The Vernal Equinox and a Spring in your Cocky

It's that time of year again, when the sun crosses the equator, night is as long as day, everyone gets a bit frisky and we brew Cocky Hop with that certain spring to our step.

Ahh the Cocky fella.. a cheeky number, light and zingy and at 4.7% a heady brew that will add a bit of rosieness to your cheeks. This really does mean those cold dark winter mornings are well and truly behind us. I leave the mill in the morning and I can actually see the van before I get in it, It's a race between me and the sun to see who can be over the top of the hill 1st as i drive up and over from the Cerne Valley into The Piddle Valley. The sun seems to have the advantage over me at the moment. So whats been happening in Piddle world I hear you all ask...Well, (he takes a deep breath and exhales thoughtfully,) I have finally bitten the bullet and had my Hot Liquor Tank repaired, the slight drip......drip.........drip.... progressed onto DRIPDRIPDRIP then a fully blown leak, A tiny leak you may well scoff, tis no more than a tiny repair man, what's the matter with you, get on with it and all that, in reality it was another venture into the world of Heath Robinson egineering skills and complex lateral thinking. All is now well and we can brew again without the slding scale of water mathmatics and temperature stabily to compensate for all of the above. Life is now a breeze again in the brewhouse, my furrowed brow has gone back to normal without the aid of botox. Henry from Three Core Pumps we salute you, and we are forever in your debt. As you can see from the above photograph, we used the gap in the brew schedule to get creative in celebration of imminent launch of"The Cocky One"

Not wishing to be left out of all this artistic behaviour the Big Fella got busy with the brush too, bodly stepping up to the plate, well cold room walls to be totally accurate, he cast aside his gloves and went in bare fisted, as you can see from the photo this hasn't dampened his spirit, and when Clare gets back in the new sprinter I'm sure she will be swooning at the sheer beautifulness of her beloved cold store. "The Bird" as she is politically correctly referred to has been away with her boyfriend to sunny Yorkshire for the week, this meant we had the pleasure of the more experienced knight of the road Wurthers,

He took charge of his kingdom and the slightly modified van with great vigour, showing no signs of his advancing years and without that familiar whiff of deep heat, this is a sure sign the retirement from regular 5 a side football is suiting him well, he did get his footy fix this week when dropping off some Piddle to Wimbourne Town F.C. This weekend sees another local derby against the mighty Gosport. apparently Steve Claridge plays for them from time to time. When Paul heard this he got all excited and proudly declared that he had been there for afternoon tea, upon finding out that this was a different Claridges he swanned off to carry on administering some more direct career guidance to our spirited apprentice.

So in the coming week I will be brewing Cocky, Piddle, Jimmy and of course Slasher. I will keep you up to date on this blog page, If you want to meet me in person I have been ingratiated into the fold of Wetherspoons Beer festivals, I will be taking "The meet the brewer" show on the road and will be at "The Moon in the Square" in Bournemouth on Monday 19th March in the evening and then again on Saturday 24th at "The Swan" in weymouth at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
Happy Spring Piddling folks

Vic

Big Wednesday and IPA LOT

So February is upon us, the days are getting longer since the passing of Imbolc (google it) and spring is just over the horizon. My blogging hasn't been as regular as I had intended but thats the way I roll.
So whats been happing since my last ramblings, well quite a bit has been going on at the worlds quirkiest brewery. We had the Beerex in Dorchester, I got to the afternoon session on the saturday with our 18 year old apprentice and then again with the rest of the Piddle gang on the evening session.

Our IPA LOT 7.1 was one of the 1st beers to sell out, at a mere 7.1% abv I'm guessing it was enjoyed by many and not one hollow legged legend. It was a game of two halves for me, no pun intended there, the first half was the afternoon, and as i had to drive back afterwards this was a sober affair. The evening was a different story altogether, many beers samples and pontificated over, loud music, Jim from the farm and his crazy dancing, a quick bunk up to the Colliton Club and back before anyone noticed we had gone,and a special mention has to go to my good friend and brewing assistant Simon and yet another expensive jacket on display that we had not seen before, swit swoo big guy! The evening ended in text book style with our bosses treating myself and the wife to tradition turkish supper of champions, before retiring to our taxi for the journey along the Blackmore Vale to home. I do think Empire Kebabs in Dorch should at least sponsor a barrel at next years event! We managed to raise over 10 thousand pounds for charity and the brave souls at Weymouth Lifeboat station can now have ALL their lifejackets replaced.

Back to the brewhouse, we have spent a lot of time evolving our beers, we take into account the tiniest changes in extract from our malts, alpha humulone variances and so on, we have many blind tastings, triangle tests and flavour profiling to keep our beer consistent but with the tiniest tweek here and there, brewing is a mix of art and science and the most rewarding and demanding job in the world, often descibed as a cruel mistress. This mistress had me out late on tuesday evening, helping Andy with the element in the copper and within a few hours I was back at the mash tun just before 7:30am on a day known now as "Big Wednesday" history was made on this day as we took on and completed our first double brew, yes that's two brews in one day with the 2nd one following on before the 1st one has finished, with genius usage of hot liqour and cunning mathmatics combined with confidence befitting a swagger like Mick Jagger, we managed to pull off this feat and be finished just after midnight, Rob had aspirations of being in the pub for last orders, even with his help on the clean down this was a bridge too far on this occasion. The bar has now been set and we will be drinking from the golden chalis on our next attempt!

I have to mention "Little Piddle World" before finishing off this literary masterpiece. Our Shed....a long time in the making, started by "Our Grandad" Christopher Wurthers this thankless task took us over a month to complete, a stolen hour here and there, Young Cosgrove was sent under the roof with a torch and cordless drill and the instruction book that would rival war and peace, we completed this complex structure and the joy and relief was worth it to see the smile on Clares face as she realised her ambition to reclaim the coldstore to house beer only and not a whole load of worthless junk that makes up our outside bars and Robs selection of bar stools.

And finally.. The next seasonal on my schedule is Cocky Hop, a fragrant brew to make, a cornucopia of hops that give a light zingy abundace of taste with a following on of slight bitterness in the aftertaste that keeps you going back for more, available now in bottles and in the cask before the spring equinox.
Happy Piddling folks, until next time...
Cheers
Vic