Hello All!
Last month I visited Lancaster Brewery and went on the tour!
They are based on a retail park just outside Lancaster (see website for details). The building previously was a garden centre and the building lends itself quite well to being a brewery. The garden centre was build with insulation in the walls and ceiling to stop the plants dieing so the fairly basic industrial structure is very temperature stable so I am told.
In entering you find a very well set out bar / shop / cafe area
The cafe appeared to be popular and afew people were having a pint too! They have a darts board and bar billiards table as well as few flat screens one of which is a live feed showing whats going on in the brewery proper! It was a very well thought out space an very inviting SWMBO was very impressed with the decoration and the hop 'tree' :nono:
They have a selection of malts and hops for your to taste / smell but they looked a little past their best before to me :whistle:
Its a great place to visit and its smart enough to bring non beer people with out them getting bored.
They do 2x Tours a day (check website for details) @£10 per person which includes aprox 40min tour of the brewery proper and a half of each of their 4 beers with guided tastings and Q&A session.
Due to my enthuisasm we arrived early and as we were in SWMBO's car all weekend I couldnt help myself and had a pint before we started the tour.
I honestly have to say it was the BEST poured pint I have ever had all credit to the bar staff. However the beer (Blonde) was slightly lack lustre but very drinkable.
Unfortuntly I failed to take any pictures of the brewery itself :nono:
It is a rather impressive purpose built brewery with 5x 30BB fermentation v's. They only use Thwaites yeast and buy direct from the brewery on a weekly trip to get fresh batches. I was resonably surprised that they don't propergate their own but the brewery manager said they had been having problems with doing this reliably.
Dominating the interior of the brew house were 2x 50BB water tanks both HLT and CLT (Hot and Cold! Fancy). These were both used in the brewing process and to cool the FV's. They were brewing at the time so we did it all abit backwards. Well worth the effort I felt it was a little dumbed down. I pointed out at the beginning I was a bit of a geek but he refused to believe that a homebrewer can produce beer WITH OUT adding sugar / extract. I was also slightly suspicious of some of the answers. When I asked how they primed the casks before conditioning the informed me that they just 'stop fermentation' depending on the beer style so they stop it sooner for a 3.8% and leave longer for a 4.1% and cask it. Looking at the equipment I doubt they could have cooled that volume of beer to 'stop fermentation' and besides secondary fermentation would just explode the casks. My point of exploding barrels didn't go down well. I also asked at what temperature they allow the casks to mature and how long it takes.. 'It takes longer in winter because its colder' was the response 'besides by the time its go to the pubs it'll be ok'. I think i worry about my beer too much.
Besides this when we were one to one he was very helpful in answering questions, I guess explaining gravity to a group varied in their interest of being there was not his idea of keeping the schedules or value for money on target.
I would fully recommend going. If you take along a suitable container and go on a Tuesday or soon after you can get some Thwaites yeast, they also sell onsite freshly milled malt (25kg sacks) if you ask nicely.
Cheers :drunk: :drink: !
Last month I visited Lancaster Brewery and went on the tour!
They are based on a retail park just outside Lancaster (see website for details). The building previously was a garden centre and the building lends itself quite well to being a brewery. The garden centre was build with insulation in the walls and ceiling to stop the plants dieing so the fairly basic industrial structure is very temperature stable so I am told.
In entering you find a very well set out bar / shop / cafe area
The cafe appeared to be popular and afew people were having a pint too! They have a darts board and bar billiards table as well as few flat screens one of which is a live feed showing whats going on in the brewery proper! It was a very well thought out space an very inviting SWMBO was very impressed with the decoration and the hop 'tree' :nono:
They have a selection of malts and hops for your to taste / smell but they looked a little past their best before to me :whistle:
Its a great place to visit and its smart enough to bring non beer people with out them getting bored.
They do 2x Tours a day (check website for details) @£10 per person which includes aprox 40min tour of the brewery proper and a half of each of their 4 beers with guided tastings and Q&A session.
Due to my enthuisasm we arrived early and as we were in SWMBO's car all weekend I couldnt help myself and had a pint before we started the tour.
I honestly have to say it was the BEST poured pint I have ever had all credit to the bar staff. However the beer (Blonde) was slightly lack lustre but very drinkable.
Unfortuntly I failed to take any pictures of the brewery itself :nono:
It is a rather impressive purpose built brewery with 5x 30BB fermentation v's. They only use Thwaites yeast and buy direct from the brewery on a weekly trip to get fresh batches. I was resonably surprised that they don't propergate their own but the brewery manager said they had been having problems with doing this reliably.
Dominating the interior of the brew house were 2x 50BB water tanks both HLT and CLT (Hot and Cold! Fancy). These were both used in the brewing process and to cool the FV's. They were brewing at the time so we did it all abit backwards. Well worth the effort I felt it was a little dumbed down. I pointed out at the beginning I was a bit of a geek but he refused to believe that a homebrewer can produce beer WITH OUT adding sugar / extract. I was also slightly suspicious of some of the answers. When I asked how they primed the casks before conditioning the informed me that they just 'stop fermentation' depending on the beer style so they stop it sooner for a 3.8% and leave longer for a 4.1% and cask it. Looking at the equipment I doubt they could have cooled that volume of beer to 'stop fermentation' and besides secondary fermentation would just explode the casks. My point of exploding barrels didn't go down well. I also asked at what temperature they allow the casks to mature and how long it takes.. 'It takes longer in winter because its colder' was the response 'besides by the time its go to the pubs it'll be ok'. I think i worry about my beer too much.
Besides this when we were one to one he was very helpful in answering questions, I guess explaining gravity to a group varied in their interest of being there was not his idea of keeping the schedules or value for money on target.
I would fully recommend going. If you take along a suitable container and go on a Tuesday or soon after you can get some Thwaites yeast, they also sell onsite freshly milled malt (25kg sacks) if you ask nicely.
Cheers :drunk: :drink: !
