Wychwood Brewey (inc Brakespear)

on Oct 25 in Breweries, JOGLE 2010 by Sam

We arrived around lunch time at the renowned Wychwood Brewery in Witney, most people know this brewery thanks to the little hairy hobgoblin on the label of one of their most famous beers, Hobgoblin.  We met Alex on arrival who knew exactly what we wanted, a nice pint of this lovely malty and fruity beer, perfect.  We were then showed round the brewery, which we were not aware beforehand also brewed Brakespear beers along with the organic Dutchy Original beers.  A nice surprise.

During a quick tour around the brewery we saw the all the brewing equipment and Alex went through the brewing process.  We also got to see the Brakespear double system, a method Brakespear argue gives their beers their unique character. Basically, cooled beer coming from the brew house starts fermentation in the top-fermenting vessel and is then ‘dropped’ into the vessel below leaving any solid material. The fermentation continues in the vessels below.  All I know is that they produce some lovely beers especially the ‘Triple’, named so after being triple fermented and triple hopped, this beer is a 7.2% exquisitely rich and malty beer.

We were then treated to a lovely little tasting session of the Brakespear and Wychwood beers, we tried Hobgoblin (cask and bottled), King Goblin, Triple, Wychcraft, Goliath, Scarecrow amongst others in the Brewery bar.  All lovely beers, but we pick King Goblin as our favourite (only available in Morrison’s for the time being I’m afraid, although coming to Wetherspoons Ale festival), it has a similar taste to Hobgoblin but is 6.6% and is more full bodied.  Interesting little note is the difference between Hobgoblin cask and bottle, cask is 4.7% and bottle is 5.2%, when trying one after the other you really notice how watery the cask tastes, still good though but it really isn’t the same!

We love the labels and distinct flavours and characteristics of Wychwood beers (Hobgoblin being the winner of the Pedalling for Pints Best Label award) so we stocked up on a few bottles of our favourites.  We said then said bye to Alex who generously gave us the famous ‘Largerboy’ T-Shirt and a nice beer glass to drink our ever increasing beer collection in the trailer from.  We feel Alex should get a extra special thanks for the time, effort and beers that he gave us, not to mention getting us drunk enough that we needed 2 coffees and a can of coke before we felt ready enough to cycle to our next destination, a very strange  Pub/YHA in Clyfee Pypard, just south of Swindon.

Thanks Wychwood / Brakespear

(P.S you have won the Pedalling for Pints Brewery Tour award)

(P.P.S  we only saw another tandem pulling up to the Brewery as we were leaving and of course we got a photo with them!)