The brewery
The Castle Rock brewing team are meticulous in their respect of time-honoured brewing, yet are driven by a love of experimentation and adventure. Our brewery is a unique space where decades of experience and high standards meet a restless energy and fervent passion for beer.
With our roots in cask beer, Castle Rock’s major strength lies in producing consistent, flavourful cask conditioned beer, from the most traditional East Midlands-style bitters to hazy pales saturated with hops. We’ve been producing beers in keg and can since 2017 and love the vast spectrum of styles and flavours it allows us to explore.
How it works
Cold side
Raw Material
Malt and hops are prepared for the following day’s brew. Malt is transferred from individual sacks into our grist case above the mash tun. Hops are weighed out and transferred into bags.
Cold side
Mashing In
Wort is produced by mixing crushed malted grains (usually barley, wheat or oats) with hot water. This porridge-like mixture stands for an hour during which time the natural sugars, colours and flavours from the grain pass into the infusion.
Hot side
Wort Separation
The wort from the mash is run off into the kettle. At the same time, the grain bed is rinsed with hot water to stop any further enzymatic activity and make sure we collect the residual sugars from the malt.
Hot side
Wort Boiling
The sweet, hot and malty liquid is then transferred to a giant kettle, where it is boiled for around 90 minutes. Two charges of hops are added at the beginning and end of the boil which creates bitterness and also adds a variety of base flavours to the beer. A third charge of hops is added into another vessel called the hopback. The boiled wort is then transferred and left to settle briefly before transferring to the fermentation vessel.
Cold side
Wort Transfer
The wort is transferred via a plate heat exchanger to the fermenting vessel. It is cooled from 90°C to 17.5°C; helping to maintain sterility of the wort as proteins break out of the solution and the wort clarifies. During transfer, the wort is also oxygenated which enables healthy yeast growth prior to fermentation.
Cold side
Fermentation
Yeast is added (we use both wet and dried yeasts) during transfer to the vessel. The yeast ferments the sugars to produce alcohol, as well as a complex variety of flavour and aroma compounds which are present in the final beer. This process usually takes about a week.
Cold side
Dry Hopping
Both during and after fermentation, a final charge of hops is added either straight to the fermenting vessel or circulated through the beer via our pressurised hop torpedo. This gives the beer a fresh, upfront aroma.
Cold side
Packaging
After fermentation, beer is packaged. For cask beers, the beer is transferred to stainless casks where it is conditioned in our cold store for a week or more. For keg and canned beers, we transfer in bulk for packaging externally with our trusted keg and can partners. We also have a partnership with Attic Brew Co., Birmingham, which allows us to brew smaller quantities of beer in can and keg.
What we offer
The main kit
Our main brewing kit has a 65HL capacity and is perfectly engineered for tasty cask conditioned beer. On this kit we have produced a huge range of styles and flavours, from traditional pale ales to double IPAs and fruited sours.
The pilot kit
This 160L kit allows us to explore and experiment with new ideas, techniques and approaches, as well produce limited edition beers on a smaller scale.
The main kit
Our main brewing kit has a 65HL capacity and is perfectly engineered for tasty cask conditioned beer. On this kit we have produced a huge range of styles and flavours, from traditional pale ales to double IPAs and fruited sours.
The pilot kit
This 160L kit allows us to explore and experiment with new ideas, techniques and approaches, as well produce limited edition beers on a smaller scale.
What's on
