I first heard about The Rocky Head when Shrila from Drink of Fulham invited me to their launch at the end of September, and was very keen to meet the guys and taste their brew – especially as they’re located a 5 minute walk from my flat.
At the launch, Steve Daniel and Pete Smith handed out tasters and spoke with passion and enthusiasm about their beer – currently only a Pale Ale using American and New Zealand hops: Cascade, Centennial, Citra and Nelson Sauvin, if my memory serves me correctly.
They very kindly invited me along a few weeks ago to join them while brewing batch number 8, and it was a beautiful, sunny, crisp morning when I got to the brewery. They currently brew once a week on the weekend and bottle all the beer on the premises by hand, and I arrived as they were beginning to sparge the mash and run the wort into the kettle.
It quickly became apparent how passionate Steve and Pete are about beer, despite their day jobs – the both work in the wine industry for the same importer, which is how they met. Pete sells the wines to bars, pubs and restaurants around London, while Steve gets the more glamorous job of trying and buying the wines – the day after I visited them, Steve was off to Italy to blend Pinot Grigio. So, understandably, Pete is far more keen to go full time on the brewing. My first order/honour of the day was to throw in a charge of hops into the kettle as it was filling – over 600g of the beautiful, tangy, citrusy flowers. Steve is a big fan of first wort hopping claiming it gives the beer a profound flavor but not a hard bitterness, which you can definitely taste in their beer.
Their kit is somewhat makeshift, with equipment having been sourced from various old breweries, contacts in other countries and, in the case of the mash tun and the hot liquor tank, fashined from other vessels (the HLT has “Carlsberg Yeast Tank” stamped across it). And while that made the setup cheaper than a bespoke fitting, it does have its drawbacks: their fermenters are from the dairy industry in Germany and therefore don’t have standard fittings, meaning they need a specific hose with dedicated connectors to drain them into the conditioners (which, incidentally, were also acquired from Carlsberg).
Steve has been a homebrewer for years, and despite his interest and experience in the wine industry he decided brewing was simpler, cheaper and more open to artistic impression than owning a vineyard. The first brew on the current setup was in August, on the hottest day of the year, and despite the encouraging noises from the workmen when shown their gas burner, it took them 5 hours to do the boil. According to Steve, a normal brew day will last from 8am til 3pm “depending on how many times we screw up”, but that night they didn’t leave until nearly midnight. So after that they wisely invested in a much bigger mains gas burner, nicknamed “The Beast”, that does the job very well. It also gives a bit of caramelisation to the wort, adding a richer, more comples flavor. It was lovely to stand around in the winter, but I imagine it would be pretty exhausting on a hot summer day. The boil was quite volatile when I was there, meaning Pete spent most of the boil time tweaking the gas level to stop the wort erupting over the edge of the kettle.
The pair decided to start the brewery at the end of last year and foolishly thought that they’d be brewing within 3 months, “yeah, stupid” says Pete as he shakes his head, “we had a lot of bad luck”. It actually took 10 months, the brewery being hampered by local councils, plumbers and electricians. “Getting the kit is cheap and easy, its all the other stuff”, says Steve. “However much you think it’s going to cost you, double it and you’re just about there really”.
Despite Steve’s Yorkshire roots, he’s not sure that his beer, and craft beer in general, would be as accepted in most pubs up there as it is in London; “There’s a market here for people who have 4 halves in a night, rather than 5 pints of the same stuff”. Both Steve and Pete visit bars like Craft regularly, trying lots of different beers for flavor and experience, but also to check out what the competition is doing. Steve has a similar outlook to beer that he does with wine, seeing no point wasting his time, money and effort on a beer that says nothing to him. They carry this attitude through to their own beer, and are not apologetic about it being more expensive than other mainstream brands, saying thet they charge what it costs to make it – they are currently not taking a wage from their brewing business, just making enough to cover costs. Steve admires Evin at The Kernel for his outlook too: this is my beer, I like it, I don’t care if you don’t. “He’s raised the bar for breweries in London”.
The American Pale Ale style is favoured by both brewers, which led them to have that as their flagship beer. Steve thinks having one beer to start with is good, building up a brand and minimising costs (one grain bill, one load of hops, labels etc) and then expanding once you have a bigger position and more exposure. “If it’s good enough for Sierra Nevada and Guinness, then it’s good enough for us”, laughs Steve. Pete is also a fan of darker beers, especially in the colder months, and hopes to do a Rocky Head porter or stout soon. Keep your eyes peeled.
In one of their fermenters they had the last pale ale batch, although they had been delivered the wrong yeast – US04 English Ale rather than their standard US05 American Ale – but as it was too late to order more, they brewed the beer, pitched the yeast and decided to brand it as an American English Pale Ale. Tasting it out of the fermenter, it had the big hop flavor but very much the fruitiness of the English yeast. Later that day, they were going to transfer it to the conditioner and dry hop it with Citra, and despite the problems, Steve still reckons, “it’ll turn out to be a nice beer”. This should be in shops in early 2013.
They have, through their wine connections, got themselves stocked in Oddbins across London, among other discerning beer shops, and also did a special 1909 Pale Ale for Selfridges to commemorate the year that the store was founded, which also made it into their Christmas hampers this year. It was commissioned on the tasting of one of Steve’s homebrews. That was only the second brew they did on their setup. They had some issues draining the kettle, which may have had something to do with the 10kgs of East Kent Goldings hops that were in the beer. A problem which was made worse by the fact that the people from Selfridges were there on the brew day! With a bit of ingenuity they sorted it all out and got a very nice beer in the end – they cracked open their last bottle of it for me to taste on the day, and it has prompted me to go and buy a couple of bottles today as its a very tasty beer and I’m not sure when I’d see it again. The huge amount of hops give it a spicy, earthy, almost smoky flavor that is somewhat reminiscent of a porter, but clean and fresh on the finish.
They currently only bottle their output, but will move to kegging in the future. “CAMRA won’t like it, but who gives a shit”, says Steve with a smile on his face. “It’s good beer, it’s no more or less natural than anything CAMRA would endorse. No finings, no filtration, so why isn’t it real ale?”. Which is a view I share, I have to say. Why argue about how it’s served, or who it’s brewed by. If it’s a nice, flavourful beer and you like it, then it’s good beer.
Steve also is one of the founders of the Santorini Brewing Company in Santorini, Greece (incidentally, Mark Dredge did a piece about the brewery here). Steve says their brews are “a cut above the average Greek beer”. Steve has a house on Santorini and is good friends with a winemaker there. They saw a gap in the market as there was no brewery on the island, so got together with some friends and set one up. They currently produce 3 beers, the Yellow Donkey, Red Donkey and Crazy Donkey – Steve’s personal favorite – but have enough trouble keeping up with local demand, so exporting thus far has not been a priority. Also, due to the lack of finings and the Austrian brew house setup, the beer is very delicate and he says it doesn’t travel very well. However, he did indicate that they might brew during the winter for export, when the demand is not so high on the island itself.
So, after my first brewday at a brewery, what have I learnt? Well, that being a brewer mainly involves peering into various vessels, turning knobs and switches, cleaning and wet feet. The “making beer” part seems to be a very small part.
Many thanks to Steve and Pete for their hospitality, beer, pizza and knowledge.
