Back to Harvey's brewery

The unfortunate late cancellation of a planned trip to Germany did have a silver lining: it meant I was able to go on my local CAMRA branch's trip to Harvey's brewery.  

It's disturbingly long since I was last there so it was great to be back. 

Obligatory picture of Lewes Cathedral from the bridge

See

They've been able to extend the yard out the back so we got a bit further round than I have before:

Not the pretty side

But mostly it was the same with Head Brewer, the wonderful Miles Jenner, doing his thing. 

I did get the answer to something I've wondered about, what with them being a traditional brewery with two Coppers and two Mash Tuns:

Copper no.1, which dates from 1999 as the old one was worn out.

Copper no.2, which came from Grays brewery

Mash Tun 1

They do indeed parti-gyle. 

The hops are Fuggle, Progress, Golding and Bramling Cross, so a mixture of old and modern; Progress and Bramling Cross coming after Ernest Salmon started hop breeding in 1904. A pound a barrel is used in the Best Bitter, with hop dosing at the start and late in the boil, and in the hop back. Armada ale, which was my favourite when we got to the sampling room, is dry hopped.

Mashing in takes 15 minutes and they have a 45 minute mash stand at 65°C. Astonishingly (to me anyway) they still boil their brewing liquor to reduce carbonates. They usually boil for 75 minutes, though it's three hours for the Russian Imperial Stout!

They can brew from to 25 to 260bbl a day.

Production peaked at 45,000 barrels a year in 2010 but is now around 30,000, though that looks stable. 

FT no. 7

I was delighted so spot that their Fermenting Vessels are called FTs, which must surely be Fermenting Tuns. I'd been pondering that Fermenting Vessel sounds a modern term compared to Copper (which is still widely used, though Kettle seems to have become more common) and Mash Tun. 

On the chalk board there's volumes in British beer barrels (36 gallons, 163.66L). The temperature is, of course, in Fahrenheit so it's not in fact massively high, they've collected into the FT at the lowly 16.5°C. You might also be thinking that the gravity looks really low but the 19.4 is not degrees sacch, it's pounds per barrel so the SG is 1.0539. 

The yeast came from John Smith's brewery in 1957. It was originally single strain, but now it's two. And that's not to mention the Debaryomyces. 

Macaroni head

Bottling is carried out on site. They still use returnable bottles, which on a personal level was slightly annoying as I'd left the two empties I had at home! There are signs returnable bottles may be making a comeback so Harvey's are now ahead of the curve on this one. 

In the traditional manner they have a tunnel pasteuriser, which being traditional probably runs at three billion Pasteurisation Units (I didn't think to ask). 

There's a not so traditional canning line that was installed post-Covid. 

But 92% of their production is still cask: beer served as god intended.

Cask racking

Miles said that without CAMRA the brewery wouldn't be there and I certainly do my bit to help Harvey's whenever I see their beers on the bar. 

The sampling room had moved but the joy of going there hadn't changed and I did a thorough sampling. 

The mild and best had won recent regional CAMRA awards so the certificates were presented and the beers will be progressing in the Champion Beer of Britain competition.

There were options to go on to the pub or a beer festival after the brewery visit but having made the most of my time in the sampling room I decided to head home. Mind you, I did make it to my local later!

In the belly of the beast

I was back at Hogs Back brewery last week, a place where I had my first brewing job. Unfortunately for me, and indeed many, many other people, the boss at the time as a really nasty piece of work. I reached my limit after six months, a lot left a much sooner. But that was under previous ownership and management. 

Much has changed since I was there. The brewhouse hasn't much though:

They've now got a  two roller mill but the brewing vessels are all the same: Copper to the left, Hot Liquor Tank in the middle at the back, and Mash Tun on the right. Volumes are still lower than pre-Covid but are rising, particularly as they've started brewing beer for Exmoor Ales. At the moment it's 7-8 brews a week. The ales are in fermenter for a week and conditioning tank for 2-5 days. The lager takes four weeks. 

40bbl mash tun. Note the Farnham bells on the hop sack above it.

The don't rack casks under an IBC of concentrated caustic anymore, in fact I was told the IBCs are now empty but have been left in place as it's too difficult to remove them. 

The bottling line has gone but they have gained a smaller brewery that's entirely renewably powered:

One Planet brewery

The kit looked like it's 10bbl brewlength to me. All the One Planet beers are unfiltered and unpasteurised.

