The Black Sheep Brewery was established by Paul Theakston in 1991. He had been managing director of Theakston Brewery, also in Masham, since 1968. He began at the age of 23, taking over from his father, Frank. He purchased North Yorkshire Malt Roasting Company, originally part of the former Lightfoot’s brewery site, from an animal feed company, in order to start a new brewery in Masham.
On entering the visitor centre (around the back of the brewery), there is a large shop with the bar around the corner. Serving a range of both keg and cask beers with lots to choose from. The home made food is also amazing here.
Our tour started with a talk through how the brewery started, where equipment came from the the brews that the brewery brew. Followed by a tour around the brewery setup.
The milled Malt “Grist” (stored in the green hopper above the Mash Tun) is added into the Mash Tun (below) along with hot water. Mashing converts the starches released during the malting stage into sugars that can be fermented. Additional water may be sprayed over during this stage to extract more sugars. The “Wort” as its called is then moved into a Copper or Kettle (front of photo below). The brewery works in a top down concept.
In this stage “Hops” are added into the “Wort”. This stage is where many chemical reactions take place, and where important decisions about the flavour, colour, and aroma of the beer are made. This is then moved into a “Hopback”.
In this stage the boiling is run from the bottom over the top of itself to remove all particles from the boiling to create a clear liquid. From this it is moved through a “Heat Exchanger”, basically its run through a series of pipes or plates with cool water in them, eventually ending up in a fermentation tank.
In this stage, yeast is added to the wort and the fermenting process starts. This is where the sugars turn into Alcohol, Carbon Dioxide and other components. The beer is then moved into another tank before being put into Casks.
In here barrels are cleaned (very deep clean to remove all debris, beer and bacteria) and filled ready to be sent out to pubs. Following the tour the on site bar and shop is really worth a visit (and to spend the beer vouchers you get included with the tour).
Micropub Adventures 