Pulling up outside what looked like just another house in the sleepy village of Great Heck, with the odd glance from a passing “local”, my beer companion and I had arrived, not knowing what to expect, on the dot of 07:15 for the start of our days brewing.

Denzil greeted us more like long lost friends rather than mere “internet acquaintances” and was obviously more used to getting up at dawn’s crack as he had already got the hot water tank up to temperature and had his brewing sheet in hand ready to guide us through the process of brewing Heck’s Angel, a golden ale normally around 3.9%.

Great Heck Brewery

Great Heck Brewery was founded by Denzil and his former business partner and home brew enthusiast Jason Hall in 2008 after meeting at a motorbike road racing club in Driffield. One beer led to another and Jason commented that if Denzil ever stopped racing bikes, the shed where he kept them would make a perfect microbrewery. He did and it does and that they say is history. The shed now contains a four British Brewers Barrel (BBL¹) microbrewery with a 12 BBL per week capacity alongside a cask washer and hand basin with a mezzanine floor above storing malt and hops. There is room enough for the empty casks to be stored in the gated yard and a room in Denzil’s house (attached to the shed) is now the cask cold store.

Our first task of the day was to measure out the malt ready for mashing. Not a hard task you’d think, weighing quality Fawcett malt and dropping it into a hopper to be gravity fed into the mash tun. It wasn’t – except for the part where my sylphlike figure had to climb a rickety ladder and squeeze into the malt store! That aside, it took longer for Denzil to give us his health & safety lecture (“….it’s much cheaper for me to kill you than pay out on a claim….”) than it did to do the task so now on to add this to the mash tun. For the uninitiated the mash tun is where the milled grain (or malt) is dropped into hot water to create what brewers call a cereal mash (this is where you find out brewers can never just call something what it is!!). All mashed in it was then, appropriately, time for breakfast.

Now those of you that already know Denzil know that he is a very hospitable fellow, his daughter and dogs certainly follow his example, but not many people know he is also a gourmand, great cook and to my beer companion and my delight is a great ambassador for “proper” food (non-supermarket meat, fresh vegetables, farm eggs etc) so to have him cook you breakfast is quite a treat. Pancakes were on the menu this morning and as we awaited these light, perfectly circular creations we were entertained by Miss Lucy Vallance, not 6 but nearly 7. School soon beckoned and our early morning break was over, back now to deal with the lautering and a process known as sparging.

Lautering is a process in which the sugar rich water is strained through the bottom of the mash after the temperature of the mash has been raised to around 75 degrees C and additional water is sprinkled on the grains to extract extra sugars (called sparging). This is not a very labour intensive process so we can get on with measuring out the hops for use in the next process – which once again means a death defying trip up the ladder of doom.

Once there it is clear that hops and the natural taste and aroma processes of brewing are a great passion of Denzil’s, some may mistake that for being a taste snob but I for one think that is a prerequisite of any successful brewer. I am told by my brewing friends that Cascade hops (created by Americans in the 1950’s by crossing English Fuggles and a Russian strain and grown in Washington State) are among the best quality available and are now more accessible than ever due to the market collapsing – a fall of nearly £20 a kilo created when the Belgian/Brazilian brewing giant InBev took over the company that owned Budweiser, Anheuser-Busch.

Combining Cascades to perfume Heck's Angel

Inside Great Heck Brewery...

We were to finish off last season’s batch of Cascade and combine it with this season’s batch – a much anticipated moment in the Vallance household. It is at this point that you realise a craft product is just so, crafted and not mass-produced or modified to create a homogeneous outcome. Last season’s hops were bitter, musty, green and a little earthy on the nose yet this season’s hops, opened with great trepidation by Denzil, were magnificent, fresh with a punch of bitterness. I am reliably informed by a smiling Denzil these are the best yet! We measured these into 3 batches for the triple hopping process we were to complete later on. Now back to the sparging…

At this point the liquid is known as wort and is now being added into the next vessel, the copper, where we will add the selected hops at 3 different stages (for bittering and aroma). My beer companion and I are now the chief supervisors of this vessel to ensure it fills correctly and after our keen eyes avert certain disaster it is brought to the boil where the first batch of hops are added and the copper closed.

