Gadds' Beer Shop

Project 15 begins

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:36:00 +0000

The lull before the storm; I've done the planning and the expansion project proper starts (slowly, at first, manic for a while, steady and manic once again) in a week's time. Here's my tool set:

Engineering plan: a big drawing using Google Sketchup, the free on-line CAD package used mainly for modelling in Google Earth. Look what I can do:

Squeezing the most out of what we have.

Schedule: a spreadsheet itemising the various necessary works and installations, linked to both Production (we don't want to run out of beer) and Budget (we don't want to run out of money). The coming 'holiday' period is inked in with my initials - well, it's better than lounging around relaxing with fine food and beer, or so I tell myself.

Budget: a tight affair. Nothing more than a list of expected expenditure, organised in a fashion that makes sense to me, the primary user. It's timelined so I can forecast cash flow implications (look, I haven't got a very large capital pot OK?). I update it regularly as prices are confirmed, the bottom line fluctuating little, either way. It's like a vital signs, real time readout.

The Cast: a small group of highly trusted trades persons, experts in their respective fields - R the Brick, Cool S and B the Spark, all local, augmented by Lofty A and J the Boil, proven specialists picked up from friends in the Biz.

The vessels we're buying are second hand and still in use as I write, the owner testing his new, 21st century stuff with a first brew tomorrow (good luck M, make it so). If all goes well we're set fair for a decommissioning party hours before the Yule break, and a few long shifts whilst you lot engorge yourselves on Little Cracker.

I've woken in the middle of the night for the last three, thinking and worrying about the minutiae of the job - I've been here before, it's a perfectly healthy reaction and means I'm fully engaged in the task. And it'll go on for another three months so forgive me if I look a little frazzled from time to time.

2010 Year in Beer - 80 Shilling Ale

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:04:00 +0000

New look pump clips will be a feature of 2010

Next year's 'Year in Beer', to be published pretty soon, tells me we're featuring '80 Shilling Ale' throughout January and February and, since late December in the brewery is likely to be a little unsettled (I'm installing and commissioning a total of 140 hectolitres of fermentation space - phase I of GADDS' great expanding girth), I thought I'd best stay ahead of the curve and get the first batch brewed tomorrow.

So I'm sat thinking about Rannoch Moor and sweet, mellow, heady ale (a fairly one dimensional view of Scotland I'll grant you, but it does things for me). I delved through the malt store for a half kilo of the most peated malt on earth (180 ppm) and crushed it up, the resulting aroma one of sweet smokey malt and wild, weather beaten peat. Perfect for a little background atmosphere. I'm using some crystal malt for its colour and distinctive sweet flavour, oats for their general northerliness, aroma and enriching property, chocolate malt for colour and smoothness, melanoidin malt for aroma and some amber malt for a juxtaposing drying character and toastiness.

As for hops, well, not too many; 80 shilling isn't really about hops. They're there, and they're classic British (Fuggles and Goldings), but they're far from dominant, though the Fuggles will add some smooth grassiness to flavour and aroma.

Come January, expect the kind of ale capable of driving the dampness from your bones, warming you through with its very wholesomeness and leaving you happy and ruddy faced. A fireside ale, one to drink with haggis (quorn) and something to chase a little Islay malt with. The kind of ale winter was designed for.

Beery presents

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 11:34:00 +0000

Large gift pack: 3 bottles of Dogbolter, 3 bottles of Number 3 and a pint glass - £15
Small gift pack: a bottle of Dogbolter, a bottle of Number 3 and a pint glass - £7.50
Sipping beer gift pack: one bottle each of Ancestors, Black Pearl, India, Oooks!, Reserved and a tulip glass - £12.50

Each of these gifts comes ready wrapped in bag with a handle - it's a 'grab and go' Yuletide present solution for the way we live today.

Where the wild hops grow....

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:51:00 +0000

....outside my brewery door.

Humulus lupulus (gaddus)

This little lady (for it is a female of the species, as evidenced by a couple of very small, immature hop cones) forced her way through a narrow gap between the concrete foundations of our building and the concrete slab of the car park. I'd be delighted to afford her long term shelter but, I suspect, this isn't an ideal site for a hop to prosper (unless I dig up some of the concrete, which is a distinct possibility).

Chelsea Clive and I are going to take cuttings and, through a process of mist propagation, we hope to have healthy plants in suitable ground (our allotment) by next summer. A couple of years after that and who knows, we may be drinking Ramsgate Pale Ale indigenously hopped.

I love being a brewer in Kent.

