Posts Tagged ‘west yorkshire’
Ossett Brewery, West Yorkshire
Posted on: October 4, 2013
I popped over to Ossett earlier today for a chat with head brewer Paul, I’d been tweet-chatting off and on with @PaulSpencer1973 of Ossett Brewery, for a while so asked if it would be ok to come over and have a look around. Ossett Brewery was started in 1997 and Paul has been brewing there for 13 years, their current brew-kit came from a cider brewery in Sweden and is 40BBL in size.
As well as being a brewer with a passion for beer & brewing at Ossett, Paul also oversees three other Microbreweries under the Ossett group, quite a task!
The Copper & Grist case (Malt Hopper):
Another shot of the copper:
Ossett have 3 different types of fermenting vessel, 9 in total if my memory serves:
A slightly blurry shot of the mash Tun and underback:
Three of the Fermenters made by Moeschle:
The Mash Tun was just about to be dug out from the first of todays brews:
Their cask washing area:
This is their Microdat cask filler, it can cope with 80-casks per hour, and doses both Finings Adjunct (Auxiliary Finings) and Isinglass Finings:
This is the conditioning room at Ossett, quite a line-up of vessels, these are also made by Moeschle:
The very front left of this shot is their Isinglass tank where they mix and store it:
I took a few home-brewed beers for Paul hope he enjoys them and got a few back from him:
Do check out their website and their funky little promo vid.
It was interesting to find out that our own Head Brewer/Owner ‘Tony Gartland’ at Saltaire Brewery actually did some work experience at Ossett back when he was training at BrewLab before starting his own brewery.
Its been good meeting Paul and some of the guys and thanks very much for taking the time to show me round, Cheers
- In: Brewing
- 2 Comments
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:
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 🙂
Magic Rock Brewing Co.
Posted on: November 11, 2011
- In: Brewing
- 4 Comments
One of Huddersfield’s newest breweries is Magic Rock , Rich is the boss who you might already know of from myBrewerytap, Stu is Head Brewer (Famed for eating Pork Pies on Youtube), recent addition is Scott the Drayman.
I’m not going to waffle on about Magic Rock too much when there is a great article in the Independent by Will Hawkes.
Needless to say, Magic Rock are brewing some stunningly excellent beers with my current personal favourite being ‘Highwire’ a thoroughly hop-forward & dry-hopped mouth coating loveliness of a beer.
The brewery was built and installed by www.malrexfabrication.co.uk who, as you can see from the following photos, have done a very professional job.
Its a bugger of a job making a Glass & Bottle look good with a torch in the kitchen!
From Left to right and anti-clockwise, Mash Tun, Bottom of Copper, Hopback:
I’m sure on the inside there is a sticker that says ‘Caution – Hop Surface’:
Bottoms of two conical fermenters:
The long-legged gas-fired Copper boiler:
Wort flow sight-glass and pipework, wort from the mash tun is re-circulated for clarity before being pumped to the copper:
Stu & Scott preparing the ‘Curious NZ’ hops for the Hopback:
Top of the copper:
Fermenter top hatch:
Another angle of the copper, through the plastic flaps is the Malt Loft; you can just see the grist case which is above the mash tun downstairs:
Filling the Hopback with lots of lovely whole-leaf hops:
Obligatory Sight Glass shot:
Two of the other fermenters, front filled with tasty Imperial Stout and the back has RockStar (the MagicRock & DarkStar collaboration brew):
Check them out on Twitter…
@MagicRockBrewCo @MagicRockRich @MagicRockStu @MagicRockScott @MagicRockJonny
Thanks for talking the time out of your day to let me take photos and talk beer ‘n brewing, it was good to hear Stu’s alternate views on yeast. I’m sure I learned a few things from you all 🙂
Mallinsons Brewery, Huddersfield
Posted on: October 21, 2011
Today I drove the 50-or-so minutes over to see Tara & Elaine at Mallinsons Brewery in Huddersfield.
If you’ve never heard of or had a Mallinsons beer you’ll be sure to enjoy them as they make some really well balanced beers, nothing too mental and they hit a lovely hoppy-middle-ground… Something like the Beer equivalent of the Goldilocks-Zone.