The Hogs Back owner has bought the site so though the brewery was still very recognisable from my day the tap room, and more importantly the hop field is new. The hops were first planted on the other side of the road from the brewery but houses were built there so the hops were transplanted to behind the brewery. 

The estate manager in from of Farnham whitebines

They grow eight and a half acres of Cascade, Fuggle and Farnham Whitebine. The latter were a huge obsession of mine so I was absolutely delighted when they started growing them. Bizarrely Hogs Back don't have much use for them so sold off last years crop. But I guess that does mean other brewers have the opportunity to use the ur-Golding. 

Glug-a-Spoon, O Glug-a-Spoon, O grant thy faithful CAMRA's boon!

Religion requires certain rituals and observances from the faithful and CAMRA is no exception. On a recent trip to London I was able to fulfil one of them by calling in at the Royal Oak in Borough for a pint of Harvey's Dark Mild, thus doing my duty in the Beery Month of Obligation and saving mild for another year. 

Mild saved again

The main reason I'd been in London though was to meet up with an old friend in a 'Spoons. I'd made sure I was supplied with a stock of CAMRA Members' Real Ale Cider and Perry Vouchers (or in the vernacular, 'Spoons vouchers) before going. There is some controversy over these, though it's not true that we have to sing to Tim Martin each year to be granted this boon (it is of course to Roger Protz). I've never understood the objection myself. I don't drink in 'Spoons often but if I spend less when I do it's surely a good thing all round? Less money for Wetherspoons, more money for me. 'Spoons prices in central London are more than I was expecting too so the discount was welcome. 

A whole pound I didn't spend

And I have to say as I drank my discounted pint of Jaipur served as god intended, having the one true living beer enter my life, and mouth, I remembered that virtue is its own reward. 

Why should I care if a brewery is independent?

Once again the stench of heresy assaults my nostrils. Our Mother Church has voted at its recent AGM in favour of this motion:

"This Conference agrees that UK beer lovers have been badly let down by the lack of leadership and imagination shown by the multinational brewers and large property firms that, between them, control the UK beer trade. Conference therefore instructs the National Executive to ensure that all relevant CAMRA publications and communications pledge preferential support to beer producers and suppliers that are independent of the influence of the multinational brewers, and to make the case persistently for this stance."

That CAMRA is favouring smaller brewers over large is nothing new, I can remember the wailing and gnashing of teeth when Allied Breweries (one of the "Big Six") won the Champion Beer of Britain in 1990. I can't help but think though that the formal adoption of this motion is making the error of modernism, denying objective truth.   

I am a man of simple faith, not a CAMRA theologian, but beer that is pleasing to god is defined by being matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed. Such fripperies as as the share ownership of the company producing it are irrelevant. And have not heathens complaining about listings in the Good Book regularly been told the correct orthodox position that inclusions are based beer quality not other minor matters?

Beer that is pleasing to god. And I didn't need to visit Companies House to determine that. 

Over in barbarian lands the Brewers Association regularly changed their definition of "craft brewery" and now the beer produced doesn't get a look in at all. Just about all that's left is that share ownership is mostly independent. Producing as much beer as the country of Denmark produces annually is fine and I have no idea what benefit being independent brings us. I wouldn't not like to see this road to hell being followed over here. 

I've drunk good and bad cask beer from both independent and multinational breweries. I've also worked at small and large breweries. The multinationals are undoubtedly evil but then again some of the biggest cunts  most awful people I've ever met have been running small breweries. Let us remain true to the core beliefs of our faith and venerate all beer that is pleasing to god. 

Finally: a wilt-tolerant Fuggle

A very interesting article by the hop goddess Klara Hajdu in the CIBD magazine gives an update on the latest research from Wye Hops.

Breeding English hops with stronger, high intensity flavours, is now into the third generation of crosses and Real Ale Hero laureate Eddie Gadd has been carrying out the brewing trials. He's also added another title to his name as Wye Hops experimental brewer which is cool as fuck. 

Eddie and Klara in action

It will be very interesting to see what flavours these new hops bring but even more exciting than that is the news that a hop breeding mission going back at least 70 years has finally reached a successful conclusion: a wilt-tolerant Fuggle has been developed. 

Verticillium wilt is a fungal disease that can devastate hop crops and is difficult to treat. The best solution is to grow resistant hop varieties in affected areas. Sadly as each hop "variety" is really a single female plant propagated from cuttings it's very difficult to breed in desired traits such as disease resistance without breeding out the characteristic flavour. Cascade for example has a lot of Fuggle in its ancestry but gives an entirely different flavour to beer. 

