4nvrQ6kE_lU60bDk-mglSUSe1xB1JKl23KwTs8eO-9djnjA-lcrUBkYlO0XvbA-B6y-sXssb-OvwJtvsV19NXjF-NRQKeODvkkaL6ZsYadapx3dHVdxjmQ7hFJU1zJ3UNFqtj/s640/bucharest+7.jpg" width="354" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pissing about with a sprayball...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizwr2QwEbvxCdhK71XbYmZJIqatTkIducdBEfosUKrfMuM2SiUSoKSrquUwt8xTDkyfWNC-OyYbh4NCB2gVSixzO_tvdE9IpIY6KXU4BJoUeTHXWeeuvYq9szlPftIx-5_R1Kb2RZaiQhu/s1600/bucharest+8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1440" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizwr2QwEbvxCdhK71XbYmZJIqatTkIducdBEfosUKrfMuM2SiUSoKSrquUwt8xTDkyfWNC-OyYbh4NCB2gVSixzO_tvdE9IpIY6KXU4BJoUeTHXWeeuvYq9szlPftIx-5_R1Kb2RZaiQhu/s640/bucharest+8.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj75NY1fd1NJMwfvgui9hOmQzlH6M7bLrugoHDkmFlJR-PY0CSBQLqMSNGD6jFGgTMwNBJb5Eoui8HViwmtc3_0agBLfeY8XHoh5vhQOdHYvmJbuKRQY8HgjKDlSbOKW60rWPt90cr5iNcR/s1600/bucharest+9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="533" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj75NY1fd1NJMwfvgui9hOmQzlH6M7bLrugoHDkmFlJR-PY0CSBQLqMSNGD6jFGgTMwNBJb5Eoui8HViwmtc3_0agBLfeY8XHoh5vhQOdHYvmJbuKRQY8HgjKDlSbOKW60rWPt90cr5iNcR/s640/bucharest+9.jpg" width="354" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">oooh what's that in there?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdFJUov-1A1gOTS2w_ogLv9aJ5hZSofwkLXtNBFb3ugmRir_e2tQJirKC9mN96-JJD6j3uHFcN7U2QG8HXBI3Ee66rdH94m85KE9mKdfHfhbNesIZNHs0aXjpOd8UwGtnqmn_R0CVDT8bM/s1600/bucharest+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1440" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdFJUov-1A1gOTS2w_ogLv9aJ5hZSofwkLXtNBFb3ugmRir_e2tQJirKC9mN96-JJD6j3uHFcN7U2QG8HXBI3Ee66rdH94m85KE9mKdfHfhbNesIZNHs0aXjpOd8UwGtnqmn_R0CVDT8bM/s640/bucharest+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dinnertime!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">17kg of dry hops in 800 litres!!!</td></tr>
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<br />Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-77293447480861907172017-10-04T21:50:00.003+01:002017-10-04T22:01:30.848+01:00In with the cool kids, innit<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Through a strange combination of circumstances we've ended up supplying a cask of beer to a house party hosted by Moose, drummer of local metal band Bullet for my Valentine.... just how cool is that?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How I <i>think </i>this happened is that Mate Spawn and Die was on in the superb Little Penybont micro-pub in Pencoed when it was sampled by a friend of the band, who recommended it to them as a suitable party beverage after they had been along to a local Bridgend brewery to sample the beers but rejected them as not fit for purpose! Our star saleslass Sue then finalised the deal with the guys to make it all happen, but only after a scare when we thought the last of the casks had been sold, until it became clear we had one - just one - left in stock; relieved? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, Gav was sent to set up and cellar the cask - on the drumkit packing case! - because </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a) It's on his way home, and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">b) he's by far the coolest of us with the tattoos and stuff</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Gav was invited to the party but had to decline on account of being away brewing in Bucharest with Hop Hooligans, a great excuse if I ever heard one!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Looks like they had a good time with the beer, anyhow...</span></div>
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-17798011214580639442017-09-20T00:28:00.001+01:002017-09-20T00:28:05.277+01:00Aaaaaarrrrrrr she's back.....<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you didn't guess what is back from this clue, then you've obviously not heard of our Jamaican stout "Spanish Main" before! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We brew Spanish Main once a year, or when we feel like it (which seems to equate to once a year), mainly because it requires dark Muscovado sugar which is a bit of a pain to get hold of in 25kg sacks without a bit of forward planning - never our strong point - and I'm certainly not going through the tills in Tesco with 25 bags of bloody sugar!