Laine Brewing Co.

The beer-based musings of Laine's Head Brewer Nic Donald

[lainebrewingco-blog]

Opened up a new bag of Galaxy for todays brew at the @fourthievespub. School Of Hops Galaxy on its way to the boil as we speak! #brewing #lainebrewing #galaxyhops #allthedeliciousness #whoevenreadshashtags (at The Four Thieves)

[lainebrewingco-blog]

Hops hops hops! Hannah @hiverbeers adding the bittering charge #collabfriday #hiverlaine (at People's Park Tavern)

[lainebrewingco-blog]

Can't keep our Head Brewer away from beery events, even on his week off! #Repost @ndonald ・・・ Busmans holiday. Took a trip to @haresfoot to check out their Berko Beer Fest

[fourthievespub]

Here’s the line up on the bar for the week. Everything is brewed in house! The staff pick is the new boy Sprung, a delicious summer golden ale. (at The Four Thieves)

[lainebrewingco-blog]

About to do a talk about this bad boy at the Heineken HQ in London. Having to stop myself having another pint before the talk however! (at Heineken Uk)

[fourthievespub]

It all starts with some malt and then the magic happens inside our small brewery🌾🔮Join us on the 13th and get involved in a full brew day. Tickets still available on design my night. (at The Four Thieves)

[lainebrewingco-blog]

Not long now until we launch our special collaboration with Caledonian Brewery for the Brighton Fringe Festival! A beautiful Session IPA with Admiral, Columbus and Summit hops.

[fourthievespub]

The only way to spend next Friday! Check Brew Day on DesignMyNight! https://designmynight.com/london/pubs/battersea/the-four-thieves/brew-day 🍻 (at The Four Thieves)

[fourthievespub]

Fancy a day in our onsite brewery? Were starting brew days from the 12th of May and places are limited. If you’d like a unique fun day out taking part in a brew and learning the science behind a pint get in touch. They’ll also be plenty of tasting and food pairings on the day too! (at The Four Thieves)

[lainebrewingco-blog]

Fringe Benefits We’ve made a beer with Caledonian Brewery. And we’re really excited about it. 

The Brighton and Edinburgh Fringe are the two most important arts festivals in the UK. As breweries based in these amazing cities, a collaboration between Caledonian and Laine's makes perfect sense.

We wanted to create a beer that reflects that spirit, so we created a vibrant IPA that is packed full of interest and flavour, but is light and “’sessionable” enough to be drunk at any time of day, or performance! It really is an ale of two cities.

[lainebrewingco-blog]

Uber beer is the new train beer, feat our mates @fourpure and their awesome Session IPA!

[fourthievespub]

Breakfast of champions! #newbeer #realale #breakfast #porter (at The Four Thieves)

[lainebrewingco-blog]

New Breakfast Porter on the bar @fourthievespub

[lainebrewingco-blog]

Delicious new batch of Red Empire being brewed up at the @peoplestavern by @sam.dickison (at People's Park Tavern)

[taptakeoverbrighton-blog]

The Perfect Tap Takeover?

We’ve got SO much beer-related greatness happening this weekend, the only issue will be deciding what to do. To save you the trouble we decided to plot our perfect Saturday at the Brighton Tap Takeover.

(This is a fun event. But as we all know, too much alcohol is not fun. Take it slow, drink smaller measures, eat regularly and drink plenty of water. )

12:00: The North Laine Brewhouse with Laine Brewing (Venue 1) Our first stop is the hub of the event – the North Laine Brewhouse – to pick up our wristband.  We take some time to look at the first brushstrokes in the live art battle and get stuck into “Tap Taketh Over” – the 5.4% IPA we have brewed especially for the event.  

Drink: North Laine Tap Taketh Over Eat: Beer Snack Platter Do:  Live Art Battle

12:45: Hope & Ruin with Northern Monk (Venue 6) For our second stop we head over to the fabulous Hope & Ruin for the launch of their homage to Brighton drinking - an event-exclusive stout dosed with Brighton’s favourite spirit,  Tuaca.

Drink: Northern Monk Tuaca & Orange Stout. Eat: Vegan specials from Beelzebab. Do: Tutored beer tasting @ 1pm

1:30: The White Rabbit with Mad Hatter Brew co. (Venue 2) Moving swiftly on, we take a quick pit stop at The White Rabbit to try the beer and cake matching at the Mad Hatter’s Garden Party. We go for a chocolate brownie and stout combo. Nom, nom, nom…

Drink: Nightmare on Bold Street Stout Eat: Chocolate Stout Brownie Do: Garden Party Fun

2:00: The Mashtun with Cloudwater (Venue 4) We then swing by the Mashtun for the sour beer tasting with Daniel Nielson, editor of Original Gravity Magazine, starting at 2pm. It features sour beers from four of our Tap Takeover breweries. And it’s free!

Drink: Sour beers from Cloudwater, Mad Hatter, Redchurch and Fourpure Eat: Burger time with Burger Kult Burgers Do: Sour Beer Tasting with Original Gravity Magazine.

3:00: East Street Tap with Two Tribes/Bison (Venue 10) Time to head to the seafront for some pampering from Milo’s – Brighton’s favourite barber. Plus some great beers from Sussex’s finest, Two Tribes Brewery.

