MONTHLY BEERIODICALS

May has treated us well, The month started with a bang! We unveiled Midstream Mild on May Day at the top of The Giant in Cerne Abbas with the Wessex Morris Men at Sunrise, 5:40 am from memory, but it all is a bit vague, The climb up this year was more pleasant with the help of Chris Parsons and without the sideways rain and howling gale! The sunrise was spectacular and the beer was outstanding, She was brewed at 8bbl (32 cask) with over 30 kg of Fresh Honey, This was from the  beehives on the orchard where our cider apples are grown in Melplash, Keeping the whole thing “in house” It sold out instantly so we will be brewing this again next May. It has been suggested that it may be a good idea for me to have some breakfast at next year’s may day celebrations and that way I may keep both my eyebrows and job!!

 

We have also brewed #No.1 This is a Bohemian lager style beer, brewed with Lager malt and Pilsner hops. This has gone straight to bottle and Keg! Yes folks that means we can raise it through a chiller, gas it and serve it out a lager pump ice cold and fizzy!! We will be trialling this on our outside bars over the summer so keep your eyes on the website, facebook, twitter etc. for details of up and coming events. There is even talk of a launch frenzy in the brewery. As a brewer of beer using malt, water, hops and yeast I personally feel this is completely different from mass produced Lager made by the big boys using syrups and hop extract! I use only the finest ingredients and hand craft it in the same way I do with all my ales, for the tech heads i have used our own strain of yeast and then lagered it over a few weeks prior to bottle and kegging.

 

Next on the monthly special list for June is, “Bursting Out” a 4.4% Pale Ale with floral and fruity characteristics, Brewed with a simple Marris Otter Pale malt base with no adjuncts and heartily hopped with Maryanka from Poland, Vic stumbled across this hop whilst chatting to his good friend Will from the hop merchants, It isn’t widely used and gives a lovely floral, resinous and at the same time a herbal essence. This will be available throughout June in all good pubs. We have Q.C’d this from stillage and it is absolutely stunning.

 

The July special is on the drawing board, (or more to the point a big bundle of papers, illegible scribblings of a madman and a few ancient books on Rob’s desk,) we are waiting for elderflower to appear on the hedgerows on Mr Horsington’s farm, this is a bit late this year due to the soggy spring, but rest assured the trees are budding nicely as I write this. So in true Piddle style our seasonal beers are very much dependent on the seasons. As folklore can be shorthand for remembering important information, I surmise that the hag in the following tale represents death... The wood in the elder tree contains cyanide, which when burned in confined quarters, such as one roomed hovels many peasant farmers would have lived in the middle ages, can fill a room with noxious smoke, killing its occupants instantly. I suspect then, that the hag in the elder tree is always a bit moody when it comes to asking for her firewood, although she is just as likely to say “Help yourself to the flowers, just leave enough to turn into berries in the Autumn” Vic has come up with a cunning plan upon cropping the flowers that involves the freezer. He has also sourced a secret delicate hop to complement this in the off boils but sincerely intends on bittering with the traditional favourite of all true English brewers the noble Golding. The name of this brew has yet to be decided but rest assured we are confident that our usual inebriated “think tank” will come up with another memorable offering.

 

Production has increased again, we now brew 2 double brews a week bringing our weekly tally to 48bbl, not bad considering I brew Monday to Thursday! Please feel free to come and see us this week-end as I am off to join the Piddle team at "The Royal Bath and West Show" at Shepton Mallett. I shall be doing 3 talks in the food arena, I hope they are ready for it, all i have to do is work out what to say, i have been told to make it like a womans dress..." long enough to cover the important bits, but short enough to keep you interested" No doubt the obligatory bottle of Royal Bath and West 150 ale lovingly crafted by my good self will help oil the vocal chords... Until next time Piddlers, be nice to yourself and each other.

Cheers

Vic

 

 

LOT 71 and Sacks of Gold

So today we are brewing IPA LOT 71 again. The strongest of all our brews. This beer is jam packed with the finest hops. We have decided on a more conservative amount to brew this time as 6bbl's was a tad ambitious with an 8bbl mash tun! There is more malt in 5bbls than 8 bbls of Piddle. We don't up the gravity with sugar, preferring to go with the traditional extract from malt alone. As I am writing this Simon is ceremoniously cleaning off Great Uncle David of Dagenhams antique hop paddle and getting the fermentation vessel squeaky clean.

Well as this blog has that "live" feel to it we have just finished the final transfer and cool down, we had a most magnificent rolling boil and have ended up slightly over our 1071 target on specific gravity, we had excellent viability on the yeast so a vigorous fermentation should ensue. Most of this is going to bottle, but as we love our beer we have decided on putting some to cask, and making it available for selected beer festivals and the odd soiree of our own.

"There's Gold in them there sacks I tell thee" GOLDSACKS. Named after our infamous boss Mr. Paul Goldsack, this beer has been in the prospective annals of our production for longer than we can remember. The briefing was simple, keep it light, golden and fruity with an easy to go down characteristic, I guess this one will live up to its name then! I started with a malt base of Lager Barley and as you can see from above a heady mixture of Maize blended in. I kept the whole Pilsner theme with some Bohemian hops from behind the Iron Curtain, that is not an euphemism for metal store cabinet, Hallertauer Hersbrucker is the predominent hop used. We ended up with an ABV of 4.0% bang on. 

