12 Stouts of Christmas

12 Stouts of Christmas - Open Day

December 1st is the day that you all need to put into your diary to remind you to be at the brewery for the launch of this years 12 Stouts of Christmas. An opportunity not to be missed - bring your beer loving loved ones down for their experience of the year.

 

On the day we will have samples of as many beers we can put on, we will have gift boxes for pressies, we will have a stout stew, we will have mixed cases for pressies, we will have T shirts for pressies, we will have all the Christmas beer you need and best of all you will get the chance to meet us (ahem)... better still you will get the chance to meet 'Bear' the brewery dog - aahhhhh!

 

 

Marks Bread/ Cafe will be open & they will be selling delicious breads/cakes teas & coffees and supplying us with bread to accompany the stout stew.

The day starts at 11am and finish at 6pm, entrance either via Marks Bead/ Cafe of via Durnford St.

 

What more do you actually need!!!!

 

Hope to see you all there. 

 

 

Creme Brulee

Having agreed to do our '12 Stouts of Christmas' again this year, we have been beavering away coming up with some new varieties that will be included in the release in December.
Chris has been in contact with the delightful Melissa Cole and between them they have come up with a something that is just divine.
Melissa came to the Beer Factory in some very fashionable red wellies and we had an absolutely great day brewing what is to become our 'Creme Brulee Stout'

Just to prove to you all that Melissa doesn't just swan around breweries talking alot, here's few pics showing her helping out - thanks Melissa pop in anytime - you actually emptied the mash tun quicker than Chris can do it!!!

Not only will the Stout taste like a Creme Brulee we somehow managed to get it to look like one - see below!


Stout at the end of Fermentation





A Creme Brulee

After fermentation we transferred the Stout to some rum casks where it is slowly ageing before we bottle it next month - mmmmmm.

A very big thank you to Melissa for coming down - another great day at the Bristol Beer Factory.





 

Beer & Music

Apart from our love of beer, here at BBF we are all pretty passionate about music. The majority of us play instruments with over half of us either still playing in bands or having done so in the past.
So to give you an idea of what makes us tick, here's a brief insight

Name             Favourite Band(s)          First Single bought                         Best Gig
Simon            Lynyrd Skynyrd           You're the one that I want              JJ Cale
                      Stevie Ray Vaughn       John Travolta/Olivia NJ                Hammersmith Odeon
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Mark             Beatles, Yes,                 See my Baby Jive                          Frank Zappa - NEC
                      Steely Dan                    Roy Wood
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Sam              Pearl Jam                       Final Countdown, Europe             Pearl Jam - O2
                     Guns n Roses
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Chris            The Pixies                     This Ole House                              The Cure
                     Julian Cope, Rush         Shakin' Stevens                            Glastonbury 1990
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Robin           Sterophonics                  In the Middle of the Night            Stereophonics  
                     Travis                            BillyJoel                                       Millenium 2001
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Dan            Cinematic Orchestra     Pulp, Comman People                  Sigur Ros
                   Flying Lotus                                                                        Edingburgh    
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Jonny          Peter Green                   Gorillaz 19-2000                           Radiohead
                    John Martyn                                                                        Reading Festival
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Steve         Super Furry Animals      Make Love like a man                Faith No More
                  Pantera                            Def Leppard                               Olympia Dublin
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Not sure which is more embarrasing to admit to - buying Final Coutdown by Europe, Shakin Stevens or Olivia Newton-John......

We do have our dislikes too and a selection of people who you won't hear if you come the brewery are - Kylie Minogue, Bruce Springstein (last person who played some of his music was sacked on the spot), any Rap, Queen, any Stock Aitken & Waterman, Robbie Williams, Pete Doherty.......actually this is quite a long list so I'll just put a selection down!

BEER & MUSIC...........you don't need much more in life...do you!

Southern Conspiracy

Our collaboration brew (Southern Conspiracy) with Mark from Dark Star has now been racked with a special 500ltrs put into white wine casks with the addition of whole gooseberries ready for bottling in a month or so.
The first tastings of the beer during racking were just amazing - i know we would say that 'cause we have to sell it, but this really is something else - if you ever wanted a refreshing summer beer this is it. The lime and grapefuit flavous derived from the NZ hops are just stunning. I could go on but best you taste it yourselves. A pint of Southern Conspiracy sat on top of the Grain Barge in Bristol Harbour, watching the sun go down (because it looks as though its going to make an appearance) - you could not want for more.

Here's proof that the Southern Conspiracy aged in white wine casks, sat on gooseberries is not just a dream (see photo). When we filled the casks, the combination of aromas from the oak/wine/goosberries and NZ hops was just a pleasure. It is times like these that you realise why you work in the craft beer industry!
We are hoping to get approx 80 cases (12 x 500ml) of this bottled - can't say when exactly as it'll be ready .....when its ready but hopefully within a couple of months.

There isn't a great deal of this beer to go round so keep a look out at all the usual stockists of our beer.

Caught on film- craft brewers fighting over spent grain

During a great fun and very successful day at the brewery last weekend a couple of well respected craft brewers were caught on film playing tug of war over a bin of spent grain.....if they had only asked we would have given them one each!!

Mark (Dark Star) & Justin (Moor Beer) very kindly came to the brewery to join us in a collaboration brew (name yet to be decided) last weekend and added a bit of muscle & knowledge. We are planning to put the majority of the brew into cask, with part being aged in wooden casks for bottling at a later date.

Here's a few more photos to give you an idea of how it may taste......

Chris adding hops

Justin adding 'Moor' hops



Mark adding............hops!

We'll be shouting about it when its ready to be released into the trade so keep yer noses in the air - there'll be a hoppy aroma coming your way soon!!
Thanks Mark & Justin - a great day.

Apollo II has landed

....squeezed another one in! Apollo II our second 25brl conical FV was delivered last week and put into position by some skilled use of a forklift, chain block and a few blocks of wood.

We are really really pleased with the results we have been getting from our first 25brl FV so will be getting this second one on stream as soon as possible.

We've lost the pot....

...literally.... nearly 1000 of them! Some of you sharp eyed drinkers out there would have already noticed that a number of our Southville Hop bottles have something missing. I could try & convince you all that this was fully intended & a great marketing ploy but really it proves that we are human and that some how we managed to label nearly 1000 bottles with a huge glaring mistake - 'The Pint Pot is missing!'
To show how much our beloved Pint Pot means to us we have decided to open this into a bit of a competition.
The first 10 people to send in a photo of a Southville Hop bottle without the pint pot on the front will get entered into a draw to win a mixed case of bottles. Photos don't need to be high quality but we always enjoy a good larf so the funnier the better. You never know, if there is a real good piccy we may feel that we'll give that entry a prize as well!!!!
Send your photo's into enquiries@bristolbeerfactory.co.uk with subject being 'Our Pint Pot is Missing'.
Put all your details on the email & we'll let you know. Cheers.