Wakefield CAMRA Homepage Wakefield CAMRA Brewery Visits
Bird Brain Brewery
30 Hailgate, Howden, Goole, East Yorkshire DN14 7SL website http://birdbrainbrewery.myfreesites.net
visited by Wakefield CAMRA Saturday 8 September 2012
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Look carefully and you'll see what looks like a conservatory at the side of
this handsome Edwardian villa opposite the Church school in the quiet little
East Yorkshire town of Howden. It's the home of Phil Usher's Bird Brain
Brewery, so named because members of his family thought the brewery project
was a bird-brained idea. Apart from Shiny's which is brewed as a house beer for the Victoria in Goole (an allusion to landlord Tony Milner's hair style), Bird Brain beers tend to have bird names: Amarillo Warbler, Black Bishop, Black Headed Heron, Buffalo Weaver, Capercaille, Chiffchaff, Eagle Owl, Golden Bittern, Howden Bittern (clever one that), Jemmy Wren, Nightjar, Northern Siskin, Penguin, Raven, Royal Sunbird, Striped Swallow, Velvet Scoter, to name but a few. |
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By day Phil works for Yorkshire Water, where part of his job is checking on the effluent from local breweries such as Old Mill, but in his spare time he makes something a bit stronger. The insulated box on the left conceals his hot liquor tank | |
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On the right is the copper and on the left is a mash tun which can be trundled around. In the far corner is the spray head of the cask washer and a heat exchanger is mounted on the wall. | |
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It's not often that two rural brewers get a chance to chat: Denzil Vallance of Great Heck compares notes with Phil |
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