Day 11, progress and brewing

I've just posted a short piece on Living in Sanity Again about problems with a particular boat builder. Those thinking of commissioning a new boat should have a look at it as a warning of the need to choose a reputable company.

Meanwhile, the work went on on the site and in the car park:

Bees as well as wasps

 In addition to the wasps nest, a bee hive was found. Both have been dealt with, though the bees didn't need much intervention as I understand it.

Almost done

The grassy area is pretty well sorted, although some tidying of the edges is still needed:

Cleaning up the edge.

Meanwhile, work continues on the mini Alps:

Increasing area of flat stuff

 but there's quite a bit to do:

Untouched heap

They're working at it non-stop, using all the skilled telehandler drivers available, including our resident professional, Site 3, aka Mike Sumner. The Merlo suffered a puncture at one stage, but was soon repaired and back in action.

In the evening, 20 of us went on a complimentary brewery tour at Marston's. Fascinating; I've seen round this brewery before, but each tour adds a bit of new info.

Original grist mill

 We started in the original, Grade II listed building, looking at things that were still in use 6 years ago. Brewing is a very traditional business.

Hearing about the old mash tun

The liquid produced by mashing the ground malt or grist is passed into a copper for hopping and boiling. It's called a copper because...

Peering into the copper

...it's made of copper. Here's what the modern one looks like:

Stainless steel copper

Though even these are over thirty years old. Marston's still uses the Burton Union system of brewing for Pedigree Bitter and for the Bass they brew under licence from InBev. Other beers are brewed in modern(ish) closed fermenters.

The "Cathedral of Brewing"

The Union ssytem is an ingenious way of separating the yeast from the brew at the end of fermentation.

Inside a closed fermenter.

The unions weren't working when we saw them, it was too early in the week, but we saw inside a closed fermenter. This is what Burton Bitter looks like when in mid ferment. That brew was going to be bottled, and we had a fascinating overview of the enormous bottling line.

This line is capable of bottling 40,000 bottles  – an hour

I could have stood and watched it for hours, except that free samples were waiting in the Visitor Centre!