is about to be bottled and will be ready to drink for the August bank holiday weekend. The first brew seems to have gone down really well (thanks for all the lovely compliments), and sold out quickly, so we are looking forwards very much to the second brew being ready. Perfect timing for some hoped for hot late summer weather.
It will be available as before, both from the brewery, and Roots and Vines in Tavistock while stocks last.
With the easing of restrictions next week we’ll be reopening our monthly Tap Room on July 18th 2020, and we are so looking forwards to seeing all our lovely ‘regulars’ for a jolly, mellow, friendly and social time.
We’ll have all sorts of measures and several changes in place to make sure that we all stay safe, including, for example, extra handwashing facillities and the choice of contactless card payment. Of course our big advantage is our superb natural ventilation(!) and plenty of space for maintaining 2m physical distancing. Or even for being entirely antisocial and spending the evening wandering around the orchard and hop garden, or inspecting the compost heaps if you choose! Obviously we can’t provide shelter for everybody and still keep to necessary physical distancing if it’s less than perfect weather, so you might need to bring your best brolly and cagoule. You’re also welcome to bring a rug or something to sit on.
We’ll post information that you’ll want to know before coming along on a new Tap Room page on this site the week before, but of course the No. 1 most important thing is please don’t come if you have any suspicion at all that you may be developing Covid symptoms or have been in contact with anyone who is. If we all stay safe on July 18th, we’ll feel happy to open the Tap Room again in August and beyond, others will feel safe enough to come along and enjoy the evenings, and we can look forwards to seeing you another time.
Woolacombe Rye and Clamoak Bitter will be on tap, and all the other beers that we have at the moment will be available in bottles. Come along for a beer and a physically distanced chat, and some peace and cheer in our world gone wierd.
Meanwhile we continue to be open for off sales every Wednesday 4.30 to 7pm, every Saturday 3 to 5pm, and other mutually convenient times by arrangement. Delivery still available for anyone shielding on the Bere Peninsula.
Our new hoppy Blonde Ale made with 100% our own home grown hops is busy conditioning in it’s bottles and will be on sale at the brewery (while stocks last) from 24th June 2020.
Brewed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Tamar Valley AONB
Creating a new beer is always such fun, like a great big cookery-come-chemistry experiment, with all the different malt, hop and yeast flavours to choose from to marry together to try to create something perfectly balanced with layer upon layer of lovely flavours. We think we are so lucky to be able to grow hops and brew in one of the most beautiful places in all of England, so to have been asked to produce a new beer to celebrate the Tamar Valley AONB’s 25th anniversary was a real honour.
This new blonde ale, named by Ben Dancer at the Tamar Valley AONB, is brewed with 3 different hops, Zenith, Styrian Golding and Cascade, all grown, harvested and dried here at the brewery. Something very rare, almost unique in this country.
Lucy Jones Photography
Brewing with 100% of our own Tamar Valley hops allows the bittering, flavour and aroma characteristics distinct to our specific environment and microclimate to shine through. It’s hard to put your finger on it, but we really notice how brewing with 100% our own hops instead of our current usual 70% just takes our beers to a new depth, richness and clarity of flavour. No background harsh notes, just a freshness and cleanliness, a well rounded depth of multi-layered subtleties, and a fruitiness that’s deep without being overpoweringly dominant. We are still bulking up on a couple of our more finicky varieties, but hope to soon be using 100% hops for all of our brews.
There’s a background soft dampness to the Tamar Valley, which is maintained by the diversity of its topography and ecosystems, particularly its woodlands and extensive hedgerows. This, combined with the gentle warmth of the valley’s microclimate provides a kinder, softer and more biodiverse environment for hop growing than many traditional hop growing areas, and this seems to be reflected in the quality and breadth of flavours and aromas that our own hops can therefore give. Sure, we can have problems from being sometimes too damp, and not always cold enough in winter, but growing in the Tamar Valley means the hops can have an environment more akin to the hedgerows where they naturally flourish in the wild as opposed to the vast open field systems necessitated by modern commercially viable mechanical based growing.
photo Paul Glanville
And our incredibly precious hedgerows play another important role. We still grow our hops in exactly the same way as we did when we were a certified Organic market garden, so we’re not using the pesticides that are routinely and regularly sprayed by most commercial hop growers. Instead our thick and biodiverse hedgerows provide the refuges necessary to maintain our large predator population – countless ladybirds, hoverflies, lacewings and all manner of small birds to hoover up the Hop Aphids that can render a crop useless in a few days. And again, this means no chemical residues on the hops to enter the beer and taint its flavour.
So, Ale of Outstanding Natural Beauty is a light and hoppy blonde ale with fresh citrus notes; a bright, sparkling and refreshing beer to celebrate the warmth of the long light summer days and evenings of the Tamar Valley, it’s outstanding natural beauty and it’s rich biological diverstity.
Available from the brewery, and Roots and Vines, Tavistock from 24th June, while stocks last.
