January 2009

All our ingredients have arrived bar the most important one – the yeast. The yeast is completely fundamental to a project like this. It has to cope with a much higher level of alcohol than you would normally find in a UK produced beer. At the same time it will be contributing several flavour components to the final result.

Our yeast is currently being amplified from a single cell to several billion in a liquid suspension. I’m promised delivery on the 4th of February and we will be brewing on the 5th.

{ 0 comments }

Tom Logan, a trainee solicitor from Northampton, said: “It seems to me that they may have confused a safe daily limit with what I like to call ‘lunch’.”

Read the full story, sweary but funny here.

Hat tip to Pete Brown’s Beer Blog

{ 0 comments }

I made the mistake of looking at our website statistics again today and I see that we’ve had a lot of people arrive here using the search phrase ‘James May Brewing Machine’. They are probably looking for the machine that was being used in Oz and James Drink to Britain to make some beer.

Well, I think it was this gleaming and highly desirable object, the Brumas Home Brewery; it makes 20 litres at a time. I have no idea what the results taste like but I can tell you that it is typically priced at £1900.00 plus VAT. That’s around 1200 bottles of beer if you assume a bottle of beer costs £2.00, so you would have to use it at least 30 times before you started seeing any savings. I used to homebrew once a month so it would have taken me about two and a half years to reach that point.

On the other hand, if you are homebrewing for fun, why use this machine ? All you have to do is press a few buttons, it must be about as much fun as running down to Tescos. I can’t see the point.

{ 0 comments }

We’ve just received back our TENs notice for the market so it’s confirmed – we will be at the market on the 7th of February. The market is just opposite the clock tower, pictured above.

It’s possible – just possible – that we may have some samples of St Cuthman’s Green Wheelbarrow available. Not for sale, just to try. I’ll know more later on in the week.

{ 0 comments }

Headline news in the Telegraph this morning Health police target evening tipple with the subheading:

More than 7 million middle-class drinkers warned that relaxing glass of wine is a risk to health

Well, fortunately the middle classes can’t afford a glass of wine in the evening now. We are in a very nasty recession and the country is close to bankruptcy if not actually bankrupt already.

Doesn’t this cretinous government have anything better to do with its very expensive time ?

Update:

My favourite fake charity Alcohol Concern has predictably weighed in (via the Devil’s Kitchen):

Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern said: “Today’s figures show that while the government is moving in the right direction to tackle the country’s high levels of harmful and hazardous drinking, action is long overdue.”

I see they are now proudly listed on FakeCharities.org. I confess I may have had a tiny hand in that.

{ 0 comments }

The ingredients for our Belgian Strong Ale, St Cuthman’s Green Wheelbarrow, have now been ordered and are on their way. I expect to be brew the first batch as soon as the yeast has arrived.

We produced a small sample batch last June and a few people have been able to taste it and give us some feedback. The most interesting comment was that 8% was not strong enough and we should be aiming for 11%! There’s still some of the sample left and I tried a glass over the weekend. At six months old it’s better than ever with a faint hint of liquorice emerging.

St. Cuthman was the saint who founded Steyning. The legend has it that he was wheeling his crippled mother along in a wheelbarrow with a strap around his neck made of withes. The strap broke here and he decided to build a church on the spot. We’ve named the brew after him. Green Wheelbarrow is the 8% version, and if we can persuade the yeast to cooperate, Red Wheelbarrow will be the rather more dangerous 11% version.

{ 0 comments }

Our sale of Velocity is now completely sold out with the final casks moving yesterday. Deliveries start this Thursday and will extend into the following week. I’ll be updating the ‘Where to get it’ pages as this happens and making some announcements here as well.

{ 0 comments }

..apparently tomorrow’s latest bank bailout scheme will not be a septic bank scheme after all. Good job too, the one thing I’ve learned as a brewer over the last six months is that is doesn’t matter how big your septic bank is, you’ll wish it was bigger.

{ 0 comments }

While we are working on the premises license – and it’s complicated probably taking a few months – we’ve decided to make a few branded products available online. You can take a look by clicking on the new link to the right.

I’ve picked the first three as they are things I will be either wearing or using myself. We are planning to expand the range of products and they’ll be some alternative artwork based on our beer labels available as well. If you have a yen for any particular beer label on any particular item, let me know and I will arrange it.

{ 0 comments }