#midnight bell

[ravenhime]

She who Awaits...

Hark!

The Raven's Call

The Midnight Bell

Is the Gift of Eternity

-- Raven Hime

A gothic metal whisper from Raven Hime’s studio. For those who hear the midnight bell.

[somebooze-blog]

This is good. I've had it on draught before, even better.

[whereslisa]

A lesson in beer from Leeds Brewery

My time in Western Australia was characterised by tasting. I never wasted an opportunity to try something new, whether that be a beautiful vineyard-fresh wine, cheese straight from the factory or a tasting platter of unusually-flavoured beers from one of Western Australia’s many boutique breweries. The experience of tasting something straight from where it is produced is an exhilarating one, letting you taste the product at its very best as well as feeding your curiosity about how your favourite food and drink is made.

As I continued my quest to find the taste experiences Western Australia is renowned for in my beloved Leeds, I was particularly excited when I was invited for a tour of Leeds Brewery. Whilst I love to drink beer, I confess that my knowledge of how it is made is wanting, so this was a brilliant chance to change this (and try some tasty beer in the process!).

Barely needing any introduction, Leeds Brewery is a brilliant Leeds success story. Founded in 2007, Leeds Brewery is the brainchild of Owners and Directors, Sam and Michael. Whilst at university together, Sam and Michael worked part-time at York Brewery, an experience which inspired them to set up their own brewery. Looking for a location that didn’t have a small regional brewer, they settled upon Leeds. To assist in setting up the brewery, they sought out their now Head Brewer Venks, who was doing a Masters in Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt University (renowned as the best brewing course in the UK). Venks agreed to get involved, and the rest is history!

Over the last six years, Leeds Brewery has earned a reputation for producing exceptional beer, which has always been at the heart of what it set out to achieve. The mission for Leeds Brewery was simple – to be the Brewer in Leeds - but now with national distribution, an empire of five pubs and a staff of almost 80, Leeds Brewery has become a huge success story. It’s no surprise though, the beer is REALLY good. Even Jamie Oliver thought so when he specifically sought out one of the Brewery’s Pubs, The Midnight Bell, to feature in his ‘Jamie’s Great Britain’ series!

On my first brewery visit since Western Australia, Leeds Brewery’s Business Development Manager, Rich Fiddaman, guided me through each stage of the brewing process, giving me (and hopefully, you) an invaluable opportunity to understand how beer is made!

The Ingredients With just four ingredients – malt, yeast, hops and water – it’s amazing just how different one beer can taste from the next. Leeds Brewery uses select British malted barley for its beer and Rich explained that in order to get the sugars from barley, it is steeped (soaked in water) to start the germination process. To stop the process the barley is heated up and has different characteristics depending on how long it is heated. This offers varying levels of sweetness and flavour to the finished beer. For example, a pale malt will offer less flavour than a darker, more roasted malt. This is why paler ales tend to be hoppier, as more hops are required to give flavour. Dependent on the type of beer you want to create, different malt mixes will be used. 

Rich told me that Leeds Brewery only uses the choicest hops, which add bitterness, aroma and some flavour to the beer. Different hops have different characteristics, and the timing of the hops being put into the boil is important as it affects different aspects of the beer. Generally speaking, bittering hops are put in at the early stages of the boil and the aroma hops towards the end. Finally, all Leeds Brewery beers use a special yeast that is completely unique to them – even Rich doesn’t know the specific details! Maybe that’s the secret to the tastiness of Leeds Brewery Beers…

The brewing Rich took me on a tour of the Brewery itself, talking me through the different stages in the brewing process. He explained that the first stage involves the malt being mixed with water to create a kind of porridge. The sugars from the malted barley are captured by the water, which is then drained off to go onto the next stage. This liquid is called the wort. 

In the second stage, the wort is brought up to boiling point. At this point different hops are added at different times, depending on the beer that they are creating. This is called the hop schedule. For the third stage the liquid is then cooled to the desired temperature, before they pitch (add) the yeast which will multiply in the conditions. The by-products of the fermentation process are carbon dioxide (this escapes in ales and is absorbed in lagers) and alcohol (the important one!). This process will typically take three days.  Finally, the beer is conditioned and put into casks. The whole process from start to delivery lasts about a week. 

The pubs As well as the brewery itself, Leeds Brewery also consists of five fine pubs in Leeds which each serve Leeds Brewery’s own beer, a very good selection of other quality beers, wine and spirits, as well as local, high-quality and imaginative food. Leeds Brewery beer is not just restricted to being served in a pint glass and features as a prominent ingredient in many dishes on the menus of the pubs. The ethos of the pubs’ food is to use local ingredients to create fresh, quality dishes and the results are GOOD.

Rich used to manage the Midnight Bell pub and explained that they try to incorporate beer into everything that they can, for example by using beer where wine would usually be used. Salads are served with ale dressings, beer is a key ingredient in traditional pies and fish and chips, and there has been a lot of experimenting over the years, such as steamed fish over a bed of hops! At the Midnight Bell they also worked with a local butcher who made sausages using Leeds Brewery beers and also black pudding, which the Midnight Bell eventually went on to make on-site for all of the Leeds Brewery pubs. Rich said that wherever they can sneak beer in, they will, and added that Midnight Bell beer in particular works extremely well with ice cream! Mmm…

The tasting Chatting about beer for an hour works up quite a thirst, so we concluded the Leeds Brewery tour with a trip to the Midnight Bell to taste the finished product. Like wine, there’s a knack to beer tasting, which Rich guides us through in this short video:

Thanks to Rich for my Brewery tour and beer education! If you haven’t yet tasted the fine fruits of Leeds Brewery’s labour, head down to one of the five pubs immediately and experience them for yourself!