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyhow, Spanish Main is a big, brooding, bruiser of a stout in a vaguely defined style called "Tropical stout" after the examples brewed in the Caribbean, although we - being contrary types - call it a Jamaican stout which, when you think about, is basically the same thing...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's full of various of types of dark malts, the aforementioned 25kg of dark Muscovado sugar, plus a smattering hops, the amount reduced this time, and a not-so-secret ingredient to give it a touch of the Caribbean... and no, it's not ganja or chillis, but black pepper! Ah, and you thought we stuck ganja in it for a minute didn't you?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyhow, it's in FV4 now and should be ready to unleash upon the world in a few weeks once it's calmed down and lost a bit of it's youthful vigour, as it were.... watch out for it, me hearties, thaaaaaaar she blows.... or something equally piratesque.</span></div>
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-76050940007727865992017-09-06T01:28:00.000+01:002017-09-06T08:59:55.071+01:00Meet the Brewer(s) in Derbyshire .... <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last week we completed a gruelling two-day meet the brewer tour of Derbyshire, taking in Derby and Waingroves, a village near Ripley... the bright lights indeed!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our first stop was the excellent Smithfield in Derby. Gazza remembers this place from ye olde dayse when it was a beer ticker magnet (hence the frequent visits!) but now, after a few years when it seems doomed to either a) fall into the river or b) become offices, it's now reopened and has an excellent new manager in the shape of Emily who is bringing back the customers and, more importantly for future prosperity, finding new ones.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One way of attracting beer lovers - for the Smithfield now has the reputation of having the best beer range in Derby - is to hold events such as tap takeovers and meet the brewer events... which is why Gazza and Sue ended up there on a Thursday afternoon!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We filled the pumps in the pub and, despite being briefed that we were only expected to talk for ten minutes or so, over an hour later and we were still answering questions and eating nutella butties and, of course, drinking beer and gin! This continued for some time....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The next day we headed over to Waingroves, out in the Amber Valley, for a tap takeover at the famous Thorn Tree pub which I used to deliver to as Steel City 8 years ago! It's now, after a period of being rubbish, become a cask beer haven again thanks to the team of Rob and Sam with lots of help from Mike of Landlocked brewery and Tom Soar, local bon viveur and beer lover.... we were feeling a little under the weather but soon perked up :) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As for the "battle of the brewers", Waen Pamplemousse sold out first, just pipping Mate Spawn and Die to the trophy... but there were some great beers on and the locals seemed to appreciate them, so all was good!</span><br />
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-74174312761613995882017-08-20T22:29:00.002+01:002017-08-20T22:29:57.968+01:00Get out of the water!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.... because the sharks are back!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our very popular extra-pale ale "Sharks against Surfers" is being rebrewed again this week due to popular demand (basically, Gazza likes it) and so lots of lovely hops have been ordered to make it happen including Chinook, Centennial and Galaxy. The original highly amusing premise behind this brew was that the hops came from areas where sharks and surfers are in the same environment, but sadly we still can't get any hops from Newquay and South African hops have been bought up, so I hear, by lovely cuddly AmBev.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyhow, the name comes from a track by Railpunk pioneers <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Eastfield-119199344820786/" target="_blank">Eastfield </a>and goes something like this...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Keep off the sand, this is not your land - sharks against surfers</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Stay out of the sea, keep the waters clean - sharks against surfers</span></div>
