Welbeck Abbey Brewery

Ayrshire 4.6%ABV Amber ale

2012-02-07T11:09:00.005Z

The second in our year’s series of beers centred around the rich history of Welbeck racehorses. This is a light Amber ale brewed using a blend of 5 different English and American hops. The nose is of spice and blackcurrants from English Bramling Cross, lifted with a subtle touch of citrus from the Cascade variety. The bitter note is smoothed and with sweet crystal malt to give a beer jam-packed with flavour.

It'll be on at the Mallard, Worksop, all next week, and is winging it's way to pubs all over the show. Let me know what you think :)

St. Simon 4.0% Pale English Ale

2012-01-04T10:21:00.001Z

This month I've brewed a 4.0% English Pale Ale called St. Simon. The recipe is simple using all English ingredients, as I like to do.

Challenger hops and a touch of roasted barley give soft but robust bitterness which mellows, and bucket loads of gorgeous Kentish Goldings hops are used for aroma after the boil which gives a classically British fresh, subtle, yet slightly spiced floral aroma.

Now, I'm very lucky and run a brewery on an estate with more history and stories than you can shake a proverbial stick at, so I am naming all my beers after Welbeck-y stuff. Racehorses were a huge part of life for the 6th Duke of Portland in particular, and many of the buildings on the estate were built for the equestrian world; stables, a riding school etc. St. Simon was one of the most famous racehorses that ever there was, and it was owned by the Duke. I will be brewing a years series of special ales based on the racehorses at Welbeck which will lead up to the new exhibition at the Harley Gallery. If you follow Welbeck on Twitter and Facebook you'll learn about them as they pop up but I'll try and blog too.

Santa's Super Stout!

2011-12-09T12:18:00.004Z

Watch out, Santa's Super Stout is about!

A rich, thick, black stout with a white head. It's smooth and creamy with roasted and burnt toffee flavours, and a hint of smoke and liquorice. Santa will be looking forward to a bottle of this with his mince pie of Christmas eve so I suggest you sample in your pub then pop to the Welbeck Farm Shop to get a bottle for him to enjoy ;0)

Spyke's Gold

2011-11-17T08:38:00.008Z

Anyone who attended the Nottingham CAMRA branch meeting at the Hotel Deux earlier this year will remember the talk given by Claire Monk who is the head brewer – or brewster - at the newly opened Welbeck Abbey Brewery. Set deep in the Nottinghamshire countryside, on the historic Welbeck Estate just outside Bolsover, this is a state of the art microbrewery, It is jointly owned by the estate and Kelham Island Brewery and was built with grant assistance from the East Midlands Development Agency.

Claire wanted to brew a commemorative beer for the late Nottingham CAMRA chairman, Spyke Golding to be sold at the Robin Hood Beer Festival. She kindly issued an invitation for two committee members to join her at the brewery for the day to assist her. The two lucky people were Ray Kirby and David Mason. I managed to tag along having promised to write an article about it for the Nottingham Drinker and take some photographs.

We set forth on a lovely Sunday morning in October. Claire had requested that we meet her at the brewery to start work at 7.30 am. (This seemed like a ridiculous time to yours truly, for whom Sunday morning does not officially start until the end of the Archers omnibus!) We made our way through the countryside, and managed to find the estate and then the brewery, with a lucky escape for a pheasant along the way, which nearly went under the car wheels!

Claire was waiting for us when we arrived and put everyone straight to work. She told us that we were going to be brewing ‘Spyke’s Gold’, which would be a light, tasty, golden ale, with all English ingredients and an ABV of 4%.

Having put all the ingredients through the hopper, water was added. After some worrying noises the mash tun finally sputtered into life! The mash tun (right) had its own history – previously used at the Kelham Island Brewery, it had originated from a bakehouse and brewery somewhere in Hampshire. Claire was impressed by the fact that it is older than her, but unfortunately, that was not the case for the rest of us! During this process, we got to taste hot wort – this was a sweet, and not unpleasant warm liquid, which I could imagine being very good for colds!

Once this was finished, it fell to Ray to clear out the spent grains from the tun (after the wort had been transferred to the copper). Having undertaken this heroic task, the tun then had to be cleaned thoroughly in preparation for the next brew. There followed the battle of the base plates – which Ray finally managed to get back into place!

Pictured right: David adding the fresh yeast to the wort.

