King for a Day - brewing in North Yorkshire

Great Yorkshire Brewery

OK, I sell beer for a living, I like the shiny bottles, I like the clink the bottles make (by the way, two Wild bottles clinked together is the best clink in the business!!), I like dusting the bottles, I like the little fizz you get when the bottle cap is lifted before drinking...... I never wanted to be a brewer, I don't have the patience, I'm not into science, the beard....I don't have the beard!

.....but that all changed last week. Without a beard (just a two day growth as a nod to craftyness, but really my lazyness) I turned up in deepest North Yorkshire with brewing on my mind..... and loved it, really loved it.

Back in September 2013 I was a teacher and on my final tear filled day in the job my lovely colleagues at Barnsley College gave me a leaving gift, a voucher for a Brewing Day at Great Yorkshire Brewery in Cropton, just north of Pickering. Fast-forward nearly 12 months and here we are, I used the voucher last Wednesday and became a first time brewer.

Great Yorkshire Brewery have a lovely brewery tap, The New Inn at Cropton. After an early start I arrived just in time for a full on breakfast at 8.30am, great service, plenty of juice, toast, bacon and mushrooms...is this how all brewers start the day, no wonder most of them are tubby!! Head Brewer Alan joined me for a cuppa and a bacon roll and then he gave me the look, that 'are you ready to brew' look and I followed him down the path to the brewhouse.

Beer School

After a few hand-shakes Alan handed me over to Dave and that was it, me and Dave were the two man Great Yorkshire brewing team for the day. It was time to brew Great Yorkshire Classic (aka Cropton Two Pints until quite recently). Within just a few minutes we were staring into the mash tun as steaming hot water and malted barley poured in from above. Dave stared hard (like a boxer glaring, unblinkingly at his opponent), using his experience to watch the mash as it filled the gleaming container... we were looking for a soft liquid porridge type appearance and after a few adjustments of the flow from me, he gave the thumbs up, we had done it.... it was time to wait for nature to start its sweet magic.  

Used mash for the hungry piggies

During this first wait my lessons began, Alan spent time taking me through the brewing process, from the field to the pint pot - I learnt the lot, asked loads of questions and got well explained, easy to understand answers every time. Recent visits to study and brew in the USA had equipped Alan with an amazing amount of knowledge and he was happy to share it, great lessons!!

Back in the brewery we carefully twisted a few knobs and the sweet wort flowed into the copper and then the boil began. Again we had to wait, brewing certainly does involve lots of clock watching!! After a good boil it was time for the hops and these were added at various stages to offer bitterness and flavour to our brew. I also managed to dig out the used mash tun and after being told it should take me 10 minutes, Dave took great pleasure in reminding me that 15 minutes had passed..... but I'm thorough, you can't rush in a brewery.... the whole atmosphere and ethos just slows you down!!  

Pitching Yeast

After a heat-exchange cooling the hopped wort was transferred to the fermenting vessel (FV4) and not long after I was pitching yeast into the brew, taking very great care to be as clean and quick as possible during the process. Yeast doesn't like any surprises, it seemed that this was a particularly crucial part of the day! Our beer was left to ferment for a week, but my day was far from done.

Milling Barley with Art Brew John

After that I managed to squeeze in a session milling the following days barley with John from Art Brew, (a very clever brewer from the south west who is up in Yorkshire over the summer), I counted yeast cells through a microscope, recorded various data relating to PH, gravity and time and also managed to upload a few social media pics despite Cropton seeming to have no phone signal at all :-(

The final part of my day obviously involved a bit of research tasting, fruity Yorkshire Red Lager from the keg was followed by several moreish pints of cask Chocolate Orange Stout in the beer garden of the New Inn. All the team were there...Alan, Dave, John, Daz (logistics, they said he just moves stuff around the brewery), Shaun (the delivery van driver), Pete (think he liked to drive the fork lift) and a few village friends. The Great Yorkshire team is a great one, they made me feel incredibly welcome, showed passion for the job, and pride in their beer. They move into their new brewery soon and deserve all the success they will get.  

It was an excellent day and evening, I would do it again tomorrow and would recommend this to anyone with an interest in beer, you would enjoy an outstanding day..... I did.

You Fancy Another?

Sean
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Brew day costs £99 - click here for more details.