The brewery, although far from other great monoliths of manufacture does reside next to the village pub, The Bay Horse. A respite for weary brewery workers and an obvious choice for lunch where a text or two earlier had reserved us three pints and three pies and as requested said pints were on the bar for us at 12pm sharp and the homemade steak pies were brought out shortly thereafter. This charming, beamed establishment complete with horse brasses and various artefacts converted numerous years ago from three cottages does a good line in home cooked fayre (my beer companion is still recounting tales about the succulent steak and a gravy boat that had certainly never seen a granule). Indeed I know of a certain Doncaster verger who makes a near weekly pilgrimage for Sunday lunch at The Bay Horse! Today the food is perfect for three weary brewers, if slightly let down today by the rather bland Old Mill Bitter. But no chance to chew the fat on that one though as we had to dash back to the brewery to ensure our boil was behaving itself.

Expertly timed (or caught in the nick of time?!) we were back to adding another batch of hops and ensuring the general cleanliness of the brew shed. This is vital as unlike microbrewers that have two separate rooms for the pre- and post-fermentation process, Denzil likes to keep the process simple with one open room keeping everything clean and sterile at all times. A harder task you may say but one Denzil is very diligent at, ensuring the highest of hygiene standards at all times.

Time now for my beer companion to add the last of the hop batches for aroma before the hopped wort clarifies and can be moved on to the next process. The wort is then transferred to the fermenting vessel through a heat exchanger to rapidly cool it to a temperature where the yeast can be safely added (heat kills yeast) – a job the liquid does itself with the help of a pump so the clean up process can begin in earnest.

Laying the hopped wort to ferment and become beer in the fermenting vessels

It was at this stage where three things came to light. The first being the novice nature of yours truly in not thinking through the process fully so therefore not wearing wellington boots. After deciding my “beer writer shoes” were ok to get wet we avoided a Withnail and I excursion for good quality rubber boots and my beer companion forgave me as he had just bought some new trainers anyway. The second being the complete lack (or at least for some number of years) of any physical labour ever being carried out by myself and my beer companion … cue wild laughing by Denzil as we tried to dig out the mash tun). Lastly being the fantastic “open house” way in which Denzil operates. Neighbours picking Lucy up from school, friendly postmen letting themselves in and Calor gas men dropping bottles off and not wanting to disturb Denzil about payment when he is busy brewing (“pay me next time”) – a lesson in trust and manners we could all learn from.

Adding the yeast (not from his own strain but new every time) and finishing the clean up, Denzil muses on his possible expansion plans with an offer already close on a neighbouring property so he can get his house back or at least put the infrastructure in for a small visitors centre and letting on that he would eventually love another brewery tap, this time in Leeds. My beer companion and I look back at a day well spent with an inspirational and enthusiastic brewer who has again awoken my passion for opening my own microbrewery.

And what of “our” Heck’s Angel? Well I can tell you hot off the presses that after taking a packaging sample Denzil informs me it is “the best yet”!!

The final act in this well spent day is a trip to Denzil’s current brewery tap, The Bull & Fairhouse in Wakefield city centre, by way of a lift from Denzil that has taken him far out of his way. We were able to toast his continued success with a pint of his Golden Bull, homage to his favourite White Lion beer from Bob’s Brewing Company (also available at the same bar). A pale and flowery lager style beer made with those Cascade hops. All I can say is the fact that we were still there a number of hours later on a day that started around 06:00 should speak volumes to you.

The islanders rejoiced in the fertile soils and nestled contently in the island’s curves, appreciating its temperate nature and voluptuous harvests. From the mainland, scores of visitors were drawn in by the island’s abundant bounty, and sometimes purely on the effervescent energy the land seemed to glow with.

