Brewday at Great Heck Brewing Co.

As I mentioned in my aspirations for 2010 blog and with a view to a possible future in brewing, I've been keen to get some hands on brewing experience for a while now, to help better understand all aspects of brewing and what life as a brewer would be like. I've been really grateful to get a few offers from different brewers recently including Denzil from Great Heck Brewing Co, who was very supportive of myBrewerytap from the beginning and who'd I'd got to know at the SIBA annual conference.

Brewers tend to start brewing early and so I was up at 5.45am to drive over to Great Heck a picturesque small village out in the flatlands east of Wakefield toward Goole, and roughly an hour away from Huddersfield.

The first part of the brewing process and so first job of the day was to 'mash in', meaning to mix the malt and liquor (water) into a porridge like soup in order to extract the sugars from the malt. I was glad to find out that the brewery had an upper level and a grist case (hopper) to help mash in as I knew this meant a lot less lifting work. This second floor is also the malt and hop store at Great Heck and thankfully was fully stocked meaning there wouldn't be a load of shouldering heavy malt sacks up a ladder to start the day.

We would be brewing one of Great Hecks regular and most popular beers "Dave" (Dark And Very Enjoyable) a 3.8% moderately hopped dark session beer. This meant mashing in a few different malts, including some chocolate malt to give 'Dave' its dark color. The 'mash' was then left to stew while Denzil made us a very welcome fry up.

After breakfast the next job was to run off the now sweet liquor or 'wort' (containing all the necessary sugars to create the desired amount of alcohol) into the brewing kettle or 'copper' via the underback, which is there to prevent any detritus from the mash ending up in the kettle.

I've been on plenty of brewery tours in the past but I was enjoying seeing the actual brew process in action; watching closely and trying to understand a seemingly endless swapping of hoses and switching on and off of pumps. I was assured that while initially daunting these processes in the brewery soon become second nature.

Once the transfer was complete, and the wort at a rolling boil I was tasked with sorting out the hops for the brew. I was looking forward to this and enjoyed grabbing handfuls of the pungent sticky compacted hop cones out of their foil bags, breaking them up and weighing out the correct amount required. I know they're just part and parcel of the brew process and maybe taken for granted by many brewers but to this novice at least there's something really alluring about hops, they're probably the most visually appealing part of the process and their aroma while recognizable in raw form is often also noticeable in both the flavour and aroma of the 'finished' beer. These particular hops (Pilgrim) were no different and triggered off memories of beers I've enjoyed in the past (but annoyingly couldn't quite place.)

After the hops were added to the kettle and the boil left to finish it was on to the hard but necessary work of digging out the spent grain from the mash tun. This job is obviously one of the reasons why brewers don't mind having apprentices in, but I'd been looking forward to getting stuck in and finding out what these tasks would be like.

As expected it's hard work, (especially with puny wrists) but I eventually dug all the grain out and managed to wrestle the filled sacks out to the yard, where they would wait for the local farmer to collect. As the day wore on the filled sacks made a warm and comfy seat for me to idle a few minutes away in the sun while waiting for various processes to complete!

Lunch was a welcome break and Denzil knocked me up a sandwich which was gratefully washed down with Great Heck's, "Stormin Norman" straight from a hand pump rigged up in the kitchen. The 6.5% hoppy pale ale went down a treat and helped fuel the ongoing lively conversation as the brew day progressed.

After lunch and while we waited for the boil to finish Denzil gave a short master class in cask washing. This is by common consent the least favourite job in the brewery, probably down to its monotonous nature. I was expecting to spend at least part of the day doing it, but thankfully there weren't many casks needing washing and Denzil seemed to be enjoying himself so I left him to it!

Once the kettle had finished its boil it was time to start the transfer of the hot wort (now infused with hops) over to one of the fermenters. Before this could happen I watched on as Denzil performed more necessary processes of switching hoses, re-circulating water, pumps on, pumps off etc.. He then cooled the kettle down and It was once again time for me to experience one of the dirtier jobs on offer, namely scrubbing the kettle down, (which meant getting in it) and removing all the soggy spent hops by hand. This waste from the process was also left out for the farmer, apparently it's "not good for much" but is left out as part of the deal whereby the farmer gets loads of free grain to feed his cattle, which seems fair to me.

It was 4pm by this time and as the brew day was more or less complete (with just a bit more cleaning to be done) and it was time for me to head back home. The day went just as I'd hoped with plenty of laughs a lot of questions answered (and advice gathered) and a bit of hard work, in a very friendly environment.

Denzil was a top host and I'd urge anyone reading to seek out Great Heck's beers, they don't profess to be at the cutting edge of British brewing, but Great Heck's beers are by no means 'traditional' or 'boring'. They're brewing beer for the best reasons, in that it's beer that "they like to drink' and their beers cover the whole gamut of styles from pale session ales through to full bodied stouts and hoppy wheat beers.

I know Denzil is on with the long process of creating decent bottles, which we'll have on myBrewerytap as soon as he does...

For some great background on Great Heck Brewing Co check out www.Beerreviews.co.uk's meet the brewer interview here

Below are some pictures I took on the day.