Challenge Dan - Learning how to brew beer - video Dailymotion

Shropshire Star

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.

Challenge Dan - Learning how to brew beer

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