At sunset a gentle haze hang around the shoreline and dissipated the reflected sunlight that the fisherman watched for. The light receded over the tall hop plants, unrepentant structures of grace and beauty that lined the fields of grain, but was not lost forever. Captured in the crops, that sunlight would eventually reach distant shores, mixed with dune-filtered water and seasoned with the fruit of the hop plant, a broth stirred into life with an eccentric yeast and ready to deploy that same solar energy for the benefit of mankind.

The island is Texel and it may or may not be anything like the image in my head. But that’s the image painted by Maurice Diks who guided us through an abridged history of the island and its sole brewery, Texelse Bierbrouwerij at a Texel tasting session at the Rake in London two weeks ago. Maurice is head brewer and had brought with him lovely vessels of his Dutch beer, brewed with barley grown on the island (I might have used creative license with the hop plants, which grow slightly further afield) and, unlike most breweries of low-lying Belgium and Netherlands, largely adhering to the ‘Bayerische Reinheitsgebot’.
All the Texel beers were remarkably drinkable (yep, drinkable, that old cookie). Drinkable because they are easy to quaff and easier to want more of, a direct result of the Texel Twist, a character, or the terroir, that the island imparts on the beer (like fate and destiny in Lost!). The wheat beers were much lighter than I’d expect and hid their alcohol well, whilst the Bock was all wisps of stewed fruit and toffee and spiced niceness. My favourite of the night was all Belgian banana and fruit esters on the nose, but the name escapes me (and the notepad I forgot to write anything in!).

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Nowadays we work at screens, behind partitions, “in services“.

Those grey, growing gas stores, the vast warehouses, the corrugated factories; they’re alien to much of Britain; a spec on the landscape, an irritation to an otherwise green and pleasant land.

These gunmetal structures, whilst reduced in their visibililty, still make up the backbone of everything we do. Power stations are an enigma, distribution centres an eyesore and factories an unkown quantity to sneer at from incoming city-link trains.

Sneer all you want but you wouldn’t be accessing Twitter on your long-haul commute without them.

Industrial wonder: Coors Maltings Stores

A clear Saturday morning in Burton. We wander across triple-lane roads and past B&Q Warehouses that litter the centre of Burton. Up ahead, the looming Coors logo peers down as if we were lowly peasants. Security protocol looks like it could be a nuclear power station, just without the armed guards.

Inside we’re treated to the red carpet tour, in and out of industrial doors, dodging machinery and fittings. We see the huge grain stores, Acme-esque towers to keep barley dry and stable. We are led on an ascendancy to the top of the maltings and a view over Derbyshire and beyond. A power station sits on the horizon, and breweries and industrial units dominate the immediate foreground. People, like ants, wander amongst a very untown-like town.

Beer bloggers contemplate becoming malt bloggers...

“There’ll be a bit of a gust” Graham informs us as he levels with the lever of the kiln door. I make a bad joke about a back draft and then am almost knocked off my feet by the blast of hot air.

Inside temperature controlled grain spreads out in perfect symmetry, gently changing, evolving, turning into brewery friendly malt.

We’re in a cylinder, a metal polygon within a box. People drive by, oblivious. And all they see is a square brick tower. When I drive past all I see is wonder…what could they be doing in there…?

They’re making malt, malt for beer, malt for the Carling you’ll drink at the weekend, mate.

And none of the ants blink an eye.

Many thanks to Molson Coors for an interesting and very geeky tour of the Shobnall Maltings, Burton.

The Hop, live music and real ale pub opening in Leeds this March

Wakefield’s finest are coming to Leeds in the guise of The Hop, the live music and real ale venue of Ossett Brewery’s pub armada. Situated in the Granary Wharf area of Leeds overlooking the reinvigorated quayside, The Hop will sit under two of the previously disused railway arches that are tucked away between the confluence of the Leeds-Liverpool canal and the River Aire.

