CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

• Take it to the Top
• Mild make a May comeback
• Roy Rides, from Ashwell to Sandy
• CAMRA Beer Club

What is better than a brewery visit? That’s easy – two brewery visits on the same day! Based on the success of the Hunts branch’s recent visit to Masham, we may have established a branch precedent!

On a wintry weekend in February, a couple of dozen branch members trekked up the A1 to North Yorkshire. Our destination was the location of two important names in UK brewing – Theakstons and Black Sheep. My own Friday evening journey included driving through a blizzard – (such dedication) – and we were relieved to arrive in Masham and head to the Theakstons brewery tap – the GBG listed White Bear – for some hot food and delicious ale.

Saturday morning at 11am found us outside Black Sheep Brewery, founded 15 years ago when the Theakston family decided to sell the old family firm of T & R Theakston Ltd to Scottish and Newcastle, and Paul Theakston chose a different path from becoming an S&N executive.

Since then Black Sheep has grown into a major brewery and invested £5.5m in the last 2 years, including a new £1.5m brew house. This has doubled brewing capacity from 100 to 200 barrels. A new fermenting room has a capacity of 900 barrels and is totally automated. £1m has been spent putting a lot of unsightly apparatus underground, including effluent and oil tanks. This very compact brewery is currently producing 1,400 barrels a week.

The brewery was based on the buildings of the old Lightfoot brewery, bought by Theakstons in 1919, but which had not been used for many years when Paul Theakston took it over in 1992. The new brew house is in the old maltings and has its own artesian well.

Black Sheep beers are made with Maris Otter barley. 2,000 tons per year is supplied under contract from local farmers, , and mostly malted by Forcetts, with some by Simpsons. Pale, crystal and chocolate malt are all used. Hops are supplied from Hereford and Worcester, including Fuggles, Goldings, Challenger, and Progress. The yeast strain is over 100 years old – source unknown!

Black Sheep primarily uses Yorkshire Squares for fermentation, a system similar to the Burton Union system in that the fermentation vessel is in two halves. Fermenting beer, or wort, is pumped from the bottom half of the vessel through a spout into the top half. This aerates the wort to give the yeast vital oxygen. The wort returns to the bottom half via an “organ pipe”. Most of these vessels are made from stainless steel, but Black Sheep has a small number of the traditional Yorkshire Squares made from 2 inch thick Welsh slate, acquired from Darley of Thorne and Hardys and Hanson of Kimberley. The Yorkshire Square system was invented by Timothy Bentley and the only other brewery still using it is Samuel Smith of Tadcaster.

The cask washer and filler is unique and was installed by the inventor. It is capable of handling 200 casks in 4 hours in one automatic process.

After lunch at the visitors centre and a chance to sample the beers, we walked briskly a few hundred yards to the Theakston brewery for our 2pm trip.