If you hadn't spotted two brewery vans you might not have realised that the former dairy on this moorland farm was the location of the Wylam Brewery. The disused dairy affords ample space for all spare casks etc to be stored inside.
These guys don't work for Wylam. We first met them when our Branch visited the Wear Valley Brewery at Bishop Auckland in 2007. Since then we haven't been able to shake them off. You can see Ian Jackson (left) in our Wear Valley Picasa album. John Magson (right) is on Darlington CAMRA's committee. As of Spring 2008 Ian takes over as brewer at the Captain Cook Brewery at Stokesley.
No, it's not a urinal, but Wylam's cask washing facility.
We are shown round by the surviving co-founder, MD John Boyle, who was joined later by his son Matt who came into the business last year. If you visit the brewery's own website you can savour the range of Wylam beers. We were treated to a very generous sampling from the range!
MD John Boyle opens the copper, which runs on superheated steam.
Wylam uses Simpsons Malt from Berwick.
grist hopper and mash tun
Fittingly for a brewery which celebrates the birth of George Stephenson in Wylam, it's now a steam brewery. This is the high efficiency steam generator.
Wylam copper
inside the copper: coils for superheated steam
the underback through which the wort passes on its way to the heat exchanger
This is the plate heat exchanger or paraflo (name used generically, Zander, a bit like saying hoover for vacuum cleaner) where cooling water removes the heat from the wort so that the yeast is not killed : this water, with the recovered heat, is stored in an insulated hot liquor tank ready for the next brew. With all the native yeasts flying around on a farm it's prudent to use new dried yeast for each fermentation.
The brewhouse is warm, but the conditioning tanks where the finished brews are resting, is kept cool, with a glycol solution passing between the inner and outer walls of the storage vessels. There's also a supply of bright beer in case a licensee rings up for some beer in a hurry that can go straight on!
This lokks like the weekly planner. Bright Gold Tankard is the small supply of ready-to-serve beer that can be rushed at a moment's notice to any local publican who has run short!
Mark Goodair, chairman of Wakefield CAMRA (left) and John Boyle, MD, (right), Bill Tidy's Keg Buster (centre)
Son Matt Boyle (left) and father John Boyle (right) receive a commemorative certificate from Wakefield CAMRA Chairman, Mark Goodair.
plenty of storage available in the old dairy
the clean and dry side of the main storage area
a little bit of how it used to be
no, he didn't come from Heddon! The copyright of this image, used here with permission, belongs to the Wylam Brewery.
The copyright of this image, used here with permission, belongs to the Wylam Brewery.
needs no explanation The copyright of this image, used here with permission, belongs to the Wylam Brewery.
Wylam run an ageing Ducato and this new-ish LDV Maxus, to deliver their proper beeor.
The Boathouse in Wylam serves as the brewery tap.
This is the attraction inside the pub!
Beer spotters are often train spotters, too, and for them, next to the Boathouse is the Tyne Valley Railway station with one of the North Eastern Railway's elevated signal boxes. There are more pictures on the Web Album but we just hope some serious railway expert will alight there and add some comments, please!
the famous tall signal box
the famous tall signal box and railway platform for one of the country's oldest surviving rural stations
a Tyne Valley Railway train comes in
