Stu's Brews x Hook Norton Brew Day!

[Stu's Brews]

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:

• 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!

If people have questions I'll do my best to remember what I can - there was also a lot of beer drunk!

 

[Sadfield]

Fun day. Congrats.

Did you get the joy of digging out the mash tun?

 

[Stu's Brews]

Fun day. Congrats.

Did you get the joy of digging out the mash tun?

Yep, that was one of the jobs for us. All going to a local farmer for animal feed.

 

[YeastFace]

Looks fantastic. I stopped there for a few beers last year but would like to go back for a tour.

How did you arrange this?

 

[Stu's Brews]

Looks fantastic. I stopped there for a few beers last year but would like to go back for a tour.

How did you arrange this?

They offer a 'Brew Your Own' day as part of their wedding package. However, from talking to them yesterday it sounds like you can also arrange one if you want to brew a beer for your own event.

Included in the day is the brew itself, a tour of the main brewery, along with breakfast and lunch from their malthouse kitchen and seemingly as much beer as you'd like to sample from the bar.

We'll be getting a 72-pint firkin and 50 bottles (with personalised pump clips/labels) and then have the option to request more as needed.

 

[Agentgonzo]

That sounds like a fantastic day! Was it your own recipe or one of theirs?

 

[Agentgonzo]

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).

Interesting! Sounds like an almost first wort hop that people have said also gives a smoother bittering. I might try that on the next brew.

 

[Stu's Brews]

That sounds like a fantastic day! Was it your own recipe or one of theirs?

I gave them a starting point in terms of the profile of the final beer (a 4-4.5% pale ale with some light biscuit and caramel malt character and floral/citrus hops) along with some suggestions on hops I'd like to use.

They came up with the grist and boil hop profile. The grist was actually very close to what I had brewed previously as a trial beer, the only significant difference being the addition of some amber malt. The boil hop profile was fairly similar too, except that they swapped around the Cascade and Admiral additions, as they apparently find Admiral to be a bit harsh if used early in the boil.

The aroma hops (hop stand and dry hop) were then selected jointly after some hop rubbing. We ended up going for Citra, Mosaic and Cascade. The Citra was very fresh from Yakima Chief so was just too good to turn down!.

At some point I will attempt to brew the same recipe at home.

 

[Sandimas]

Fantastic! Did a brewery tour there many years ago.

Interesting to see the detail behind their brewing process e.g. whole hops, AMS addition. I'd be interested in how vigorous the boil was: just a rolling boil or full-on?

 

[Stu's Brews]

Fantastic! Did a brewery tour there many years ago.

Interesting to see the detail behind their brewing process e.g. whole hops, AMS addition. I'd be interested in how vigorous the boil was: just a rolling boil or full-on?

It was a full-on vigorous boil for an hour (or just over in our case as they round up to the nearest 5 minutes on the clock to know when to stop the boil),

 

[Sandimas]

Thanks, another local brewery (Uley) state that they do a vigorous boil too. I often wonder if us homebrewers do too gentle a boil.

 

[Madhouse]

Went there the day before the stable fire, Mrs M spent the morning with the Shires and I did the tour.

Didn't get much of a chance to nose around the pilot kit, is it open fermented too? Also, if you don't take all 737L of beer, what do they do with it?

 

[Stu's Brews]

Went there the day before the stable fire, Mrs M spent the morning with the Shires and I did the tour.

Didn't get much of a chance to nose around the pilot kit, is it open fermented too? Also, if you don't take all 737L of beer, what do they do with it?

Pilot kit is in closed conical fermenters rather than the traditional open ones used in the main brewery.

We're currently planning on serving 80L (2 x 72 pint firkins) on the wedding day, with another 50L going into bottles. If people are very thirsty (bearing in mind the bars will have a range of other Hook Norton beers on too) then we can buy another firkin to keep people going.

The remaining beer will be going on the bars at the brewery and in their local pubs. Don't worry no beer will be going to waste!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Looks like a great day, well jealous!

 

[Deadhead]

So very cool!