Hanging up the old boots.

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:46:00 +0000

Nah, not like *that*. This pair of old faithfuls has done its last shift - heel worn and leaking, they're heading for a cabinet in the Hall of Fame. In my possession alone they've brewed around 4 million pints of beer at 9 breweries in 3 different countries.

"You can use these until you get a pair to fit" said Stevie, as he handed over the keys to the Ferret & Firkin Brewery in Chelsea back in '94. They've flopped around on the end of my legs most working days ever since and I'll miss them.

Retired with Full Brewing Honours

Yule have to order soon.

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:24:00 +0000

Around here we start thinking about our mid-winter celebrations early in December and though work tends to intensify, so does the expectation of fun and merriment later in the month. Buying presents for one another is a creative way of showing, and sharing our love. But we're no good at that and, we suspect, nor are many of our customers. To that end Lois has created a range of gifts, ready wrapped and ideal for the beer lover in your life, even if, or especially if, that happens to be you yourself. First up, draught beer in bulk to take home:

For the month of December we're offering our Yule Special 'on draught' in mini-pins (10 litres - 18 pints) and poly-pins (20 litres - 36 pints) for you to collect, to take home, and to savor.

This is a beer specifically designed to complement your Yule Feast(s), so there's no need, or excuse, to bother with that annual bottle of dodgy red stuff that gives you a hangover.

Mini-pins are £30, poly-pins are £50. Ring Steve or Lois on 01843 868453 to order one.

Next up will be 'gift-packs', priced to suit a range of budgets from skint to just-about-head-above-water.

10 year overhang

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:18:00 +0000

I'm suffering from a 10 year hang-over, that is, it's the worst I've been for the drink for that period of time. (Probably longer but I lived in Holland back then and don't remember much.)

My regular reader (hi Owen!) will know that, apart from a weakness for decent Claret and a fine appreciation of Islay malt, I very rarely stray from beer. And real beer too, because not only does it taste damn good it never, ever haunts me the following day. Not so though cheap red wine and cheap Armagnac. Urg.

Please don't try it home and yes, I probably did exceed my daily allowance but so did the other 40 adults in the room - that's the problem with the allowance, it's so unrealistic it's laughable. That said, I rather wish I'd stuck to it now.

Pub of Month - December 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:28:00 +0000

And the winner is.......

The Rose of England
Set just back off Ramsgate High Street, Harry's place is a treasure trove of the early 20th century and there's not a nook nor cranny without some great dusty curiosity sat therein.

So much for the customers.

Harry's a first rate, life-long landlord whose parents kept the Balloon Up The Creek in Chelsea many, many moons ago (a pub Steve, I and our brewery worked in many years later when it was called The Ferret & Firkin in the Balloon Up The Creek, now sadly long, long gone but at least it's still a hostelry of sorts). You'll find him quick and generous with his affection for the human race (that includes you), a trait borne of enormous empathy for the struggle we all individually face in life. He is a top bloke surrounded by a loving and lovely family.

And all this month he'll be serving GADDS' Little Cracker and Dark Conspiracy, though not necessarily at the same time but certainly at good value for money.

But do beware, many a visitor has fallen foul of Harry's curious opening hours. They are:

Sunday through Tuesday - 11am to 7pm (yes, he closes in the evening)
Wednesday through Saturday - 11am to 11pm (unless it's a very dreary night)

You'll also be able to buy your fresh greens and eggs there too for it's a service he extends to his more senior, less mobile customers at no margin to himself.

East Kent IPA

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:49:00 +0000

I'm first in, most days, and the moment I open the door I can't help but use both senses of smell and hearing, as well as sight, to check out and understand what's happened in my absence. The smell of the place changes depending on what, and how, we're brewing and pretty often, for instance, the aroma of fresh yeast gives away the fermenting of something big. This morning was a bit different: an unusual hoppiness pervaded the old place, subtly distinct from the daily hop-store greeting.

Last night I made a giant hop-bag out of muslin and stuffed it with Humphrey's East Kent Goldings - 2009 crop; fresh and aromatic - steeping it in the hot liquor tank for a few hours before brewing our annual pale ale (dedicated to Humphrey and his mates on Brooke Farm, who made it all possible, indeed, who make most of our ale possible). In an effort to extract all possible flavours, from what looks like the best season for a few years, I'm ramming as many hops in as many vessels as possible on this brew and it's going to get very messy.

I usually draw a jug of brewing liquor for morning tea but elected for fresh filtered water this morning - I don't think even my buds could deal with tannin from both tea and hops at the same time.

