Beers will always taste slightly different when brewed at different breweries, though the difference should not be great and would not usually be noticeable. Nevertheless, when these brews are good enough to sell, they will be made available as First Editions. We will let you know where and when these are available and we will welcome any feedback which we will take into account once we move to our own site - whenever and wherever that may be...
While we wait for the planning application to be decided, all of our equipment is in storage a few hundred miles up north. Although it would be wonderful to be producing from our own brewery, we obviously can't start there until we get the go ahead. With no place of our own to brew, we have been working elsewhere with friends at an established brewery to produce some test beers. These have been going well and we are hopeful that they will soon be good enough to sell. So at the moment we are what is quaintly known as a Cuckoo Brewery, sitting in somebody elses nest while we wait for the opportunity to feather our own.
Beers will always taste slightly different when brewed at different breweries, though the difference should not be great and would not usually be noticeable. Nevertheless, when these brews are good enough to sell, they will be made available as First Editions. We will let you know where and when these are available and we will welcome any feedback which we will take into account once we move to our own site - whenever and wherever that may be...
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A couple of local people have objected to our planning application on the grounds of noise, smell and increased traffic. Frankly, I can understand anybody having concerns about a new enterprise being developed close to their home. A microbrewery is an unknown quantity to most people and it is perfectly understandable that they might expect noise, smells and general disturbance. But a microbrewery is not Carlsberg. We are craft brewers who are proud to work with our environment. We work on a very small scale in an activity that is mostly silent. We will brew initially on average once a week and, even at our peak, will only reach once a day, in vessels that our not much taller than us. Throughout that brew, the beer slowly evolves through a process from the soaking of grains to a week-long fermentation. During that process the only 'activity' is a one-hour boil of the malted liquor and hops. The by-product of that one-hour process is primarily steam, with a slight odour from the hops which will be expelled across the fields away from any buildings. I would never pretend that this steam is completely odourless, but it is both pleasant and almost indiscernible.
None of the activities, even the cask filling which will take place inside the building, is going to generate excessive noise. The building is part of a working farm which, until the 1960s, produced and dried hops in large Oast Houses. All of the activities on the farm have produced noise and smells. In contrast, a microbrewery is a place of very little activity and almost imperceptible smells – and even then for only a very short period of time. In truth, it is unlikely that anybody would know that the microbrewery even existed if they had not been told. I am part of the craft brewing movement because I love the process of slowly creating a beautiful product from locally farmed ingredients in a peaceful and creative environment. All waste will be immediately taken to local farms to provide feed and fertilizer, where I expect to encounter smells and noises for the first time during my working week. I would not be involved in craft brewing if I believed that I would be working in a noisy and environmentally destructive business that produced noxious odours. In contrast, we are lovers of our environment and we will work as custodians to produce, peacefully and sustainably, a high quality product that will proudly demonstrate the rich brewing and hop-growing heritage of our County. I expect that we will still be viewed with some suspicion, but I hope that I have been able to alay some of the fears of neighbours and to assure them that our shared environment will be in safe hands. I seem to have spent most of the last year wandering around farms, industrial units and other sites. I've hopped through hop fields and studied stud farms and had some very attractive discussions at one of Kent's leading attractions. But every site has always let us down in one way or another. That's what makes our latest visits at the weekend even more remarkable. Not only did we find a site that seems to check all of the boxes for the very first time, but then we went and found another one. Two near perfect sites in one day - it almost made the defeat against Germany seem bearable!
Both sites really are superb in many ways. It is going to be a very difficult decision to make, so it really depends on how our discussions go in the next few days. There have been times that I have thought we would never reach this point. But to now have a choice of great sites is more than we could have ever expected. Now it really is getting exciting... Our tour of the beautiful Kent countryside on Saturday resulted in two clear winners - but which site shall we choose to build the brewery? There are still a few things to discuss with both of them before we can make that final decision, but we are almost there. Both sites have some amazing positives, so it is going to be a close run thing. I expect it will take another month before we finally put the pin in the map, but whichever way we go the site will be superb. One of the owners even cracked open a bottle of Sierra Nevada Torpedo Double IPA. Now that comes pretty close to bribery in my book - but we are irrefutably incorruptible, even in the face of such impeccable taste...
This week we finally did it - we became a company. Yes it seems a long time ago that we started on this journey - mainly because it was - but this week we registered the company, opened the bank account, started this website and bought a tie. There can't be much left to do. Oh yes, we have to build a brewery.
Well, the brewery plant is on order, but that will still take some time to arrive. In the meantime we thought it might be a good idea to find a place to house it. Saturday is our big day - the day we visit our shortlist of sites. I'm incredibly excited about it. They all have some good points, but I must admit to one big favourite. If that one comes off then I might even agree to wear that tie again. |
AuthorAs a Director of Kent Brewery, my only goal is to see people enjoying our amazing beers. But first we have to get the brewery built. Follow our journey as we make the dream a reality. Archives
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