I visited the Windsor & Eton Brewerey yesterday with fellow members of The Wonderyears.
We were welcomed by Paddy, one of five business men who decided that it was time they set up business for themselves istead of working for others. This was in 2009.
Having decided on having a brewery they needed to make a further decision on where it should be, there were already so many in existance. Then very early one morning Paddy had a call from one of his partners, very excitedly telling him of a building that had become available in Windsor. Checking they found this would be the only one in that district. So after gaining planning permission things started to move rapidly. They had decided that they would fund everything themselves and would go for a year without any pay. Paddy drew details of the equipment needed and their engineer had it all made and installed in record time. In 2010 with their first batch brewing the started phoning around for customers. Not so easy with so much competition, they struck lucky as someone offered to use their beer if it was ready by St George's Day, which they managed to do. They were on their way.
They still have to spend a lot of time phoning because of the competition, but now have five very popular beers and business is expanding. This is, I'm sure, due to their enthusiasm and knowledge. The flavors are distinctive and some a bit out of the ordinary.While Paddy explained this we were drinking our first beer this was the Knight of the Garter. Launched to coincide with the annual Cermony of the Garter held at St George's Chapel, an easy drinking golden ale.
Then we were taken on a tour where the process was explained to us in detail, starting with the extracting of sugar from barley and finishing with the different sizes of casks, which is the main vessel for selling their beer in, they do sometimes bottle. I was amazed with the different ingredients, even jasmin is used. Also the fact that they obtain these ingredients from all over the world and need to know from which country any one of of their ingredients gives them the best flavour that they could possibly have to be added to their brews, even the barley has to be sourced with care as the best crop differs each year as according to weather conditions in the appropriate countries. Luckily the water in the Windsor area is pure, purer than spring water, it is felt that this is due to it coming from bore holes; though it still has to be 'Bourtoned'. Even hops are brought from abroad and they are dried and come in sacks of foil which are then refridgerated until required.During the tour we sampled the remaining four beers and were asked which two we liked best. My first choice was Guardsman, this was their first beer, inspired by the famous bearskin hats worn by the Guard regiments based in Windsor, its a classic best bitter. My second choice was Conqueror, a powerful black beer, which Paddy described as tasting like bitter chocolate. Named after William the Conqueror, this beer keeps getting awards. In fact all the beers were exceedingly good and Conqueror isn't the only one to get awards. I suggest you give them all a try, I'm positive you'll agree me they are really good.
Thanks to Paddy for giving as an interesting and enjoyable evening.
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