It was not all up to Ray to do the dirty work – once the beer had come out of the copper, it was David’s task to clean out the spent hops!

It is certainly a rural location! As we sat outside at lunchtime eating our sandwiches (the predicted rain having held off) the background noise was that of guns from the local shoot! Ray and I sampled some of Claire’s ‘Henrietta’ from the conditioning tank (another first!). David, being the driver, enjoyed a nice cup of tea! Claire explained to us that the spent grains from the mash tun are collected by a local farmer who uses them as cow feed, and that other local farmers come and collect the spent hops which they use as compost.

Like many CAMRA members, the three of us had visited numerous breweries over the years and were familiar with the equipment and theory. However, none of us had ever observed or participated in the actual full brewing process before. Claire had said at the beginning of the day that brewing is 90% cleaning and as the day progressed, we began to see exactly what she meant. We could also see why such an early start had been required – we began at 7.30 am and were not finished and cleaned up until gone 4.00 pm (I say ‘we’ – I admit that my contribution on this front was ‘nil’). When we finally got to sample the finished product at the Robin Hood Beer Festival, we appreciated it all the more for the effort which we knew had gone into it.

It was an extremely enjoyable day for all of us and I can certainly recommend making a visit to the brewery for yourselves. Brewery trips can be arranged for groups of eight or more.

Cheers everybody!

Judith Lewis

6 months in

2011-11-10T08:40:00.007Z

Welbeck Brewery has been going strong for almost 6 months now. We supply around 70 pubs between Sheffield, Lincoln, and Nottingham, and that number is increasing week to week.

I've finally settled on a core range of 3 beers so make sure you keep an eye out for them and let me know what you think.

Henrietta 3.6% Golden Bitter

Low in strength but absolutely crammed full of wonderful hop character. There's a good bitter note from Challenger hops which balances the citrus and grassy nose from Willamette and Hallertaur Brewers Gold.

Ernest George 4.2% Deep Ruby ale

This deep ruby ale is packed full of a careful blend of dark malts for a whole drinking experience. A dark spiced fruit nose is balanced with an initial smooth chocolate flavour which develops into a warming rich roasted coffee note.

Portland Black 4.5% Black beer

A rich and smooth black beer - all the flavour of a porter without the weight. This beer is all about the dark malts, giving a very smooth drink with smoke, liquorice and burnt toffee flavours and a distinctly vanilla nose.

Each month I’m brewing a special – something a little more adventurous, or topical. Last month I brewed ‘Spyke’s Gold’ with Nottingham CAMRA. I’ll be putting a piece up about that with their article and photos so you can have a read.

This month’s special brew is ‘Cavendish’ a 5.0% Blonde ale. I’ve really showcased Cascade hops in this beer, using only Maris Otter malt and making it a higher ABV to balance the strong hop character. It’s a well rounded beer which I’m quite chuffed with really! It'll probably make a reappearance next Summer so don't panic if you've missed it.

What have we been up to?

2011-10-10T13:17:00.000+01:00

The new Welbeck Brewery has been going from strength to strength, now supplying around 60 pubs as a regular guest beer. We’re now on the SIBA DDS scheme which has opened the doors to many more pubs and we hope to step up production to supply to those pubs in our area which can use the SIBA list.

The Welbeck Farm Shop are now a superb destination for real ale drinkers, selling around 80 bottles of our bottle conditioned beers every week. They also have a cask on at the weekend which visitors can fill their 4-pint carry kegs with. There are always at least 4 different bottle conditioned ales available, giving you a great variety to choose from. Also available in the Farm Shop is a *NEW* Welbeck Abbey Brewery Real Ale Chutney. This is produced by ‘Poachers Preserves’ using seasonal apples and ‘Ernest George’ (4.2%), our deep ruby ale.

Now that we’re in full swing, brewery tours will be available for groups of 8 or more.

· When: Tues/Fri evenings 7:30pm – 9:00pm

· How much: £5/head (includes a free pint)

· How: Call Claire 01909 512539/email: Claire.monk@Welbeck.co.uk (pre-booking is essential)

October sees not only the superb Steel City Festival, but also the Robin Hood beer festival in Nottingham. We’ve brewed ‘Spyke’s Gold’ especially for the week of the festival - a 4.0% English Pale Ale brewed with all English ingredients for a refreshingly British pint. Thanks to those CAMRA members who helped us brew it, and I hope it’s enjoyed at the festival.

