A Light Under A Bushel - #ISBF6 Collab at Tom's Tap & Brewhouse
Hey
I’m one of the silent ones. One of the ones that you never really get to see or hear. At least, not in the preamble to ISBF. At the event, you might know me as the dude behind the keg bar. Tweaking stuff to make your beer perfect. On point. As expected. This isn’t accidental. Mostly....
Today I went and brewed with one of ISBF’s oldest friends. I went to Tom’s Tap and Brewhouse. A space in Crewe that’s not so well known. But it should be. Jim loves soul. Jim loves folk that “get” soul. Tom’s Tap and Brewhouse has soul. In abundance. I get it. Sean, the owner and head brewer, Jacqui, Tap Room Manager (and Mrs Sean), have strived to, and been successful at, creating a space that combines pub, brewery and community space. This is the exact environment that ISBF loves and thrives within. Sean used to be Head brewer at Pig and Porter, and we’ve brewed with them before. Well, I have, and Sean is one of those people that I love. A lot.
I arrive in Crewe just after 08:30. The walk to brewery is just about half an hour. Sean and I exchange tweets. He says “knock on my door on the way past”. Tbh, I can’t remember which is his.... but I meander on. As it happens, Sean is just coming out of the front door as I get to the end of the street. A hug and a hello mate, and we're off. All the way round the 60 second journey to the brewery. Where Denis is just arriving. Perfect timing all round.
Open up the brewery. Hot liquor tank almost at temperature already. Time to get the malt down the stairs and heft into the mash tun. Yeah. Denis can do that. He’s young and enthusiastic....
….A chat with Sean, and a look at the brewsheet, shows that the idea for today’s brew has changed. We’re going for a “white stout” with coffee and vanilla. Sounds good to me. Get mashing!
Sean’s kit is 2.5 barrel, so the malt bill of 110kg, which is the most he’s had in one go, gets it creaking a bit. Denis propels the malt in, I mash. Until it gets too full, then Sean’s long levers are called into effect. It’s full. Very full. 110kg full. A record for Sean on this kit. And smelling just ace. An hour’s worth of porridge cooking. So we go and get brekko. Sean is quite famous for his breakfasts. And this one doesn’t disappoint. Especially washed down with mugs of good coffee.
Back to the brewery. Time to transfer. As we’ve literally made porridge, due to the amount of oats in the mash, the sparge and run off takes aaaaaaages. Denis and I tweak and twiddle the sparge arm and flow rates, while Sean goes upstairs and does brewery admin.
Eventually, and I do mean eventually, we’ve got the mash sparged and into the copper. The smallest ever addition of hops, and then it’s boil time. Denis digs, and I ferry bags of spent grain outside for later collection. We get time to catch up, have a bit of a laugh and a chat, whilst listening to some great tunes from Primordial Radio. It is FreeSpin Friday after all..!! (Bloody Growlfest……Ed) The time flies. We go and get a beer. There’s a bar here, it is Tom’s Tap and Brewhouse after all.
Transfer from the copper to the fv is in a similar vein to that from the mash tun. Regulating the temperature by means of opening and closing the valves is good fun. Denis and I vying for optimum flow and temperature control, within Sean’s parameters. Finally, it’s all there. My turn to empty the copper, squelchy mulched hops being a particular favourite of mine. By gum, they don’t half get stuck to the sides! Pitch the yeast, then we can go and have some beery fun.
Original Gravity checks and calculations give us an indication that this is going to be around 6%. Probably. Bang on for what we’re looking for. From here on in, Sean will look after the fermentation, and additions of coffee and vanilla pods for the final flavouring.
A few beers later, time to go and get the train home. A great day, with fun people. You’ll see Denis and I behind the keg bar at ISBF. Thanks to Sean and Jacqui for having us.
In the words of Sean “Easiest brew day ever. I didn’t have to do anything.”
Chris :-)