I take my job seriously and never one to shirk any responsibility I seflessly embarked on some quality control in the Giant Inn in Cerne Abbas. I ordered my Goldsacks in a lager vessel, my fellow imbibers found this confusing at first, upon further discussion and "sippers" from my glass a few eyebrows were raised from the lager pop fellas. "What? you mean thats made from the same stuff as lager?" "What real lager?" "I dont drink that real ale but thats not bad" and of course those unforgetable words "I'll have one of them next" Overjoyed and caught up in the moment, slightly missing my partner in crime Johann, I took on the next thankless task in the brewers workload, and that my friends, is finding out how well a gallon sits in the belly. I can confirm, as I did with Jon Absolom at 2 o'clock in the morning, It's a lovely easy drinking brew and will be all the better for a bit of sunshine. No nasty hangovers the next day. In fact the following day, I dropped of some beermats to the Giant to be greeted by Colgate Chris, and further congratulations of a beer well brewed and this coming from a man I have never seen with a glass of anything vaguely brown in his hand. I was happy with the result.
So what's next you may ask? well... I've just brewed Cocky Hop as the March Seasonal and then we have "April Showers" The pump clip is with the designers, 4.2% is the abv and Rob wants "intense peach" So it's just a case of getting on with it, so dust off the hop encyclopedia and get me Will from Farams on the phone...I might just have an idea.....

Cheers

Vic

Perky Pecker and the previous goings on...

Hello Piddlers,

It's been a few months since my last blog, apart from the tale of "Captain Swurve"

So whats been brewing in the noisy part of the madhouse? I must admit I have had to go back to the last blog to see where I got up to! Well of course it was Porter season in November, so this saw the reappearance of Thunderbox, the first brew was the same recipe as last year. I felt the roasted smokeyness complemented the delicateness of the hop bill ok but... when you strive to make the best beer you possibly can you are always analysing the end result, and after much deliberation we decided on a subtle hop change in the off boils, leaving the bramling cross alone as this gives us the wonderful blackcurrent tones, I substituted the Saaz for Hallertau Herzbuker, firmly believing this would give us a softer and more rounded beer. I am please to announce our feelings were based partly on emotion but more so on science with astringency desire and co homulone numbers. The result is a smoother pint without losing the charachter we have all come to know and love. On a personal level I always love the first runnings from the mash tun to copper, the combination of darkness and roasted aroma from the malt gives me a lovely warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Next up was IPA LOT 71. A "proper IPA" This is the third year running we have been brewing this amazing beer. The last cask of the 2012 vintage was drunk within hours of the opening of the Beer festival at Ye Olde George Inn in Christchurch, a bit like Rob was last year! We age this in the time honoured manner of traditional India Pale Ale, except it doesn't go as far. Ian had kindly offered to take some to the Isle of Wight and back next time he goes to see his parents. The incredibly large hop bill matures as time goes by, So we brewed this in November and then put it to bottle Mid-January.We tweaked the recipe a tiny amount, but thats only because we can. This was the first time I used my antique hop paddle generously given to me by Great Uncle Dave of Dagenham.  The official launch of the bottle conditioned rascal is to be at Beer-ex in Dorchester in a few weeks. This is also a good opportunity to try it direct from cask, we strongly recommend someone else giving you a lift home though, Paul suggested the best barrel sponsor for the Beer-ex for this one should be Bob's Cars taxi service! We are once again proud to be the main sponsor of the whole event, so please pop along and have a natter about all things beer.

Within days I was brewing Santa's Potty for cask. I had brewed this a month before for bottles so no suprises with this one. Brewed with a duo of hops, it's a fruity number that complements the biscuit malt base superbly, it also has a cheeky hazel nutty escence. As it's our christmas ale it obviously starred in our gift packs. The least I say about the thousands of gift packs we made the better. It could be the seemingly endless amount, it could be the re-occuring paper cut on the inside of my left thumb, if you have ever cut a cut you will know this feeling. Or it could be lack of daylight, but hey ho (or ho ho ho) they all got done and that was that.

Then of course Christmas came and went, after a long well earned break (as in we were earning well to sit at home and eat and drink like pigs!) It was back early January. It was with renewed vigour Myself and Simon embarked on this year. The days scrubbing and bleaching the brewery from top to bottom before Christmas was all but a distant memory. The pure joy of a sparkling clean brewhouse was an absoloute pleasure. Then Paul gently dropped it that he had designed the "touchy feely" Perky Pecker pump clip and we had better get on with making it. I was given a clean sheet and with the minimal discussion with Our Leader I got to work on the recipe. As I had anticipated this coming I had some stong ideas of what I wanted to brew, A light coloured Amber beer, delicately hopped, not too bitter with subtle fruityness and it has to be 3.8% to match Pauls artistic handy work! It's hard to tell what the end result is going to be immediately after brewing, as wort is fundamentaly sweet barley juice and incredibly bitter at the same time, but not to worry, every morning before mashing in, sometimes before getting the blue wellies on I would eagerly pour some from the FV and let my taste buds get to work. Making sure I had brushed my teeth before breakfast, so not to arrive with minty mouth. It was with apprehensive anticipation I would take my first sip, It was day 3 that I had the Eureka moment. What a beauty, some say a thing of beauty others say a beautiful thing, what ever way you look at it it was marvellous. Exactly what I was striving for, The sweetness of cascade running through it without being that over done "cascade juice" modern beer produced by many other breweries. I personally battled through the snow and ice to deliver a cask to my local "The Giant Inn" in Cerne Abbas last night. It could be on for the weekend fingers crossed.

The next seasonal on the agenda is our eagerly awaited brew...Goldsacks. Named after our more flambouyant boss Mr Paul Goldsack. I have been inspired by the use of Maize in my maltbase, to give it a lovely golden hue, I feel we may be drinking/flavour profiling some golden beers over the next few days, all in the name of product research of course!

Happy Piddling everyone

Vic the Brewer

IPA LOT 71- The Captains Tale

Here lies the legend of Captain Swurve.......