I’ve been watching the empty unit over the last few weeks and months, gradually turning from a blank canvas to a vaguely pub-like skeleton as I pass by. Today’s walk to the bank was considerably brightened by the sight of a new sticker in the window, shouting loudly ‘Opening on Friday 26th March!’

The Hop will take the tally of great pubs within a five minute walk of where I work to new heights, with the ‘thes’ of Grove, Commercial, Adelphi, Cross Keys and Midnight Bell fame all located a short stumble from each other.

Photos by me and my good friend Rick

Bridgewater Place towers over Granary Wharf form across the Leeds-Liverpool canal and is one of the views from The Hop. Pic (c) Mark Fletcher 2010

The 3 new buildings and canal basin at Granary Wharf near Leeds train station. Left to right: Candle House (apartments), City Inn (hotel) and Watermans Place (apartments). Pic (c) Rick Harrison 2010

The striking angular form of Waterman's Place at Granary Wharf, just a moment's walk from the site of The Hop. Pic (c) Rick Harrison 2010

Brass in pocket: the brewery have reorganised their coppers and weathered all that this winter could throw at them

But fresh from the Christmas holidays with their finances restructured Copper Dragon seem to be back on their feet and fighting fit for whatever 2010 can throw at them.

Online business news website The Business Desk and Bradford’s Telegraph and Argus newspaper report that Copper Dragon’s pub business was liquidised in November 2008 throwing the brewery into a turbulent period, during which the administrators were called in on the Friday before Christmas by a high street bank, which is pretty annoying by anyone’s standards. Steve Taylor, the brewery’s founder and MD subsequently took his stake in the company from 75% to 100% after refusing to give up further equity or intellectual property rights.

It’s rarely a good time for a company to go into administration but teetering on the edge of oblivion at Christmas time is particularly unpleasant, with customers looking for mini-pins for parties, pubs filling up for the festivities and staff looking forward to well earned family time. Just getting home in the snow in Yorkshire was bad enough!

So we’re really pleased that it looks like it’s all sorted and that the jobs, brewery, bistro and six of the pubs have been secured, and we look forward to sampling some of the new beers that come out of Skipton’s finest this year.

Ok to be fair it’s this months ‘What’s Brewing’, but I love the story on page 10 about Martin Brunnschweiler.

More than a decade ago Martin went to visit his sister at her pub on the Isle of Man and ended up staying there to set up a brewery called Bushy’s. The paper is a bit hazy on the details (I’m intrigued as to whether he drank the pub dry and then set up because he was thirsty and what he left behind) but I like to think the Martin fell in love with the island, the pub, the atmosphere and the opportunity. His brewery has ties to the nuclear industry (and sounds like it could double up as a bunker should a Dr Strangelove armageddon arise) and the equipment is based on a headache inducing tower arrangement that requires a certain amount of agility from head brewer Curly (yes, Curly!).

The best I can do is that I have on two or more separate occasions walked into a pub and ended up 1) working behind the bar and 2) doing the dishes, but never quite made the leap to brewing.

Accidental brewer: Martin of Bushy's brewery on the Isle of Man

Bass in The Bank

The Bank is what I would dub a Weatherspoons rip-off. The breakfast menu was almost identical to Weatherspoons and the range of beers available was similar. I was therefore able to order a pint of Bass to go with my Americano and Large Breakfast. I couldn’t  remember whether I’d ever actually  had Bass before but I knew that it used to be very popular with my Dad’s friends out of  a can. The lightness suited accompanying a large meal and my initial impression was of an relatively sweet toffee flavour but this was tempered by the development of a more peppery body. The existence of these flavours was I think testament to how well the ale was kept and I have since been disappointed when having the same pint at The Wobbly Wheel near Banbury where none of these subtly complex flavours appeared from ‘the same’ pint.

