Probably Due To Network Congestion

Yesterday a bunch of Leeds Home Brewers paid a visit to Ilkley Brewery where we were given a detailed tour by Director Chris Ives and sampled quite a bit of their Rhubarb Saison which was on draft.
The brewery equipment, a major investment, was manufactured by Moeschle in Germany and installed by ABACUS Fabrications, Halifax.
The brewery currently consists of 5x 20BBL fermenters & one 30BBL conical DPV (dual purpose vessel), along with mash tun and copper of the same capacity, we hear that further expansion is planned too with lots of interesting beery ideas too 🙂

The Brewery is situated at the bottom of Ashlands Road in Ilkley:

Its a modern compact industrial unit:

Due to space constraints their Mash Tun sits directly on top of the Hot Liquor Tank, Chris explained that this caused some issues initially while getting used to the new equipment as heat from the HLT was warming the Mash Tun and making the mash hotter near the bottom of the Mash-bed:

Chris talking to Pete @pchindle at the bar, most of Ilkley’s beers are fermented using the Thwaites strain of yeast a very popular strain for many northern Microbreweries, their Saison is obviously not Thwaites yeast, it is instead fermented with yeast from Dupont:

A couple of their 20 barrel fermenting vessels:

Rob @Hopzine chatting to Matt @braukerl with the 30 Barrel DPV (Dual Purpose Vessel) in the background which was hissing away venting co2 while it fermented more Rhubarb Saison, above is the Malt Loft & Grist Case (Malt hopper), malt is transferred to the Mash tun via an Auger and Hydrated as it flows into the tun, if my memory serves they mash in at a ratio of 2.6-2.8 litres of liquor to every kilogram of malt and vary their mashing temperatures and liquor treatment for the type of beer they are brewing:

@Hopzine @Boodrums @Markh991

Myself, Ian @lugsy51, Matt @braukerl with his GF’s father sniffing beer… as we do:

More Beer Geekery now with @Broadfordbrewer:

I’m sure we all really appreciate Chris going out of his way to host a very interesting tour and taking the time to explain their brewing equipment and process, its nice to hear the commitment and excitement he brings to one of our most progressive (yet still traditional) local breweries.
Lets hope they enjoy judging our homebrewed competition entries, someone could be the proud winner of a Brewday at Ilkley, entries must be in by the 14th July – Leedshomebrew.blogspot.co.uk

Thanks for a great day and plentiful Siberia Rhubarb Saison!! 🙂

Photo Credits are all thinks to my Wife 🙂