This tale begins in the late 1700's regarding the legend that is "Captain Swurve". This self proclaimed title was due to his world renowned ability to maneuver his ship with startling agility and guile. A hedonistic rascal of the high seas, he was contracted to the East India Company to ship fine pale ales to Calcutta. Setting sail from Moonfleet in his beloved Dorset, keeping the "land to the left" he would arrive in the east end of London to collect his load. The good captain strongly believed a happy ship is a safe ship and to this end he negotiated a deal for every 70 barrels loaded onto his vessel there shall be one for the crew, Hence LOT 71 came to fruition. The good captain paid special interest to the quality of the beers, as the years came to pass he became quite an expert on the noble art of secondary fermentation, as the beers would be "quality controlled" all along this perilous journey. Such was "Swurves" reputation as a crafty sailor and keeper of fine ales, he bacame associated with fellow gentlemen of the seas, preferring not to fly the skull and crossbones unless it was at the Portuguese or Dutch, he didn't care much for the title "Pirate" as this would invalidate his contract with "The company" but rest assured he was not a man to be trifled with, his cannons had the biggest balls and he wasn't shy of showing them. He chose not to have the de rigueur figurehead of a busty maiden, instead he chose the Cerne Abbas Giant with oversized phallus, depending where he would recount the tale, "it was made of the hardest iron and could crack an iceberg in half"

Legend has it that after a rather tiresome battle with some irritating French chaps that had dragged on for far too long and was going to make lunch rediculously late Swurve decided against the usual twists and turns and swashbucling swordfights and opted for the old favourite of ramming the belly of Jonny Forigners vessel thus sinking it in an instant, as the minutes ticked by half full barrels of brandy started popping up all around, after these were fished out by the men and drunk enthusiastically. Swurve decided to conduct a few experiments of his own. Not a man to be idle and having the eyes of a dreamer and the heart of an artist, he transferred some beer to the empty brandy cask and set it down for a few months to mature. This test was declared inconclusive and in later life he preferred the darkest of ales to be infused in a whole array of casks previously used for Whiskey, Rum, Brandy and the like. As life has a habit of immitating art, your good friends at Piddle Brewery have brewed a very special IPA to commemorate the bravery and admirably elegant style of this legend from days gone by. Some say he is laid to rest at St. Andrews churchyard on the East cliffs of Portland, but we may never know... So raise a glass to Captain Swurve, and enjoy this original 7.1% Proper IPA, Rest assured it's strong, heavily hopped and very tasty, Just as "The Captain" loved it...

Cheers Me Hearties, and Happy Piddling from Vic the Brewer p.s dark ale.. matured in oak whiskey, port, sherry, rum and brandy barrels....is there something secret going on under the stairs of the brewery?? shhhh you might wake them x

Hubble Bubble Toil and Trouble

So folks it's been a while since my last offerings in cyberworld. What's been happening you may well ask... So I'll tell you. Today I am brewing "Flying Low" this one-off special beer is to celebrate the imminent arrival of All Hallows Eve, or Halloween to the rest of us. This is what we have called the fruits of our freestyle method of brewing. Leaving the creative influences down to the beer gods and the availability of ingredients depending on our success at of the noble art of Forraging. Forraging is concidered an art form in these here parts of Dorset. I shall be blogging at different intervals throughout the day.

It is currently half past eleven. The wort has come to the boil and I have added the first offerings of hops to the copper known as the bittering hops. I don't usually disclose my recipes but today is different. I am using hallertau Aroma, an organic hop from New Zealand. These have been forraged from our hop store. I will be adding more of these "later" in the brew as late hops and then I have also forraged some Mount Hood hops from the Hallertau family from Portland, I will then blend the two for off boils. I have to go now as Henry from 3core pumps has arrived to do the pump juggle and change the seal on the final pump, the one that does the transfer to FV from the copper, This new pump not only has a SPECIAL sticker on the side but comes complete with "brewery seal" inside, so the pressure is on to get it back in time.... Elsewhere in the brewery today there has been a sporadic deafening din as Simon has been putting the second brew of the season of Pointing Percy to cask, this is a Munich style beer with a light mouth feel, delicately hopped with no lasting bitterness to the follow. A stunning crisp beer you could drink pints galore, given half a chance. We are coming to the end of the crazy season for outside events, so it's time to repack the mobile contents of the travelling beer bordello back in the shed for winter and Ian to have a day off. Marin Clunes Buckham Fair went remarkably well, and we helped raise over £40,000 for this years charity, Julias House Hospice, please take a moment to look at the link, these people are truly amazing, I cannot say anything that will give the magnitude of this http://www.juliashouse.org/Home.aspx The Dorset show once again was a blast,naughty behaviour was a credit to all our staff and bosses. We peaked at 3 events on one day, I was at Joseph Weld summer fair with Ian. Paul whizzed around everywhere and ended up at Stomping on the Quomps at Christchurch, Ashley started at the Food and Drink Festival at Weyouth Pavillion grazing on fine cheeses, chutneys and networking with the sausage men, he also ended up at Stomping with the rest of the gang, I slipped away into the evening to the 3rd Cerne Abbas Beer Festival with Simon for some intensive market research. Back to today... We're on the final leg of our beers journey, Henry has excelled himself again and with minutes to spare realigned my life and got all the pumps doing what they should, We've had a call from Paul who is out in the field with the "Hedgerow Harvest Team" This is the bit of the Halloween Brew i haven't mentioned yet, The freshest local blackberries, nedless to say our boss now has purple fingers, grass stains on his trousers and about an hour ago almost had the target amount of 2x 20lrt buckets full of wild blackberries, that was until a chance meeting with a lovely old swiss lady walking her dogs gave up much of his harvest to her, and she has promised to bring him back a blackberry and apple strudle later on this afternoon, as they say there's plenty more berrys on the bushes.