This accolade cannot be bestowed on The Roebuck which was our next point of call. Perhaps suffering from being amongst the  pre-lunch drinkers but I didn’t feel that either of the ales I tried in here were being served to their full potential. The Magpie Best, from the local Magpie Brewery, should have presented a decent hoppy flavour but offered no distinctive flavours, equally the Marstons Burton Bitter offered a coppery flavour rather than the ‘delicate hops and malty biscuit’ that the brewer headlines.

My notes for the Day were avidly kept in here

After the disappointment of The Roebuck I nearly hung up the diary for the day, luckily I didn’t. We were just about to enter the best pub of the day. The Bell Inn is part of the Greene King group but had an extensive range of Nottingham Brewing Company ales. I could easily have stayed in the place all day to sample the wide range of draught and bottled tipples that would have tickled the fancy of almost everyone I know. Erdinger and Hoegarden, Aspalls Cider, the already mentioned Nottingham Brewery Ales all accompanied the Greene King offerings.

I sampled the Nottingham Brewery Legend, which has a strong malty flavour. Far and away eclipsing the two ales I had had in the last pub. Next my day got the Hop blast I was waiting for with the Extra Pale, the hops not necessarily being extra strong but being brought to the fore by the subtle complimentary body of the ale. Finally I tasted Cock & Hoop which was not as prominently hopped as the Extra Pale and it brought in a more complex flavour with vanilla notes. My final drink in The Bell was a Greene King XX Mild. This beer was a lovely dark mild sweet and smooth to fully release the deep malt flavours. This was really drinkable and my glass was empty in super quick time.

The Bell Inn serving local beers

The last pub of the day was The Dragon which served Adnams Bitter and Broadside but is not an Adnams pub. Details of the pub can be found on their website, the place is quite small and narrow and reminded me a bit of Leeds’ North Bar. I opted first for a Broadside as it had recently been suggested against a post I had written about Old Hooky as a similar tipple.

Castle Rock, another local ale in Nottingham's pubs

I found the beer to be quite floral and light in flavour although quite heavy in texture and probably not a beer I would go back to as a ‘session ale’. I could therefore see the similarities suggested to Old Hooky, however I do not feel the flavours have the same rich spiciness. The final beer of the the day was to be a Castle Rock Brewery Harvest Pale. The Landlady told me that she sells a lot of this Blonde Beer, I can see why.  A little hoppy but very crisp and drinkable, especially when returning to a lighter beer from the Broadside. This would be a great way in for anyone looking to flirt with Hops or a quality session option for more Hop Hungry drinkers. It is also available bottled.

And so the diary was retired and evening bars were explored. It was great to have a day out somewhere different and explore the ales of the Nottingham area. Some of those that I tried weren’t to my taste and some were a joy to my taste buds. Writing about the day the main thing that comes to mind, and is very much to my taste, was the amount of locally produced ales available in Nottingham City Centre.  I would recommend a trail day out in Nottingham to any beer explorer, if my experience is anything to go by you won’t have to go far to get a flavour of the place.

Kent is his part of the country, and is somewhere I have never been, so it was almost guaranteed that most of these beers I would never have come across.

So here is what I received:

- Westerham Brewery’s Little Scotney IPA (4%)
- Harvey’s Star of Eastbourne East India Pale (6.5%)
- Hopdaemon Brewery’s Skrimshander IPA (4.5%)
- Whitstable Brewery’s Raspberry Wheat (5.2%)

- Westerham Brewery’s Little Scotney IPA

Little Scotney IPA is created using National Trust-grown hops which would suggest something of an overtly traditional pint. I couldn’t

Little Scotney: The National Trust hops are a little less traditional than you might anticipate

have been more wrong. The warm, malty scent is infused with a sharp fruitiness that intrigues, suggesting a beer that is stronger than its 4%. In the glass, the golden amber looks terrific.

The mouthfeel is extremely smooth and full-bodied; the fruitiness is pleasant on the tongue, whilst the hops are prevalent and really allowed to shine in this richest of flavours. The taste reminds me intently of one of my favourite IPA’s: Goose Island. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the flavour is the nearest I’ve come to finding a British equivalent to that beer.

