Went on brewery tour of Lodden Brewery last night, courtesy of work. This is the third brewery I have toured but the first time in England (others being one in Germany and Heineken in France).
Must say this was by a country mile the best. It really could not have had a better start, as the owner himself was the guide and he started of with the immortal words "I've opened 4 casks so you can help yourselves and drink all you want...".
So we did, trying 5 different varieties of beer and eating some excellent fish and chips. We also got a very good walkthrough of the brewing process with a lot of useful info (like the key part a pencil plays, the importance of temperature control to 0.1C ). It was good to see real hops being used as well. At Heineken they just use hop extract, at Lodden you could see the hops on the bottom of the brewing chambers. Wierdest bit of info was that brewers jealously guard their yeast, handing down from father to son over the generations. Apparently if the yeast was to change then the beer would be completely different so Lodden even go to the extent of keeping some of their yeast stored in liquid nitrogen to be used in case of disaster.
All in all a cracking night, though the next morning was a wee bit difficult....
Lodden info
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