That's it for now folks, my transfer is nearly complete and then we are off to find the 2012 Fagin of the counrtyside and his band of merry pickers and what ever is left of their bounty. Cheerio for now. p.s. All done and looks like we're on target for 4.6% abv.

Return of The Leg

Hello Lovelies. So what's been happening in the cathederal of brewing known to many as that quirky brewery in the funny shaped building in Piddlehinton? Well quite alot really.

First and foremost is the long awaited arrival of this years' evolution of Legwarmer. In true Piddle style we did some constructive beer drinking, much pontification, a fair bit of head scratching, two arm wrestles and the best of 27 paper-scissors-stones and it was all agreed we would up the amount of ginger! Our noble leader was a bit sceptical about this dynamic move in direction as "you need to be able to go out and drink 8 pints of it" I took these bold words in their true literal meaning and at the first oportunity embarked on this thankless task at the Sydling Springs Pre-school fundraiser Barn Dance at Nether Cerne. I can faithfully report back that a gallon of this beautiful brew is no problem whatsoever to quaff. In fact I could have squeezed a few more pints in if I had some more time and didn't indulge quite so much on the Home made Pasties. All in a days work for Cheif Brewmeister at Piddle world. The thing that sets Legwarmer apart from many "Beers with Ginger" is the unique malt base. We have done that old chestnut of looking back at history to go forward and push the boundaries in current craft brewing. The secret to the magnificent straw like appearance that glows golden like a hallowed chalis is.... Now I'm playing with a double edges sword here, on one hand I want to shout from the roof tops about my extra special malt base and on the other hand I want to keep my cards close to my chest in case I am the victim of the ultimate flattery and that being immitation, and with the lack of a third hand (one that I am sure Rob thinks we have with our new cleaning regime) I am boldly going to put it out there... And the secret to my success is.... Maize. There you go I've gone and said it. Maize to brew with is simply a pleasure I can only begin to tell you. The colour is like magical gold, not that dull old antique gold you find on expensive oil paintings in the Louvre but brightest gold from cartoon pirates treasure chests. Looking over the malt sacks your face lights up like someone is holding a thousand buttercups under your chin. In the mash tun it doesnt lose much sparkle and what always startles me is the sheer appearance the first runnings into the underback. I add my hand processed ginger into the boil and then in true bisto kid style revel in the wafts of aroma eminating all over the surrounding area. This first brew was especially aromatic throughout the enitire brewery and office, as I had a slight blockage up the chimney. Not to worry, double gloves, safety hoody and some renegade chimney engineering Fred Dibnah would have been proud of, the blockage was cleared and the ginger mist subsided and the whole of enterprise park could once again share the enjoyment of the harmonious notes of aromatic beautifulness. Even the Crendons smoking posse gathered on the lawn remarked how lovely it was! You can now enjoy this unique ale in the surrounding pubs and bars on draught by the pint load, as the beer gods intended.

It was also Clare's birthday a few weeks back, not wanting this auspicious occassion to go unnoticed, I gave our friend James O Neill a call at Wessex FM. We had a quick chat and I told him Clare was 40! and could his listeners give the Piddle Van a flash and a wave to celebrate this monumental day with her. The thing is she isn't 40 infact she is only just in her 30's.... This whole gag was shaping up really well for me throughout the day, until that magical moment the sound clip of Me was played on the airwaves in the van to our birthday girl, I think the word most commonly used is "busted", lets just put it this way when she got back to the brewery I displayed a turn of speed more suited to a man younger than my 42 years. Happy Birthday Clare we don't know where we would be without you xx Finally the "Brewers Reserve" collection is shaping up well for up and coming festivals, "The Taste of Paradise" coconut thunderbox is coming on nicely. As is the hint of vanilla. I hope to experiment with some Elderflower in the next week or so as there is an abundance in the hedgerows and as we aren't a city center brewery and are nestled amongs the green rolling hills of deepest Dorset I feel it would be rude not to. Until next time folks Happy Piddling Vic the Brewer.

Flipping 'eck Tucker, The Giant climb and a coconut

Now that is a lot of beer!!! 266 to be precise. It has been over a month since my last blog, living the life of the brewer in Piddle world is pretty much all consuming this eagerly awaited installment has had to wait for a quite a while. At the SIBA (society of independent brewers) south west beer festival at Tuckers Malting last month I embarked on some of this consumption and consumed many wonderfull beers from my fellow brewers. We were hosts of table J on the judging day, with the exception of serving one beer with ants in, myself and Simon did a sterling job. I was the designated driver on this occasion as Simon doesn't do stick (that's drive a manual car on this side of the Atlantic)so spending a day watching people drink beer did feel a bit odd. But fear not faithfull blogees, I triumphantly returned the following evening with Ian to report for duty and after a short stint selling beer coupons we were despatched behind the bar to serve ale. We promptly made our way to the D's nestled between Dartmoor and Exeter and enthusiasticaly set about the job in hand, informative yet informal was my style. At this point I would like to tell you about my test of nerve and brewing "joie de vivre". One of the ales on offer from your favourite quirky and most talked about brewery was Leg Warmer, nothing unusual there I hear you say, but this was no ordinary Leggy this was a special one off with added ginger, I don't want to give my secrets away but lets just say it was "stunning" Infact it was the trip to see Lady Tesco this evening to harvest some fresh ginger for further experimentation with our leader that I met up with my good friend Johann, who insisted I update News of the Brews, he reminded me about many of the exploits we have been getting up to, I felt he had a valid point so here it is.