Drink: Two Tribes Supersonic Saison. Eat: Mac & Cheese. Do: Milo’s barber 11m to 4pm.

4:00: The Victory with Celt Experience (Venue 9) Feeling hungry, we pop around to the Victory to try one of their special pies - made using Celt Experience beer - and have a chat with the brewers from Wale’s finest brewery.

Drink: Blood Moon Blackcurrant Sour Eat: It’s all about the pies Do: Celt Experience Meet the Brewer (3-6pm)

5:00: Black Lion with Redchurch (Venue 8) Freshly fed and spruced, we have over to the Black Lion to try some of the amazing Redchurch beers. We’re just in time to take on the Redchurch brewer at darts and win a free pint. Skills.

Drink: Bretted Paradise Pale Eat: Beer inspired sliders. Do: “Beat the Brewer” at darts 3-6pm.

6:00: The Western with Big Hug (Venue 7) Time to up the volume as we wander up to the Western for Big Hug’s Big Love Inn festival. Great music and free beer for those that hand in warm clothes and old sleeping bags for distribution to the needy. Beer with a conscience!

Drink: Big Hug Hibernation White IPA Eat: Back on the Burger Kult Do: Recycle old clothes with “Hugs for Snugs”

7:00: Fountain Head with Signature Brew (Venue 3) Over to the Fountain Head to check out London’s Signature Brew, who brew beers inspired by music. A final chance to rest our feet before heading out for the evening’s dancing.

Drink: Roadie Session IPA Eat: Chorizo Scotch egg Do: Put on our dancing shoes…

8:00: North Laine Brewhouse with Laine Brewing Company (Venue 1) Back to the North Laine to catch the DJ set from headline act, Kiko Bun, and try the Island Record Session IPA.

Eat: Beer snacks! Beer snacks! Drink: Island Records Session IPA Do: Check out the winning photos from the Tap Takeover beer mat photography exhibition.

10:00: Dead Wax Social with Foupure (Venue 5) Our next stop is Dead Wax Social, where four brewers from the festival have pulled out their favourite vinyl records to play out the night on the decks.  Fourpure are also launching a new beer, Flatiron American Red. I’m in.

Drink: Fourpure Flatiron American Red Eat: 2cans1pizza deal! Do: Top of the Hops DJ event.  

12 midnight: Hope & Ruin, Mashtun, Western (Venues 6, 7 & 4) We can’t decide on our final stop, so we split the party. Will it be grooves from 1Brighton FM at the Western, the best of the Hacienda at the Mashtun or the 90s party at the Hope & Ruin?

Drink: water, mostly. Eat: Full up, thanks. Do: Dance , dance , dance.

[lainebrewingco-blog]

Part Meet The Brewer, part festival, part pub crawl, all awesome! Come on down and party with some of the UK's finest brewers!

[lainebrewingco-blog]

The hopback with Admiral, Columbus and Summit hops

[lainebrewingco-blog]

Here's the "mandatory" brewers selfie from the Laines/Caledonian collab brew on Monday

[lainebrewingco-blog]

CALEDONIA DREAMIN’

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of going up to Edinburgh to do a collaboration brew with Caledonian Brewery. We have had a very good relationship with Caley for quite a while now, and the idea for a Laines/Caledonian collaboration started to really pick up steam when we visited last year. 

I was due to land in Edinburgh around 8pm on the Sunday, perfect timing to head out after checking into the hotel for dinner and a drink or two, but delays on all flights to Scotland from Gatwick meant that my plane didn’t even land until after midnight, and with a bright early start it was best to go straight to bed as it was. 

The Monday kicked off with the safety talk and a tour, as well as meeting and chatting with the film crew that were following us around for the brewday, and going over the final tweaks to the recipe with Peter Sharp. We had been working on this recipe together over both email and phone for 6 weeks, so both of us knew it like the back of our hand, but it’s never a bad thing to go over it once again!

The whole day for me was part brewing this beer while a film crew are watching your every move, and part looking around in amazement at this amazing brewery that is such a beautiful mix of traditional and modern methods, all situated in a series of wonderful red brick buildings. It was very easy to be staring in awe at the history on one side, before turning around and seeing modern equipment sitting alongside it.

And certainly can’t visit Caledonian without having a Caley pie and a pint once the hard work had finished!

The brew itself went fantastic. It’s a Session IPA that is called ‘Fringe Benefit’, and will be on sale at the Brighton Fringe Festival for all to try!

A big thankyou must go out to all the folks at Caledonian Brewery, particularly Peter Sharp, and these two above: Craig ‘Shakey’ Steven and Stewart Murray, who made me feel right at home and also took me out for an amazing meal (and a super tasty haggis scotch egg!) and a couple of drinks that somehow turned into a very late night for us all!

Keep an eye out for news on our collab beer on here, on our twitter (@lainebrewing), facebook (lainebrewingco), as well as Caley’s twitter (@caledonianbeer).

Fringe Benefit will be on the bar in the Speigeltent throughout the festival, which runs from the 6th of May to the 5th of June in Brighton.