Yesterday I was at Hook Norton Brewery to brew a beer for our wedding in a couple of weeks.
Absolutely incredible day, as much from a brewing interest point of view but also because of the fantastic hospitality from the Hook Norton team.
We used their microbrewery kit, to brew 737 litres (4.5 barrels) of a 4.2% pale ale that is going to have a decent malt back bone but plenty of citrus and floral hop flavours and aromas to give it a nice refreshing, summer vibes.
A few photos of the day are attached, along with a copy of the brew sheet.
Specific things of interest that I picked up throughout the day:
Absolutely incredible day, as much from a brewing interest point of view but also because of the fantastic hospitality from the Hook Norton team.
We used their microbrewery kit, to brew 737 litres (4.5 barrels) of a 4.2% pale ale that is going to have a decent malt back bone but plenty of citrus and floral hop flavours and aromas to give it a nice refreshing, summer vibes.
A few photos of the day are attached, along with a copy of the brew sheet.
Specific things of interest that I picked up throughout the day:
- The overall process that we followed on the two-vessel system is essentially identical to that I use on a Grainfather. 60 minutes mash, sparge, 60 minutes boil, 30 minute hop stand at 80degC, etc.
- The brewery water is from a nearby spring. AMS and salts are added as needed to hit the right mash pH.
- Whole leaf hops are used for almost all hot side additions (we didn't use any pellets but apparently they can use a small amount mixed in with whole leaf). This is mostly for filtration reasons.
- The 60 minute boil addition is added before the full boil is reached (~92degC). This is partly to prevent over-foaming but apparently also provides smoother bitterness and can help head retention (no protein lost due to the foam).
- They use their own house yeast that is apparently a Whitbread strain. Propagated on site and used for up to 10-12 generations. We were lucky enough to be using a first generation that had 95% viability.
- Despite the high viability and it being a first generation yeast, plenty of yeast nutrients and oxygen was added to ensure a healthy fermentation.
- Yeast was pitched during run-in from the kettle to the fermenter. Will ferment at ~20degC for about 7 days before being casked/bottled. We will be drinking this beer 16 days after brewing so it's a fairly quick turnaround.
- Mashing in 128kg of malt is a lot harder than mashing in ~5kg and the old adage about brewing being mostly cleaning is very much true!
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