Impending Brew Day

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

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

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

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

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

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.