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Hinckley & Bosworth Branch |
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Church End Open Weekend 7 & 8 March 2009 Following the kind invitation from Church End Brewery, numerous members (over 20) managed to visit at some time during the weekend. Report of Saturday Minibus Trip: On Saturday lunchtime 14 branch members on the minibus departed Waterloo Road for Church End Brewery at Ridge Lane near Nuneaton. The reason for the visit being one of our best local brewery’s had arranged an open day. They have been working hard on upgrading the brewery and decided to show it off and I quote "We have finally finished our brewery upgrade, including all those annoying little bits, so we thought we would have an open weekend to show it off to our local Camra groups." The weekend featured: Ø The New Brewery on show. Ø Eight new beers from the Thursday night, one was to be Fuggled Fudge. Ø Four were in a “Brewers” Competition and three that haven't been designed yet. Ø A chance to win a brewing day at Church End. Ø Fruit beers straight from the cask Ø Anker Morris Men Ø Rolls, pork pies etc. ready to purchase to keep your strength up!"
It was an opportunity to sample some excellent beers. We started with the new brews and the first being a 3.5% straw coloured ale called Single Speed, which while being the lowest gravity beer on offer proved to be one of the tastiest of the day. This was followed by another straw coloured beer St Arnolds a 4.2 % beer, which was another good brew, other new beers included Pusty Hrad and Neico. Straight from the cask were the specialist beers including Rhubarb and Custard beer and Chilli beer, great fun and nice tasting too. On offer was a chance to try the tasting tray, which was very popular, it included 8 third pint glasses in a wooden tray, where you could have a good sample of all eight beers on offer at the handpumps. A trip around the brewery followed guided by brewery manager Karl Graves. Karl showed us all of the new equipment and explained how the automated set up would save some of the more physical tasks associated with brewing. Also how great care was taken to ensure that the correct taste of the regular beers was maintained using the new equipment. Obviously this relied on memory and a good mental recollection of taste. The brewery has come a long way since the early days, where they started brewing in the old coffin workshop behind the Griffin Inn at Shustoke. An excellent day was had by all and we headed for home in the early evening. Words by David Bates Various photos of the very smart brewery:
Photos by Chris Davies & Alan Cooke
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