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Don't ride the waves, you'll meet an early grave - sharks against surfers</div>
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Stop your tricks, you'll get ripped to bits - sharks against surfers</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5GCh9U6xtckmiTZmUAr_JNmgG_1Mkkos9p32JORFDR-kU1v3J1iHuSFPYOWJZqH4xQPSk84_3R_i-ZL5l4uekE1R65EVhK3wV55IuR4o2yuois4bCn0S5qGpUbL4N0ElfSnf60a45USNg/s1600/WEB+CLIP+Sharks+against+Surfers+2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="940" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5GCh9U6xtckmiTZmUAr_JNmgG_1Mkkos9p32JORFDR-kU1v3J1iHuSFPYOWJZqH4xQPSk84_3R_i-ZL5l4uekE1R65EVhK3wV55IuR4o2yuois4bCn0S5qGpUbL4N0ElfSnf60a45USNg/s640/WEB+CLIP+Sharks+against+Surfers+2017.jpg" width="408" /></a></div>
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</span></i></span>Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214176557592392933.post-81367250629589310922017-08-07T15:01:00.001+01:002017-08-07T15:01:16.970+01:00Tap takeover, Cloisters Edinburgh<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our beers get to Scotland quite a bit nowadays courtesy of James at Boot Liquor wholesale, but when we were offered the chance of a tap takeover at Cloisters we jumped at it mainly because it gave us the excuse to reprise last year's trip up to Scotland, this time Edinburgh not Glasgow, and the infamous train journey with a bottle of wine each.... and that's before we'd done the pub crawl, and then the drinking at the tap takeover....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ah well, it all went swimmingly, pretty much, so here's a few photos from the day in Auld Reekie to show what we got up to!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd-tx6S3XUZ1A_7vZKHI5nldrkzHXVw0gMv71_cgSG7pdrA4AYHspMxYMGiwfl477RfnOY9SQus-Gov4EzJxLmCE35C_xU5wb-IgOvM4PWyYz2nTbm5Slt7JH9mLATFghVVs0IlCOQTzzr/s1600/twiggy+crewe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="714" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd-tx6S3XUZ1A_7vZKHI5nldrkzHXVw0gMv71_cgSG7pdrA4AYHspMxYMGiwfl477RfnOY9SQus-Gov4EzJxLmCE35C_xU5wb-IgOvM4PWyYz2nTbm5Slt7JH9mLATFghVVs0IlCOQTzzr/s640/twiggy+crewe.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Twiggy trainspotting at Crewe</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Train breakfast</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apartment!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpjXSn3R09NqwsZCVlHEUuq2UoqLkegQJR_8GEpFft5cJpLHFxAUwSSWXy1eUcXXQZEUTuezkk4NSZMf5SGRKSVAyzqWJy3UDfh48FDwyBMmLsUjGa695AgB3wyevBzjB1U_uifd2CkGaR/s1600/edin_lost.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpjXSn3R09NqwsZCVlHEUuq2UoqLkegQJR_8GEpFft5cJpLHFxAUwSSWXy1eUcXXQZEUTuezkk4NSZMf5SGRKSVAyzqWJy3UDfh48FDwyBMmLsUjGa695AgB3wyevBzjB1U_uifd2CkGaR/s640/edin_lost.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I'm sure it's around here somewhere...."</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sorted!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cumberland Bar</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbLtKVgmFV2TUlmyTwWdmpQYHC7sF_XrFLTuYjFGpXS5rKxX_BTrpUxT-hWoZuYHE8gjG2woWpBE_en1xrRbgElBgkOkrggZvrRXdOIRgBcmeItfj21t6mpSH94ko6DiamL5Syx5LpfGMe/s1600/edin_6dN2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbLtKVgmFV2TUlmyTwWdmpQYHC7sF_XrFLTuYjFGpXS5rKxX_BTrpUxT-hWoZuYHE8gjG2woWpBE_en1xrRbgElBgkOkrggZvrRXdOIRgBcmeItfj21t6mpSH94ko6DiamL5Syx5LpfGMe/s640/edin_6dN2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">6 degrees North</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7936rTmbDiEuqXI2PTAOtOm_g0flvwQiIVVDDb18yiMUM4wdt7KPAREZfIIY-BXfw3vVIV8fl6z5d3P4bGbPOhU04jlRng-PYUSO11dcQa82iXk_CatFokCuqBs8pLtOnpB8-onH2aNM2/s1600/edin_6dN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7936rTmbDiEuqXI2PTAOtOm_g0flvwQiIVVDDb18yiMUM4wdt7KPAREZfIIY-BXfw3vVIV8fl6z5d3P4bGbPOhU04jlRng-PYUSO11dcQa82iXk_CatFokCuqBs8pLtOnpB8-onH2aNM2/s640/edin_6dN.