Our fantastic caseworker Wez has written about the fabulous day we spent at Castle Rock Brewery, on Wednesday 7th February, during their preparations for International Women’s Day…
[The following post contains references to alcohol and alcohol production]
For the second year running, Castle Rock Brewery has chosen Nottingham Women’s Centre as their charity of choice for International Women’s Day!
Like last year’s Crystal Clear, a new beer will be brewed especially for IWD and will be launched at a special event on the evening of 8th March at the Old Cold Store. This year’s beer will be called ‘Order and Disorder’ and will be a hazy pale. The Brew Day event at the Old Cold Store on 7th February was a chance for women interested in brewing to take part in the process of making the beer.
This year, the Brew Day was in collaboration with No Half Measures, a group of female beer and brewing enthusiasts from Nottingham. It was an early start, at 7am, but Castle Rock Brewery kindly provided breakfast. There were guided tours of the brewery, with the brewers showing participants around, and describing the brewing process. All the brewing staff who participated were really helpful and accommodating, willing to answer all our questions.
Also, on hand to advise us on the more technical aspects was Steph from Murphy’s. I was asked to give a short talk about our work here at Nottingham Women’s Centre, and how the money raised will help us continue the work we do supporting women in Nottingham. We were also given a chance to take part in the brewing process. I chose digging out the spent grain from the mash tun: a messy job but lots of fun!
We were treated to a tutored beer tasting with Lucy Simons from Let’s Beer. Lucy also co-runs The Abdication Micropub in Daybrook with her partner Matt. The brews we sampled were Elsie Mo and Oatmeal Stout. The name ‘Elsie Mo’. comes from the variety of malt used, Low Colour Maris Otter – L C MO! Initially the pump clip showed a 1940’s pin-up, of the style often seen on the side of US aircraft during WW2. However, as a result of a campaign to remove sexualised images of women from beer advertising, the picture was changed. Now she’s now the pilot!
Another interesting fact we learned was that the yeast used by Castle Rock is a ‘heritage yeast’ and is actually older than the brewery itself! Sorry, I never thought to ask where it came from in the first place – possibly a now defunct brewery in Nottingham.
There was also an opportunity to try your hand at screen printing with Lizzie from Pop-Up Printmaking, to design a pump clip for the new beer. I had a go, it was brilliant fun and some really striking designs were produced.
All in all, it was an interesting and informative day, with some brilliant hands-on opportunities. It was fabulous to see so many women with an interest in brewing coming together to meet, talk, learn and to join Castle Rock in supporting Nottingham Women’s Centre.
Follow the link below to read more about the event and the evening launch event!