The need for a wilt-tolerant Fuggle is mentioned in a paper back in 1955 and in 2013 I heard the long quest might be only three years away from a successful conclusion. It's taken considerably longer  that that but craft beer geeks everywhere will be delighted to learn that variety 15/10/23 has now completed its trials and it beer made with it no noticeable change of taste was detected compared to true Fuggle. The hop was released in late 2024 as Wye Fuggle. 

The Session: What is the best thing to happen in good beer since 2018?

Dates get hazy for me if I go back further than the last weekend. So what exactly has happened since 2018, rather than say 2017 or 1911, isn't immediately obvious. But the stand out thing in the world of good beer for me only happened a year or two ago. Unless it was three, but definitely within the required time frame: I brewed Thomas Hardy Ale. Yes, me. Brewing one of the final five! Do things get better than that? Not that I can think of and I'd be very surprised if any of my fellow sessioners can either. 

Golden Pints 2024

Feel that sun
Like a great gold gong that's beating,
Like a brass-bell fanfare greeting,
Summoning the day.

 

Best UK Cask Beer:

I was lucky enough to catch a green hop beer this year and draught Thomas Hardy's Ale which was cool as fuck. But it's Thurstons Horsell Hop that wins. It had that zingy fresh hop taste that makes it beer of the year.

Best UK Keg Beer:

Having been abroad I've suckled at the devil's drainpipe in the heathen manner. And my mate Marek has at times brought keg been over when it's his round. Wonderful human being that he is he wasn't brought up in the faith so doesn't recognise the spiritual peril he is placing himself in by doing this. What was favourite though? Who knows? I don't pay attention to such things. I did enjoy our walk to Rivington brewery though so something from them.

Best UK Bottled Beer:

Carefully selected for me by my favourite nephew Harvey's Tom Paine hit the spot. 

Best UK Canned Beer:

Oh god, cans too. Surely this can't be pleasing to god. The ludicrously waxed can a mate got me for my happy birthday made me laugh and it was filled with an imperial stout which I approve of so Decimus Rusticus from Baron Brewing.

Best Overseas Draught:

Time to go back to one of my trips to a heathen land: the IBD study tour of Ireland. Though it's not totally devoid of beer served as god intended I didn't get any myself and the ones I can remember are the big three stouts: Guinness, Murphy's and Beamish. Though big three's probably pushing it as Guinness dwarfs everything else. It's not my favourite though, nor the sweeter Murphy's. The winner is the more bitter Beamish.  

Best Overseas Bottled Beer:

What have I had this year? Hmmm...I did go to the Guinness brewery so let's have FES, another great beer that sticks it to those think diacetyl has no place in beer. 

Best Overseas Canned Beer:

It's bad enough having to try and remember a British canned beer. I did neck a can of something Polish at the airport though so that's this year's winner. 

Best collaboration brew:

Have I had any? I've a vague feeling I have but I can't remember what. 

Best Overall Beer:

Thustons Horsell Hop.

Best Branding:

Let's go with the waxed can as I didn't cut myself getting rid of the wax.

Best UK Brewery: 

Thurstons.

Best Overseas Brewery: 

Guinness was amazing, it's like a bleedin' city. 

Best New Brewery Opening 2024

Can't think of one.

Pub/Bar of the Year:

The Crown of course.

Best New Pub/Bar Opening 2024

Can't think of one of these either. 

Beer Festival of the Year:

Hmmm... Woking's gone. No GBBF. Didn't get to Farnham. Oooo...there is the beer festival the Crown has so that. 

Supermarket of the Year:

Waitrose had Golden Pride for less than London Pride so them. 

Independent Retailer of the Year:

 Cobbett's Real Ale is handy when I'm in need of something special so they're the winner again

Online Retailer of the Year:

I actually bought some beer online this year as the special offer on the Fuller's (Asahi) advent calendar was a bargain so they win this one. 


Best Beer Book or Magazine:

The one I've enjoyed the most is Martyn Cornell's Around the World in 80 Beers. I suspect beer list books are the ones that sell but the subtitle "a global history of brewing" sums it up better. It's far more than just a list of beers. There are some fascinating facts in it that I found a delight, I mean who knew the first person to swim the English channel drank beer on the way? Or that the heather ale recipe myth Williams Bros. use is hugely popular in Russia? But ignore the bit about the male Fuggle, there ain't no such thing.

Best Beer Blog or Website:
 

A Good Beer Blog this year.

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer:

It should shift to Blue Sky really so I'll go for Boak and Bailey  who are over there.