As we are now in the month of May we couldn't let the celebration of Beltane pass us by. Beltane being the mid point between the spring equinox and summer solstice, a celebration of saps rising and blossoming of spring, traditionally this is a time of focus on fertility and also on labour. With this in mind a plan started to emerge in the control tower of Piddleworld, this involved a Giant man on a hillside with an impressive phallus, a 9 gallon cask of Cocky Hop, an incredibly early start and of course The Wessex Morris men. All we needed now was to iron out the logistics of this plan. Firstly carrying a cask of beer up and incredibly steep hill in the dark we will have to have bright beer, as it will get shaken up a bit. Secondly we needed to ask the Morris men if they would like us to bring beer along to the dancing and merryment. With those two details quickly sorted it was just the small task of how we are going to actually do it. Paul at this point wished us well and hoped we have a good time. Rob was quite taken by the idea and needed to know exactly what time was sunrise was and how long did we think it would take to carry the beer up the hill and what time would i be able to get back down and get into the brewery for mashing in! As if by chance another good friend of mine happened to be "down our kneck of the woods kite surfing for 4 days" as an ex-serviceman serving for the royal engineers step forward Mr Edom, we have a challenge for you... Alarms were set for just after 4 am. Myself, John and the Cocky Hop made our way to the car park at the bottom of The Giant Hill under the cover of darkness. At this point I thought we had better phone Rob and see how far away he was, well you could have knocked me over with a feather when the phone was answered by Mr Goldsack himself. "Well i couldn't let you lot have all the fun could I" and "I thought i'd better help Rob with the dogs as Sophie has a bit if a thing with Morris men" So with the unexpected suprise of both my bosses, two dogs and an increasingly heavy barrel of beer we strolled up the hill in the direction of ringing bells and torchlights, I say stroll, this is a bit misleading, we puffed, panted, slipped a fair bit, John coughed alot and at one point we thought we'd lost her to the power of gravity we eventally beat the daylight to the top of the hill and when the tap went in, cheers rung out across the Cerne Valley in sheer jubilation, Songs were sung, dances were danced and overall merryment was the order of the day. Thank goodness for the thirst of those Morris Men and the hardy souls gathered for this amazing occasion in slightly adverse weather conditions.

The following day was our second "double brew" day, this time I had the help of Ian. Simon obviously did his assistant brewer thing and kept just ahead of me getting fermenters ready and such like and also following me picking up the pieces. We work together over 11 hours a day, so you have a tremendous understanding and get in a routine with stuff, so starting the second brew before you finish the first one shouldn't be too difficult should it? The small detail of using the hot water from the heat exchanger from the transfer to do the second sparge needing to be exactly 75 to 76 degrees, and this after I had mashed in the second set of malts, there is a point of no return. This is Ians second brew with me, so I tried to hide the concern and make it all look easy, trying my best to be like the proverbial swan and glide gracefully, except I was like that swan you see that has its bum up in the air or hissing alot and allegedly will break your arm if you get too close, Alas all the worry and carefull planning came to fruition, We hit all our timings and levels, and even after Ians initiation into the realms of brewdom and scrubbing the copper clean, we made it into The Oak at Dewlish for last orders. "That wasn't too bad was it" said Rob, "you seemed to have that nailed with no drama" and of course he was right, with no power disruption and a full complement of pumps it was plain sailing, and of course the following day felt like a half day. Before i sign off from these ramblings I need to mention a few people, Big shout going out to Chris aka Wurthers/Grandad our deep heat soaked elder statesman, now on facebook, Ashley from the chair in the office talking the talk, Princess Di and her incredible way with words in credit control,Alex Cosgrove our work experiencer who is due back after a year at university that was actually 9 months and of course our pole dancing queen of the road Clare who is having a few days off from working the drey. I never thought I would say this but I'm looking forward to the old bag coming back to work, i just hope she wears the helmet....

and finally....... The Coconut....You will have to wait until next time for that one, but put it this way, close your eyes, no not yet you wont be able to read this..take a few slow deep breaths in through your nose, imagine a dark rich smokey ale with a deep treacle texture with the unmistakable taste of coconut running through it and a subtle hint on the nose......if you like the sound of that you had better watch out for the unveilng of Vintage Caribean TBox, the taste of paradise.... Happy Piddling Vic the brewer

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Those are the wise words of the great Benjamin Franklin. Never has such heart felt eloquence been declared since the great Stephen Tyler told us all that "life is a journey not a destination."
Putting all that aside, I have to tell you of the many milestones that have been laid down the last couple of weeks at Piddleworld

First on the list is The big guys third anniversary of working at Britains most quirky talked about brewery. This monumental day coincided with brew number 600. This naturally had to be our flagship ale...Piddle. As I have mentioned before, myself and our noble leader spend an admiral amount of time "flavour profiling" and with the assistance of Will the "yoda of hops" we made the slightest of tweeks to the bittering hops. You may already know that we add three stages of hops to every brew, the first lot added at the point of coming to the boil are the "bittering" hops these give the brew its bitterness (funny that) and its astringency, a slight replacement of a proportion of these have given us a smoother and more rounded mouth feel. the other two stages are the "lates" and when the boil has stopped bubbling the "off boils" these give the beer its flavour and aroma. There is something quite spiritual about adding the mighty hop to the brew, I have given the honour of this to two special people over the last few days, Andy Stevens the electrical wizzard the gets me out of trouble at the drop of a hat, or flash bang at the copper! and of course our OLD friend Wurthers. Making sure they both stuck to my strictest health and safety directive and stayed off the top step of my ladders, as we dont want a bright pink screaming man in the beer as it would sting a bit and obviously ruin the brew.

We also got our van back from the Automobile Hospital. Our pole dancing queen of the road had a slight altercation with an indecisive BMW and modified the front. As a momento we have been given the old hood (thats american for bonnet, The big guy is teaching me yankee talk at the moment). We really arent sure what to do with it. My plan is to polish it up with wax and then wait until it snows and then set the west dorset land speed record for a 4 man/3 blokes and a bird, gravity powered machine down the side of the Piddle Valley. Ive picked my spot, but feel it may be quite a while until weather conditions suit.

