Project Venus Brew Day number 4!

Another early start for me on Saturday as I was trekking off to the 4th Project Venus brew day at Prospect Brewery.  It was horrible and foggy most of the way so I was glad to get there in time for a strong cup of tea and a bacon sarnie :) Throughout the morning more and more brewsters arrived until we were up to around 15..... the most so far. We had 3 from Zero degrees and also Tracy from Molson Coors.   




Talking to Tracy about her experiences at Coors (and previously Robinsons) was fascinating and I could only imagine how different it must have seemed to her brewing in such a small brewery by comparison.  The Zero degrees girlies really enjoyed the whole process (including the beer drinking!) and learnt a lot about the use of whole hops as opposed to pellets, their brewing is done using a centrifugal thingamy jig.

Romy

Tracy

At lunchtime we congregated in the brewery bar for homemade soup whilst Romy had to go and warm her feet up on the copper (it was a tad chilly).

Cold feet!

The bar is inside the brewery so that you can see what's going on whilst sitting on a bar stool or sofa, or indeed playing the piano (!) and supping a pint.  The bar opens up on Friday nights for people on their way home and does a roaring trade. The Friday before the brew day it was absolutely packed and you had to fight your way in the door!

                                                                                         

The brew itself went swimmingly..... no there's no joke in that, there really were no disasters.... and we were finished by 5.00pm. We now await release day for the casks of Venus Gold, a lovely fresh golden hoppy session beer.


Patsy who owns Prospect Brewery is one of the nicest people I've ever met!  We've known each other a while now and her generosity and kindness knows no bounds! We all had such a great day and met so many lovely people and I can't wait for the next one which is going to be at Zero Degrees in Reading.  :)

Project Venus

Two posts in one day? Have I nothing better to do???  Yes, but I'm gearing up for brew day at the next Project Venus brew event at Prospect Brewery on Saturday. It'll be 4am start to get there at a reasonable time, but as my husband pointed out, he sets off at that time every Monday so I should stop complaining :) This time we have a Molson Coors Brewster coming in with us!  As you an imagine the jokes have been flying 'watch she doesn't put any pink colouring in' 'Oh, are you making lager this time?'  etc etc.  Luckily, said Brewster has a sense of humour and is looking forward to seeing what us small brewers are all about... she may find the hop aroma a little overpowering however.  Note to self, make sure face mask is available for her personal use,and that she is positioned near a window ;)

The First Post!

Well, here we go, my first foray in to the world of blogging.  Seeing as I like brewing and also like talking and key tapping a blog about me brewing seems the right thing to do!  

I thought I'd start now as we are on the verge of relocating the brewery to a larger place in Llanidloes.  Known as the town of ageing hippies by some, it is one of the most fabulous places I have ever been to, and the main reason for our move to this part of the world 6 years ago.  We'll be able to pop to the veggie cafe (its actual name is The Great Oak Cafe but it's veggie and it's a cafe!)  for our lunch and pop in to the pub after work.... life is indeed looking up! We will also have use of a fork lift which is going to make life a lot easier, especially as we will also have a lovely shiny metal mezzanine floor :)  

We also have a very nice little brick 'shed' on the side of the unit which will perfect for a bijou flatlet for Hemp the collie.  He will be able to accompany me to work every day now instead of staying at home in the porch where he can rip open bags full of ash from the fire waiting to be taken to the garden...... yes, a very big mess.

Over a period of time we will be building a bigger plant.  Not long after starting this brewing lark it dawned on me that in reality, it takes the same amount of time and effort whether you're brewing 18 casks worth or 60 casks worth of beer, and as we can't keep up with demand most of the time we clearly need bigger vessels.  All in good time dear....

Well, enough for today, sun is out so off to wash some casks !

Sue the Brew