The aftertaste flows back a lovely, warming bitterness that has a touch of ground coffee in the flavour. The long finish remains for some time; the satisfaction can be compared to a good Sunday lunch on a crisp wintry day – it’s that good!
This is a perfectly balanced ale in terms of the hops and malt. The flavour of all the ingredients can be savoured in every gulp whilst each brings something to the beer.

It is also a great advert for British beers. The traditional image of the National Trust and the careful, down-to-earth branding of the brewery make a neat little package that is thoroughly English but stands up to the brash, all-conquering American IPA’s. Definitely a beer I will seek to bring to the North at some point.

Harvey’s Star of Eastbourne East India Pale

Harvey’s are a company I have seen at a couple of beer festivals this year, although I can’t recall if I have sampled my next beer

Star of Eastbourne: A fruity taste sensation

swap offering: East India Pale. At 6.5%, it is stronger than the Scotney, something that was evident right from the moment the cap is flicked off.

The nose is extremely rich. Extremely sweet with grapes and apples particularly prevalent within the scent, all combining into a great looking dark amber colour.

The fruit remains in the flavour and does enough to prevent the higher level of the alcohol from taking over this factor of the beer. It is very sweet with the same flavours that were present in the nose (along with raisins being evident at this point), whilst the extremely full-bodied nature of the ale creates a combination that is a little sickly-sweet in the first taste for my liking.

There is a certain ‘softness’ to the mouthfeel that I find is common in more fruit-based beers, whist a slight bitterness in the aftertaste adds another interesting element to the experience.
And this beer can certainly be described as an experience. Right from beginning to end, new flavours and textures seem to explode at different parts of the glass. In all honestly, this was a little sweet for my liking (I don’t have a particularly sweet tooth in any sense), but I can’t deny that I was baffled with the beer for all the right reasons.

The key issue for me was the size of the bottle. At 500ml, I felt there was a little too large a sample for such a rich, flavourful beer. 330ml would have been perfect and would certainly encourage me to try this again; but such as it is, I would be likely to resist if I saw it on a shelf next to one of my old, comfortable favourites. A must for anyone who craves strong, fruity flavours, however.

Hopdaemon Skrimshander IPA

From a brewery named Hopdaemon, I was anticipating a hop attack from Skrimshander IPA. However, the scent was pleasant, warm and

Skrimshander: A must for the chocolate lover

malty, with a citrusy edge that suggested the presence of hops. The beer poured a lovely copper colour and was instantly appealing.

The lightest of carbonisation hits the tongue, and it is the hoppy side that hits the taste buds first, fairly refreshing with a certain warmth. It is the stunning milk chocolate aftertaste that makes this beer a true winner though. It is incredibly distinctive and isn’t too sweet as to kill off the dry, bitter finish that warms the throat lovingly in the way that only chocolate can.

This is a brilliantly balanced beer again, with none of the bitterness, sweetness and so on dominating any one element of the glass. It is interesting, tasty and intriguing all at the same time, which makes it a real winner for me.

Whitstable Brewery Raspberry Wheat

The title of Whitstable Brewery’s Raspberry Wheat beer was the bottle that interested me the least in terms of looking at the bottles (which

Raspberry Wheat: The clue really is in the title

is probably why I saved this until the end). Wheat beers and fruit beers are two styles that have somewhat baffled me in the past in terms of their appeal; although I would suggest that my early dislike of them has led me to instinctively avoid them from the shelf or the bar. However, this is what Beer Swap is all about: trying beers that you wouldn’t normally, so from this angle, I was quite excited to see if this was the ale to alter my mind about either or both these forms.

As expected, a fresh raspberry aroma is noticeable straight from opening, although a certain maltiness also blends into the nose. A deep, unusual reddish-amber colour is particularly cloudy, as expected from a wheat beer, whilst a particular liveliness creates a slightly off-white head.
The mouthfeel is very soft as a result of the dominant fruit, whilst there is a slight ‘dry’ raspberriness to the flavour that is supported by a warm, beer flavour. The beer disappears dramatically in the way that a dry wine does, a certain sharpness in the short, sudden finish.

