A visit to Sarah Hughes brewery

Having been a fan of Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild since I was a teenager I was determined to visit the brewery when I heard that the Brewery History Society AGM was being hosted by Bathams. Sarah Hughes and Bathams are only six miles apart so it seemed like an ideal opportunity. It took a bit of organising, and I was so looking forward to it I was nervous something would go wrong. But the people at the brewery were very helpful and it all went fine on the day. 

As it's a small brewery we were taken down in several groups and I wasn't in the first group. I was a bit twitchy waiting for my turn. Having only looked longingly at the brewery door last time I was there it was great to get through it. 

The door to the brewery from inside the  pub

It's a Victorian tower brewery in the Beacon Hotel, dating from 1848. The brewery closed in 1957, but was reopened in 1987. 

Grist case

810kg of malt go in the Ruby Mild.

Mash tun

The Hot Liquor Tank is heated with a gas burner and the strike heat is 72°C. They mash for 65°C for 90 minutes.

The malt is mixed in by hand

The mash takes two hours to run off. The copper is eight barrels and also heated with a gas burner. 

Bet the safety rail isn't original

The copper is filled to the polished rivet. Filling to a rivet is a traditional brewing technique that I have also used!

Looking in the copper

Bittering hops go in at the start of the one hour boil, and aroma hops 15 minutes from the end. Fuggles, Bramling Cross and Goldings hops are used in the core beers. Number three invert sugar is used in  Ruby Mild, which has a gravity of 1.058. Snowflake is 1.078. The dome bottom of the copper traps a lot of hops, the rest are removed in the hopback below. 

The hop back

Wort in the hopback is 85°C. It's cooled further through a paraflow, with the hot liquor going back into the HLT. It takes one hour to empty the hop back. 

The old customs and excise box

Fermentation is in grundy tanks, two per brew. The yeast comes from Hook Norton and is re-used for four months or so. It ferments down in three to four days but spends a week in FV. 

Grundy tanks used as FVs

After fermentation the beer goes into a racking tank, where more yeast can settle out, for 24 hours. 

The racking tank

They still use some 36 gallon barrels, as well as 18 gallon kilderkins. 

The cask washer

They usually do three brews a week, but if making Snowflake will do four. 

They've still got the old Baudelot cooler, but unlike at the Augustiner brewery they don't use it. 

Baudelot cooler

After having finally seen the brewery what to do next? Well, as the door leads back into the pub it was an easy decision!