the Holden's Brewery logo ©Holden's Brewery, exemplifying tradition
Holden's registered offices & bottling plant. On weekdays this is also the brewery shop for bottled beers and merchandise. The Holden businesses: Holden's Brewery Ltd, Edwin Holden's Bottling Co.Ltd, Beacon Table Water Co.Ltd, Stanley Marlow & Son Ltd
Holden's Brewery in the backyard of the Park Inn at Woodsetton the kegs in the midground are mainly for cider and imported lager.
Holden's brew 4 times a week in the quiet period after Christmas As well as Best Bitter and Golden Glow, something new called P.P. was being brewed. Please will a beer spotter e-mail us when all is revealed? Note (a) that Holden's does now use metric measures and that the only secret we're giving away is that Holden's know-how and Holden's amazing yeast are your guarantee of a perfect pint!
Holden's mills its own malt, straight into the grist case - grist mill for crushing and cracking the malt grains whilst not reducing them to a clogging powder.
Most of Holden's malt comes from Tuckers of Devon but speciality malts such as this black malt are supplied by Fawcetts of Castleford.
Torrefied wheat for head retention, from Micronised Food Products of Northallerton, North Yorkshire; a big head is an absolutely essential feature of a West Midlands pint, hence the addition of torrefied wheat, yet another Yorkshire link for Holden's. Ragus brewing sugar is also used.
html At Holden's the grist empties straight from the grist case on to the hot liquor in the wood-encased mash tun. Note the sparging arm which will wash the remaining extractable sugars etc from the grains as the wort is drained off.
The copper for boiling the wort stands 2 floors high, and really is copper not stainless, looking more like something from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. We expected Captain Nemo to emerge any minute.
A spout with a mushroom head works like an old fashioned coffee percolator circulating the boiling liquid from the bottom of the copper to the top.
Hop-back (left) and Paraflo, the heat exchanger which cools the wort to a temperature at which the yeast in the fermentation vessels can work.
Wakefield CAMRA members share in 60 years of Cliff Gardner's brewing experience.
Not soft herring roes but the amazing pattern on a Holden's fermentation - no-one had seen such an unusual and consistent pattern on the head of a brew.
Evidence of the virility of Holden' unique yeast, a rich brown tide mark on the side of the fermentation vessel shows where the yeast rose to at its most active.
Before the days of scientific cooling buckets of cold water were added to the wort in the fermenter until the brewer could see his face reflected on the surface - this method was proven to have a margin of error of only 1½ degrees. This is the newly clad fermentation room, the finishing of which delayed our branch visit: fermenters in a variety of sizes and shapes hold up to 2300 gallons. When new dial thermometers were ordered, special ones calibrated in Fahrenheit were specified because Cliff only did Fahrenheit!
No brewery is complete without its laboratory, and Holden's reverence for tradition doesn't preclude scientific testing.
The cask filling station - looks as if they use more 18s than 9s for what they supply to their own pubs.
Cask washing area - note that there are plenty of 18 gallon casks - draw your own conclusions!
To be seen in the Park Inn: L.Blanche Holden, licensed to brew & sell by retail, ale, beer, porter, cider & tobacco, to be consumed on or off the premises. Note that L.Blanche Holden was also licensed to brew. (please excuse problematic glass on this photo)
Cliff Gardner (left) receives a commemorative certificate from Wakefield CAMRA Chairman Mark Goodair (right)on behalf of Holden's.
This photo of Cliff Gardner as a young apprentice more than 60 years ago takes pride of place in the bar at The Park.
