The beers of Welbeck Abbey Brewery

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

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

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!