The Final Brewday : Pictish Brewery - Session Pale Ale Masters

Some breweries never get the credit they deserve. Yes, people in the industry may wax lyrical, but some breweries just don't get the column inches.

Like Pictish.

It surprised me not one jot to be asked for Paul Wesley's contact details, to ask could he supply a beer to the “Friends & Family” event run by Cloudwater earlier this year. That's how highly Pictish are regarded by people in the industry.

Paul just makes excellent beer. Brew after brew. To me, he brews some of the best session Pales in the UK.

#ISBF6 takes a lot out of me. So much so that I was gutted to have to miss this brewday - I've got almost zero holidays left.

So. For this brewday, I was so pleased that one of two of my favourite people agreed to help.

Unfortunately, they couldn't make it. So over to Jock & Steve……

“Well for Independent Salford Beer Festival’s final brew day of 2019 we were to visit a long-time supporter, Pictish Brewery Rochdale. For me (Jock) a pleasure in many ways…happy to do another brew day to help Salford Beer festival, only 15 minutes’ drive from my house and always a pleasure to spend time with Pictish’ owner and Brewer Paul Wesley.

A bonus today was that Steve Lane another Rochdale area ‘local’ was joining us. Steve was resplendent in a year 3 Salford Beer fest T-Shirt.

A late start for Paul, at 6.30am he was being kind to us. Lots of pale malt went into the mash and a small amount of wheat just for body and mouthfeel. A relatively small amount of hops for bitterness, more were to be added later.

We were away, time for the first of many brews, the tea and coffee kind.

Paul was charging around like a Whirling dervish as usual; Steve and I did as we were told/asked, including the obligatory nip out for bacon sarnies to keep us going. We kept our eye on the temperature gauge and tried to catch Paul not in perpetual motion to avoid blurry photos.

The dig out of the Mash tun was made easier as Steve and I shared the duty. Paul rescued us from the hardest work of climbing in and forensically cleaning ready for the next brew.

We were asked to get the hops ready to be added later in the brewing process, weighing out exactly the right quantity required for this beer (as prescribed by Paul) what a joyous task! 3 different hops, 3 different amazing aromas, Comet, Cascade and Brewers Gold.

Paul had recently been on one of his 175-mile cycle trips, up and down dales, so having missed a brew day, today was easier for Paul and us, no cask washing and no changing of the pump as Paul had to do mid-brew last year!

Paul was going to add Comet as dry hops even later in the process, should bring out the flavour nicely.

Obligatory Jock Digging Shot eh? Ed…..

Amongst the ‘hard’ work, the 3 of us had great chat about every subject under the sun, music, football (or lack of it at Old Trafford!) and beer, to the backdrop of Planet Rock.

A happy day making tasty, hoppy beer, called Trinacria, one of the first I will try at Salford on Thursday 31st October. A good day for a good cause (START in Salford) and the best beer festival around…I’ll say that as Jim is too modest!

See you there Paul and Steve, they already have tickets, do you?

Thanks, Jock.”

Cheers Jock & Steve for having all the fun.

Session Pale Ales are my favourite style. And Pictish are masters of the style. I see a Pictish clip and everything else gets overlooked. I’m a fan. And can't wait to try this a week on Thursday.

If you haven't got tickets, you'd better be quick….. Click here. Still a few left.

Back soon.

Be kind to one another.

Jim x