Lynne and I gave up our London life in 2002. I was a solicitor in the City and Lynne a housing strategy officer for a local council. As we approached 40 we decided that there was more to life than office work and stress and set up The Old Cider House with the intention of running it as a B&B and base for a small walking holiday company.

After working out what our walking guests really wanted we set up Real Ale Walks where we take groups of walkers out into the Quantocks to appreciate the countryside, the historic villages and the local pubs. As part of this experience we used to supply free beer to the guests over the weekends and often got these from Moor Beer – just down the road.

It then occurred to us that instead of buying in the beer we should could it ourselves and after a few attempts started to get it right. The local pubs said that if we could produce it commercially then they would take it, so a quick call to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and we were away.

There are some fantastic pubs around the perimeter of the Quantocks (I’m not sure there’s one actually in the AONB) and practically all of these want local real ale. Given our half barrel size we can’t contemplate servicing all of these and concentrate on the local Nether Stowey pubs – in reality we only supply to places that we can drink the beer in – thus guaranteeing quality!

The brewery is a hobby, which happens to pay for itself. We love making beer and so many hops on the market can’t bring ourselves to stick to one particular style. As I type we have produced a Japanese real lager using sorachi ace hops for one of the village pubs who are running a Japanese night and I have just been down to taste a beer made with our own home-green green hops (Nethergreen). Style is therefore esoteric!

So where do we want to go from here?

We run the brewery as a hobby and when I fill in my monthly beer duty return I can see that this is never going to save the NHS, so we’ll stick with producing beer as a guest in the local pubs and the odd beer festival. We also pass on our enthusiasm and knowledge by letting guests brew beer with us during special weekends. We’re not thinking about expanding, just experimenting with the cornucopia of hops and malts on the market and really enjoying ourselves.

Folk group with their own beer!

In early December we spent 10 days in Greece trying to taste a few different beers and even found a microbrewery. We’ll write this up for later in the year. Then there was the domestic front with a special old English very hoppy beer produced for the folk event at the Rose and Crown in the Village. Of course, the most exciting beer of the year is the Christmas brew and this year we produced a 6.9% old ale (loosely based on TOP) and sold it in halves in the local pubs. A fantastic beer and one which knocked spots of the other festive brews on sale over the period.

The real problem with Xmas brews is that breweries feel they should produce something, but are frightened to make it different –either because drinkers won’t like it or it is too strong to sell. We have the advantage of being able to make very small quantities and to sell it in pins (36 pints) on top of the bar.

At the moment we are on a New Year, No Beer January for a bit of fun and we using the time to drink beer – but without alcohol in it. And so you know what? It’s okay! Have a look at our mini-blog with tasting notes.

Just gearing up for the New Year – the next beer is already barrelled for St. Valentines day and is a green hopped beer and this week we are going to experiment with some Japanese hops. Watch this space.

Ian – 4ale.co.uk

This site is not just to tell our guests what’s on, but it aims to keep all those keen on real ale informed about matters that will interest them. We blog regularly and keep you informed of what’s going on via Twitter.

The one thing about our Real Ale Walks and Brewery Workshops is that we enjoy running them as much as we hope you will enjoy attending.

So have a look at the site and we hope to see you for a 4ale experience next year.

Cheers!

Ian, Lynne and Ozy (the Labrador)

The morning started off feeding the guesthouse guests and taking Lynne off to Oatley Vineyard to pick this season’s grapes. So it’s just me and Ozy to undertake all the Brewery activities. We started off measuring the gravity of the Brewery Workshop beer – 1012, just perfect for dropping into the secondary fermenter. Then starting the mash for the late harvest hop brew from our own hops, starting with a classic IPA base for this with a soupcon of torrified wheat just to give it a head when it goes in to the pub. And then on to the hop picking.

Hopping for a perfect IPA

It is very difficult to guess how strong the hops are (bitterness) and how many you need. Two carrier bags full (about 400 grams) seemed to be about right and they went in 200 grams at a time with 100 grams at the end of the boil for good luck. Could be a fantastic brews or like alcoholic TCP – only time will tell.

We have also come on leaps and bounds with the new website adding all the brewery weekends to it and now finalising the walks. Keep an eye on this for our 2012 events.

Back to cask cleaning now. Until next time…

Ian (& Ozy)

Brewers outside the pub bringing the tone of the neighbourhood down

We started with a beer tasting on Friday – drinking our way round the UK and tasting what we hoped to be a range of different regional ales. However, what became very clear is that once the beer has been bottled and sold in supermarkets they all look and taste very alike. Sad really that our major brewers (or it might just be Sainsburys Taste the Difference range) think that we all like gold coloured, low hopped beers – whether they come from Shepherd Neame or Black Sheep, or St Peters. We did however try a couple of beers from the Stowey Brewery – fantastic (well we would say that!). we then moved on to a good warming hotpot for dinner and then a sneaky pint in the Rose and Crown.

198 grams, 199 grams, 200 exactly. Well done!

Brew day started at eight will all five brewers on time and raring to go. We were making a mid hopped pale ale for sale in mid November and all participants joined in with enthusiasm. In fact they were so efficient that we were able to get to the pub for a lunchtime pint (Cottage Triumph Spitfire) in the Ancient Mariner before one o’clock. Then back to the brewery to start the fermentation stage.

Saturday evening, and back to the Rose and Crown for dinner and a quiz. Very good beer knowledge I have to admit and high scores all round. I’m not so sure about the darts’ playing abilities later in the evening – probably something to do with the beer consumed.

And so to the here and now. Breakfast over with and we’re just going down to the brewery to see if fermentation has started – very exciting. Photos of the break are here.

Remember – you too can come and play at running a brewery. Contact Ian on 01278 732228.

These usually come in four styles; blanche (wheat), blonde, amber and dark. Whilst they may be gassed to the glass they are nearly all unpasteurised and unfiltered and pack a degree of flavour hitherto unknown in the Country. They can, however, be a bit hit and miss and the bottled versions may not taste quite the same at home as a couple have been found to be off and one turned into a weapon of mass destruction in the living room! Never mind – ‘Vive la Biere de France’ is what I say.

Off to the Rose and Crown tonight to meet a new brewer setting up in Yorkshire who’s on holiday down here – should be interesting.

The Minehead Beer Festival is a fantastic event in a unique setting. Imagine; a station platform with trains approaching from either side, CAMRA building a bar in the middle thereby restricting the platform to about a third of it’s original width, loads of people, those people drinking reasonably large amounts of alcohol – AND THEN you drive steam trains at them! I’d love to see the health and safety risk assessment.

A half of 'Nether a Prayer' please

Our beer this year was a 5.3% Belgian ‘Trappist’ style pale ale. We used Belgian pale malt, Belgian style yeast, Styrian goldings and saaz hops and candied sugar to create a slightly sweet tasting (although in reality quite dry), malty beer with reasonably low hop characteristics. A sort of Duvel without the 8% alcohol. A real drinking pint – although as I was driving – half. This would make a really good autumn beer (perhaps bring down the alcohol to a slightly more sensible 4.5%) and I shall have a think about producing this for November – so if you’re on one of our October brewing workshops be prepared to brush up your Flemish!

For details of all we do – Brewery Workshops, Real Ale and Pub Walks and beer Related Evenings and Tastings log onto www.4ale.co.uk.

Happy drinking.

Ian