#ISBF9 : Brewday 9 Pt 2 - It’s Just A Little Bit of History Repeating
“When will I be cured of this crippling fucking FOMO?”
Sociometer Blues – Arab Strap
Over to Tim….
Normally the little snippet of musical enlightenment has some sort of overarching significance to the writing that follows. That however isn’t really the case here, I just quite like the new album from seasoned Scottish realists Arab Strap, a wry and bare bones peek at life and relationships in an increasingly digital age.
Anyway that little ritual observed I find myself staring blankly at the first of several train departure boards at 6:30am; on a journey to somewhere very interesting to make something equally interesting with a couple of brewing types with very storied industry backgrounds. On weighing up the travel options to today’s mystery location the train was swiftly opted for despite driving being absolutely an option. The latter being less favourable owing to an unfortunate motorway tyre blow out over the weekend.
Transport negotiated I find myself with a brisk walk across a town that is synonymous with British brewing history, Burton-On-Trent. Amusingly this walk gave me plenty of time to gently tease Jim about today’s brewing destination. First thing you notice as you depart the station is just how much of the sky line is dominated by the brewing facilities of Burton Brewing/Molson Coors. Despite that dominance our destination for today was actually a little bit further down the road at Burton Bridge/Heritage Brewing. Upon arriving there is some brief confusion as to how to access the brewery, but nothing that a little gentle urban exploring couldn’t fix. Brewery located I am greeted by today’s hosts Head Brewer Al Wall and Brewery Manager Emma Cole, in conversation with Henry Kirk from Sunken Knave Brewing about plans for a celebration of Draught Burton Ale (DBA).
Now this being a working brewery, meant that I had missed mash in for today’s brew day by quite some considerable time (traversing the Midlands by train is far more complicated than it really needs to be). The upside to this however was it gave me an excellent opportunity to catch up with Al, explore the cavernous brewery site and get a proper introduction to Henry. The brewery itself whilst being modestly tucked away behind the Burton Bridge Inn spans quite a lot more space than might be first apparent. It’s this that is high on Al & Emma’s list of things to address, since they took over stewardship of the brewery earlier this year. Redevelopment of some of the outbuildings are planned along with improvements to the process flow of the brewery itself; to include an on-site lab, better and more efficient flow from brew house to fermentation and eventually commissioning a new brew house itself. It’s clear from those plans that Al and Emma are committed to preserving both Burton Bridge Brewery and the recently merged and relocated Heritage Brewing Company for another generation. A truly fitting tribute to the work of previous owners Bruce Wilkinson and the late Geoff Mumford.
Meanwhile back in the brewhouse, transfer was already well underway, and the brew team were readying the forklift to prepare the mash tun ready for digging out. Not wanting to get run over Al, Henry and I got to discussing today’s hop schedule. In keeping with the style of beer we are aiming to produce, Northdown and Savinjski Goldings were selected. Confusingly the latter of those two is actually a Fuggles cultivar but one with a surprising and huge hit of citrus and orange. To prevent being accused of slacking by Jim, we got to assisting digging out the mash. Henry readied the early hop addition into the now clean mash tun, which pulls double duty as the whirlpool/underback.
Those that have brewed at any scale or capacity will know that, famously, brewing is a job that involve an inordinate amount of cleaning in addition to quite a bit of waiting for processes to finish (in this case this was getting the transferred wort up to boil). So, then another one of those opportune times for Al to show us more of the brewery and its pub The Bridge Inn. The thing you are immediately struck by upon entering the pub was the vastness of it all; with its bar centrally positioned dividing the bar space into two distinct spaces. Lining the walls, a vast array of brewerania including but not limited to a pictogram Burton/Midlands brewing family tree, several nods to the former identity of The Bridge Inn (The Fox & Goose) whilst it was still in its pre Burton Bridge days. This truly is an incredibly worthwhile pub to visit, and one which I’ll very definitely be engineering a reason to pop over to again in the future.
Over the course of a couple of expertly conditioned pints (ably looked after by two very familiar publicans to me; Chris and Sharon Sherratt) and some suitably well thought through bites from the kitchen, we got to talking about Al & Emma’s brewing journey in recent years that went from Manchester, via Swansea to eventually Burton-On-Trent. A fantastic catch up, but we were there to do some work, so with transfer well underway it was time to borrow some wellies and get the hop back dug out. A task that Henry and I enthusiastically threw ourselves into in a sort of tag team style! Beer transferred, yeast pitched and brew-house cleaned down all before 3pm.
Brew-day done, we collectively retire to the lounge side of bar in the Bridge Inn to celebrate a successful day and to taste one or two more of the beers that we had been introduced to earlier. Having tried both the Massey No1 and Sovereign Gold over lunch it would have been remiss to not sample those others on offer. It’s clear from the chat that Al, Henry, Chris and I had that there is no intention from the brewery to make stark changes to the existing recipes, save for perhaps modifications to the base malt for quality purposes. Likewise, the only major change in the pub is the addition of a fridge containing a well curated selection of bottled beer for the more adventurous.
During the course of the early evening we were also introduced to Jim Jennings, who as it turned out had employed a young Al Wall in his process engineering firm. Jim had a wealth of tales regarding brewing in Burton having spent much of his employment in the 80s working in and around Burton as the Process Area Engineering Manager for Ind Coope. All of which were woven through with humour and passion for the area, and most of all a love of Draught Burton Ale (DBA). It was this later revelation that led to Jim regaling us with a run through of a paean to DBA in his self-penned song “Boozers Don’t Take Sips”; the central refrain from which Jim has very kindly allowed me to reproduce below.
“I’ll fill my glass with ‘Burton Ale’ and hold it to the light // To check that there’s no floaters and make sure it’s clear and bright // I’ll smell the hop aroma and put it to my lips // And have a bloody good swallow cos’ boozers don’t take sips.”
So all of this industry to make a beer, and you’ll note (if you’ve read this far – editor) that there hasn’t been much discussion of exactly what… Fear not however because here’s the payoff. We were never going to go to come to Burton to make a Potato & Lactose IPA, much to Jim’s general disappointment. No instead we’ve tried to respect tradition and gone with something entirely more appropriate… A mild, based on a recipe from circa 1950 with enough of a gentle nod to our location as appropriate. Gravity-wise we’re aiming for about 4.3% with a glorious amber glow.
Without further ado, say hello to 1950 Burton Mild which will be debuting exclusively at this year’s ISBF. You’ll find it nestled away on the cask bar obviously, under the expert stewardship of another Chris.
All that remains is to thank Al, Emma and all of the team at Burton Bridge/Heritage Brewing for their holster. Thanks also to Henry from Sunken Knave for his humour, enthusiasm and the wealth of knowledge he added both to the recipe design and the brew day itself. I think that’s everyone and everything ticked off, or is it?!?
Well not quite; you will dear reader be aware that we like to add value to this here little grassroots event with the odd little talk here and there. These have covered all manner of topics in recent years, including but not limited to “Beer & Social Media”, “Sour and Wild Ales” and “West Coast IPAs”. So in that grand tradition we’re going all in on the past this year; Al and Henry will be talking all things heritage brewing, discussing the beer we made together and sharing a few beers with us as they go. It’s a limited event, because as much as we’d love to get you all in the green room, logistically that might be a struggle, and it’ll be first come first serve for a small supplementary charitable donation on the day…
