by andy on 31st July 2008
As I’ve blogged before, quangos cost us a lot, somewhere between £124 billion and £170 billion pounds a year. Given the state of the public finances you might think that an effort would be made to rein some of this in. But no, yesterday brings news:
In a review of net safety, the Culture, Media and Sport select committee said a new industry body should be set up to protect children from harmful content.
Forgive my cynicism, but is this really what it is for ? The clue is in the phrase ‘protect children’, always a bit of a giveaway. The BBC story mentions both Youtube and Google, but I wonder how much notice those two US based companies (actually the same company) will take of the demands of a UK based ‘industry body’. The originators of this cunning plan must either be more than usually naive about the nature of the internet or have something else in mind.
No, it’s a fair bet that the real target are some of the more uppity bloggers in the world such as Guido Fawkes and his habit of embarrasing the great and the good with stories like this.
While any blogging code of conduct remains voluntary, this particular blog will ignore it – after all I tend to write about beers such as our Abbey Ale (now tentatively called St Cuthmans) which appears to be settling at about 9%. God knows, any child reading that would be scarred for life.
If the code becomes a law, we’ll just have to hope that the predicted change in government in 2010 brings about a Thatcheresque bonfire of the quangos. The UK can’t afford them.
by andy on 29th July 2008
I’m just running a little experiment that you can see on the right hand side of this page – a box marked ‘Talkinator’. It is a simple web chat system – to use it simply type in the lower box and your words will be visible to anyone else who happens to be looking at the page at that time. It will assign you a name but you can change that to something meaningful using the controls on the right hand side if you want.
I’m generally online in the office in the afternoons this week, so if anyone has questions or just wants to chat about the brewery, give us a shout.
by andy on 29th July 2008
It’s not just that it’s beer, it’s the fact it’s been doing it for 55 million years.
….and what’s with this mysterious palm ? Unfair competition I call it.
by andy on 27th July 2008
In the end, the build started on Thursday the 24th at around midday, Dave Porter turned up with his mate, and a big white van packed with various goodies. They promptly took over the site displacing the long suffering estate staff who’ve been fitting door, windows, toilets and so on.
The following set of photos, that come from John Simpson give some idea of the frantic level of activity that went on more or less non stop until 9pm that evening.
Here’s the heat exchanger being fitted:
Here’s Dave, drilling through his own leg!
Here are the fermenting vessels about to be fitted out with their valves.
Chance wandered in from the garden and seems pretty much transfixed by the equipment. I think he’s looking at the massive electrical plugs on the wall that power the elements in the copper.
By Friday morning everything was ready to go and the first brew went ahead.
I spent most of Friday frantically taking notes and trying to follow the various pipe combinations as Dave went through the process. Dave also scaled our Merry Andrew recipe for the size of the new plant and having made various calculations got the OG spot on.
Saturday morning I dropped by for a check and found:
So effectively, we are in operation.
Now this isn’t the end of the beginning. For one thing, there is still quite a lot of building and finishing to be completed, and for another thing we need a certificate from HMRC in order to sell the product. I’ll be spending part of Monday filling out the paperwork for that in fact.
On the other hand it does represent a significant milestone and oddly enough its just short of a year since I decided to go ahead with the project. So this is as good a moment as any to thank a few of the people who have helped us.
First of all my wife and little boy, who have seen rather less of me recently than they have a right to. That includes this weekend when I’ve had to go up to the site several times to control the fermentation temperature. Secondly Dicky, occasional poster here (is that 4 now ?). It’s not just being part of the business, there have been several occasions when the brewery would have faced some literally insoluble problems had he not been around. My parents for their unqualified support.
Then there’s John and Jeanette Simpson, local beer experts. John has recently been volunteered to be our ‘Brewery Liason Officer’ with CAMRA. Without them we probably would not have got this far, not only did they largely organise the Church Ale in May, they also put us in touch with the Belgian hop farmers who solved our hop crisis last year.
Finally, there are a very large number of people at the Wiston Estate, our landlords. William Trinick the estate’s agent (which is not at all the same thing as an estate agent) who suggested the barn as a location. Dermot Sugrue who is making champagne elsewhere on the estate has been generous with his help and advice, and of course Peter the foreman and his crew, who have been steadily working away putting in the infrastructure. Drains may be hidden from our daily view but as it turns out, they are pretty much the basis of our way of life.
by dicky on 25th July 2008
Today we brewed our first on the new kit, and could smell it fermenting before we left.
I had a look at my photos of our initial visit to the site and thought I should share a couple with you; a before and after if you like!
by andy on 25th July 2008
I’m too tired to think of a proper title. After 2 days hard work, and much help from many people, Adur Brewery is brewing operational and the first 900 litre gyle is fermenting.
I’ll do a full report this weekend with pics and commentary. Until then, sleep.
by andy on 23rd July 2008
…got hooked up today. The lights are on!
by andy on 22nd July 2008
From the Daily Telegraph:
More than 800,000 people are admitted to hospital each year with alcohol-related illnesses and injuries — four times the official figure — ministers will admit today.
…and from the Association of Multiple Licensed Retailers in the press release dated 22nd July, and titled Parliamentary Privilege:
MPs leaving Westminster for the summer face a gruelling 12-weeks in the real world without subsidised drink.
Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) research revealed today has uncovered hidden statistics which show the House of Commons Refreshment Department operated on a subsidy of £5.5 million of taxpayers’ money in the 2007/08 financial year, equivalent to total annual tax receipts from 35 pubs.
This came from the notorious Guido Fawkes.
The release goes on at length. Apart from the obvious question on the length of their holidays (what are they – students ?) I wonder why booze is so heavily subsidized in the House of Commons if it is evidently such a social evil. An eight year old scotch reportedly costs £1.35 and a pint of Fosters is supposed to be £2.10. To put the this in perspective, it would normally cost about £2.80 in London.
Given the recent 4p rise in duty that the rest of us pay on beer, its a particularly grating piece of news. I seem to recall that the prevention of binge drinking was given as an excuse for the rise. Presumably at the prices our MPs pay, they must make up a huge percentage of the NHS’s 800,000 cases. Poor dears!
by andy on 22nd July 2008
The hot liquor tank, copper, and mash tun were recently delivered. They’ve been outside under shelter while the floor was being sorted out.
Here they are inside with the hot liquor tank in the foreground. The copper and mash tun are in their approximate places, but the HLT will be moved into the rear corner when the space becomes available. Also note the incredibly smooth floor. There’s a layer of industrial resin to go on yet but that will happen after the installation.
With luck, installation will begin around mid day Thursday.
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