New brewery and visitor centre for Belvoir - Nottingham CAMRA

Phil Troop is a firm believer in real ale in real pubs and he is
certainly not afraid to put this into practice. He is the landlord
of the Half Moon in the Lincolnshire village of Willingham By
Stow between Lincoln and Gainsborough. This former
Gainsborough CAMRA Pub of the Year is a music-free haven
with an open fire and four handpumps offering a range of
beers. But not one to rest on his laurels he decided to listen to
the encouragement of one of his regular suppliers, Phil at the
Fulstow Brewery, and to start to brew his own ales.
So back in October Grafters Brewery went into production,
initially just to serve the Half Moon but possibly allowing beer into
the free trade later this year. The 2½-barrel brew plant mainly
came from Mossbrew in Sheffield although Phil added some
equipment of his own such as the hot liquor tank. Before firing up
his mash tun Phil went on a brewing course at Brewlab in
Sunderland and since then he has also had
tremendous help from the other Phil over at Fulstow
Brewery.
Three beers are currently produced. Traditional is a
3.8% light coloured session bitter, Over The Moon
is a 4% traditional bitter and Brewers Troop is fairly
darkish, sweeter 4.2% best bitter. Incidentally the
name Grafters was a nickname given to Phil by one
of his regular customers who claimed that he was
never to be seen grafting behind the bar and the
name stuck.
Meanwhile the wave of new breweries starting up has shown no
sign of abating, although I have recently heard tales of a few
planned start-ups that have now been put on hold because of the
sudden massive increase in malt prices and a possible worldwide
shortage of hops.
Amongst the newcomers is The Celt Experience set up as a sister
brewery to the well-regarded Newmans brewery near Bristol. This
new venture in Caerphilly, Mid Glamorgan describes itself as a
brewery inspired through Celtic history to produce a range of
organic ales and a hand crafted lager. Also in Mid Glamorgan The
Dare Brewery started brewing in December at the Falcon Inn at
Godreaman near Aberdare using a 5½ barrel plant from Porter's
PBC Brewery Installations.
News Brewing
Steve Westby looks at the news
on the microbrewery scene
Down in deepest Northamptonshire another new brewery started
production in January. The Cherwell Valley Brewery is another
Mossbrew installation based in Brackley. It is proposed that the
first brew will be a 4% beer called Cropredy Bridge 1644, named
after a famous Civil War battle over a bridge on the River Cherwell.
Finally for now, up in Cumbria the Whitehaven Brewery started
brewing in December on a ten barrel plant based in a traditional
bank barn, in the quiet hamlet of Croasdale. There was a proud
tradition of brewing in the area which sadly lapsed in the early
years of the twentieth century when the breweries of Whitehaven,
Parton, Egremont and Cleator Moorall all closed, but this tradition
has now been restored and Ennerdale Bitter is the first beer to be
launched in the town for almost a hundred years. The beers are
brewed using soft Lakeland spring water, rising from underground
springs on Kelton Fell in the Ennerdale valley.
The Grosvenor
291-3 Mansfield Road, Carrington, Nottm NG5 2BY
Tel. 0115 9604845
www.thebell-inn.com
THE BELL INN, 18 ANGEL ROW, NOTTINGHAM 0115 947 5241
COMMUNITY PUBS
WEEK BEER FESTIVAL
Monday, Feb 18th
– Saturday, Feb 23rd
20 real ales available
ST PATRICK’S STOUT FESTIVAL
Thursday March 13th – Monday March 17th
17 stouts from 17
breweries on the 17th
Cellar Tours every Tuesday & Thursday 7.30pm
Drink in the history ofo
one of fEn England’s nd
Oldest Inns
ns
Reopening on 14th March
following refurbishment
•Food served 7 days a week 12-9pm
•Weekly curry night
•Amateur National Poker night
•Live entertainment weekly
•Beer Garden
•Function room available for hire
•At least four real ales
A warm and friendly pub
www.nottinghamcamra.org February/ March 08
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