Meet the Brewer and other stories

The "Meet the Brewer" at Edinburgh's excellent craft beer bar the Hanging Bat went really well; would you believe 23 people actually paid £25 a head to hear Gazza speak for nearly 3 hours (with food and beer breaks, naturally...) about everything beer related?  I can't either, but that's what happened...

The evening was a tasting of 6 of the 17 beers on upstairs chosen by Gazza and Sam the head barman to go with the food (chorizo & chick pea stew topped with black pudding and poached egg, spicy fish wrap and finally sticky toffee pudding) whilst Gazza rambled on at length about the beers, the brewing and many other things besides!  When we finally wrapped up it was gone 22:00 and the beers had gone down very well indeed, so I think we can judge the evening a success!

The remainder of the week will be spent transferring beer and then Gazza heads off to Crewe for a collab with Michelle Kelsall's Offbeat brewery; the beer is to be a pale hoppy little number with hops from the Pacific, look out for it in a few weeks' time....

Next week is, after the bank holiday, back to normal with - hopefully, providing manpower can be arranged - two brews taking place and more casking up and delivering.

End to a busy week....

Massive thanks to Dean Roberts who has been a huge help during the past two weeks in helping us brew and generally keep going... cheers mate!

We have two more beers in the FV at the end of this week as we're not brewing next week; "Oceanic", a 4/5%-ish pale with Galaxy and Nelson Sauvin and "Five Seas" an old-skool US-hopped brew with Cascade, Centennial, Cluster, Columbus and Chinook which should come out around 3.8%.

Anyone in Edinburgh next week can come say hello to Gazza at the Hanging Bat where he's doing a meet the brewer on Tuesday evening, not sure if this is sold out though as it's a ticket-only event.

Today was a big racking day with 60 casks filled... as you can see here.

Today's racking.

Dean with his dinner - Galaxy.

Dean digs the mash...

Smooth as a smooth thing...

First off, Massive thanks to Dean Roberts who answered my pleas for help and has been an absolute star this week in the brewery as I knew he would be; we've brewed together before and he knows how to brew and, even more importantly, likes the sort of beers I like so we think the same way!

We managed to get two brews in this week, both went smoothly without any incident and, touch wood, no problems of any kind!  The first is a rebrew of Simcoe Plus as we always like to have at least one of the "plus" range in stock at any time and Mosaic+ has only today all gone.

The other was a collaboration with the lovely Sue Hayward of Waen brewery; it was a true collaboration as we had no plans or preconceptions what to make, all that was decided on the day, and the result was a 4%-ish dark beer which doesn't really conform to any of the usual styles!  It uses German Special W malt which is a Belgian-style fruitcakey tasting malt along with Roasted Barley and a few others, and for the hops we kept it European with Polish, Czech and German varieties providing the bitterness and flavour.

As it's not slottable into any style we've called it "Whatever" and it'll be around in a few weeks' time, so look out for it, or whatever...

Sue mashing in

A bit of help!

Whilst Tom is recovering from his operation for a few weeks Hopcraft Towers will be host to long-time collaborator with Gazza in brewing / travelling / drinking Dean from Newton Abbot; we'll be brewing up some hoppy delights with Simcoe Plus making a welcome return on Wednesday, albeit in version 2.0 mode, and the following week we have two beers to plan... now where's that Farams hop catalogue?

On Thursday we'll also be host to Sue and Paul from Waen brewery and will be making... no idea as of yet, but I'm hoping we can stick a load of hops in it!  This is part one of a "two-way" collab so when we're up in Mid Wales we'll be brewing up something along their style, probably with some sort of fruit in it.

So, please bear with us for the next month or so, I promise we'll do our very best to keep it as "situation normal" as possible!

Collab in Manchester

Last weekend Gazza did a low-key keg launch and meet the brewer at Port Street Beer House in Manchester where, as well as keeping the pontificating mercifully short and not mentioning Thatcher once (surely a record?), he stayed all evening and chatted to various beery types about beer, music and lots more besides.  If you were one of these people and Gazza hasn't got back to you despite promising to, then just drop us an email at hops@hopcraftbrewing.co.uk and the situation will be remedied!

On the Monday it was over to Rob Hamilton's Blackjack brewery under the train/metrolink arches on the wonderfully named Irk street (I know the river is just over the road, but I still like the name) and it's gloriously Lowryesque cobbles where, along with various luminaries from Port Street, we concocted a very hoppy amber brew with Ella, Galaxy and Citra which should be pretty damn good in a week or two!  This beer is destined for the Port Street chain - so look out for it in the Beagle, Chorlton, and Common Bar in the Northern Quarter - although it doesn't have a name as yet.

