I'd been in contact
with Paul, one of the founders and the brewer at Anspach &
Hobday. I think I might have mentioned that they make one of the best
porters around, if not, I can assure you they do, trust me. I managed
to talk to them about letting me into their fine establishment and
helping them out.
The day came but I'd
poorly organised it meaning I had to get there from my parents early
in the morning, during rush hour. The brewery is in Bermondsey,
London. If you've ever heard of the Bermondsey mile, this place is
either the first point of call or the last depending on how you look
at it. For those who haven't heard of it or had the chance to take
part, the 'Bermondsey Mile' is a pub crawl along more or less one
road visiting some of the top breweries in London. I am unlucky
enough to not have been able to take part as I tend to work Saturday
and Sunday, actually I work every weekend.
My train ticket cost me
just over £22. A price so high someone suffering from vertigo would
have more than likely passed out. I mentally caught myself, just in
time before I shat myself. After surviving what could have been a
minor major incident, I boarded the train and was on my way. Stuffed
into the giant sardine tin with a crotch in my face for the entire
duration of the journey.
I bought the wrong
bloody ticket and could only use it on zone 1 of London's fare zoning
system. This little hiccup meant that rather than getting the train
to Bermondsey I had to get off at London Bridge. I was very early so
it really didn't make any difference to me if it took two minutes or
half an hour.
Well, being half an
hour early was a bit silly. One never wants to come across as too
eager. I walked off in a direction away from the brewer in search of
somewhere to find a coffee and pass the time, it was then that I
bumped into Paul, the brewer.
He escorted me inside
and took me up to the office. I was introduced to Jack, I think he is
in charge of the business side of the operation. We had a brief chat
while Paul made some coffee. I wasn't sure how to behave, I didn't
know any of these guys but they were so welcoming and friendly that I
soon settled in and it was soon time to make some beer.
IPSaison was the beer
we would be brewing, along with bottling a whole batch of Pale and
labelling various other batches.
I got stuck right in,
grabbing in bags of malts from the grain store and the other
ingredients we needed for the brew. I weighed out the malts from the
brew sheet and the hops when the time came.
Stirring the malt into
the hot liquor is hard work, really hard. I suppose it makes me sound
like a bit of a wimp but it was my first time stirring in over 100 kg
or malt into about 300 litres of hot liquor. It is like they say,
mixing a big old bowl of porridge. Part of this stage involved
stirring around with the paddle, seeking out and obliterating the
'cakes' often large clumps of malt that cling together minimising the
surface area resulting in a less efficient extraction process.
After every last cake
had been destroyed it was ready to be covered and left to let the hot
water do its thing for about an hour.
There was no time to
relax, we had to sterilise bottles, dry them, do some labelling and
packaging. Then once the sterilised bottles had been dried, we had to
fill them with the primed pale. It all added up to a good and
productive days work.
An alarm sounded
signifying to us that the mash was complete ans it was time to sparge
and transfer the wort (the sugary hot water solution) over to the
brew kettle where it is brought to the boil and the hops and
sometimes over ingredients are added. The wort was first recirculated
over the malt and then sparged with the remainder of the hot liquor.
This was to help wash off any sugars that are potentially still
clinging to the malts. It partially dilutes the overall wort but also
increases the overall efficiency of the extraction.
As the wort slowly made
its way to the kettle and covered the elements and was turned on to
bring it to the boil, I weighed out the hops that we would be using.
Turning the heating elements on as so as they are covered allows the
water to come to a steady boil as quickly as possible.
Bottling isn't all that
bad, with some tunes in the background and a small amount of time to
get used to it, you soon find a rhythm and it flies by. I'm not
saying that it is fun but eventually it becomes just another function
of life that happens as if by auto pilot, without us being really
conscious of its happening. This frees you up to focus on more
important like the bacteria 'Brettanomyces' quite literally taking
over the world. It is everywhere, floating around us as we think,
speak and breath, not just in the soured beers we drink.
Steam starts blowing
out of the rudimentary chimney. It's ready for the first addition of
hops. A timer is set to remind us to add the next batch as we get
back to bottling.
Over 1000 bottles
filled, a couple hundred labelled, all of them packed. With the brew
nearing completion, we are almost ready for a well deserved beer.
On the wall in the
brewery tap room/bar area were several taps. Some of which I'd not
tried or even seen around. A Sour, a Peated Gose (I'm told it's
pronounced Go-Za), Galaxy Saison and a beer I'm told is a total pain
to make, the Cream Ale. I wanted to try them all, so I did.
I started with the
Pale, as I'd had it before I knew it was going to be good. I jumped
onto the Cream Ale I had a few varieties when I was in Toronto,
Canada, years ago but as it was so long I couldn't remember anything
about them or what they even were. I don't quite understand the style
so think I need to try it again, or at least discuss them so I can
generate an informed opinion.
The next beer that
filled my glass was something that I think had literally changed my
life. I'm sure the cliché of 'love at first sight' is overused to
the point that it is rendered meaningless and stupid but in this
instance it was love at first smell. Galaxy and I will be together,
we must be together or at least I'm going to use it in my next pale.
Never have I ever fallen in love with a hop. With a holiday in
Australia just around the corner, the prospect of trying many,
possibly too many pales hopped with Galaxy was enough to arouse me,
in a non sexual way obviously.
I had the Sour and the
Peated Gose which was a bizarre and unsettling mouth feel. It was
light, but felt as if it filled your entire mouth and was
surprisingly refreshing for such a salty and slightly smoked beer.
With the White Coffee Milk Stout on, I could not not have one. Before
I left I finished the session on another Galaxy Saison. I won't even
try and describe it, just try it, it has changed my life forever.
The hard almost back
breaking work of the day was remarkably rewarding, especially when it
ends in a beer tasting.
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