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oldboots
18-12-2009, 16:56
Talk of breweries and the drowning in the vat at Gales reminded me of some other brewery visits I've made but the best one was to the "proper" Brakspears' brewery in Henley on Thames. We started in the pub sign workshop with the artist who painted the signs and the carpenters who made them. Then over the road to the main brewery and up to the top of building as on these things it's traditional to follow the brewing process from crushing the malt to actually drinking the nectar. So lots of walking down stairs being shown lots of big vats, told their history and learning the brewing process as you go. Eventually we ended up at the bottom with racking the beer into casks and seeing an amazing victorian machine for filling soda syphons. At last we reached the sampling room, I say room but at Henley it was about 5 feet wide and 15 feet long with a stillage for pins (5 galls) and the walls were covered with stuffed fish in cases. A former head brewer was a keen fisherman but he didn't catch the fish, they got caught in a filter system where cooling water was taken from the Thames. Then after a few halves there it was time for a free slap up lunch in Brakspeares' finest pub in Henley. On the way back we made a small detour and had a mini crawl of Goring and Streatley.

Anyone else got any stories, good or bad, about brewery trips, or meet the brewer evenings, charabanc trips to beer festivals etc?

Oggwyn Trench
19-12-2009, 11:22
Not done any brewery tours as such but i have been to Mayfields in Leominster , basically a big garage but the beers good . Went to Highgate years ago just after it reopened .
Sharps did a meet the brewer evening at the Crown in Oakengates last year , i could`nt make it but was told by a few mates who went , it was a great evening .

Oggwyn Trench
19-12-2009, 11:26
A mate of mine has a caravan in Polzeath , Cornwall and the bloke who owns the site has his own cider press , he did show us around and we sampled some of the cider but i`m buggered if i can remember anything about it , or the next day :p

oldboots
19-12-2009, 21:22
A mate of mine has a caravan in Polzeath , Cornwall and the bloke who owns the site has his own cider press , he did show us around and we sampled some of the cider but i`m buggered if i can remember anything about it , or the next day :p

Cider does that don't it. My car broke down at Stratton on the Fosse once so I had it towed to a garage then adjourned to the nearest pub for some cider. Four hours later I woke up on the track bed of the former Somerset & Dorset Railway without the use of my knees and no idea how I got there - funny that:D

Oggwyn Trench
20-12-2009, 00:09
Cider does that don't it. My car broke down at Stratton on the Fosse once so I had it towed to a garage then adjourned to the nearest pub for some cider. Four hours later I woke up on the track bed of the former Somerset & Dorset Railway without the use of my knees and no idea how I got there - funny that:D

A good friend of mine Mad Welsh Geoff (an ex landlord ) had a day on cider (proper stuff not strongbow ) while watching Wales stuff England at rugby , at the end of the game he had a few more pints to celebrate then walked home , the quickest way was along the canal , but to make sure he did`nt get lost he walked home in the canal , the 10 minute walk took nearly an hour , he woke up the next day stinking like a stagnant pond , covered in green slime , he`s never lived it down :D

As you say GREAT STUFF CIDER :drinkup:

Farway
20-12-2009, 14:13
Cider does that don't it. My car broke down at Stratton on the Fosse once so I had it towed to a garage then adjourned to the nearest pub for some cider. Four hours later I woke up on the track bed of the former Somerset & Dorset Railway without the use of my knees and no idea how I got there - funny that:D

You didn't have a sore ar5e as well did you?

Your tale reminds me of a time I was working in Scotland, one of our more naive workmates went on the razzle with a couple of strangers, the next day he told us drinking whisky gave him a sore bum

We never did enlighten him as to the more probable cause of bumososis