|
Web page links: Home page Medals won Brewer's tasting notes Pubs stocking Nethergate Retail site |
About the Nethergate Brewery
 |
 |
|
|
| The Nethergate logo, featuring our famous British Bulldog, Old Growler. |
The brewery site, in converted barns at Street Farm, Pentlow. The barley in the foreground is the malting variety Maris Otter. |
Our brewer, Tom Knox, who has been involved with the brewery since its foundation. | |
The Brewery was established in 1986, in the small town of Clare, in
Suffolk. From the very beginning it set out to brew distinctive beers of a consistent
quality, this being quickly recognised in the many awards won at beer festivals
throughout the region. Click
here for a summary of these awards.
The beers brewed mostly exhibited special features, such as our coriander
flavoured Umbel ales, (coriander was much used before hops became cheaply
available), or Old Growler itself, a dark porter which is our most famous beer.
Over a period of time we built up a range of eight so-called permanent beers, these being beers that are brewed throughout the year, as opposed to seasonal beers, which are brewed from time to time, and cover a very much larger range. By clicking here you can see our brewer's notes on the permanent beers, and by clicking here some of the pump clips used on seasonal beers.
The Brewing Process
Brewing is one of the oldest industries in the country, and as one would expect of such a traditional industry, the principles of creating beer has changed very little as the centuries have passed. Today brewing has crystallized into a number of distinct steps:
The
Grist
For each individually brewed ale different types and
varieties of malted barley are used, in different proportions, to make up the recipe.
The lion’s share of any grist is the
malted barley, from where most of the sugars come; the variety we use is
Maris Otter, grown in the fields next to the brewery here in Pentlow, as in the
picture above.
Grist
to the Mill
Once the malts have been carefully weighed and counted
they are then loaded into the mill, where they are cracked. They are then stored
in the grist case awaiting the next day's brewing.
The Run off
Hot sweet wort then runs off, by gravity, into the under-back,
where it is then pumped up and into the copper.
The Copper
Once the correct volume of wort is received in the
copper the bittering hops are added, the
wort is then gently brought to the boil
and allowed to simmer for up to an hour and half. Before the end of the boil the
aroma hops are added. There are many varieties of bittering and aroma hops and
each brew, just as it will have its own malt recipe, will have a special hop
recipe.
Casting
Once the wort has been allowed to settle it is then
cooled, and after cooling pumped into a fermentation vessel. The yeast is then
added to the wort, and after a few hours God's
gift, as it was known before the advent of
microscopes, starts to do it’s magical work.
Fermentation
 |
|
||
| Depending on what’s brewing the fermentation lasts for about two to three days, yeast is then skimmed for the next brew and when the correct strength is reached the beer is then cooled for a further four days before being racked in casks. |
Yeast is a living organism which converts sugar into alcohol. It forms on top of the brew, being skimmed off before racking |
A small amount of sugar is left un-fermented at this
stage to allow the beer to secondary ferment in the cask. Hence the name "cask conditioned
beer".
 |
 |
|
Beer is then racked, (which means being transferred to the casks in which it is sold to pubs), at which point isinglass finings are added to clarify the beer. |
The casks of beer are then stored for seven to ten days in the refrigerated beer store before being distributed to the trade. This allows the beer to condition and mature. |
Monitoring Quality
|
 |
|
|
Each brew is continuously monitored throughout its maturation. Samples are examined in the laboratory at regular interval |
Second brewer Paul inspects his raw material | Cleanliness is next to Godliness in a brewery! |
The Result
All this work is to provide pleasure for the discerning drinker of traditional ales. We hope you are one of them!
 |
 |
 |
|
Visitors to the brewery enjoy a glass or two of Nethergate |
You can drink Nethergate anywhere |
Our new beer, launched in 2007, to wide acclaim. |
 |
| Last, but hopefully not least, Andy Bone, the maker of this website, with a pint of Suffolk County. Andy is also MD. |