The sheer mention of snow seems a distant memory in light of the recent weather. Spring is definitely upon us post Vernal Equinox. I have just completed a mini tour of "meet the brewer" in conjunction with wetherspoons Great British Real Ale Festival and the launch of this seasons ale "Cocky Hop". No two events were the same and I have met lots of lovely people, many of whom I will see again when they come to visit the brewery. A special mention has to go to the boys based at Bovington that I met on the sunny patio at The Swan in Weymouth, these brave and spirited men are off to Afghan in the next few weeks, and I wish them a safe and speedy return. Also the two "likely lads" at The Sir Percy Florence Shelley, with a combined age of nearly 150 years with hilarious tales of when man met machine at the automated checkouts in Sainsburys and general chaos and living proof that beer is good for you. Interestingly the local knowledge of an abundance of wild hops growning in a couple of hedgerows got me quite excited. So watch this space for one of the Piddle specials coming out in the autumn, any suggestions of a name for this wild ale will be gratefully received at vic@dorsetpiddlebrewery.co.uk or posted on the comments page here.Until next my happy piddlers, be nice to each other and drink great beer.
Cheers
Vic the brewer

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

2012- More than just a number..

So here we are, one week into the new year. Before I start on this years intentions and aspirations, I would like to fleetingly glance back over last year. Two awards for Legwarmer, one courtesy of myself and the other from my predecessor Simon.
I started working for Britain's quirkiest and most talked about brewery the day after my 41st birthday. I have just completed my 100th Piddle brew, this was Silent Slasher. This was a beautiful thing in itself, as the very first brew i made after strolling nervously through the doors of Piddle world was Slasher, and the day my good friend and previous brewer left, the delivery returned from cold filterers and bottling plant with our inaugural batch of you guessed it Silent Slasher. I will never forget that moment of sitting outside the back of the old building with Ginger Simon and Big Simon bathed in glorious sunshine and drinking our very first "bright" Slashers straight from the bottle and toasting the dawn of a new era in Piddle bottled ales.

Moving it along a few months brings me to the great Dorset County Show, this was my first taste of the reactions of the great British public on mass to my Piddle creations. Rob and Paul were on cracking form as usual, ensuring the Piddle Bar was THE place to be, complete with chandeliers, red velvet stools and guilt framed paintings all inside a tent! I would also like to mention the hand crafted bar itself, this resembles a large butchers block complete with coach bolts and constructed by my good self with the cabinet makers tool of choice the 16 inch chainsaw, i recall it was late into one summers evening Rob was in the old office wading through a huge pile of paperwork, Clare had just returned from another hard days cruising round the South West dropping of lots of beer and suntanning her right arm, and i was covered in sawdust, yeast and sweat trying to work out how all these pieces of precision cut timber was going to be assembled into a bar, when our leader emerged from the brewhouse muttered the immortal words " mmm smells like you've been scrambling out here Vic, i think i'd like three of those bars made for the show, and by the way this Leg Warmer that got back today is bloody lovely!"

Of course the big news of the year was our long awaited move to the new brewery, it was always "in three weeks time" until one day Rob told us it will be in the next "two weeks" Simon and I looked at each other, then the open door Rob had disappeared through, then back at each other, did he just say two weeks dude? We better start getting things together, ordering skips and sorting what stays, what goes, and where are we going to put it all, and how are we going to move it all and not lose any brewing days. Luckily enough Big Simon had been hiding his talents for fork lift driving under a bushel, as the day got nearer, he got quieter, had nightmares of our copper breaking loose from the forklift and rolling down the hill and smashing to a million pieces. All of this was unfounded as the move went seamlessly and we were brewing on Bank Holiday Monday.

Our efficiency has got a helluva lot tighter since the move, we lose no hot water on the transfer, and we are the pride of Wessex water for our effluent treatment, so much so that myself and Rob have been invited to the sewage and water treatment works as special privileged guests for a behind the scenes tour by the Water Chief herself, unfortunately Paul said he can't make it that day as he has a very important meeting at exactly that time that he has yet to arrange. All joking aside we are committed to sustainability and will strive to do the right thing to protect and look after our environment. I guess this comes from creating our beers from 4 key natural ingredients, malts, hops, yeast and of course water. I am getting a bit bored of all the high nitrogen talk/cloudy beer being jibber jabbered at the moment, I would like to make my point very clear, never being one to shy away from sticking my head above the parapet I can tell you this, The South West of England has had the "pick of the crop" this year, nitrogen levels are on average 1.51% compared to 1.92% in the east, we had more sunshine and rain when we needed it and less rain at harvest time and I do have the official crop report backing all this up with lots more interesting facts and figures, for sure there is going to be less malting barley available as a nation, so we are very lucky to have our very good friends and best maltsters in the country working closely with us in geographicaly the best part of the country.

Rant over, so what will this year bring us? I have IPA Lot 71 on my brew schedule, this will be ready for the beer festival in Dorchester on the first weekend in February at the corn exchange, www.beerex.co.uk oh how our forefathers would be proud of us using this historic building for such an event. And of course Little Willy is to go into cask too, i have learned a lot from last time i lovingly crafted this hefty brew, i intend to brew a little bit less per batch, as capacity was my issue on the mash tun last time, and the Heath Robinson approach to sparging was fun but not necessary.
It's Saturday night now and I'm sat in front of my laptop with an empty glass, So i will sign off now and go and have a Pint of this Slasher I've been going on about. Please Piddle responsibly, and as my Uncle Paul would say..."away you go laughing"
Cheers
Vic the brewer

Are you hangin' up your stocking on the wall....

