Brewed our IPA

We brewed our IPA today which was very exciting because we brewed a full 40 BBL instead of the usual 30BBL as used to be the norm for our seasonal beers.

The seasonals have become so popular that we are now having to brew them to the full 40 BBL brewlength and 2 brews a month to keep up with demand, that's 320 casks a month.

What made today especially exciting was not the fact that we added around 40kg of whole leaf hops (Glad I'm not the one who will be digging them out tomorrow!) but we will be dry hopping it in a few days time with hop pellets in the fermenter.

When we brewed it the first time to 30 BBL brewlength, there was plenty of room for the expansion of foam as the pellets where being added to the fermenter. The whole brew seemed to rise by about a third. However, now we don't really have the room for the expected expansion so things could get very exciting indeed.

We could........just throw the pellets in and quickly batten down the hatches- not recommended- but instead we will add the pellets bit by bit over the course of a few hours and hopefully all will be well, hopefully. We don't really know 'cos we've not done it before, like I said....exciting.

If, you want to try our IPA it's called Alton's Pale Ale and is 4.8% abv. It will be ready in about 14 days and you should start seeing it around Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey and Wiltshire. It will also be at the GBBF this year along with Alton's Pride our 3.8% abv session bitter.