This is an impact beer that will either be loved or hated in the first sip. But I would urge caution and don’t expect the feeling to last for the rest of the bottle. This didn’t really change my mind about fruit beers (that’s what I would describe as the predominant style of the two), but despite the initial shock of the dryness, I have to say that there is enough to keep it interesting as a glass of beer. I did begin to warm to it slightly and could imagine if fruit beers are your forte, then this could be a high-ranker for you!

Summary

My experience of trying the beer swap beers was everything I wanted it to be. Adventurous, exciting and experimental. Mark selected beers that clearly fit with his tastes, but achieved enough variety into them to make them individual. His hopheadedness was obvious in his choices of Little Scotney and East India Pale, but there is clearly a fruity side to his ‘beer personality’, and despite their differences, it was interesting to locate the similarities – subtle as they may be in some instances – to help me understand why Mark made this selection and why they were amongst his favourites.

Beer Swap provides a tremendous opportunity for beer writers and bloggers, remote as they may be from certain beer regions, to expand their palate and experience of the vast landscape of the British beer scene. From the brewers, to the bloggers and the readers and back again, surely this is truly an experiment that can only benefit all stakeholders in the industry.

I shall look forward to the first Beer Swap of 2010; in the meantime I’m going to find the best way to get hold of more Little Scotney!

Hooky Gold with a new green label

Andy over at Beerreviews.co.uk just posted the first review of the test #beerswap parcel that we exchanged a little while back. In it I packed four fine Oxfordshire (ish) ales including the fantastic Hooky Gold from Hook Norton Brewery.

I didn’t think anything of the Hooky Gold at the time, even admiring it’s shiny green label.

Until last night, when Alan popped over and we were chatting about the blog. We looked over at the original Hooky bottles that used to make up this our blog header, and noticed something odd – there was no Hooky Gold.

But of course there is! Hooky Gold was always in a red label with gold writing. Now the label is green!

When did this occur? How did we not notice?! We don’t mind Hooky, we like the green label, but when and why was it changed?!?!

Does anybody know?

Hooky Gold with a red label on our old beer bottle inspired blog header

Walking around the compact, but seemingly organised Leeds Brewery with co-founder Sam Moss, it’s easy to forget that the business has only been in existence for a touch over two years.

Situated on a light industrial estate not far from Leeds’ bustling centre, the brewery is the hub of an expanding local empire that now stretches to three pubs across the town centre as well as the modern and compact Leeds Brewery HQ. The team produces three permanent beers and twelve seasonal beers; one for each calendar month. The beers are on sale across the country and also in Leeds brewery’s three self-owned pubs in Leeds city centre.

The Leeds Brewery team

Being Leeds residents and big fans of the beers that the brewery makes, we jumped at the chance to take a day off work and visit our very own local brewers. Upon arrival the other half of the management, Michael Brothwell, was busy making an emergency keg delivery in the back of his Ford Fiesta, so it was down to Sam to take us round the modern set up…

Sam takes us through the mash tuns, coppers, fermentation tanks right to the conditioning tanks where the final brews are materialising, and we chat about beer and business the whole way round. Our first question was simple, where do you start when setting up a brewery?

Leeds Brewery Mash Tuns and Coppers

“We thought it would be a good idea to develop some beers,” says Sam. “We had decided that we would like a pale, medium and dark beer, as well as a weaker, medium and strong alcohol strength beer”.

The results were Leeds Pale, Leeds Best and Midnight Bell, three very drinkable pints that are perhaps less experimental than some of those produced by other fledgling breweries, and deliberately so.

“We had set out to sell beers. This meant that they had to be very drinkable. As well as this, we have worked hard to make the brewery as commercially viable as possible; creating a strong and trusted brand, immediately recognisable and trusted on the pumps at the bar in order to keep people coming back.