Have a look down their rather long list of brewed beers on their website & Check the brewery installation photos too.
Out of their beers I’ve had they have always been superb, bags of flavour & aroma, and a nice amount of body, and all hand-filled & bottled-conditioned (even veggie & vegan friendly) and they even sacrifice their office space to lovingly warm condition them before a cold conditioning phase.
Tara and Elaine started life as school teachers, Before starting the brewery Tara was experimenting with small homebrew batches making beer with Malt Extract & Hops before doing a 3-4 day Brewlab course and a Mossbrew course, then the first brew was done with David Porter… after that they were in at the deep end! Doing 2 brews per week was all that one person could manage with sales / racking and deliveries, during this time Elaine was still working in her old job to help pay Tara a wage while the business found its feet. I think they’ve found their feet now and the all girl team is now three strong with Elaine now brewing too (When Tara is not around!).
They now brew four times per week to keep up to demand, a success story from Homebrewer to well respected commercial Microbrewery.
Here are a few snaps of the brew-house, this is the 6-Barrel Copper – Mash Tun – Hot Liquor Tank, all wood-clad / built & installed by David Porter:
Another view of the kit:
The 4 Stainless steel Fermenting vessels:
Sterilised bottles ready to be filled:
The simplistic approach to hand bottling, straight from un-fined casks, I thought it would be a bit more technical than this so its nice to see things kept simple & straight forward:
Thanks again for taking the time to talk to me about brewing and process, it is always very nice to see how others work. 🙂
- In: Brewing
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Yesterday I took the short trip over to Elland Brewery, West Yorkshire to meet Gordon the head-brewer for a proper chat after our first brief initial meeting at work (Saltaire Brewery). Elland use the same original Thwaites brewery yeast as we do at Saltaire.
The Mash Tun & Fermenters:
Gordon’s enthusiasm and excitement for brewing beer is very obvious and I thoroughly enjoyed a good few hours of nattering with him, tasting a few from their retained samples, and looking round their 10 Barrel Brew House.
My personal favourite sample was his Brewers Reserve which he’d dry hopped with New Zealand Motueka hops (Though not available in the shops, this was just an experiment) yummy stuff.
Gordon tells me that the plant originally came from one of the Firkin Brew-Pubs, with its all wood cladding and copper-domed boil kettle. He has a lot more technical know-how than myself with his Chemistry background, and is really got a handle on the entire brewing process with accurate process measurement and documentation and good practice procedure.
Gordon and the guys from Elland are not doing too shabby with their recent SIBA awards for the 1872 Porter, getting the 2010 Winter Gold and the 2011 National Gold. You’ve gotta love a full complex dark beer!
Mash tun to the front with valentine, Copper boiler behind with Fermenters to the left:
The Man himself with his FV’s:
Hopefully Gordon is enjoying my Home brewed beers I left with him, you can catch up on his Tweets @GJMcKiernan
Old Spot Brewery – Cullingworth
Posted on: November 4, 2009
Today I helped make award winning real ale at the ‘Old Spot Brewery’ in Cullingworth near Keighley.
They have recently Won the Leicester Beer Festival with a Gold for Spot O’ Bother which was also a 1st in the Porter/Stout category.
Please check their beers out when you see them 
http://www.oldspotbrewery.co.uk
The brew is a pretty hoppy and mainly pale malt with some wheat, name yet to be decided.
Chris has a relaxed attitude to brewing and there’s nothing complex in his brewing process, knowing his process and customers tastes gives him plenty of room to experiment within his brewing experience in creating new ales.
Here’s a Few snaps from today:
The Brewery, Mashtun in front, Boiler back left and HLT’s at the right:
The 2 elements inside the boiler:
FV’s:
FV’s being cleaned and sterilised:
Sparging, Grains were Optic Malt and Wheat Malt:
Weighing out the hops, Todays hops were Fuggles for Bittering, Golding, Willamette & Fuggles for flavour/aroma:
Used hops in the boiler:
I’ve just drunk a bottle of a dark Mild Chris gave me which is well balanced and chocolaty, another bottle of something light is waiting for after though I forget what he called it. They don’t normally bottle their beers as they stick to dealing direct with pubs.
Probably Due To Network Congestion 
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