It's the time of year that Santa has a ball... And yes folks he rides a red nose raindeer. Before i go off at a tangent and start warbling like Noddy Holder, It's time to bring you upto date on the last few crazy weeks at "Britains Quirkiest Brewery"

We have been flat out in the brewhouse keeping up with demand making Piddle, Jimmy Riddle, Silent Slasher, Yogi, Thunderbox, Legwarmer and of course Santa's Potty. It will be a shame to see this one disappear from the pumps in the next few weeks. The thing with beers for annual occasions, is the occassion passes and we have to wait another year for it to come round again, obvious i know, but i have become very fond of Santa over the last couple of months. In true Piddle style we dont just stick a fancy label on a pint of best and knock up a festive pump clip we actually care about the beer and it's identity and have spent a fair amount of time and effort testing, tasting and developing this special beer. This is the only brew I make using Brown malt and complementing this biscuity malt base is a duo of hops. The overall result is a lovely caramel beer with nutty insinuations. I fully intend to quaff a few of these beauties over the Christmas break, maybe cracking a few hazel nuts and some old rehashed jokes at the same time. At 3.9% a few can be had in the afternoon in true session beer style. Rob our leader has judged production levels to the kind of accuracy NASA aspire to. We have barely a dozen cases sat on a lone pallet in the corner of the cold store. I wonder what will happen to them if they don't go out on the van in the next few days, well i'm sure all my hard working thirsty workmates at Team Piddle will find a solution to this tricky problem, especially with our youngest team member Ashley turning 18 on Christmas Eve!
This week is always going to be a funny week in the brewery, I brewed the last one of the year on Thursday, it was our own cheeky rascal Jimmy Riddle, I think it must be the oats that give him his bold charachter and flavoursome mouth feel that is more fitting to an ale of a much higher Abv. This whole experience encapsultes the legend of Jimmy Riddle, next time you are lucky enough to be in a pub with Jimmy on draught, have a look at the pump clip and see exactly how many watches the chirpy blighter has about his person, and why does he have those grass stains on his knees? We marked this monumental event with the type of behaviour I grew up watching on Tizwas, my only dissapointment was Paul my other big boss has a rotten cold and couldn't join in the foam party. He loves a good party and silly shenanigans, but the good news is he is on the mend just in time for christmas, So look out Piddle Valley and the Blackmore Vale Mr Goldsack is fully recharged and ready to go, don't be suprised to wake up a bit jaded and wonder why exactly did i end up with my pants on my head " I only popped out for a quick pint", and of course "what fun those Piddle fellows are."

I intend on brewing Thunderbox a few more times this season, I think brewing Porters should follow the lead of our cidermaking chums and use the first cuckoo of the year as an integeral part of our calender and continue brewing upto this point. I may get strung up for this but I have been known to enjoy a Thunderbox from the fridge. "Stout from the fridge!!" i hear you cry, Are you mad? Well yes I am, never denied it, never will. The thing is everyone should get the optimun enjoyment from their beer, we work hard enough to buy it, a few lucky ones like myself work hard to make it so why not have it as you want it? Stout or Porter, (whatever is your persuation on this age old debate)from the refridgerator is being extremely contraversial, Personally i feel this enhances the blackcurrant flavourings gleed from the Bramling Cross hop, but this does bring me on to a real quandry i have. What is the reason for not putting your ale in the fridge? we are all told by people who really know about this stuff beer should be served at exactly 12-13 degrees C. Simply writing these ramblings of an errant brewer has made me go and grab a cold Slasher from the fridge, my mouth is positlively bursting with floral flavours now, giving way to a bitterness and finishing with a sweet aftertaste. None of the flavours have been lost in this chilling, yes it tastes different from an ambient temperatured one, but I can honestly say i love it both ways and if only I had picked up more than one from The Cerne Abbas stores I would conduct a back to back test myself right now, And yes I buy the beer I make from the village shop, I see it as my part in the circle of life, Paul and Rob pay me, I give my money to Andrew in the shop, he buys beer from Piddle brewery, he gives them money and it comes back to me again, and so the never ending story unfolds. I am interested to know your feeling on "cold ones" feel free to leave your thoughts on here, or facebook. Its all feedback that will help me on my way to producing the nirvana of beer perfection, or as it will be known "Goldsacks"
Until the next installment my happy piddlers, I wish you a happy and healthy christmas and all the very best for 2012. Dont forget the tickets for next years beerex are on sale now.... www.beerex.co.uk
Bottoms Up
Vic the brewer

Red, Gold and Green

Well it's all been happening at Piddle Towers in the last couple of weeks. I have finished brewing Little Willy, this scoundrel will add some colour to your cheeks in the coming winter months, he even comes with an "approach with caution" warning on the side of the bottle also the obligitory 5.9% bit too, he has the deepest of red colouring in his midst, this picture accentuates the colour due to the combination of digital media and Rob's old anglepoise lamp!

Following on from the success of Little Willy an impromtu meeting was held and it was decided the arrival of 6.9 Big Willy will be upon us soon. The rainbow brought with it the return of Leg Warmer from the bottling plant. This remarkable event was carried out in an unexpected break from the lashing rain, just long enough to unload the lorry and get them all safely nestled in the warehouse and then the beer gods bathed the warehouse in dazzling sun rays, this created the most perfect of rainbows. I snatched a quick shot with my phone and then set about the important job in hand of tasting this eagerly awaited ginger beauty

What happened next can only be described as an angel dancing on your tastebuds, the subtle increase in the ginger has made this beer even tastier than before, The plan was to pour into the cylinders, take gravities, ph reading, pontificate a bit about clarity, aroma, calculate the abv with mathmatical pricision to two decimal places etc.etc. The reality was handing the vessel to my trusted assistant Simon after my first mouthfull, while trying to remain poker faced and guage his reaction, watching about a third of it disappear down this throat to the biggest smile appear across his face, handing me back the vessel without a word, i promptly swallowed half of what was left, handed it back to him to complete the job. At this point we thought it was best to take a glass upstairs to our leader. In all the time i have worked for Rob and Paul I can count on one hand the amount of times I've heard Rob use the "F" word (and that includes the 3 PH probes i have broken in the last two months)"F*@&ing Hell Vic that is beautiful" "Thats an awesome award winning beer" At that point i mentioned the testing process carried out two minutes prior to this, he fully understood and gave a fully belly laugh, I once again thanked him for giving me the best job in the world and I headed back to the brewhouse a very happy man.