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">6 Degrees North</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmJb7XNP9kDNWSyy86dzV0Lyink5q0C1S6a-HdESW5xnVKrZAq3nNR2tLrnQtucEW3UiAlbcwiSrZgCTIIDAH7lSuZYkTSVROnby2FHxBL8lX2pAlyRUaG2r1BU1efzuTgSzCLmg6NZ24f/s1600/edin_c%2526b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmJb7XNP9kDNWSyy86dzV0Lyink5q0C1S6a-HdESW5xnVKrZAq3nNR2tLrnQtucEW3UiAlbcwiSrZgCTIIDAH7lSuZYkTSVROnby2FHxBL8lX2pAlyRUaG2r1BU1efzuTgSzCLmg6NZ24f/s640/edin_c%2526b.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cask and Barrel</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj65bEIFHICtcXIq2Q_qybrGtiBXBFuAzuWSoaRHUxUGukyqSXXq4vCGIOIlBs7PG2CMdH3b4EkDdEpfav23QXBw9E2XbHGZCwRk4nQFzkAadn7XSJJApUkz1kW-vLHLQMxv9WJ3HqNqFWW/s1600/edin_newtown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="714" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj65bEIFHICtcXIq2Q_qybrGtiBXBFuAzuWSoaRHUxUGukyqSXXq4vCGIOIlBs7PG2CMdH3b4EkDdEpfav23QXBw9E2XbHGZCwRk4nQFzkAadn7XSJJApUkz1kW-vLHLQMxv9WJ3HqNqFWW/s640/edin_newtown.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Next....</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaOvKj9cL-PfChwp3oTHPYoiuzPpeTNJKBv3U5RD_2kyqzzDzUCgKZRY4uhJHDLlSimPpHD9vw_WSGJrhPVDXmbDyIczgGyrIwzKess9v6reO7YkZ8CTgyD_GsX8-TMKBVrRh6ro13-8PM/s1600/edin_oldtown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="714" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaOvKj9cL-PfChwp3oTHPYoiuzPpeTNJKBv3U5RD_2kyqzzDzUCgKZRY4uhJHDLlSimPpHD9vw_WSGJrhPVDXmbDyIczgGyrIwzKess9v6reO7YkZ8CTgyD_GsX8-TMKBVrRh6ro13-8PM/s640/edin_oldtown.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Into the old town</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_A2ZWA42tmlU1VWzLaxHSHO0iPXDfQechY4esV5pZm6EglSi0keuAojvL6wjBV7PpVbWOnXw1WtCaQ5XcagvAUjSfyZG_RNFG_c6GsTndyK3U-z1sFwShUBCEGULeoiHWILFgtg1Y8FAd/s1600/edin_nr+thompsons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_A2ZWA42tmlU1VWzLaxHSHO0iPXDfQechY4esV5pZm6EglSi0keuAojvL6wjBV7PpVbWOnXw1WtCaQ5XcagvAUjSfyZG_RNFG_c6GsTndyK3U-z1sFwShUBCEGULeoiHWILFgtg1Y8FAd/s640/edin_nr+thompsons.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Finding Thompsons bar.... final call!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Z1486xrQ8nPoZuDJnCcnAyyaAkQtKoxV0U06B2PK2gdgEge9zV47aubuKiWGhUP4dhtz5bDJvjaZKcahyGiM1yzoDGFGwOjybTDAPnKrwApCZRoNz5q0h_52N6PFgIMOVoHJWuQwR85d/s1600/edin_cloisters+board.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1018" height="564" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Z1486xrQ8nPoZuDJnCcnAyyaAkQtKoxV0U06B2PK2gdgEge9zV47aubuKiWGhUP4dhtz5bDJvjaZKcahyGiM1yzoDGFGwOjybTDAPnKrwApCZRoNz5q0h_52N6PFgIMOVoHJWuQwR85d/s640/edin_cloisters+board.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cloisters beer board</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjsyxYv0EHzsXi0s_k9iHBgGGzMaTD0t4Npz8aRi_ciyUYmmDIgPXC9oTg3nGyFwfkZvCSoORP3crbZbP976dY7IUILx2vOl1JqlokzC5j6u4tLjHcn3hPcudHEtTH7rUhKY6JKNaEi9hS/s1600/edin_cloisters+list.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="865" data-original-width="635" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjsyxYv0EHzsXi0s_k9iHBgGGzMaTD0t4Npz8aRi_ciyUYmmDIgPXC9oTg3nGyFwfkZvCSoORP3crbZbP976dY7IUILx2vOl1JqlokzC5j6u4tLjHcn3hPcudHEtTH7rUhKY6JKNaEi9hS/s640/edin_cloisters+list.jpg" width="468" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">full list!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX5L_UI924LSglDqKWROnmVKooWuX9z4iVh16KJoIGClMdHFE-duU0Gl7IF79NrNWhzEVtVpDWvF7_T-JHmmCCBeoseZFm40CMKPi5MeaSzDCWdnk3v-WEThhbG7K5b9bjLB0PvFmezAyR/s1600/edin_cloisters+outside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX5L_UI924LSglDqKWROnmVKooWuX9z4iVh16KJoIGClMdHFE-duU0Gl7IF79NrNWhzEVtVpDWvF7_T-JHmmCCBeoseZFm40CMKPi5MeaSzDCWdnk3v-WEThhbG7K5b9bjLB0PvFmezAyR/s640/edin_cloisters+outside.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">outside Cloisters</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh7xQ1_YvggbWsk6U6XgPEI01xomo2_JBGBRxSHCvWM4zO3lVX0fED8JG1oNpmPdotoMA6ShsPP2QZyNNHb8qKK-3umncGSMpZBwU2x-8wj2zC0SircZm49UW4Jv7ZO17H4JmhUtRqh4v1/s1600/edin_cloisters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="540" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh7xQ1_YvggbWsk6U6XgPEI01xomo2_JBGBRxSHCvWM4zO3lVX0fED8JG1oNpmPdotoMA6ShsPP2QZyNNHb8qKK-3umncGSMpZBwU2x-8wj2zC0SircZm49UW4Jv7ZO17H4JmhUtRqh4v1/s640/edin_cloisters.jpg" width="360" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside Cloisters!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Gazza Prescotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11834776854227668409noreply@blogger.com0