Brewing up a storm at Brewhouse & Kitchen

So, we know how beer is made right? Hops, yeast, water… beyond that my own knowledge is pretty sketchy. Well, the good folk over at Brewhouse & Kitchen (B&K) on Trent Bridge can turn you from novice to master brewer (kind of) in just one day!
 

The microbrewery has been doing its thing in Nottingham for around a year or so, one of no less than 22 across the country. Each pub has a microbrewery on-site and creates brews related to the city in which it’s home. For example, if you peruse the pumps in ours you can choose a pint of ‘Tricky Tree’, ‘Racer’ or ‘Bolero’ which acknowledge Nottingham’s football, cycling and ice dance connections respectively.

The pub caters for all your needs; with vast daytime, evening and Sunday lunch menus, each dish also paired with a suggested beer too. There’s a wide variety of drinks options (not just beer!) and it’s dog friendly.
 

If you are looking to host a function the pub also has a wide variety of spaces available which seat from as few as 10 to as many as 120. To put it into context, on my visit there was a group of guys seated at the ‘indoor firepit table’ for a stag do (dressed as Peaky Blinders) and elsewhere in the pub a larger group for what looked like a wedding reception. But the building is so vast, there was no suggestion of any of the bookings taking over and it created a fun atmosphere for a Saturday afternoon.

Onto the activities; as well as the brewery experience (£85), you can also try a two-hour beer masterclass (£20) in which you’ll try eight different beers with some accompanying nibbles or a beer and food matching experience (£35) which includes three savoury courses and a dessert with recommended beers, introduced by a resident expert.

I took on the full-blown brewery experience, which is a full day of your time but includes a breakfast roll and hot drink on arrival, lunch, around four and a half pints’ worth of beer throughout the course of the day AND a five-litre keg of B&K beer of your choice worth £25 to take home. A pretty good deal if you ask me!

The Head Brewer Andy was our host and mentor for the day, he’s been in Nottingham for a couple of months having previously been at the Manchester branch. His knowledge is clearly vast, but he does a great job of explaining the processes involved for those people like me who aren't experts. Every now and then he does a little pop quiz with the group, asking us to name various pieces of equipment (mash tun, copper, underback), parts of the process (sparging) or enzymes (I’ve forgotten...).
 

Without boring you about all the detail (and spoiling the surprise) there is plenty of physical participation throughout. Andy supervises closely, at no point did it feel like he was entrusting us to do too much outside of our comfort zone - which you’d expect given anyone taking part is effectively supporting the brewing process which he’d be doing anyway – and the beer produced will eventually end up on sale in the pub.

Who’s it for? If you’re a proper beer nerd then you’ll definitely be in the right place to learn the details to perfect your home brew. But equally for anyone like me who just enjoys their beer and fancies a different day out it’s thoroughly enjoyable – just be prepared to get stuck in!

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This post was written by Chris Hickman, Communications Manager at Marketing NG