Forthcoming events:

November: 26^th-27^th Christmas market at Welbeck where you’ll be able to buy some crafty Christmas gifts as well as sample the ware of Welbeck’s team of brewer, baker, cheesemaker, and chocolatier!

December: 4^th 2-4pm Cheese and Beer tasting at the School of Artisan Food with Claire (brewer) and Lee-Anna (cheesemaker) To book, call the School of Artisan Food on 01909 523171.

Beers galore

2011-09-13T10:23:00.004+01:00

It's been a very long time since I updated you with a blog, so here's whats been happening.

I've been experimenting a little with new beers, having 4 regulars is one too many, but the feedback has been good about them all. I have tried brewing one called 'St. James' 4.0% lighter ruby ale which was potentially to replace both Ernest George and Red Feather. It's brewed with a mixture of black and roasted malts and crystal malt for sweetness (I'm a fan of the crystal, incase you'd not noticed). I've used English hops to make this a really very English beer. It's an easy drinking, slightly nutty, roasted bitter which has received very positive feedback, so look out for a repeat performance.

In a totally different fashion, the monthly special for August was a highly hopped 4.7% pale ale which used New Zealand Moteuka and American Cascade hops which give it a really citrussy hit. The major flavour notes are lemons limes and grapefruits. I called it 'Fruit Arcade', which was a giant greenhouse type affair on the Welbeck Estate which they grew tropical fruits in.
The general feedback was that hoppy pale ale fans absolutely loved it, but those darker or more subtle session beer fans thought it was a bit too much. Let me know what you think if you had any.

Portland Black

2011-07-26T09:06:00.002+01:00

The newest beer at Welbeck Abbey Brewery is Portland Black. This is a 4.5%ABV black beer, pitched somewhere between and dark mild and a porter. I don't really do the whole 'beer styles' thing, I just enjoy brewing tasty beer which people like.

A rich and smooth black beer - all the flavour of a porter without the weight. This beer is all about the malt character, brewed with a good dose of black malt, balanced with smooth chocolate malt and a hint of roasted barley for a bite.

Henrietta

2011-07-10T09:36:00.003+01:00

Our fourth beer to be brewed is Henrietta - named after one of the Portland family. Henrietta is a 3.6%ABV light golden ale. She's low in strength but absolutely crammed full of wonderful hop character. There's a good bitter note from Challenger hops which balances the citrus and grassy nose from Willamette and Hallertaur Brewers Gold.

After perhaps a little recipe tweak, something like this may become one of our core beers. If you've tried it, let me know what you think please.

The beers of Welbeck Abbey Brewery

2011-06-28T16:48:00.009+01:00

It's been a while since I updated you, so here's what's been going on...

After several teething problems we managed to produce a cracking first beer. This is a summery golden ale brewed with Willamette, Cascade and Chinook hops from North America. It's got a zingy punch and is incredibly moreish!

The second beer we have got out into your local is a deep amber bitter. 'Red Feather' is brewed with all English ingredients, with plenty of crystal malt to give it a sweet caramel flavour balanced with English hops.

The name comes from the Welbeck logo, a pair of red feathers which are used on everything Welbeck, including our pump clips.

Currently fermenting and due to finish soon is 'Ernest George' at 4.2%ABV. This is a very deep brown ale is packed full of chocolate malt, black malt, and roasted barley to give it incredibly intense rich flavours. These flavours a cut through with a good rounded bitterness from English hops, and an undertone of sweetness from crystal malt. It's not heavy drinking like a porter, but a more than satisfying pint.

Sir Ernest George was an architect during the early 20th century. He repaired much of the abbey after a fire in one of the wings, and designed several of the other small buildings on the estate. We think it's an appropriate name for a good, traditional English bitter with lots of dark and smokey character!

The launch of Welbeck Abbey Brewery

2011-05-28T13:23:00.006+01:00

Welbeck Abbey Brewery Launches!

Tuesday 24^th May saw the new Welbeck Abbey Brewery officially opened for real ale production. Bryan Jackson, Chairman of the East Midlands Development Agency, cut the red ribbon on the day. EMDA kindly provided a grant for the purpose-built building under the Rural Development Programme for England which has enabled the joint owners, The Welbeck Estates Company and Kelham Island Brewery, to design and build this state of the art micro-brewery.