This week sees no brewing at Hopcraft towers owing to Tom having to be away, but we've sufficient stocks backed up in the FVs and CTs which will be casked/transferred in the next few days.  We're hoping to be able to brew next week dependent on getting someone in to help out, a certain someone who knows what they're doing... I'm waiting on confirmation of this at present but hopefully we will be fine, so please bear with us during the next few weeks if we don't answer the phone / get back to you straight away.

Brewing at Blackjack.

Another brew in the FV

Today we brewed yet another new beer, this time a 4%-ish extra-pale ale with mainly European hops assisted by a smattering of punchy American ones!  As is normal it's not yet got a name although "All this and More" is being banded about.

With a simple malt bill of Low-colour Maris Otter, Wheat and Caragold to let the hops do their thang, German Brewer's Gold and Mandarina Bavaria and French Triskel teamed up with American Mosaic and Cascade to give what we hop will be an interesting brew!  We've kept the bitterness down to enable the hop character to come through as much as possible and I'm pretty interested to see how this one turns out!

There's no more brewing at Hopcraft Towers now until next week when we'll probably be re-brewing Prince on Bengal IPA (recently named by someone I don't know on Twitter as "The best IPA in Wales!") or maybe, just maybe, knocking up something new... we've not decided yet so you'll just have to watch this space...

As we've already said we're off to the lovely Port Street Beer House in Manchester on Sunday for our meet the brewer / keg launch before brewing a collab at BlackJack on the Monday... should be an interesting weekend all round.

8kg of lovely hops!

This week's news...

We're doing two 1500 litre brews this week, as per normal these days...

First up tomorrow is "Graveyard Eyes", our Sorachi Ace porter, with a slightly revised recipe - both malt and hops - which went down really well on it's first outing last autumn so we thought it was time to bring it back, albeit version 2!

Second will be a new beer of low ABV (around 4%) with mainly European hops such as Mandarina Bavaria, Triskel and Kazbek for sociable spring drinking; we've not finalised the recipe (or name!) of this one yet but it should be an easy-going yet tasty one.

We're off to Port Street Beer House in Manchester on Sunday for our official keg launch and meet the brewer so come on down from 17:00 to see us put the world to rights, then on the Monday we'll be brewing with Rob and the PSBH team over at Blackjack with the provisional recipe being a Red IPA although this could change between now and then !!

Back to it...

Gazza has been on a much-needed holiday (albeit a busman's one, beer drinking in Southern Poland!) so we've been a bit quiet this last week, but rest assured we're back at work and doing what we do best... making beer!

Today we re-brewed a beer which was done to test local (and non-local!) response to an easy-going, golden and not-too-hoppy brew and after the whole lot went in a week we've decided to brew it again, albeit with a couple of tweaks to make it even better, so look out for "Chorister's Gold" again in a few weeks.

Tomorrow we are casking up two beers, "No Love Lost" which is our Citra/Galaxy mashup type thing, plus "Steady as she Goes", our 50th gyle, brewed with - amongst others - the citrussy Czech hop Kazbek; these will be out and about very soon so keep an eye out at the usual places...

Next week sees us (probably) re-brewing another old favourite (although whether a beer less than 6 months old can be legitimately called an "old favourite" is open to debate) in the form of our Sorachi Ace-led porter "Graveyard Eyes"; this hop, originally from Japan but now grown in the US, has a bizarre and fascinating aroma and taste of coconut, orange peel and dill and is one of Gazza's favourite hops just because it's a contrary one like him!  We'll also be brewing something else pale and hoppy, maybe a new beer maybe a revisit of a previous brew, we've not decided yet, maybe we need to create a "brewing schedule", a phrase which impressed us this week!

And as if that wasn't enough for one week we're off to Manchester on Sunday for our keg beer launch at the superb Port Street Beer House at 17:00; it's free, so see you there!

Another collaboration brew!

Today we hosted Brian from Northern Monk of Leeds who are due to begin brewing shortly and seem to hold similar views on hops, crystal malt and many other things to us!

We brewed a strong-ish (it should be around 5.7% or so) red IPA - so watch Roger Protz go apoplectic about this further nonsensical beer style - with what must be the biggest hop charge we've used thus far (and probably the most expensive too...!) with over 2kg per barrel of lovely Summit, Citra, Galaxy, Simcoe, Centennial and Chinook all drowned in the name of lupuliciousness.

