In Wales, the beer (alcoholic beverage from 4 to 7°C / V) is highly appreciated by people and tourists. For Welsh people it is part of their diet and can even completely replace the water. When you go in a pub to watch rugby match for example, everyone have a beer in the hand. We decided to find out how it was manufactured.
We called a company producing beer next to Wrexham to make an appointment and he accepted to explain us how he manufactured it. This small company called "Sandstone Brewery" and was created 5 years ago on the site "Wrexham Industrial Estate" which is the 5th largest industrial area in Europe. A charming man, Keith Porter received us and answered all our questions. This company has no employee. They are only 3 partners. Keith and Pene involved in sales and finance, and James is the Head Brewer. Sandstone brewery produces about 3000L of beer per month and has a turnover of about £ 3,500. This figure is quite low because competition is very tough. In fact, small businesses are struggling to make them known, crushed by brands like Heineken which is known worldwide.
He makes throughout the year 7 different types of beer and they regularly invent others. At this moment there are 4 new beers for vary pleasures of consumers.
The brewing:
Ingredients: Water (responding to WHO standards), malt (different types of seed mixes, mainly barley but you can add spices), hops (the leaves of a plant that gives bitterness to the beer) and yeast. The company has 10 varieties of different seed mixtures, some even roasted varieties and 10 different yeasts.
The manufacture of beer goes through different stages. First of all, he mixes the seeds with water in a tank that is heated to about 65°C during 90 minutes to allow the production of enzymes by barley, required for the conversion of starch into sugars. It permits the fermentation. Following this step he retrieves the liquid and removes the seeds. It transfers the liquid into the next tank where hops are incorporated during 1h30. He, then, carries the mixture to a boil. Finally, he transfers the mixture into a tank during few days where it will ferment at 10°C with yeast which converts sugar into alcohol. The beer goes through a filter to remove most of the yeast and is packaged in small tanks at 15 ° C before being sold. Every small tank contains 41 litres of beer.
Plan of Sandstone Brewery
Working conditions are difficult because you work standing for long. You must carry heavy loads (the bag of hops or seed). It is an intense and physically difficult work. That is why the owner who is elderly handles all the administrative part of the business and why he has hired a young man to do the entire practical work.
The waste like seeds are harvested and turned into cereal for animal or into fertilizer for plants. At the end of the visit we were able to taste two types of beer including onyx with roasted malt.
Two types of different beer
You can find more information on their website: https://www.sandstonebrewery.co.uk/wp/