Coffee Stout... And the release of our first 3 testbrews.

We're brewing a coffee stout today and also, from 17:00 tonight at the Wheatsheaf, Llantrisant, you can come taste 3 versions of our bitter, Mosaic pale ale and Bad Monkey, a hoppy amber.

The bar recently...

An ode to drainage channels.

Drainage has been the bane of our lives for the past three weeks due to matters completely beyond our control, and sometimes it seemed we'd never get a working drain....

Originally we had permission to dig a channel along the length of the brewery floor to empty into the drain out front of the unit; bish bosh, sorted.  We then discovered that this is a storm drain and can't be used for waste (it's rainwater only) and so we needed to vent our waste into the manhole out back which has involved digging an extra 15 metres of channel through rock-hard reinforced concrete, knocking a hole in the wall, digging up the path out back and finally routing it into the main drain.... put it this way, NEVER AGAIN will any of us ever build a drain!

Owing to the weight of the steelwork and vessels, raising the floor around a channel wasn't an option so we had to cut it into the reinforced concrete floor with jackhammers, smaller electric chisels, manual chisels and suchlike.  Now, after almost a month, we finally have a working drain which is concreted in and looking good!  And believe me, we tested it before concreting it in.

Apologies for labouring such a tedious aspect of the brewery when we're sure all you want to see are our smiling faces peeping from FV's and other brewing vessels, but to understand how difficult these seemingly small aspects of brewery setup are is to grasp just why it takes so long for a brewery to actually begin production...

Tom concreting in the channel and pipework.

Our sump, a miracle of ingenuity!

Gazza concreting in the channel.

Tom and Turk demolish the path out back.

Turk in the sewer... the lengths you have to go to!

Painting the floor and other more exciting things.

Bet it's not that colour for long...

The excitement continues unabated in Pontyclun as we've now painted the brewing level floor a lovely shade of "British Racing green" - it looks nothing like the photo in real life, but we're sure you can imagine it's verdant glow.

In other non-paint related news, the gas burners for the copper should be plumbed in this week along with, we hope, our lovely (and very expensive) new plate cooler which will mean - once a small amount of pipework is done - that we can think about brewing some beer!

Before that, however, we've got to give everything a mammoth clean and caustic wash, fix up the remaining handrails, plumb in the water, commission the cask washer, order said casks, get a palletload of malt, buy some saccharometers and a million other things which are required to be done before we can make beer.

So, the moral of the story so far is that if anyone tells you setting up a brewery is easy you have an absolute moral right  - nay, obligation - to laugh in their face.  Honestly, you do.  Just send them over to us and we'll do the same.

Work continues...

The mammoth task of creating a working brewery continues apace and, thankfully, it's now looking more like it could actually be used to make beer!

The drainage is close to completion, the steelwork painted in undercoat ready for daubing with various luminous colours, the walls are in process of being clad with spray-down plastic and various technical things have been accomplished or are in process - cask washer, copper gas supply and jets, FV temperature control, CT cladding, extra hop supplies... you get the idea.

So, we're still hopeful that we can begin brewing in a couple of weeks, although this could slip a touch as there is still massive amounts to be done... watch this space!

The HLT and MT with newly-painted steelwork!

Welding one of the support beams

More testbrewing!

We did so much yesterday in the brewery - wipe clean walls nearly done, drainage almost sorted, steelwork undercoated, floor finished - that it's time to try out a few more recipes from the stack waiting to be brewed, maybe even two depending on time!

The spray-down wall cladding going on.

Testbrewing !!!

Yes, you read that right.

We are testbrewing.

Not on the big plant, mind, but on Tom's dinky little 0.5BBL kit where we've already done our first brew and hope to do a couple more next week.  Whether these will be actually sold over the bar in the Wheatsheaf, Llantrisant (where we brewed them), or more prosaically tasted then dumped isn't yet known, but whatever happens we're happy to be trying out a couple of recipes we've got lined up for you just to see how they come together in "real life"!

So, just to prove it, here's some photos of us messing about with the pilot plant which will, once we're all sorted out, be installed in the unit and utilised for more testbrewing and also to produce some extreme beers which even we don't think we can sell a full brew of!

Back of an envelope indeed!

Hops, and plenty of 'em.

That protofloc worked well...

The SO5 kicks into action.

Hard graft....

Gazza, being someone who has been used to swanning around in company cars, sitting at keyboards and generally doing f-all for the last 20 years, is getting a rude awakening at present as we jackhammer a drainage channel into the concrete floor at the brewery which, predictably, seems to be made of super-hard concrete reinforced with way too many steel rods... it wasn't a Friday afternoon "bodgett and scarper" obviously!

These photos show the progress being made recently, and now the steelwork is almost all painted too it's beginning to look vaguely like a brewery in there now... next, once the drainage channel is completed, it's time to thoroughly clean the kit, assemble the copper's gas jets and insulation, wrap the CTs in beer line and then lag them ready for temperature control, construct the cask washer, make a malt hopper and pre-masher, pipe up the vessels... you get the idea!