We're hopeful this will be one of our most interesting and hoppy beers to date so look out for it in a month or so when it's emerged from it's hoppy slumber... It's working title is "Crafty Monk" although this may change if we think of something better in the meantime; any suggestions will be received gratefully although, as usual, the prize is the standard sod-all except for the happy glow of knowing you've helped a worthy cause.  Or so we think.

Weighing out the grain

That's just unnaturally happy...

Bottling getting closer

We're nearly ready to begin bottlig our beer!  We have a table, perecetic sprayer, bottle draining tree, capper, bottles and caps... all we need now is the time to prepare the first cask for bottling and get it done which will probably happen in a week's time.

At first there won't be that many bottles, we'll only do enough to cover the orders we have which will probably mean around 120 330ml bottles per brew, but we see this expanding in the future.

Before any of that happens, however, we're rebrewing Citraic this week after it all sold out in less than a week (and got some pleasing reviews!) and we're also going our second collab with Brian from Northern Monk!  Expect a Red IPA with insane amounts of hops in...

1805 bottles...

Our new bottling setup!

Craftwerk Euro pale ale - not for UKIP members!

Today we had a second go at "Craftwerk", a concept which Gazza has long nurtured to make a beer with the best hops Europe has to offer... which, by definition, doesn't include many British ones as I don't like the taste of mouldy grass (Admiral and Bramling Cross excluded)!

Anyhow, our first attempt at this back in October was scuppered - our only failed brew thus far, touch wood - due to contaminated yeast, so this second try has a lot resting on it's shoulders!  It's comprised of the usual low-colour Maris Otter & wheat malt mash with a dash of Weyermann Melanoidin malt for body and colour (a classic German malt which gives amazing malty flavours without becoming toffeeish or sweet) with a complex mix of the "new wave" and old skool European hops;

• Brewer's Gold, an old variety, for orangey oiliness
• Kazbek, a new Czech hop, for lemon zest,
• Triskel, France's new "craft" hop, giving spicy citrus,
• Mandarina Bavaria, the (expensive!) darling of Germany's new world of aroma hops
• Herkules, a classic German bittering hop of world class stature.

We were going to add some UK Admiral, IMO one of the best British hops with a characterful flavour of 1p fruit salad chews (honest!), but we'd used them all up on our mahoosive brew of Tidy we did on Tuesday... 

So, this should be an interesting brew and, although it won't be a knock-your-socks-off monster in the style of our more usual American or Aussie/NZ hopped examples, it should have enough interest contained therein to make you think twice about European hops; all that remains, once it's fermented, is to stuff 4kg more Mandarina Bavaria into our "hop torpedoes" for dry-hopping and let it gently infuse for a week resulting in, hopefully, a flavoursome and tasty 4.4% golden brew.

Needless to say UKIP members are prohibited from drinking it as it's all foreign hops, coming over here taking our hops' jobs, they're probably all pregnant and wanting benefits too.  And I'd say we don't want BNP or EDL members drinking it either, but they'd probably drown trying to do two things at once like breathe and drink... better they stick to "Ing-er-lish" stuff like Carling, Stella and Heineken then.

(I'm sure you all see the sarcasm - Carling is originally Canadian, Stella Belgian and Heineken Dutch, and if you didn't then you do now.  Don't say we don't fulfill a public service broadcast duty here).

The first bit of our bottling kit arrives

Look what arrived today!!

This, in case you've not seen one, is a manual bottling machine (this being a six-head one) which plugs into an FV, tank or cask of beer and automatically fills bottles which we've then got to cap, warm-condition and finally label.

We've not finalised the label designs yet and haven't got a warm room set up, but the first bit of our bottling project is here and we're all raring to have a play with it!

(Update - we now also have our crown capper, caps and draining tree, so all we need are some bottles!)

Brew 50 this week!

Doesn't time fly, eh?

This week we'll be creating our 50th full brew (if you count testbrews and suchlike we've already hit 60, but this is about proper 1500 litre batches) on Thursday; it's to be called "Steady as she Goes" and will be an unusual amber beer with Munich malt and the new Czech hop Kazbek in the mix which, going on my experiences of it in Czech, tastes like lemon meringue pie... I can't wait!

First up though, tomorrow, there's the task of brewing batch 49 which doesn't have a name as yet but will more than probably feature the A-team of Citra and Galaxy hops in a 4.3% or so brew of golden hue... sounds good to me!  The recipe isn't 100% finalised as yet but we've hours to go until we brew it, and we might even think of a name by then ;-)

So, a big milestone for us this week and it's time to reflect that, in a mere 9 months of brewing we've achieved more than I thought we would in 2 years - we're brewing twice a week at present and currently struggling to keep up with demand - and our all-important reputation is growing too with more pubs contacting us asking for beer which is just what I hoped would happen 18 months back when I sent the letter to my then boss telling him where the job I hated so much could be inserted!