(Above: Bryan Jackson, Chairman of EMDA, cutting the red ribbon)

Directors Robin Brown and David Wickett both spoke of their enthusiasm for the new venture, particularly as the real ale industry is booming. This is the newest addition to the rapidly growing ‘Welbeck Project’ which aims to establish a sustainable community in this historic rural estate, centred around the Arts, creative business, rural diversification and education.

We welcomed almost 100 people on the day, including a 50’s double decker bus full of guests from Sheffield which added a great sense of atmosphere and excitement to the day. After the official opening of the brewery, we headed to the Harley Gallery to sample the very first beer – ‘First Brew’ at 4.3%ABV, accompanied by fresh sandwiches from the Farm Shop. It was also Mr Wickett’s birthday, so we shared a very appropriate beer-related cake which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Claire ran two tours of the brewery to explain just what happens to make that delicious amber drink, both of which were well attended by the interested guests.

The beers which are brewed at Welbeck are made purely with Welbeck water, malted barley, hops, and our own fresh yeast. We do not use any refined sugars or artificial preservatives. The recipes are unique to this micro-brewery and are designed by head brewer Claire Monk, who was taught to brew at the award winning Kelham Island Brewery after studying Microbiology at The University of Sheffield. All the recipes and names are inspired by the deep and fascinating history of Welbeck Abbey.

Now that the Welbeck Abbey Brewery is fully up and running, the ales will be available in pubs between Sheffield, Lincoln, and Nottingham from the start of June. If you would like to try some at home, Claire will be hand bottling a small number for the Welbeck Farm Shop each week.

To get in touch and follow the progress of the brewery, you can contact Claire through Twitter: WelbeckAbbeyBry, Facebook: search for ‘Welbeck Abbey Brewery’, Email:Claire.monk@welbeckestates.com or Phone: 01909 512539. (Thats me on the right!)

Impending Brew Day

2011-05-11T12:33:00.001+01:00

It seems as though this project has been going on for a very long time indeed, which is true, but I think we’re getting there.

Most of the vessels are in, we’re going to put in the conditioning tank today but once it’s in the right place that’s pretty much it done.

All the stainless pipework is finished and welded, it looks like a maze of pipes and I think it will take a couple of brews to get used to which line connects what to where!

The plastic pipework for the cooling system is being finished today. This will make sure we control the temperature of the beer accurately so that your pint is perfectly clear.

I’ve ordered the pump clips so I’ll put up the picture for you to see soon, and the bottling materials are here too. I’m only going to hand bottle a few a week for the farm shop at Welbeck, so if you want to drink it at home this will be the only place you can buy it. For now anyway!

I’m working in my new office by the way. I had commandeered and set up camp in one of the meeting rooms on the Welbeck Estate, but as I now have a desk/chair/kettle, I’ve moved into the brewery. It’s much better, and it means we’re getting closer to brew day.

Still very busy ringing pubs to get customers, I’m calling Nottingham today which is a brilliant real ale area. Any suggestions, as always, just let me know.

The end is in sight

2011-04-20T18:54:00.000+01:00

It’s almost Easter and the brewery isn’t quite ready yet, but another few days work and we’ll be there.

Whilst the builders and engineers are getting the brewery ready, I’m busy ringing pubs and getting customers on board. The area I’m covering is from Sheffield to Nottingham, and across to Lincoln, although Kelham Island Brewery will be able to sell a bit further afield to many of their long established customers. If you live in this area, just mention it to your local’s landlord and tell them they can ring me any time to talk about ordering.

We’ve decided what the first recipes going to be - we will call it ‘First Brew’, it’s a traditional thing. It’ll be a gorgeously quaffable summer pale ale, at 4.3% and totally crammed full of zesty zingy Cascade and Willamette hops. Yum yum.

After that one, what do you fancy next? Another summery pale ale? Or a good session bitter to quench your thirst on a cool spring night? I want to make a British Bitter soon, with English malted barley and whole flower Fuggles and Goldings hops from Kent and Herefordshire. What do you think?

Anyway, more grist to the mill….or soon there will be I hope!

No longer an empty shell

2011-04-06T09:25:00.005+01:00

The water is going in today, as I write they're drilling a huge hole in the wall and getting covered in brick dust. The installation engineers have managed to move all the brewery tanks, cask washer, grist case etc into the brewhouse and it's now jam-packed with brewery and installation kit. Much better.