At least it's all coming together now and we're hoping to be in a position to brew in a couple of weeks time.

Tom and Turk get to work on the Channel.

Work in progress...

Gazza gets stuck in.

Turk and Gazza tackle the concrete.

Grinding off one of the many steel wires.

Almost done !!!

All coming together....

Apologies for the lack of updates recently, but now things are moving well - as you will see!

The steel frame is now installed in Pontyclun and the vessels have been lifted onto the "brewing floor" as we rather grandly call it!  Once this is all completed we can do a thorough clean and then begin brewing!

Obviously there is still a lot to do with regards lagging the conditioning tanks and moving them into place, doing the permanent pipework and so on, but once everything is physically in place at least then we can brew using flexible hoses and begin to get some beers out.

More updates as they happen.

Cheers!

FV4 is lifted onto the brewing floor.

And finally the hot liquor tank makes it's appearance...

And the rest is on its way!!!

We've just had confirmation that the rest of the brewery - the steel frame, copper, HLT and various other bits and bobs - is on it's way down to Wales!

And there's the other bits!

So, things are moving even faster now and we'll hopefully soon have it all in place and ready for testing out....

Brewery take-down in Norfolk.

Last week saw us over in deepest Norwichshire to observe (and get roped into) the take-down of our brewery at it's current site.  

Things began well with a relaxed 180-mile drive via the M4 and M11 and thence onto windy roads but, once we'd arrived, it soon transpired that we weren't simply going to take a few photos and then head off into the sunset; no, we'd have to so some work and stop over in a knackered old caravan, too.  Good job, then, that we'd been to Arbor in Bristol and Otley in Pontypridd to stock up on bottled beers for that night!  

Typically, the weather had chosen that night to become freezing cold after weeks of mildness, so the electric fire was cranked up to the max inside the caravan... although the numerous 7%+ bottles we drank probably kept most of the cold away!  We also got to experience a proper Russian restaurant locally which is a new one on me...

By the end of day two we'd got most of the vessels - and aren't they just superbly retro in a 1950's Bakelite kind of way? - loaded onto the flatbed lorry and away to Wales, with the rest of the steelwork and vessels due to follow this week.  

Below are some photos to show what happened!

The brewery floor before we started work.

The Mash Tun is lifted off the brewing floor...

... and out of the door!

Then it was the turn of the FV's, not an easy task with millimetres of clearance between the crane and the roof!

With night drawing in, the last vessel was manoeuvred outside.

The next day, once our lorry had arrived (and blocked the lane!), it was time for the simple matter of loading the vessels onto the flatbed.

It wasn't us driving, by the way, and huge respect to David for not trashing any of them!

FV2 goes onto the lorry.

There was just time for a quick celebratory photo before the truck was off South Wales-bound with our precious cargo!  I imagine the sight of these beauties will cause some confusion on the M4.... 

So, there we go... there should be more updates soon once the rest of the hardware arrives onsite in Pontyclun and we begin to reassemble it all... then clean it... then paint it... then, finally, brew on it!

Old brewery, new start...

Confirmation has come through that we're all set to go and supervise the take-down of our brewery at it's current home in preparation for shipping it down to Wales.

So, rolling with this, it looks like we may be in a position to brew some beer late January to early February, although we fully expect this estimate to be extremely fluid as we need to re-assemble the brewery, pipe it up and give it a bloody good clean before we can even begin thinking about brewing on it...  and that's without getting the casks, malt and hops ready!

But, if everything pans out, we should soon have a brewery... which is the main thing!

Happy New Year!

Progress has been necessarily quiet in the build-up to Xmas, but as soon as everything is back to normal in January we're going to be all over our brewery building / fitting out / cleaning / testing like a rash!  Things are moving along and we're still hoping to do our first test brew in January... maybe a touch optimistic but we're raring to get brewing.

So happy new year to all and hopefully, in 12 months time, we'll have brewed some great beers and be planning many more!

Cheers!

Gazza, Steve and Tom.

The Hot Liquor Tank arrives... just!

We have our Hot Liquor Tank... but as you can see from the photo it only just fitted into the van, and that was an extra-big van too!

So, we are now in possession of yet another bit of kit for the brewery which, hopefully, will be installed in the next few weeks... stay tuned for the news!

It WILL fit....

Our Conditioning tanks arrive!

The first pieces of our brewery have arrived in Pontyclun!

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

And here they are all nicely lined up for inspection!

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

Cheers!

More happenings...

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

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

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

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

Cheers!

We have the Keys!

The title says it all, really... 

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

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

Lupulicious

We have hops!!!!

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

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

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

Who's calling me a Hopmonster?

What's been Happening...

Quite a bit, actually.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers!

Gazza, Tom and Steve.

Hops and Barley

Gazza has spent today involved in the following activities;

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

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

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

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

Cheers!

Welcome to our World...

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

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

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

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

Gazza, Tom and Steve.