A massive thanks to all our customers, drinkers and supporters for your help, encouragement and tolerance during what has been a very steep learning curve for us all and all we can say is THANK YOU and keep the lupulous faith!

Cheers!!

Gazza Tom & Steve

"Naughty Boy" Oat pale ale

Today we brewed a little experiment, a sub-4% pale ale brewed with 12% malted oat flakes, just to see what these would do to the beer's body and mouthfeel.  It's not a new idea, Brodies in Leyton have been doing this for years, but we thought we'd give it a go and see what comes out.

It's safely tucked up in FV3 now so we should have an idea as to what it's tasting like by early next week or so... we used a fair amount of hops, as we do, with Summit, Magnum, Citra and Mosaic being deployed but we've not decided on the dry hop yet!  or the name, come to think of it, but I'm sure we'll think of something.

Tomorrow we're brewing again, this time it's the return of Mosaic Plus in a yet again "new and improved" version with, you guessed it, more hops!  Hopefully it'll be a cracker, it certainly went down very well the last two times we made it... this time, however, it should be even better with yet more juicy blackcurrant and cattyness from the Mosaic hops ably assisted by Centennial, Magnum and maybe a bit of something else too; we'll decide on the details tomorrow!

Our first Collab!

Collaborations, or "collabs" as they're known by lazy people who can't be bothered to pronounce whole words, are all the rage at the moment in UK craft brewing. They began in the US when fellow brewers began to brew beers together and it's migrated, as with many things, over to our shores where we've put our own spin on it.

We meant to do loads of collabs with all the lovely brewers we know, but until now nothing has actually come off despite several tenuous plans... well, until last week that is!  We were joined by James Bendall of the soon-to-be-operational Axiom Brewing of Wrexham and John Winnerah of the lamented Art Brew of Dorset who closed the day after we brewed - for now.

One of the main ideas of a collab is that all collaborators have input on the recipe and so we all sat around the PC wondering what to do; Gazza and Tom had just driven back from Reading after a "meet the brewer" the previous evening and although we'd all talked about the brew on twitter and email a bit nothing had really been decided upon!  After some ideas bounced back and forwards we settled on a vague idea I'd put forwards the week before; a Belgian(ish) Black IPA which really is a bit of a strange beer to make but, hey, collaborations are all about pushing the boundaries!

The recipe was devised, the malts mashed in, dug, hops added, boiled, (lots) more hops added, wort cooled and finally stuck into FV4 with the yeast; sorted, and just enough time for some beers in Cardiff as a bonus!

So, massive thanks to James and John for their sociablilty and putting up with our shambolic setup and getting back late, the beer is now on chill (and at 5.8%) and tasting lovely; the whole sack of Special W malt (it's the German take on Belgian Special B malt) has given the beer a luscious fruitcake flavour to balance the hops and I'm very hopeful this will be an absolute cracker when it's finished in a week or two...

So, who's next then?

James, Gazza (not asleep, honest) and John

The yeast begins it's work!

Worker and supervisor dig the mash

John getting stuck in

I am the one and only...

.... cask of Hop Secret 4! I've been made as a special experiment using a new, untested and as yet unnamed British hop which is hoped can, after brewing trials such as this, make the British hop industry more competitive and, dare I say it, relevant in today's "big flavour" market; after all, we are in flavour country now!

I taste of honey malt, have a slight bitterness so as not to distract from the hop's flavour and aroma which is reminiscent of the soft, fruity New Zealand character; obviously it's not as in-yer-face as Nelson or suchlike, but it does have an intriguing tropical fruit to it and a citrussy, dry bitterness.

So, give me a go and see for yourself!  To do that you'll have to be at the Hopcraft "meet the brewer" event at the marvelous Nag's Head, Russell Street, Reading from 19:00 Wednesday where you can see Gazza, Tom and work your way through a dozen Hopcraft beers; go on, you know you want to...  see you there.

Behind the bar at the Nag's...

Beers this week

This week we have brewed a new pale session beer, "Chorister's Gold", which will be around 4.2% and hopped with Marynka (Poland), Admiral (UK) and Triskel (France) to give a soft, fruity beer ideal for a few pints.  This is a rework of an old Pixie Spring recipe which now bears little resemblance to the original!