Hopscars 2009.

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:52:00 +0000

Last night I attended the Kent Hop Competition over on the other side of the County, in Marden, hosted by the local cricket club. It was a unique chance to rub and sniff my way through the best samples, from the keenest growers, in the hunt for a new addition to our battery.

Being a born and bred townie I was very much the alien in a room packed with wonderfully eccentric hop growers and mad farmers - even the other two brewers present were wise in the ways of the country. I felt like I was scubba diving, visiting another kind of world: crazily different, certainly irrational to my eyes and yet welcoming, friendly and jovial. But clearly not an environment I could hope to survive in for long. (As it was, the NUF branch Chairperson kept me in there until I was gasping for air.)

Anyway, big congratulations to our mate Humphrey who took the top prize in the 'Northdown' category with a stunning sample - we're very proud of him. (Not that he'd ever bother his a**e turning up - far too cool for that - I'm sure he's a townie really).

Tomorrow morning I'm taking a chunk of Humphrey's East Kent Goldings, harvested just a few weeks ago, and brewing a good old fashioned Pale Ale of decadent proportions, the better to assess this year's local lupuline qualities. I predict the brewhouse will smell like a Kent country oast by midday.

Seasonale.

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:44:00 +0000

Yule tide fast approaches and we're very much in the mood for a festive brew to help spread the good cheer (look, yeh, I know it's only November and all that but we have to plan ahead, OK?). A cunning combination of pale ale malt, malted rye, crystalised rye and organic chocolate rye was mashed this morning and the resulting wort boiled with a union of fruity, spicy hops including one of this house's regular favourites, Bramling Cross, grown by Tony Redsell in Canterbury. Used judiciously, crystalised rye can add a wonderfully festive and opulent temperament to a brew already invigorated with the spicy, dry, pale malted version of the cereal. As for the organic chocolate malted rye? Well, we'll see. Or smell. Or taste. I only used a teeny bit this year, not knowing much about it*.

Little Cracker, 5%, ruby, fruity and spicy. Available throughout East Kent on enlightened handpumps and also from our own shop, just here, in polypins, firkins, kilderkins, barrels and hogsheads. Until late December.

*See, sometimes we can just throw stuff in nonchalantly.

"Beer protects mens' hearts."

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:38:00 +0000

Well, it's protected mine a few times.

The story was headline news at 6am this morning but, by this afternoon, good old auntie had buried it below many other less 'off message' items.

Correction fluid.

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:32:00 +0000

Thanks to Pete Brissenden for alerting me to the Taste of Kent Awards current top ten nominations. You may notice that Dark Conspiracy is (as of this day) in there. You may also note that competition rules state that Kent's best beer should be "beer made from hops predominantly grown in Kent at a brewery based in Kent". Whilst I'm extremely grateful for all votes received for GADDS' beers, I feel that I must point out that DC is brewed with hops grown beyond these shores and that these transatlantic lupulin badboys are responsible for a significant portion of the beer's flavour and character. From that perspective it is certain that this beer is totally unqualified to be nominated as 'Kent's Best Beer'. To that end I've alerted the organisers and asked them to remove Dark Conspiracy from the list. But many thanks for those votes regardless, hope you don't feel you've wasted yours.

As regular readers will appreciate, hops are used for flavour and bitterness in beer. Now it is perfectly possible to use hops predominantly grown in Kent and produce a beer whose flavour is essentially, and fundamentally, non-Kentish, by timing the hop additions cleverly. For example - brew an IPA, bitter it with East Kent Goldings (say 60% of the total hops) and flavour with an American citrus variety. This way you end up with a beer that would qualify under the present rules yet the flavour is Stateside, rather than Garden of England. Perhaps the rules ought to state 'brewed with hops grown exclusively in Kent'.

However, you know by now that all of GADDS' regular beers are brewed exclusively with Kent grown hops so vote in confidence for either #3, #5, #7, Seasider or Dogbolter. Better still, rather than split the vote, simply choose GADDS' Number 3 Premium Kent Pale Ale - the true taste of East Kent.

Thanks.

Tea with the Competition.

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:45:00 +0000

James Sandy, proprietor of the new Wantsum Brewery, dropped in to say hello today. It didn't take us long to agree on the basics:

Yeh, I know the GADDS' apostrophy is in the wrong place: the mug is a 'second', one of only a few dozen and hopefully a collector's item now.

Basic brewing - 1.1

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:54:00 +0000

Before we go any further let's revise.