The Thunderbox has been going well, We took a small cask to The Dorchester Open Commerce group meeting last week, where we did a little talk to the gathering about ourselves and what we do, this is a great organisation of business people in the local area, who actively help each other with recommendations and assist each other with knowledge and shared experiences. I must admit I possibly chose an unusual time to update Rob on the progress I have made regarding the imminent growing of Maris Otter at The Farm. But thats another massive story to big to go into right now. Sally was my designated driver that evening, so when she suggested popping into The Giant in Cerne Abbas and treating me to a pint, how could I refuse? I took advantage of one(read 4) of the few remaining pints of Green Reaper. You have to be quick getting this down the hatch as everyone wants to talk about it, and come up with many ideas to help grow our business, my personal one involves St. Patricks day and New York.....

Cheers xx

Green Reaper and Little Willie

Its been another busy week at Dorset's award wining brewery. Our Leg Warmer is currently in its maturation tanks at the bottling plant so this should be ready to be quaffed within a week or so. I have brewed another Thunderbox for cask, this porter has completely knocked my socks off. Not only is it a dark ale yet suprisingly fruity, the aroma wafting from my brewhouse has caused Pete the saddler to stop what he was doing and comment that i must love doing what i do. I must admit brewing T.box has been a revelation, fermentation has been a dream, as you know a good brewer will nurture his/her brews upto the point they get put into cask or bottle, fastidiously documenting all stages of the process. With all gravities as we wished for I set up my finings trials at the end of the day and returned the following morning to ascertain what amount isinglass i would plump for. It was at this point Rob went scrabbling around behind the bookcase in Clare's office and came back clutching an old anglepoise lamp and with a glint in his eye like a naughty schoolboy, plugged it in and switched it on behind the cylinders. The deepest ruby red appeared from within this black beer like some kind of mystical magic. The next time you are lucky enough to have a pint of this spectacular beer in your hand put it up to a light and see for yourself.

The next exciting creation from within the brewhouse is the evoloution of Little Willie, this has graduated from 4.9% to a hefty 5.9. I have to admit the extra 20 percent of grist was an interesting experience for myself and the mash tun, but we both coped quite well and he is currently residing in the big tank, flocculation today started suddenly, and i opted to open one of the big lids and leave over night, so it will be interesting to see what we are greeted with in the morning, i will make sure i have charged the camera as i am guessing this will be quite special!

And finally....The Green Reaper.. this is our GREEN BEER and by a green beer i do not mean a greeen beer made with the first cuttings of the freshed hops from this years crop, brewed directly from bine to copper, like our very own Green Pea, (more about that beauty in future blogs) but a beer that is actually Green. You can see pictures of this wonderfull creation on our facebook page. It is actually Green! You can find this locally in The Giant Inn in Cerne Abbas over this weekend and in various JDW pubs and Free Houses,feel free to email or call the brewery and the piddle team will point you in the direction of your nearest establishment serving the "Evil twin of Silent Slasher"
Thats it for this installment be nice to each other, or as Charles Allen once said "You can make more friends in a month by being interested in them than in ten years by trying to get them interested in you."
Happy Piddling
Vic

sooner than i thought..

It was only yesterday I posted our 1st blog, but those of you who know Piddleworld will realise 24 hours is a long time. Rob, our noble leader has met with Jamie the designer and has previewed the new designs for Little Willie and Yogi, so keep your eyes on facebook and twitter for these. The big news that has got me back infront of this screen displaying my two finger typing to my loyal assistant Simon (Running Rebel) is the arrival back of THUNDERBOX PORTER- IN A BOTTLE. This eagerly awaited delivery back from our bottlers was amazing. Thunderbox Porter has been described as "Black Ruby and full bodied" and "packed with light zingy floral and blackcurrant hops for flavour and aroma" and not forgetting "Perfectly Pukka winter drinking" by you know who!

Anyway folks I must dash as coincidently i am brewing Thunderbox for cask today and have to put my Off-boils in and rake over, and if you are familiar with Bramling cross you will know this is a joy to behold, I love my job.

Happy piddling
Vic

p.s. we've had a call from lapland today.....

The first blog

Hello Piddlers,

This is the inaugral blog from The Dorset Piddle Brewery, Our aim with this blog is to keep you informaly informed on what is happening in "Piddleworld" mainly focussing on the most important thing and that is our beer. Today I have been creating another batch of our award winning Leg Warmer. This is made with over 20 kilos of fresh finely sliced root ginger. Today our blender decided it was the day to retire to it box forever and grind to whirring halt 2/3rds of the way through, so we finished off by hand, after the initial swearing this actually became quite soulfull, and an oportunity to bond with our new apprentice, one day he will look back on this hour of his life quite fondly, Possibly on his imminent 18th birthday when this golden ginger ale passes his lips for the very first time.

Thats it for todays blog, I have just added my off-boil hops and am now on stand for 45 minutes. So I've got to dash and get my fermentation vessel ready
Happy Piddling
Vic