The trip northward was relatively uneventful with the exception of a surprisingly busy A1 and a couple of small detours caused by slightly confusing Google directions (what a surprise) but, after approximately 3 hours, we arrived safely at our destination, the village of Cropton, just outside the market town of Pickering. Cropton is a small village on the edge of the North York Moors National Park with a population of around 254 according to the 2001 census. The village includes the site of a former Norman motte and bailey castle on Round Hill and is also the site of a set of Roman training camps. On the edge of the village, by the side of the road is the New Inn.
Upon arrival, I pulled into the large car park and went inside, introduced myself to the bar maid and explained that I was there to stay for the weekend. In a change from normal holiday routine, I was not actually staying at the pub, which caters for B&B customers but was instead camping in a nearby field owned by the pub and provided for the purpose for the small sum of £5 per person per night. Relocating the car to the campsite, I set about assembling my brand new 4 person tent which was made significantly easier by a practice attempt before I left home. Sadly, I was without the accompanying airbed at this stage as I accidentally broke the foot pump whilst attempting to inflate it. By the time the tent was up, I was desperate for a beverage and made my way back to the pub where the ale selection is strictly provided by the brewery that sits behind the trees at the bottom of the car park, on land that was reclaimed from a quarry. The brewery was known as Cropton Brewery from 1984 until last year when it became, locally at least, The Great Yorkshire Brewery and this name is across all of the available beer pumps. The brewery does a varied selection of ales as well as its own lager and cider. I decided that it was only fair to start working my way along the bar from one side to the other and started with Pale, followed by Golden and Blonde. I was soon introduced to Alan, the head brewer, who informed me that I was the only person taking part on the brewing day! Fine with me! He also gave me some general health and safety advice and instructions to meet him back at the pub for breakfast the following morning. He was a very pleasant, very knowledgeable man and I was very excited to meet him and brew beer with someone who clearly knew what he was doing! I was hungry by this stage and decided that food was required. After some moments of discussion, I opted for the Steak and Ale Pie. The food was delicious and well worth the price tag! Thoroughly stuffed, I just about had room for a pint of Blackout, the brewery's own porter, 5%, with flavours of chocolate and coffee, surprisingly heavy but delicious. It just about tipped me onto the side of tipsy and it was at about this point that I decided to retire to my berth for the night. This proved to be a good decision as the heavens then decided to open!
After a rather cold night's sleep that was occasionally interrupted by the sounds of various wildlife, in particular disconcerting screams from the nearby pig farm, I awoke with a few minutes to spare until breakfast. Making my way sleepily to the pub, I was soon joined by Alan.. During the obligatory full English, Alan and I discussed the brewing industry, the British hop shortage and a number of other things that would turn out to be wholly relevant as the day went on. Following breakfast, it was soon time to get to work and Alan led the way to the brewery at the end of the beer garden.
Alan gave me a quick history of the brewery, which moved to a bigger building in 2006 after the original building (now used for storage) became too crammed to cope with demand. The current building is already full to capacity so a third building is being planned nearby to cope with the sheer volume of beer required. Whilst being walked around the vicinity, I was introduced to other members of the brewing team: Dave, Alan's number 2 in the brewery; Pete, Dave's brother who is largely in charge of brewing lager and kegging the products, and Daz who deals with bottling and maintains the almost fully automated bottling machine. The team is small but very close knit and they certainly know their stuff, evidenced almost immediately when Alan showed me the equations to calculate the strike temperature of the particular beer I'll be helping with. Strike temperature is the temperature at which the malt is added to the water. I knew I was going to learn a lot but the sheer volume of knowledge I obtained was phenomenal. Straight away, Alan explained the importance of using the same water in each brew to maintain both the quality and consistency of the beer. The 3 main things that need to be exactly right every time are temperature, pH and water. The slightest variation in water content or purity can severely affect the quality of the product and everything is done to ensure that this is maintained.
My first task of the day is to ensure that the water in the copper reaches the right temperature for the malt required. Whilst we waited for the water to reach the boil, I was given a tour around the rest of the brewery where I got see how much machinery and piping is actually involved. It became apparent that a lot of the brewing process is cleaning, as water is constantly being drained from one vessel and flushed into another or used to hose down vessels that are not currently in use. After an hour or so, the water had finally reached the required boil and the next stage was adding the malt, important in the brew for adding bitterness and consistency. We used a number of malts in the brew, with an emphasis on caramalt and crystal malt but with small quantities of some others added in to provide a roasted aroma and flavour. This was added to the second vessel in the process, the mash tun, into which the boiling water from the copper was pumped whilst the malt was dropped into it from the hopper above. Once the malt had been completely added, the important thing was to keep the temperature at 75C as this was the optimum heat needed to allow the compounds in the malt to activate. Whilst this was going on, we occasionally had to spray the malt-water mixture ('mash') with more water from a metal bar attached to the roof of the mash tun. This washes down between the malt grains to ensure all of the possible enzymes have been enabled. The important I learned about malt is that the stage at which the germination is halted is critical. The malt is allowed to mature to the point where it is just about to sprout and then the germination process is killed off to ensure that the enzymes within the grains are not used up. The process of washing the malt inside the mash tun is known as 'sparging' and incorporates the sparge arm which is rotated slowly for a few minutes at a time. During this process the mixture was sampled every 15 minutes. This allowed to taste the change in flavour as the sugar molecules started to develop. The mixture was then tested in a saccharometer which calculated the exact number of sugar molecules in the brew. The mixture is then cooled down and the pH is measured and recorded. Together these two values allow the specific gravity of the beer to be predicted. This is pivotal to obtaining the correct ABV for the final concoction. The thing about brewing that surprised me is that the brew is carried out with the desired ABV already in mind so that conditions can be carefully monitored to reach the target value. The mash is allowed to mix in the tun for approximately 2 hours before the next stage can begin.