We had confirmation yesterday that we are back on the ‘Essentials’ list, and so we are ok to start take away sales again for some cheer at home again. HOORAY
We are completely closed from Fri 27th March to Monday 6th April (for stocktaking etc), but we will be
OPEN AS USUAL AGAIN WED 8th APRIL 4.30 to 7pm.
We will additionally be open for the duration of the restrictions on
SATURDAYS 3 to 5pm FROM 11th APRIL.
As usual, ANY OTHER TIME BY ARRANGEMENT
In order to ensure our own and our customers safety the following conditions will apply : • Only 1 person inside the brewery at a time. • Anyone waiting outside to keep 2m apart.
Apologies for all the chopping and changing, but all we could do was respond as we must as information came out.
Meanwhile, we’d just like to say how deeply touched we’ve been by everyone’s support and encouragement at a time when everyone else has their own huge difficulties and worries, whether that is elderly or vulnerable relatives, children stuck abroad, loss of income or key workers having a really rough time.
Government restrictions announced last night state that cafes, pubs and restaurants are allowed to continue offering take-out sales. We are, therefore, still open for take home sales of bottles as follows :
Wednesdays 4.30 to 7pm, and any other time by arrangement, telephone 01822 840382 Whilst the current situation holds, we will in addition be open every Saturday from 11th April, 3 to 5pm and for anyone who lives on the Bere Peninsula and is really unable to leave home we can discuss delivery. PLEASE NOTE the brewery will be completely closed from Fri 27th March to Mon 6th April for our annual stock take.
In order to ensure our own and our customers safety the following conditions will apply : • Only 1 person inside the brewery at a time. • Anyone waiting outside to keep 2m apart.
We have the space, so it’s easy to comply with and safer than going to the supermarket.
We don’t know when our next Tap Room Evening will be, but it will be May or June at the earliest.
In addition to our normal Wednesday opening (4.30 – 7pm) the brewery will also be open on Friday mornings in December between 9.30am and 1pm (not the 28th though!).
In addition, we will be having an open “Taproom” afternoon on Sunday 9th December between 2pm and 7pm. In addition to all our regular beers we will also have our new seasonal beer, Cotts Winter Ale, available to taste and buy. (Please note that we are unable to provide parking for this event – please park in the village and walk to the brewery, 200 yards from the crossroads.)
With Christmas rapidly approaching our 5 litre mini-kegs are perfect for small parties, or for bigger bashes, we can supply 10 or 20 litre “pins” (bag-in-box) of each of our regular beers.
Mini-kegs are priced at between £19 – £21each (+£5 deposit); prices for pins are between £36 – £40 (10 litre) or £72 – £80 (20 litre) depending on which beer.
Last ordering dates to reserve mini-kegs or casks for Christmas are as follows :
Clamoak Bitter : 3rd November
Woolacombe Rye : 11th November
Hole’s Hole Porter : 17th November
Hallowell IPA : 25th November
Lopwell Gold & Tuckermarsh Pale : 1st December
We will try and meet requests received for mini-kegs after these dates but cannot guarantee to do so.
After what felt like a very long winter the past couple of weeks have brought some very welcome sunshine and warmth. The hops we planted last year now have their supports in place and are climbing away – lets hope we get a good harvest and better picking and drying weather this September.
We’ve also been busy in the brewery making sure we’ve got plenty of lovely refreshing beer for everyone to drink. The Woolacombe Rye we brewed earlier in the year proved to be a great success with its gentle spiciness and malt/hop balance hitting the mark with a lot of people – it quickly sold out but there’s a fresh batch of it available now.
Summer is also the time for wheat beer and our Whitsam Wheat will be returning at the beginning of June – a wonderfully refreshing beer in the Belgian style with hints of coriander and orange. We will have it available on tap (together with Woolacombe Rye and Lopwell Gold) at our next open evening/taproom on the 2nd June.
Later on this summer we’ll have something a little different – a Saison beer. For those unfamiliar this is a strong Belgian style with a complex fruity and spicy flavour derived from the yeast and a combination of different malts, giving a rich but still refreshing beer. This should be available mid to late July – see our facebook page or sign up to join our mailing list to be notified when it’s available.
We’ve lots of events planned for the summer – see our upcoming events section for when and where – including more of our popular open evenings. But don’t forget you can always pick up our beers direct from the brewery – we’re always open on Wednesdays, 4.30 – 7pm, or alternatively give us a call, leave a message on the answerphone, and we’ll find a mutually convenient time.
Please note the brewery and office will be closed between the 5th and 13th April to allow us to carry out some maintenance and a stocktake. Apologies for any inconvenience – the brewery will be back open as normal on Wednesday the 18th.
We will be putting in a guest appearance at Tavistock Farmers’ Market on Easter Saturday, 31st March, between 9am and 1pm. We’ll have our new brew Woolacombe Rye, as well as all our regular beers, available to taste and buy so why not come along and say hello.
Mini-kegs are priced at between £19 – £21each (+£5 deposit); prices for pins are between £36 – £40 (10 litre) or £72 – £80 (20 litre) depending on which beer.