They're going to start piping between the tanks today, we looked at where they're all going so it's starting to come together now. The beer cold store and my office are finished, and the electricians are putting all the lighting and fittings in as we go. Hopefully I'll get a phone number today too which will be good - haven't got a phone yet though.

So it's all coming together and getting close to brewing. Nothing too disastrous has happened yet (touch wood!!) but I am pretty sure it will do soon as it's been far too plain sailing. Eeek!

(Left) This is the uber forklift truck we had to use to get the copper in the door and stood upright! It's a monster, and I owe the farms chaps some beer to say thank you because they went out of their way to spend several hours helping on Monday and Tuesday.

Right then, best I find a chiller unit...

Looking good

2011-03-30T12:34:00.007+01:00

So the logo for Welbeck Abbey Brewery have been finalised! It's on the right of this page.
I shall explain where all the shapes and colours come from...

The outline shape. This is from the top of a beautiful early 19th century building in the village called 'The Winnings' (see the piccy)

The original badge of the 'Bentinck' family who own Welbeck was two arms holding feathers, resting in a coronet - which is basically a minor-league version of a crown. There's a lovely gate into the walled garden which shows this incredibly well. So the feathers are the official Welbeck branding, and I've added the 'Ducal Coronet' to complete the look.

The 'W' at the top stands for Welbeck (duh) but I've put it there because the 6th duke of Portland has a fancy 'P' at the top of lots of the buildings.

The colour of the estate is a deep holly green so that's why the background is green, and the actual pump clip will be a shield shape with this in the top.

Tadaa! Let me know what you think.

Doors and floors

2011-03-28T17:49:00.011+01:00

So the brewery building is almost ready. I went to have another look today and the flooring people are on site preparing the concrete floor for its dashing red covering. There's now a second roller shutter door on the building which makes it almost a closable area, just need the small door now. All the walls are up, they're coated in plastic now so that they're protected and very user friendly in an extremely beery environment! The building team are also now building a little office with a big window for me, so hopefully I won't freeze to death in the winter.

Equipment starts to go in next week, and after much hunting I've finally bought a tank to fill casks from hooray! That means we've got almost all the equipment we need for a working brewery - just the last bits to get and fairly sharpish too.

This week I'm going to start ringing pubs and telling them that the Welbeck Abbey Brewery will be up and running in three weeks, which means beer will be available to buy at the start of May. This is the hard but exciting bit, and I'm getting a van this week so that I can actually deliver the beer!

The logo is currently being designed and should be ready tomorrow, I'll share that as soon as it's ready. Just looking forward to seeing the first pump clip this week when I think it will all become a bit more scary and real.

Anyhow, here are a few pictures for you to have a look at....

(Above) The stairs have arrived! I can actually get up to the mezzanine floor now. This will be where the malted barley and hops will be stored.

(Right)This is a bit of a wonky picture of the new roller shutter door on the brewhouse side of the building. The blue machine thingy at the back is an industrial sized hoover which they were using to clean the floor ready for the resin coating.

(Left) This is just a chap preparing the floor in the fermenting room. All the blue plastic will come off and reveal some super shiny plastic walls.

(Right) The inside of the cold store. Bit boring, but soon it will be much more exciting, filled with lovely beer, yippee!

Two weeks to go

2011-03-21T19:03:00.001Z

It's only two weeks to go until the Welbeck Abbey Brewery equiment is installed, which means the day that our new beer reaches you is getting very close indeed!

In the middle of The Welbeck Abbey Estate we are setting up a traditional microbrewery - read the info on the right bar to find out a little about your new local brewery. The building project started in the winter, and after a few months of dealing with rather a lot of snow and a rotten roof, it’s almost complete.

Here are a few pictures of the building now it’s recognisable!

There are two halves to the brewery, at the back of one is the cold store where all our beer will be stored in casks until we whisk it off to your pub in our van. This picture shows the cold store from the front, my office will be in the front space and we’ll use that big area for all the deliveries.

The other half is the brew house and conditioning tanks where we’ll be making the beer and putting it in to casks. You can see the fermenting room taking shape here, and the mezzanine floor which we’ll use to store our hops and malt.

This is the view from the back of the brewery looking out. You can see the floor of the mezzanine has been built, and the hand rail has been put on.

Lots more building to do, and all the equipment to put in. Keep an eye on the Facebook site for updates.