Beer is 96% water and breweries use a lot of water. They used to use a lot more in the days of washing wooden hogsheads. As well as the water which goes out in the beer, in the spent grains and evaporated up the copper stack during boiling, there is boiler feed, in place cleaning […]

…is that there is no definition, yet everyone reckons they know what it means! The term ‘craft beer’ is bandied about to denote small batch, local provenance, time served expert, quality, independence and generally better. It is also used as a stick to beat the multinationals whose brewers sit behind computer screens all day while […]

Plant breeding has centred on building in increased resin yield, disease resistance, exotic tropical and citrusy aromas as well as hedgerow varieties that grow to around 2.5m tall rather than the traditional 5-6m. However the hop plant does not breed true from seed, each seedling is unique in its genetic make-up which means a lot […]

There are many good web sites for generic CV writing tips and formats…..but there are a few additional tips you may wish to consider if you are writing a technical CV. WHO IS READING THE CV? In many cases, HR may make the first screen of CVs and may not have a technical background. This […]

As autumn morphs into winter, the UK hop harvest is safely gathered in. By now some lucky ale drinkers will be savouring the delights of a fresh hop brew. There is a mad dash from the hop garden with 80% moisture ‘wet hops’ aiming to coincide with a copper just about to come on the […]

Many in the brewing and distilling industry are considering a change of track for their next career move. This might be from brewing to distilling, a move away from production, or sideways moves into related fields such as auditing or into the allied industries doing technical sales. Based on my research with the industry, and […]

To combat ongoing theft, the industry has signed up to a code of practice so that kegs may only be disposed of by the brewer and scrapped by accredited bodies so new brewers can only buy secondhand from other brewers or keg suppliers. In theory there should be no illicit usage as car park markers, […]

Life used to be so much easier; most pubs were owned by a single brewery, containers were delivered, sold, picked up by the local draymen and returned for washing and refilling. The Big Six of Bass, Allied, Watneys, Courage, Whitbread and S&N were emasculated by the Beer Orders and are now no more. Today getting […]

If you are working in a global company, international experience is one of the key skills that is highly valued in more senior roles. The ability to demonstrate that you are ‘culturally fluent’, able to work with and lead an international team and are able to understand the broader global context e.g. in supply chain […]

Cask beer is not chill proofed by brewery conditioning nor is it filtered or pasteurised so there are both haze and infection risks unless good pub practice is rigorously followed. To recap, you package the beer into a cask straight after primary fermentation with enough sugar to promote a secondary fermentation which encourages the remaining […]

What makes a good pub? Is it good food or a cosy open fire in winter or a pub garden in summer or even clean toilets? Is it mine host or the choice of drinks behind the bar. Does it come down to space to park the car or the proximity of a bus stop […]

Some 41.1% of UK beer is packaged for draught dispense in the pub (6.6% in cask and 34.5% in keg), bottles make up 24.6% and cans 34.3%. These figures are from 2019 and it remains to be seen whether our Covid experiences will alter the pack type spectrum once things get back to normal. While […]

Over the last year, I have been interviewing industry members to get their tips on how to build a sustainable career in our industry. One of the emerging themes is that building a career in the craft industry can be tricky. While the craft industry offers the benefits of a dynamic, creative environment it can […]

The only additions before filtration might be the use of isinglass finings to remove any remaining yeast and protein from suspension more rapidly than relying on natural sedimentation through a depth of perhaps 10 metres. Without finings you may have a couple of hundred barrels of hazy material at the base of the tank; this […]

Last month we left the beer making process with a fermenting vessel full of ‘green beer’. What happens next depends on how the beer is to be sold in the market place. A relatively small but noisy sector of the UK market involves cask conditioned ale. Known by some as ‘real ale’ I guess to […]

Based on my research with members of the brewing and distilling industry, and my experience as a career coach, it is clear that there are some career moves which are a key part of a strategy for long term career progression – these moves might sometimes look like diversions or sideways moves, but could be […]

Last time we left the now bitter wort in whirlpool but still at 85oC. This residual energy is recovered in plate heat exchangers as ale worts are collected at 18-20oC and lagers at 11 -15oC. Lagers are fermented cooler which allows more of the flavours derived from the materials to show through compared to higher […]

WHAT TRENDS ARE AFFECTING MID-CAREER? Mid-career is often a time when your views around work-life balance and long-term goals can lead to planning some career changes. While having the advantage of considerable skills and experience, there is the challenge of how to steer your career in an industry that is going through significant change. So, […]

Last month we had extracted the sweet wort from the spent grains. Now we have to boil with hops to make hopped wort and separate out the solids before fermentation. Remember we are on the lookout for any additives or processing aids, as the brewer prefers to call them, being used in the operations. The […]

We hinted last time that brewing beer or wash for making malt whisky was a lot more complicated than making wine or cider as the sugars for fermentation are not immediately available but are bound up as starch in the barleycorn. Along with fermentation you can argue that mashing is the most important part of […]