Tomorrow we're crafting a new 4.5% or so golden brew with mainly south Pacific hops including Topaz (Australia) and Sticklebract (New Zealand); it doesn't have a name yet although "Cardboard box" is a possibility... or maybe not.

We're also transferring "Citraic" to conditioning tank and dry-hopping it, then casking up "Long Nines" and "Reign of Terroir" on Friday.

The beer must get through...

And it did.  Just about...

We've just got back after a day driving in apocalyptical conditions with howling gales, floods, hail, driving rain and I'm sure I saw a few locusts too.

We started at our mates Brodies down in Leyton, east Laaardan, before a flying visit to Meantime brewery in Greenwich courtesy of more mates (AB stainless who were working there) then drops at the Southampton Arms, Highgate, Nag's Head, Reading and finally the Shoulder of Mutton, Wantage before hitting the M4 back to Wales.

We're brewing another new beer tomorrow with South Pacific hops including Topaz and Sticklebract, as well as transferring "Citraic" (which is smelling lush by the way) to conditioning tanks with a load of dry-hop pellets, then we'll be casking up "Long Nines" and "Reign of Terroir" on Friday as some are due out next week!

Don't forget we're at the lovely Nag's Head in Reading next Wednesday 19th for a "meet the brewer" evening; there will be at least a dozen beers on sale including some special one-off beers just for the event; see you all there, it'll be good!  The beers will start coming on during the day and we'll be there from around 6 to talk about the beers, the brewery and answering any questions...

The tenuous beer list is thus...

1. The Beast 6.5% - golden, hoppy and a beast!
2. The Boss 4.4% - golden, multi-layered hops and bitterness
3. Pondicherry IPA - testbrew with Assam and Earl Grey tea
4. Reign of Terroir 4.9% - pale with the elderflowery French hop Triskel
5. Permanent Revolution 3.6% - Red "half" IPA, big for the strength!
6. Hop Secret 4 4.1% - brewed with a brand-new English test hop
7. Long Nines 6% - big bruiser of a stout
8. Sucker Punch 4.3% - "soft" IPA, low bitterness, big hop finish
9. Monky Business (whisky cask) 5.6% - our Belgian dubbel aged in a whisky barrel!
10. Cruxshadow 4.9% - dark and smoky winter beer
11. Black Nag - testbrew, a smoked black IPA!
12. Simcoe Plus 5.4% - very pale, clementine marmalade flavours!

Plus maybe a few more bits and bobs.....

Another week...

Now then hop fiends.

This week we've got a fair bit on; brewing twice - probably Chorister's Gold and a mid-4% hoppy amber beer maybe with Topaz and Sticklebract - plus delivering more beer to London, Wantage and Reading in preparation for our "Meet the Brewer" at the Nag's Head, Reading.

This event happens next week on Wednesday 19th; be there, it'll be fun!  We are presenting a dozen of our beers, including a few that won't be seen anywhere else, with the list looking something along these lines...

• The Beast
• The Boss
• Pondicherry IPA (with tea)
• Golden Pixie
• Hop Secret 4
• Long Nines
• Sucker Punch
• Whisky cask Monky Business
• Cruxshadow
• Black Nag Smoked Black IPA

Plus two more we've not decided on yet!  We'll be talking about the brewery and why we decided to get paid sod-all for working hundreds of hours a week, plus there will be a Q&A session.  I'm not sure what time this kicks off but I'm assuming not before 19:00 or so...  the Nag's is a superb pub and it's close to Reading station, literally not more than 10 minutes' walk.

See you all next week, in the meantime we'd better get brewing some more beer!!

Busy week.

Not massively more than usual, but as we're off to London Thursday we have effectively lost a whole day so we're squeezing everything into three, plus there's some extra stuff happening too!

Today we

• Brewed "Citraic", a 5.2%-ish pale and very hoppy,
• Brewed a testbrew with Assam and Earl Grey tea,
• Washed 50 casks,
• Dispensed advice and hops/malt to a local homebrewer,
• Did recipes for future beers,
• Sold beer in London for Thursday,
• And various other little jobs which all take time!

Tomorrow we'll mainly be...

• Brewing another beer, not sure what yet but it's probably "Chorister's Gold"
• Brewing another testbrew, this time a smoked black IPA (!)
• transferring "Long Nines" to the whisky cask, keg, cask and conditioning tank,
• transferring two other beers to conditioning tank,
• Dry-hopping beers in the tanks,

And then Thursday, before we leave for London, we'll be casking up "Sucker Punch" and maybe "Bang Tidy edition 3" too...

It's all go here, which is great!

Going into all manner of containers tomorrow!

And this one only into cask and keg!