Traditional brewers shed their home-brew kit image

Jan 30 2009 by Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

SHED + man = contentment. Shed + man x beer = Nirvana. Shed + 12 men + bar x beer = Darlington Traditional Brewing Group.

The equation couldn’t be simpler. While men and sheds have always been an irresistible combination, inserting brewing enthusiasm into the formula results in Paradise.

John Winterburn, John Anderson, Pete Fenwick, Ian Jackson, Trevor Danes, John Penman and another half-dozen ale stalwarts scattered from Hartlepool to Gainford in County Durham meet up every three weeks – in a shed – to sample one another’s latest efforts and talk about mashing, boiling, fermenting and conditioning.

With doors closed, pints poured and spiders on guard, it’s boys’ talk that oft-times wanders along the lines of tongue-and-groove, felt roofs and dovetail joints, but invariably returns to beer.

Darlington Traditional Brewing Group was formed in 2002 after long-time home-brewer John Winterburn was invited by the Workers Education Association to run a course on full-mash brewing in his local community centre. The original scheme has run its course but the 12 remaining members continue to brew in back yards, kitchens and garages – and every one of them has his own shed-based pub to reflect in and mull over what grown men reflect in and mull over.

“We all have our own recipes,” says lollipop man John Winterburn. “We take it in turns to host meetings where there’s a bit of a spread and always a new beer to try. People ask all the time if they can join, but we’ve got no more room at the moment because only so many people can fit into a shed.

“We can brew 10 gallons of beer for £5 or £6 by buying ingredients in bulk. It’s not just about cost, it’s about quality. We can make beer just like you’d buy in a pub. The only thing we can’t do is lager – Darlington water doesn’t have enough carbonates in it – but one member tried it by buying five gallons of spring water from Morrison’s and made a brilliant pilsner.”

John’s beer – like the rest of the group’s – is far removed from basic home-brew kits; they’re astonishing in their flavours and clarity, with every style from milds to barley wines investigated and profiles that concentrate on ripe fruit, floral hops or malty sweetness.

His shed/pub/brewery has the obligatory dart board, television, full range of handpulls (the commercial dispensers are for display only), spirits optics, bar towels, salty snacks and a huge jar of pickled eggs.

“I make 10 gallons at a time but others make five, it depends,” he says. “I very rarely go into pubs now, I’ve got all I want here in the shed. I’ll come in every night and watch the television and have a couple of pints; it’s my way of relaxing.”

One group member, Ian Jackson, has progressed to become a professional brewer at the small-but-burgeoning Captain Cook brewery in Stokesley, North Yorkshire. And enthusiast Pete Fenwick has proved they can challenge the best in the business. Several years ago, he cultured some yeast he had been given by Jarrow Brewery owner Jess McConnell, naming the resulting beer Fenwick’s Special – and won best in show at Darlington Beer Festival.

“I took some in a bottle back to Jess who liked it very much,” says Pete, a transport planner. “By then I had started calling it Halcyon Days because it had Halcyon hops in it, but Jess thought it wasn’t a very Jarrow name and asked if could he call it Rivet Catcher. Brewery consultant Dave Smith scaled the recipe up for production on a 10-barrel (360 gallon) plant.”

The showpiece Jarrow Rivet Catcher was beaten only by Oakham JHB from Cambridgeshire as Supreme Champion Beer of Britain at the 2005 Great British Beer Festival. Pete has plans for a commercial brewing operation in small stable next to his house in Aldbrough St John in North Yorkshire – once a new home is found for its two resident ponies. For now, however, he’s making do with the bar he installed in his parent’s sun lounge – also next door – while continuing to brew in his kitchen. The bar is furnished in wood panelling and 1970s-vintage orange swirl-patterned carpet, bench seating and all the sundries that make a shed a pub.

Pete says: “I started collecting handpulls and brewery bits and pieces so it made sense to fit out one end of the sun lounge like a bar. I’ve been saving up to install a 2.5-barrel (90 gallon) brewery in the stables. All I need is the proper planning permission and then we can get moving in.”

Pete, whose First Foot Porter has mellowed beautifully since the turn of the year with coffee notes to the fore, has the new brewery name in mind. Mithril Brewery has an association with Lord of the Rings which he admits to once being “really into”. “It’s a type of metal mined by dwarves,” he says.

Apparently, the most famous item made of mithril is the “small shirt of mail” retrieved from the hoard of dragon king Smaug and given to hobbit Bilbo Baggins by Thorin Oakenshield.

In John Anderson’s fine structure, brewing and storage is confined to one section while the business end would not appear out of place in a Yorkshire Dales village. Brasses, trays, framed prints, labels, posters, badges, unusual bottles and collectable glassware crowd the walls. The bar counter is constructed in plywood but stained and detailed to appear like solid oak, while the seating can only be described as “pubby”. A fire glows in one corner.

“The high-backed pew was a prop in Where The Heart Is,” says John, who works at Aycliffe Young Offenders Centre. “Everything in here comes from either B&Q or eBay.

“I’m a collector by genetics; I have a lot of Bass stuff because I like the imagery, it’s always appealed. My wife bought me the shed about four years ago and it had lain in the garden as a flat-pack. I never got round to putting it up until I joined the group last year. Luckily she likes it and is very happy and very supportive.” (The group’s better halves are similarly disposed.)

John’s beers are of exceptional quality, but it’s something we’re getting used to. Hop Ness Monster is pale and extra-hoppy using a combination of American hops for a softly floral yet intense flavour with barely-perceptible malt and a bitter sweet finish. Auld Reekie Smoked Porter is a roasted malt and smoke-filled glass-full with vague chocolate flavours appearing in the aftertaste, whereas Spring Mth’ Ale is elderflower-based.

He says: “I had done a bit of home-brew as a lad but never attempted full-mash brewing. I love it, I wish I’d started years ago. I brew five gallons at a time; I like to experiment and not have too much of one kind. When I did a Christmas ale I brewed a standard mild and suspended a Christmas pudding in it. It works very well – then you can eat the pudding.”

John Winterburn reckons that the Darlington Traditional Brewing Group is the only association in the country where every member owns a pub. Arguable as that may be, it’s certainly the only body in the country whose membership is limited by how many people can fit in a shed.

Darlington Traditional Brewing Group: www.dtbg.co.uk

alastair.gilmour@ncjmedia.co.uk