Challenge Dan - Learning how to brew beer
Challenge Dan - Learning how to brew beer
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00:00 Well folks, plenty of us love drinking the stuff, but many of us may not know too much
00:04 about what actually goes into making beer. So we've come out today to Wellington to find
00:08 out all about brewing. Let's do this.
00:11 Morning. Morning Dan.
00:17 Well guys, we're here today with Steve Preston at Routon Brewery. Steve, tell us a bit about
00:23 what you do here, I'm already getting loads of fantastic smells.
00:26 Yeah, so you've joined us today on a brew day, which you can probably smell the mash
00:31 tip right here, but I'll explain a little bit about that a bit later on. We're currently
00:35 in our 16th year. Congratulations.
00:37 Yeah, thank you very much. My dad Jim started the brewery in the village of Routon, hence
00:42 the name, all those years ago. And it's kind of built to what it is today.
00:49 And in terms of the number of different beers, how many are we talking now?
00:54 So we normally have a core range of five, and some brands that some people may recognise.
01:00 So we've got our Shropshire Star, Meteorite, Ironbridge Gold, Area 51, and we always have
01:06 a dark beer on. At the moment it's 6.2% mild, so it keeps people warm in this cold weather.
01:13 Excellent, that sounds lovely. Fantastic. Right, well, let's get stuck in and see how
01:18 it's done.
01:21 Well Steve, we can see we've got some ingredients laid out here. Tell us about what's going
01:25 on in these glasses then.
01:27 Yeah, so I just think this is quite helpful to demonstrate what we do here in the brewery,
01:31 how we can create different beers throughout the process. So here we've got malting barley,
01:37 we've got chocolate malt, I should say, and maize. Now, with these three, we can create
01:46 a different variety of beers. For example, using this one, this will produce a beer,
01:52 a very light colour, very easy drinking, so obviously an ideal summer ale. With the darker
01:58 malts, such as this chocolate, we can create stouts, milds, all that sort of thing. And
02:03 then we use a variety of different things, but just an example here is some maize, which
02:08 when we put that in a beer gives it a nice bit of sweetness and gives it a bit more body.
02:13 Lovely.
02:14 Yeah, great.
02:15 Right, and what about this glass there?
02:17 So this glass here, maybe one of the most important ones that we've got, although all
02:22 the ingredients are important. So this is a glass of hops.
02:26 Right.
02:27 So the hops give the beer its bitterness, but also flavour, depending on how it's used
02:33 in the process. This one here is what we use in our Ironbridge Gold beer. It's a hop called
02:39 Centennial, it comes from America. We use hops from all over the world, America, Germany.
02:44 We also use a lot of British hops as well to support the British farmers.
02:47 That's the one.
02:48 But yeah, if you give that a smell, you can probably tell that it's quite like lemony.
02:53 Yeah, that's the one.
02:54 Yeah, the citrus flavour that we get out of those beers.
02:57 All those flavours. I'm excited.
02:59 Okay then, Steve, so in terms of actually brewing all your lovely beer, what's the first
03:04 stage of the process?
03:05 So the first stage of the process is what we call the mash. So using the different types
03:12 of barley that we discussed before, and other bits and bobs, we mix them together in hot
03:18 water, and over the course of an hour, the chemical process that happens in there basically
03:25 changes the starches in the malting barley into sugar.
03:28 Right, okay.
03:29 And that sugar we then use further down the process, which I'll explain a little bit later
03:33 on.
03:34 Okay, Steve, so we've moved over to the next vessel. What's the next step then?
03:38 So yeah, once we've finished in the mash tun, everything's steeped for an hour, and as I
03:43 mentioned, the starches have turned into sugars, we then start to pump it across to this vessel.
03:49 Now, confusingly, this is called a copper, because years and years and years ago, a lot
03:54 of the brewing vessels were made of copper.
03:56 Sure.
03:57 But we kind of call it a copper, but what it basically is, it's a kettle.
04:00 Right.
04:01 So in this vessel, we pump the water that's created from the mash tun across, we boil
04:09 it, and we add hops. So essentially what we're doing here is by boiling it, we're sterilizing
04:16 it, because obviously we want a sterile product.
04:18 Of course, yeah.
04:19 So the process is further down the line, and we're adding the hops. What the hops do, they
04:25 give beer bitterness when added earlier in the boil, and flavor and aroma when added
04:31 later in the boil.
04:32 Definitely.