The next part of the process involves adding the hops inside the hop kettle, with yet more water. But first, it is important to work exactly what percentage of each particular hop to add. I'd never done hop calculations before but they were easier than I expected. I was planning on adding 3 hops to the brew and Alan spent some time explaining how hop calculations work and what function each hop has in the mixture. First up was Brewer's Gold hops, a change from the regular recipe, as it would normally be First Gold, a British grown hop from the same family. The Brewers Gold provides the distinctive sweetness of the brew. The second hop on my list was American Cascade hops, which help to bring out the rounded fruit flavours throughout. Finally Styrian Bobek hops were added to flesh out the fruity aroma. The importance of adding hops is ensuring firstly that the ratios of hops are correct with relation to each other and, secondly, that they are added at the correct time so that the particular sugars can react for the required length of time to fulfil their role. In this case, the hops were added at 10 minutes, 45 and 55 minutes and then left to brew for another hour. Whilst this was happening I got to carry out the most physical part of the day: clearing out the mash tun. Armed with nothing but a snow shovel I had to lift out all of the used up malt, made all the more difficult by the fact that the floor was wet and that the copper was close enough to the mash tun that it severely restricted my arm room. However, the task was soon complete and my arms were sufficiently aching.
We next needed to ensure that the fermenter was properly sterilised. The danger of not doing this properly is that bacteria inside the vessel can have an adverse effect on the yeast that is used to produce the alcohol. It wasn't long before there was water all over the place as we successfully hosed down both inside and outside the fermenter and sterilised with a special compound to prevent any unwanted colonies of yeast from growing inside. Then it was time to correct the hose that would pump the hop-malt mixture from the hop kettle to the fermenter. It would take a fair while for all of the liquid to be moved from one vessel to another so, whilst we waited, we made an attempt to clean up the copious amounts of water that were somehow accumulating everywhere and used the opportunity to sample some of the brewery's other offerings as there was a fair amount of bottling going on at the same time and some bottle required 'control testing'. With the brewery clean and relatively dry for the time being, our next job was to prepare the yeast. This was done by using a specific strain that the brewery use for all of its beers and exposing it to small amounts of the eventual brew for a few minutes. This allows the organisms in the yeast to acclimatise to the conditions in which they will eventually be growing. It is this process that causes beer to be developed as yeast feeds off of sugar and creates ethanol as a natural byproduct.
After a time frame of approximately an hour and 20 minutes, all of the processed sugar solution, at this stage known as 'wort' had been transferred to the fermenter. The yeast was added, the fermenter door was closed and the beer was now being safely developed. It would stay in the fermenter for 7 days which means that, at the time of writing, it should be ready! I was thoroughly impressed with the day I'd had and more than happy with my present! With business down for the day, we retired to the break area for a couple of beers and I got to try a pre-made bottle of the beer I'd brewed. It was delicious, with honey flavours, fruity aromas and a dry, smooth, hoppy finish. I was thoroughly impressed with the day as a whole; both the hospitality and effort of the guys at the brewery was second to done and it's clear that they clearly love and enjoy what they do. They're certainly very very good at it and it's no surprise that the beer is in such high demand, even as far as Japan where a third large order has just been dispatched. They're certainly not afraid to sample the fruits of their labours and they joined us back at the pub for a few beers, which was certainly unexpected, although it did give me a chance to try a couple of beers that I'd missed out on the previous evening, in particular Chocolate Orange and the still Cropton-branded Monkman's Slaughter, a 6% strong, dark bitter with a malty finish and a strong bitter flavour. It was delicious but didn't quite agree with me. I spent a lot of time over the rest of the weekend thinking about everything and I admit to feeling a bit overwhelmed with the sheer quantity of knowledge I've obtained as a result of this trip.
It had been an amazing weekend despite that though and gave me tons to think about and consider for when I finally get around to brewing my own stuff at home. I never realised how much science, and certainly how much maths, is involved in brewing the perfect beer but it is obvious to me now that doing things properly and consistently is the name of the game to ensure that the quality of the beer remains at its highest. Water, malt, hops and yeast, treated and perfect in exactly the right way, all combine to make beer a thing of beauty. Brewing isn't just a job or a hobby or a skill. It's an art and I feel truly privileged to have been a part of it. The following day saw an improvement in the weather and I used this as an opportunity to visit the town of Whitby and its beautiful ruined abbey and fantastic heritage, all of which inspired us to join English Heritage in the process, before I headed back to the pub and the tent for my last night in the wilds of Bronte country. I can honestly say that this was one of the best, most fun and most rewarding weekends that I've ever experienced. It's certainly inspired me to further my own skills and hopefully create something as amazing as the beer that I helped to brew at one of Britain's most up and coming breweries. A big thank you to everyone at The New Inn and The Great Yorkshire Brewery for a fantastic time and a wealth of skills and experience, not to mention a weekend, that I won't forget in a hurry!
Normal pub trip/beer festival related service will be resumed this weekend! Get to the bar!
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