So an early start and my first morning commuter train in 6 years took me to Druid Street to an unmarked archway under the train line out of London Bridge and The Kernel Brewery, recent winners of the Best Bottled Beer in Britian award from SIBA. Today Evin and Toby were joined by Glyn Roberts, manager of The Rake Bar and keen brew collaborator to brew another batch of their India Pale Ale Black. This is a photographic record of the day.
The brewery does not have the whole archway to itself, it shares with an artisan cheese and ham maker.
The closest Evin got to the brew process was to check the recipe.
Loving the named fermenters.
"Green" Yeast being cleaned from Chad, ready for today's brew, it smelt amazing and was from some S.C.C.A.N.S.
Malt ready to go.
Evin's presence was not missed with Toby's expertise...
...and Glyn's enthusiasm.
"Aren't you a little short for a brewer?"
Getting that mash just right.
First runnings a little light for a black beer?
Ah! That will be the Carafa then...
Glyn and hops, like a cat with catnip.
See what I mean?
And the Kernel had no shortage of hops... from my swift calculations that is 100kg of green gold.
The sparge gave us time to demolish some lunch...
and snoop around looking for some arty shots.
With the sparge complete,
and the boil going well,
the clean up starts...
...at high speed.
Bags and buckets of spent grains.
Elsewhere in the brewery the Kernel labelling process begins. They bottle and hand label all their beer, which can be upwards of 5000 bottles a week. Evin has not been slacking.
Boil and transfer complete Glyn gets stuck into the Kettle. Still, he is happy because it is hops.
Target gravity achieved...and check out the colour now.
Time for one final arty shot before heading off for a beer.
A big thanks to Evin, Toby and Glyn for letting me come along to take the photos and sample some of the great beers.
