A couple of days ago, a few of us home brewers took a trip to visit the Copper Dragon brewery in Skipton for a nice little tour, a couple of drinks, and some prize giving for our home brew competition. I got there a little late but still had a great time being showed around the plant by brewer Rob. There was not as big a turn out that I'd hoped there would be, but I guess some might have been a bit beer-ed-out the day after the IndyMan beer festival had closed... Oh well.. their loss..
The brewery itself is an impressive beast. At only a few years old it's still a very shiny beast too! They have a 90 barrel brew length kit (can it still be called a 'kit' at that size?!?) which is just about 7500 litres - that's a lot of beer!
It was interesting to see how the brewery is operated. The control panel above (Captain Rob's Helm) is pretty much where all the magic happens. Hard to believe you can brew 90 barrels of beer without having to move too far from a A4 sized screen. With no one having to shovel out mash tuns as well it all sounds rather civilized and relaxed!
It's very clear if you get to talk to Rob that he's a very passionate man when it comes to beer. He has some big plans for future brews, and I for one can't wait to try his specials as they come out. Be on the look out for a winter special and possible CDPorter. At the moment they have 4 large fermenters (5000 litres each) and 8 smaller ones... this is soon to change to 12 large fermenters so production is certainly set to increase.
I think some people tend to forget sometimes that the slightly bigger breweries can, and do, still make fantastic beer. They're not really the bad guys here. Not the boogy man, or the monstrous faceless co-operations. If you get a pint of Golden Pippin served correctly, it's a thing of beauty, and in my opinion, encapsulates a fantastic example of a 'Proper Yorkshire' pint.
Copper Dragon has a heart and a soul, and on a cold autumn night in Skipton it was showed to us that it is warm with a fiery passion for making great and consistently great beer. It's not a gamble when you buy a pint of Copper Dragon. Unless it's the end of the barrel you know what you're going to get - plain old good beer - that's something that should be praised.
Here's to beer.
very shiny, so what news of the proposed Trial Plant or will they be experimenting at full scale?
ReplyDeleteDidn't manage to hear about that one to be honest..
DeleteNice write up and some decent pics. It is nice to see the slightly larger scale operations at times.
ReplyDeleteHowever some of your figures seem a bit strange. 1 Barrel is 164L so 90 Barrels comes in close to 15000L.
Also I'm surprised that they only have 5000L fermenters with such a large brewlength. They would fill 3 fermenters each brew.
I'm not too sure, I just remember being told by Rob that the biggest brew length he can do is 90 brewers barrels at once, I could have easily got the other figures mixed up..
DeleteThe brewery's website refers to a 30-bbl plant installed in 2004 and a 60-bbl plant installed in 2007 in a new building (http://www.makingitlive.co.uk/copperdragon/?page_id=512035) - very impressive growth! That would fit with the fermenters.
ReplyDeleteWas the 90 a typo, or did they keep the old 30-bbl brewhouse, giving them a capacity of 90 in total?
Is Steve Taylor still involved in the Brewery. I remember him showing us around the old brewery a few years back. So passionate about his real ale.
ReplyDeleteAs I work in Skipton we often head off to the Bistro for team lunches. It really is excellent food and beer venue.
I'm not sure if Steve still works there, but I know from experience that Rob is a very passionate man when it comes to his brewing as well :)
DeleteI attended the opening of the new brewery a few years back, and it's a seriously impressive place; the food in the bistro was excellent, too.
ReplyDeleteAs mad prof also states, the food does sound very good, the menu looked very nice and it's a nice little space, but we had only drinking time when we went down.. There's always next time!
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