August 2009

To the House of Lords.

Just before a bank holiday. There’s a surprise.

The picture is Speaker Harbottle Grimston notable for nothing apart from being called ‘Harbottle’. Who calls their kid Harbottle? it was odd even in the 17th century!

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A little while ago we were invited to run the beer tent at an upcoming Medieval Fair at the Hurst Festival (on the 20th September). It looks fun and I said yes, although we would need to get a portable stillage.

A stillage is essentially a rack for casks that holds the casks at an angle. The sediment sinks to the bottom below the level of the tap, and clear beer can be drawn off for serving. While the beer is settling the casks need to be held absolutely still. Hence the name – stillage – I expect they were up all night thinking up that one. It doesn’t help that a full cask weighs in at about 45 kilos, about 100 lbs in old money.

Stillages for festivals are often made out of scaffolding which is heavy, awkward and expensive. You can also buy specially made portable stillages. I found an beautifully made example which held three casks, but cost an eyewatering £450 + VAT. Ouch.

About a month ago I stumbled across the idea of Gridbeam. It’s a modular carpentry system that makes fantastically strong and rigid structures that you can bolt together in the space of minutes. It’s used for shelving, desks, beds, workbenches, and a variety of other domestic and industrial structures. We put together a prototype piece out of 45mm wood:

To my surprise it supported the weight of two adults (and I was one of them so that’s really two and a half) without showing any signs of strain. So we put together the stillage you can see above out of 40mm wood. In the picture it’s holding up 4 casks for a total weight of around 180 kg, 400lbs. It fits together in about 10 minutes and it cost around £100. I’m making more so if you are interested in experimenting with it, let me know.

I’ve changed the design three times now and each time its simply been a matter of unbolting one or two parts and putting it together in a slightly different way.

Yesterday I had a call from the organizers of the Wiston Fete (31st August) asking if they could have some casked beer and the equipment to serve it with. So the stillage is getting its first outing over the weekend after a quick re-design today.

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August has been a rather chaotic month as I’ve moved house to a place so isolated its got its own postcode – I’ve always wanted one of my own. The picture is a shot of my new back garden along with some beer.

Broadband is reconnected so ranting at the government will now resume.

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A few weeks ago I was contacted by some cricket fans who told us that if we were willing, they thought that Sussex local and English wicket keeper extraordinaire – Matt Prior – would like some of our beer. I commissioned a special label, brewed a batch of our Golden Ale and agreed to deliver it to the Oval for today.

Oops.

England won the Ashes yesterday. Today’s play is canceled.

So the beer is going to have to go to the Sussex Cricket club in the hope that he will get it sooner or later. In the meanwhile, the alternative label is available for anyone who would like a celebratory drink.

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New website areas for the brewery are now open. Click the History tab at the top of the page to find a pictorial history of the brewery and try the Taste tab to see additional details of the beers.

There is now a section on cooking with Adur Brewery beers which you can reach through the ‘Cooking’ tab at the top of this page. Even if you don’t consider yourself a budding chef, have a look at them, because some of the recipes are surprisingly easy – as well as delicious. We would welcome your participation – try the recipes and let us know how you got on, whether you modified them and of course whether you enjoyed them. This is an ongoing project and we hope to be able eventually to build up to the ‘Adur Brewery Cookbook’.

Also new is an online shop for official Adur Brewery merchandise, where you can get reasonably priced caps, t-shirts etc to show your support for your local brewery – you can reach it through the link on the right of this page.

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Its been a busy July and an excellent start to August, and as well as this I’m in the process of moving house. So not too much has been going on here. There has been one bloggable event I intended to write about.

When we set up the brewery, we also set up a permaculture garden on the patch of otherwise unused ground immediately outside. This is where our used grain and hops tend to end up. Last week we harvested the first of the vegetables that have been growing there.

Frankly I’m astonished! If you look at my photo there’s a pen off to the right to give an indication of scale.

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