Brewday at Wibbler's 5.Nov.2010
Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:35 am
Hi all,
I was lucky enough to spend last Friday the 5th brewing with Phil Wilcox of Wibblers Brewery, in Mayland Essex. I took some pictures and I thought I'd share them for those who might be interested. Wibblers are one of the micros local to me, and I have to say I was very impressed with the quality of beer they are making. Phil himself is a top bloke (as is his dad, who also works there), and extremely generous with his time and beer.
I got there just after 7am after getting a little lost in the back roads of the Dengie Peninsula here in Essex, but made it just in time to help dough the mash in. The brewery is located on a farm near Latchingdon, and there is a herd of cows who enjoy the spent grain from the brewing.
Phil was making 10 barrels of his Christmas specialty beer, I believe it's called "Santa's Day Off". I won't go into the recipe but I can tell you that Phil only uses top quality ingredients for all of his beers. I was impressed to see him use the likes of Fuggles, Kent Goldings and Challenger throughout, even for bittering. As he says, he brews to make good beer, not for 'accounting'.
The brewery itself consists of two brewing rigs. In the old building, there is his 2-barrel system which he tells me was originally his homebrewing rig! Who here on the board can say they have a 2-barrel homebrew system?! He still uses it from time to time when making small batches, but the majority of the brewing is done on the new, big ABUK system next door. It's a 10-barrel three-vessel system, panelled in wood for the rustic effect.
For fermentation, he has three (I think they are 20 barrel) glycol-jacketed open fermenters. He also has the facility to filter his beer, and a counter-pressure bottling system. He tells me he has recently struck a deal with ASDA to stock some of his bottled beer and this is what drove the need for a bottling system.
I stirred the mash while it was being doughed in (back-breaking) and shovelled out the spent grain to feed to the cows with the help of Ollie, his brewery assistant. I tried many of his beers that day, and he even tried a few of mine. My favourite was "Hoppy Helper", an american pale, which was just lovely and drinkable with the citrusy tang I have come to love. He was also kind enough to send me home with a polypin of "Dengie Devil"; a deliciously dark, slightly roasty bitter made with Nelson Sauvin. I racked it into a corny keg as soon as I got home and put it on tap. It's superb with warm camembert on toast.
Anyway, the pics:
I was lucky enough to spend last Friday the 5th brewing with Phil Wilcox of Wibblers Brewery, in Mayland Essex. I took some pictures and I thought I'd share them for those who might be interested. Wibblers are one of the micros local to me, and I have to say I was very impressed with the quality of beer they are making. Phil himself is a top bloke (as is his dad, who also works there), and extremely generous with his time and beer.
I got there just after 7am after getting a little lost in the back roads of the Dengie Peninsula here in Essex, but made it just in time to help dough the mash in. The brewery is located on a farm near Latchingdon, and there is a herd of cows who enjoy the spent grain from the brewing.
Phil was making 10 barrels of his Christmas specialty beer, I believe it's called "Santa's Day Off". I won't go into the recipe but I can tell you that Phil only uses top quality ingredients for all of his beers. I was impressed to see him use the likes of Fuggles, Kent Goldings and Challenger throughout, even for bittering. As he says, he brews to make good beer, not for 'accounting'.
The brewery itself consists of two brewing rigs. In the old building, there is his 2-barrel system which he tells me was originally his homebrewing rig! Who here on the board can say they have a 2-barrel homebrew system?! He still uses it from time to time when making small batches, but the majority of the brewing is done on the new, big ABUK system next door. It's a 10-barrel three-vessel system, panelled in wood for the rustic effect.
For fermentation, he has three (I think they are 20 barrel) glycol-jacketed open fermenters. He also has the facility to filter his beer, and a counter-pressure bottling system. He tells me he has recently struck a deal with ASDA to stock some of his bottled beer and this is what drove the need for a bottling system.
I stirred the mash while it was being doughed in (back-breaking) and shovelled out the spent grain to feed to the cows with the help of Ollie, his brewery assistant. I tried many of his beers that day, and he even tried a few of mine. My favourite was "Hoppy Helper", an american pale, which was just lovely and drinkable with the citrusy tang I have come to love. He was also kind enough to send me home with a polypin of "Dengie Devil"; a deliciously dark, slightly roasty bitter made with Nelson Sauvin. I racked it into a corny keg as soon as I got home and put it on tap. It's superb with warm camembert on toast.
Anyway, the pics:
but you were close enough 