We consider a brewery to be made up of three parts:

1. Brewhouse - the place we mix malted barley with hot water, steep, strain and boil the resultant extract with hops prior to cooling and sending to the fermentation vessels (see below). This is a batch process and we're able to 'put a brew through' in 8 hours.

2. Fermentation Room - where we keep the fermenting vessels. These we fill with sweet boiled wort from the brewhouse (see above), adding yeast to convert the cereal sugars into alcohol over a period of 7 days or so. They (the fermenters) may match the batch size ('brew length') of the brewhouse, be smaller (allowing two or more to be filled from one brew), or indeed be larger (taking up to three consecutive brews to fill). Once done in here we send the 'green' beer to casks or tanks for maturation (see below).

3. Maturation and cold storage - a cold room we call a cellar, though it isn't. It's on the ground floor. Beer arrives here in casks or tanks from primary fermentation (see above) and stays here from anywhere from 2 days to 2 years depending on its nature. Then Gray the Dray loads and delivers it, mostly.

We've got to the stage where:

capacity at stage 2 is inadequate.
capacity at stage 3 will be inadequate once the Kent spring springs in. And
it also makes a lot of sense to increase capacity at stage 1 too (thanks Hang 'Em).

A further, and perhaps far important requirement, is that we achieve this increase in capacity whilst retaining a continuity of supply.

Phew, enough for now class. Next time we'll talk about phasing and I might get some photos out.

All change!

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:03:00 +0000

So, to recap: we've been here at Hornet Close with our little brewery for 3 years, slowly but surely building up our customer base, increasing sales and adding capacity. There's now three of us full time and four part. We all get paid and no one has to work like a horse (anymore). Even the numbers add up properly, at the end of the month.

Easy street here we come? No way. I'm ripping the whole thing out and starting again, bigger (three times) and better (immeasurably). Why? It's not as if we did a poor job in the fist place, quite the opposite, by luck more than judgement. But, and inexplicably I'm afraid, I know there's no plateau upon which to rest, it's just a straight incline. Or a decline. I'm scared of the former but not half as frightened as I am of the latter.

So look forward to a blow by blow account over the coming months of how to decommision two breweries and recommision them both armed with only a wing (secularity precludes the usual prayer), an extremely tight budget and total failure-phobia. Ought to be interesting.

Local secrets - Castres-Gironde

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:33:00 +0000

Neighbours gave us a plastic litre bottle of fresh wine, advising that it drank particularly well with roast chestnuts. Following a forage in the forest and a little work in the kitchen we duly cracked the unlabelled bottle and poured out glasses of faintly fizzy, cloudy white wine. Slightly sweet, though clean as a whistle, this stuff had been bottled from the primary fermenters (before full attenuation and clarification) and sold by word of mouth at the chateaux for a couple of euros a litre, strictly to the locals, in an under-the-counter style. And cracking stuff it was too, the whole experience thoroughly local and singular.

We sell our beer fresh from the cellar here in a similar fashion and we've a growing bunch of regulars turning up with containers various as suits their needs. This kind of sensible 'producer direct to customer' business is growing again, thanks to a widening realisation that it's more rewarding than buying soulless ale from a faceless middleman. It doesn't suit everyone, and it won't work on a massive scale, but for the few that care this service will always be valued.

Notes on terroir - Graves

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:07:00 +0000

The grandfather of the wine regions of Bordeaux is Graves, on the left bank of the Garonne as it heads north west to join the Dordogne. The land is characterised by intensely gravelly soil - glacial deposits - and though this engenders fine drainage properties, all those stones must be a nightmare for farmers and their machinery. However, if it's grapes you're growing this otherwise troublesome terrain is a positive blessing for, it is said, not only is the land free draining, but the pale pebbles reflect light and heat up under the fruit, aiding ripening.

I'll take this on trust. Sante!

Notes on terroir - Sauternes

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:09:00 +0000

Rising from a spring in the Gascony forest, the Ciron flows north east to join the Garonne a kilometer up river from Barsac in the Sauternais region of Graves. And though it reaches little more than a stream in size its impact upon wine making is great. In stark contrast to this small, fast flowing, cold body of water, the Garrone is a lumbering, sluggish and relatively warm beast that has travelled from the Spanish Pyrenees. Where the two meet, mist is common through the night, the warm late summer sun burning it off in the morning. The humid conditions are conducive to the formation and proliferation of fungal rot whilst the hot and dry daytime provides excellent grape ripening. The result is a slow raisening of the fruit, reducing the water content and thus concentrating the sugars whilst retaining acidity important for flavour balance.