Whilst we wander around the building talking – the smell of mash and brew filling the air - it is clear that the brewery house is full of action today. The head brewer Venkatesh Iyer is laying out the casts ready to fill with a freshly fermented batch of Leeds Pale. “Venkatesh is probably the youngest head brewer in the country,” points out Sam with a hint of pride. “He’s great, certainly the youngest head brewer of an operation of this size”.

Leeds Brewery Mash Tuns

Our journey takes us from the stainless steel mash tuns and coppers, through to the polished and gleaming conditioning tanks Some of the vessels are imported from Germany because of course our European friends are the kings of precision engineering – quality vessels are required at this stage to ensure smooth surfaces and thus reduce the risk of yeast infection, which at this point in the process would be pretty devastating.

“We retain the yeast from each brew which means that it is ultimately unique to us. The life span of yeast used in this way is a fairly lengthy cycle, so it can be reused for a good period of time.

Leeds Brewery fermenting tanks

Whilst admiring the shiny vats Venkatesh begins filling the casks with fresh Leeds Pale, hurriedly switching the pipe from cask to cask. Ah yes, the beer.

Sam explains that Leeds Best is an all-British beer; the malt is sourced in Britain, the hops are sourced in Britain and of course the water is British. The team agrees that brewing an all-British product was important. But Midnight Bell and Leeds Pale spread the net slightly farther afield, with Pale using hops sourced from Slovenia.

Unique to all the Leeds beers is the yeast which they use. With each brew, the yeast – unique to the brewery – is retained. The process is one of top fermentation, technically, and the yeast can be captured from the top of each brew once fermentation is complete. The life span of yeast used in this way is a fairly lengthy cycle, so it can be reused for a good period of time.

One of the interesting aspects of the business model is the progression of the self-owned chain of pubs that are appearing across Leeds. The Brewery Tap , PIN, and The Midnight Bell are three modern pubs which stock the permanent cask ales, as well as a range of continental beers (bottled and tap) and guest casks from around the country. Each watering hole has it’s own personality and the system harks back to an age when Leeds acquired its grand Victorian pubs, in the days before Tetley’s moved in and took over the cities brewing and selling trade.

To put the brewing landscape of Leeds in perspective. Sam makes an interesting point that despite the huge Tetley brewery (now owned by the Carlsberg Group and scheduled for closure in 2011), there are very few, if any, competitive breweries in Leeds – one of the largest cities in the North of England.

When we first started looking at Leeds as a potential place to set up, we couldn’t believe that despite being known as ‘The Leeds Brewery’, no one at Tetley’s had thought to copyright that name. We thought we would step in and take the chance to create a good brand that takes pride in being associated with the city.”

Leeds Brewery is well on its way to becoming one of stars of the booming micro brewery scene. And soon enough they may be the only brewery left in the centre of Leeds, with the impending closure of the Tetley’s plant barely a mile away. Leeds Brewery’s physical size is dwarfed by the colossus of the beer giant, but there’s time for LB yet. The light industrial estate location might not scream authentic micro brewery, but Leeds modern brewing set up and quality ales more than make up for that.

The speed at which Leeds Brewery has established itself and its beers in Leeds and across Yorkshire is a sure sign of Sam and Michael’s determination to make their venture work. By creating a strong base of pubs and brewery, coupled with an understanding of how to create a modern brand in a rapidly-changing landscape, it is exciting to consider how far such a young brewery might go.

“One of the questions we had been ready to pose was one that was born from conflicting rumours we had heard circulating the local area, about the future of Midnight Bell – LB’s dark mild offering – as a bottled product.
Sam sadly confirmed that Midnight Bell wouldn’t be available in bottles any longer, but the good news is that it will be replaced by the more marketable on-trade bottles of Leodis (their premium lager) and Hell Fire (a fruity beer) the latter two both available in the 330ml sizes.”