04:33 You can use different hops for different purposes. Like I mentioned before, with the American
04:37 hops, they've got very citrusy, grapefruity flavors, which a lot of people in shops are
04:41 like.
04:42 Yeah, sure.
04:43 Which we use in beers such as our Irish Golden Area 51.
04:45 It's making my mouth water.
04:47 But we also use, again, as mentioned before, a lot of English hops.
04:52 Yeah.
04:53 So the beers we brew with these are more your traditional pale ales and more malty beers.
04:58 So yeah, we can utilize hops and other bits and bobs in different ways to create different
05:03 beers.
05:04 Brilliant.
05:05 Austin, your logo for the brewery has really caught my eye with this burning barrel. Tell
05:09 me a bit about it. Where's that come from?
05:11 So when Dad started the brewery back in 2008, it was in the village of Broughton, Henstrap
05:18 Brewery. It's only a little hamlet, about eight miles north of Wellington where we are
05:24 now. And one of the most interesting and famous things to have happened there was an iron
05:30 meteorite hit it in 1876.
05:31 Oh, wow.
05:32 And Dad, being somebody that's into kind of astrology and all that sort of thing, thought
05:36 that would be a great theme for the brewery. So we've got the burning barrel here to represent
05:41 the meteorite.
05:42 Excellent.
05:43 And we've got some of our beers that are space themed. So we've got our Broughton meteorite,
05:47 obviously.
05:48 Yeah.
05:49 So that might start to make sense.
05:50 Yeah, same motion.
05:51 And then we've got the Area 51.
05:52 Area 51, that was the one I was thinking.
05:54 Shropshire Star. So we've got beers that have been called Apollo, all the celestial names.
05:58 Brilliant.
05:59 Yeah, I'm back here for that.
06:00 What a great bit of history tied in as well.
06:02 Yeah, that's it.
06:03 Fantastic stuff.
06:04 Right, and Steve, so I believe now we're over here at the fermenting vessel, clue being
06:08 in the...
06:09 That's the one, yeah. So we've got four of these, which enables us to brew four times
06:15 a week. So what happens in here, just continuing from the copper, which we've just come from.
06:21 So we've got the water, which we've sterilised and add hops to. That then is sitting there
06:28 at 100 degrees. What we then have to do is pump it from there through a heat exchanger
06:33 and put it into the fermenting vessels at 20 degrees. And so what happens then is that
06:40 we put yeast in there, which is the magical ingredient that brewers love. And essentially
06:45 over the course of five days to a week, that yeast will convert all the sugars that we
06:51 created at the beginning of the process in the mash tun into CO2 and alcohol.
06:59 Okay, so is the beer ready for storage now then, Steve?
07:09 Yeah, so this is the coleslaw, which we have here at the Fez and Cup, which is adjoining
07:16 to the brewery. So for this particular barrel and all the beer that you can get at the Fez
07:20 and the Cup, the footprint is pretty low.
07:22 Well, we like it.
07:23 It doesn't travel too far. But yeah, so we like to bring the beer in here, mature it
07:29 for a week, and then it's ready for drinking the pub.
07:32 Brilliant. Sounds like it's time for a taste.
07:34 Well, folks, we're now inside the warmth of the Fez and Inn, which is adjoining to the
07:42 brewery. Some of the lovely finished product. Steve, tell us all about it.
07:48 Yeah, so on the bar here, we've got Area 51, Ironbridge Gold, and the beer we're currently
07:55 brewing, Brown and Bitter. So the one that you've got in front of you, Ironbridge Gold,
08:01 it's got that nice, pale malt base, as we learned about earlier in the brewery. And
08:08 again, it's got the American hops, which gives it that lovely citrus aroma and flavour.
08:15 It does smell fantastic.
08:16 So just the next one I've got here as well, just to pop it up there, is the Brown and
08:22 Bitter. And you can probably tell from that one, a little bit darker.
08:25 Yes, absolutely.
08:26 And that one's brewed using a blend of German and English hops, which gives it, yeah, more
08:33 malty, traditional feel.
08:34 Still very lovely aroma, isn't it?
08:36 That's it, yeah.
08:37 Smashing. It would be churlish not to have a little taste, I think, while we're here.
08:42 I think I'll join you.
08:43 Cheers.
08:44 Good health.
08:45 Cheers.
08:46 That's beautiful. Really nice. And really wonderful to have just found out a little
08:55 bit more today about where it all comes from. Certainly helps you appreciate it just that
09:00 little bit more, I think.
09:01 Cheers.
09:02 Cheers, folks.