The sweet dessert wines of the Sauternes are true classics and I recommend a suspension of prejudice whilst you sample them, late at night, with a bit of bread and some (Quorn) Fois Gras.

Don't worry, I'm only here for a week. We'll be back on the beer by Hallowe'en.

Busman's holiday

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:34:00 +0000

Situated in south west France's Aquitaine region, the port city of Bordeaux is built on a bend in the Garonne river. It's a city famous for its wine trade and the 37 or so wine producing sub-regions surrounding it. One of these regions, Graves, is the only one famed for all three main Bordeaux wines: red (claret), white and dessert, and also includes the Premiere Cru Chateau Haut-Brion. The area is rich in terroir, from the eponymous gravel that reflects heat to the underside of the fruit, to the noble rot inducing mists of the Sauternes banks of the Garonne. And so it's to there that I'm headed this weekend to visit vineyards and talk pigeon French/English to the dedicated and enthusiastic artisanal producers. I'll be taking beer, our own handcrafted offering, in the certain knowledge it will be gratefully received, thoughtfully tasted and thoroughly enjoyed by my viticultural brothers. I'm looking forward to meeting old friends, making new ones and sharing in the fruits of our collective labours. And I won't be back for a week.

That all sounds lovely but have you ever driven to Bordeaux? It's a bloody long way.

Dark Conspiracy

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:55:00 +0000

We're brewing the first gyle (a brewer's term meaning 'batch') of this year's 'Dark Conspiracy' today. It's a wonderfully deep brown, US-style porter, loaded with dark, aromatic, and tasty pale malts and finished with a combination of the blackcurranty Willamette and pineappley Cascade hops. If that sounds like a bit of a car crash of flavours think fruit, chocolate, coffee, toast and candy balanced by a gentle, dry bitterness and served in a pint glass, topped with a creamy beige head. Yup, it's a car crash. But it'll work.

We should be in for a pleasant winter, whatever the weather.

Look out for Dark Conspiracy in East Kent free-houses from ealy November, until further notice. The recipe, such as it is, was conceved and first brewed here in collaboration with the Saint and the Sinner last year.

The Best of Kent

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:23:00 +0000

It's that time of year again: summers over, the cricket has finished and the only bright light on the horizon is the Taste of Kent Awards.

You'll remember of course that Gadds' Number 3 Kent Pale Ale, brewed right here, is the reigning Champion of the 'Best Kentish Beer' category. Well, this year the organisers have defined this classification of Kent loveliness as:

"Beer made from hops predominantly grown in Kent at a brewery based in Kent".

Gadds' Number 3 Kent Pale Ale is brewed with hops grown not only 'predominantly' in Kent but exclusively in East Kent, which I believe will leave it with a rather unfair advantage. We'll see: the competition is fierce, my oponents skilled in the ways of the tuns and as keen as never before to topple the top. Bring it on.

Vote here.

NEWS FLASH - BBC airs pro-beer programme!

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:09:00 +0000

The Food Programme on R4 is a personal favourite of mine and yesterday, lo and behold, the entire 25 minutes were devoted to hops and beer. And beautifully done it was too. Listen out for Tony Redsell, the grandfather of the industry and grower of half the hops we use here.

Now, can you imagine ITV or Sky commissioning a programme like that?

PGI status - II

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

The nice chap at the ministry returned my call this morning and set about setting us straight on the 'Kentish ale' and 'Kentish strong ale' PGI (protected geographical indicator) status. It appears the rules have changed between 1995 and now, and that those applications filed and approved before this change are waiting in line to be updated to the shiny new standards.

But what is the detail hiding in this bureaucratic explanation, I hear you mutter? Well, it turns out that the early versions of applications had only the summary publicly published and that the nitty gritty detailed definition was hidden to us proletariat, the knowledge being shared between the applicant and the manager only. Basically, I can't find out what constitutes a 'Kentish ale' until the definition has been made suitable for public release.

After that I'll be in a position to request an ammendment, should I disagree with the definition (highly unlikely) or apply to use a (presumably) natty little logo on my labels. In the meantime you'll have to trust me when I tell you our beer is Kentish, or beer of Kent. It is. Really.

PGI status

noreply@blogger.com (Gadds Beers Hop) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:50:00 +0000

My friends up the road in Faversham were successful in their application for PGI status on 'Kentish ale' and 'Kentish strong ale' back in 1995. The paperwork is brief, light on detail and surprisingly unspecific as to what defines 'Kentish' so I've written to the particular controlling body asking for clarification. I'll let you know.........