Brew-it-yourself

The tables turn on Sally Toms, as she gets a chance to be brewer for a day

There are a few perks of being editor of an illustrious magazine such as this.

Occasionally companies send me strange things in the post, like socks and olive oil (no I don’t understand it either), but my recent experience has to be one of the best.

As part of my ongoing beer education, those nice chaps at Everards invited me along to one of their Cask Ale Champion courses. The Leicestershire brewer is particularly passionate about educating its staff and pub folk about beer, and has set up its own training academy for this very purpose. Great idea, but the course is only open to licensees and employees which is a shame, because it may well be the only opportunity to brew-it-yourself in the world.

I tagged along with a small group of journalists including our very own Roger P. Quality assurance manager Mark Tetlow, and head brewer Graham Giblet spent a few hours in the morning talking us through the basics. Then, they let us have it: “Off you go then, design a beer.” I’m sure there was a certain amount of pleasure to be had in turning the tables on the journos: “Slag my beer off in your natty newspaper will you? Let’s see you try it.” I, at least, have perfected the art of looking like a rabbit in the headlights.

The possibilities were overwhelming...

think about it – if you could only make one beer, what style would you choose?

I’d spent all day trying to think of a name, I barely had time to consider what I’d want it to taste like.

Roger-I-love-IPA-Protz pitched for an authentic version of the style and we all agreed. We tried to convey to Mark and Graham what we wanted – and the real skill of a brewer was revealed as they helped us put our idea down on paper.

“What you want,” they said, “Is 175 kilos of pale ale malt, and 10 kilos of aromatic barley malt. No, that’s too much. Better make it five kilos.” We aimed for 5.5%ABV and 40 units of bitterness, therefore we needed a whole lotta hops, achieved by a 50:50 combo of Fuggles and Styrian Goldings, together with a late hop of Northdown Goldings.

The beer would even be dry hopped with Cascade for that extra floral hoppiness.

The planning done, we moved off to the brewhouse at the Brunswick Inn, Derby – a holy place for beer lovers, visit if you can.

From milling to mashing to pitching the yeast at the end of the day, we did it all (under supervision of course). I’d always quite fancied myself as a brewer, but quickly learnt there’s not much glamour in the job. There’s a lot of splashing around in puddles holding spanners. Put that pipe on there, take that one off there. Climb inside there.

Stick your head inside that copper and fill these sacks with those hops.

Late in the day, I was knee deep in steaming hot mash, scooping it over the sides of the tun into a bucket (but getting most of it all over the floor), when it occured to me... this is bloody brilliant!

People would pay good money for this experience – brewers are definitely missing a trick.

The beer? It was called First Edition and went on sale in a few Everards pubs soon after. I hope people liked it.

If not, I’ll have to have another go...

Please?

By Sally Toms

Section : From the Editor

Page number : 5