December 2008

One of the small mysteries of beer is that (for us at least) it takes a full day to make any beer – independent of the amount you make. When I made 25 litres a time as a home brewer it used to take a day. When we were running our 50 litre pilot plant, it took a day. Now we have an 800 litre brew length it still takes a day. Sometimes its a very long day, but we have managed it in as little as 9 hours!

Bottling is a different matter. In my homebrew days, I could do about 45 bottles in a busy afternoon. Inevitably ending with me washing the kitchen floor because of all the beer I’d spilt. The pilot plant used 5 litre stainless steel kegs and could often be done in a few hours. But bottling and then labeling 1000 bottles is a hugely labour intensive process.

Bottles are brought in from the stack outside, sterilized in dilute peracetic acid. Drained. Filled with beer, and a measured amount of sugar syrup to prime. Capped. Placed 12 at a time in a cardboard box. They then have to be warmed to a point where residual yeast converts the extra sugar into CO2 and a little extra alcohol. In warm weather this happens as a matter of course, but at the moment they have to be moved off site to a warm room for this to happen. Finally there is the labeling and delivery.

In the past, this has taken two or three people several days. Partly because sterilizing the bottles involved fully immersing them in the sterlizing solution, and then draining them. Even at four at a time there’s quite a lot of waiting for bottles to fill or drain. This new toy speeds that part of the process up a bit. The sink contains two hollow spikes – push a bottle onto one of them and the pump forces sterilizing fluid up into the bottle which can then be hung on a bottle tree to drain before filling.

No doubt we will be getting hold of other bits of equipment to speed bottling up, but in the meanwhile I’ve asked the Easter Bunny for a bottle warming room.

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As you can see, the decorations are up, and everything is ready for Christmas. There’s enough beer chilling in the cellar to sink the Titanic and we’ve had a spectacularly good first quarter of brewing. I’d like to thank everyone for their support, and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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!!

I think this speaks for itself. It came from the ToryBear blog.

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I’ve been ill. Painfully ill. Just flu of course, symptoms have ranged from several sleepless nights with fever and hallucinations to my current much improved condition which is a more or less permanent light headedness – as if I’d had one too many Merry Andrews. And of course, everyone I know has been ill as well. My little boy has been sick, my wife has been sick, the ducks down the pond have been sick (judging from the packets of lemsip and used packets of kleenex lying around).

Thankfully, we are all on the road to recovery, but there are going to be knock on effects and one of them is January’s farmers market in Steyning. In general we are going to be at every Steyning market, and we hope at every Shoreham market in 2009. Each time we attend we have to fill out and submit a ‘Temporary Event Notice’. This is part of the 2003 licensing act, and as far as markets are concerned it is a staggeringly daft bit of legislation.

The act states that no more than 500 people can attend a temporary event, so we have to promise that only up to 499 people will cluster around our stall at any one time. The act also limits us (and our relatives, and our business associates) to no more than 50 events a year. I don’t think there’s a central register so a council will only be able to check that we’ve followed this rule in one particular area. It also limits any particular venue to no more than 50 events a year – and we’ve actually had a notice refused in the past since the particular village hall had been used for weddings etc. during the year.

Why 50? I don’t know. Possibly it was the number of rings round the minister’s bath when they were thinking about it.

To get a notice sorted out I fill out a detailed six page form that I then submit in duplicate to the council licensing officers, along with a cheque for £21. I send a further copy to the Chief of Police, who presumably has nothing better to do. Given the nature of the Royal Mail I typically send this 24 hour registered so the whole thing comes to about £30 in all.

Assuming I’ve followed the ritual correctly, the council sends me back a copy of the notice and we can go ahead.

Then what happens ? Well, typically nothing. In theory, various members of the busy body classes can demand to see either my personal license during the event, and the six page notice has to be prominently displayed. I wasn’t actually aware of that last point and so until recently, the notice was prominently displayed at the bottom of our cash box. Nowadays I tape it to the table. In fact no one has ever bothered us about either of these items. We do the market which is a lot of fun for us, and people seem to enjoy the opportunity to taste our beers.

But there’s the rub. The ritual takes no less than ten working days. Saturday morning I’m sitting up in bed trying to make a list of all the jobs on my backlog when I realised that given the number of public holidays between now and January the third, there are not ten working days available. The council officers who administer their end of this meaningless paper dance do so with as much grace and flexibility as they can, but the act leaves them very little wiggle room. They must have the details at least 10 working days in advance. If it’s late it can’t happen.

So, sorry Steyning. No market for us in January. We will be doing the Shoreham market on the 10th and I hope every Shoreham and Steyning market after that throughout 2009.

You can read more about the 2003 licensing act here (towards the end of the article).

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I’m laid low with killer flu, I’ve been out of circulation for several days in fact. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

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We have a limited number of polypins available for in 10 litre and 20 litre (that’s around 21 or 42 17 or 34 pints in old money). Preorder by calling the number at the top right of the website, for delivery and payment at one of the markets below. Merry Andrew, Velocity, and Black William are all available.

They are a bit like wine boxes – they don’t let air get to the beer as you draw it off, so the beer lasts longer.

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It’s going to be a busy month. We plan to attend 4 markets for the Christmas season.

• Wednesday 3rd December. Steyning Christmas Late night shopping, High St, Steyning. Come and try our mulled ale or our newly available Black William Stout
• Saturday 6th December. Steyning Farmers Market, Car Park, High St. Steyning. This popular food market is on the first Saturday of every month.
• Thursday 11th December. Wisborough Green Farmers Market. Its the first time we’ve attended this one. Our beers and sloe gin will be available.
• Saturday 20th December. Pulborough Farmers Market. To be confirmed.

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