Adnams Brewery and more (Day 1 - The Brewery)

When I 'retired' last year, the company very kindly gave me vouchers for an Adnams Brewery trip.  It's half-term, so our current child care responsibilities gave us a little break.  So, off to Southwold and around the Adnams Brewery we went.  Weather-wise, it was a horrible day and raining quite hard when we got there.  I don't know Southwold that well, the nearest parking space I could find was 7-minutes walk from the Brewery, plenty of time to get soaked.  The hotel, though, is 30 seconds walk from the Brewery and provides some very nice lunches. We had plenty of time and enjoyed a leisurely lunch, then darted across to the Brewery about half an hour early. 

	Here I am sitting next to a pink pig, whose specific significance I'm not sure that I heard about, you can see the Adnams history and historic bottles in the background.  The plan had been to drink from the Tankard, I was also given, when we got to the tastings, but in the rush to get out of the rain, it was left in the car.  Plans get changed by circumstances all the time. Next to the pink pig is a blue crocodile.  The significance of the blue crocodile is that it ate the younger of the two brothers that founded Adnams, while he was visiting the Zambezi.  Well, I'm not swearing that it was a blue crocodile, perhaps someone has sampled too much of the Broadside, or the forerunner to Ghostship (8% ABV)
	Here's Jo, she's not asleep, just looking at her phone.

I've been on brewery tours before, not Adnams though, which is about as up to date as it gets.  No trays of grain scattered across floors and swept down through hoppers to the floor below. Everything is shining stainless steel, fully automated. We saw the control room, and I saw the cables (Ethernet)  in the ducting, very nice job they had done too. When product needs to be moved, it is pumped from one place to the next.  The operation is as energy efficient as they can make it, and they are very proud of their leading edge methods. They can run multiple brews per day. Nothing is wasted, the by-products are used to feed local cattle, who generate less methane when they're eating brewery by-product.

The brewing process, drawn by the same man who created the clock on Southwold pier.

So to the tasting room, where there is a wide selection of beers to try.  It was no surprise to me that I didn't like the lager, and I already knew that I like the ales. Even Jo, who is not a bear drinker, enjoyed the Ghostship.  Then there was the inevitable voucher, so we headed up the road to the Brewery shop, and stocked up a little.

Only having drunk a few 1/4 pints and a few mouthfuls, I was still OK to drive.  By now the rain had stopped, so we took a short stroll past the pier and back before driving to Yoxford for the night.

Our B&B - Copperbeeches - is on a tight bend on the A12.  I thought it was going to be a noisy disturbed night.  I was wrong, the house has secondary glazing throughout, and we were in a room at the back of the house.  We were the first guests in the newly refurbished room.  

Just down the road, less than five minutes walk away, is the King's Head.  A pub we visited in 2016, the last time we stayed in Yoxford (see: https://3cephas.blogspot.com/search/label/Yoxford).  It was as lovely that night as it was today.

Flixton, 12 October 2021 - Green, Black and Silver

Just up the road, judging by the brown backed road sign we passed as we turned into our road, is a place called St Peters Brewery.  St Peters produces a number of very enjoyable beers.  Two were put in the kitchen by our hosts for us to enjoy, and I have enjoyed one of them - the other is for tomorrow.  So we set out to go 'just up the road' for a short visit.  

Jo & Brody at St. Peters

The visit was even shorter than we thought, only the shop was open.  It's a bit of a theme round here - the season seems shorter than we expected.  Maybe that's down to COVID - things haven't recovered as we'd hoped.  We bought some bottles to sample later. So where next.  On our holiday, we usually get some wine to distribute at Christmas, so we looked for a vineyard.  There are two nearby, but both are closed.  Shawsgate says it is open, but it is quite a drive.  Never mind, it's our holiday, so off we go, with the beer bottles clanking in the back of the car.  After a pleasant drive through the Suffolk countryside we arrive at the vineyard.  As we pull into the car park, both of us say "We've been here before" and try to work out what year that might have been.  We speak to the owner, who says he is only open because he happens to be on site - it is grape picking season, but the pickers are not here today because they pick too slowly when it rains.  That means it costs too much to pick the crop.  It is of course a risk - he has to get the crop picked reasonably soon, but this week, for the next few days the forecast is good, so they will probably get called tomorrow.

Plan of Shawsgate

We are allowed to walk around, so that we can experience the microclimates they have created with their careful planting of trees around the site.  As we walk around the edge it is not clear what the differences are, but walk through the rows and the stillness of the air becomes apparent.  We can understand why the temperature may be slightly warmer, even if today we do not experience it.  In one of the rows, we disturbed a hare.  I had never seen a hare that close up - they are much bigger than I realised.  It left in a hurry.  We bought some wine - a mix this year, along with a 5-year-old cider and a 10-year-old perry.  Christmas is looking good.  The green of the vines hide the black of the ripe grapes, so I wouldn't want to be a picker, it is way too easy to miss a bunch or two.

Hidden bunches.

We then headed to Woodbridge, about 10 miles away, for lunch.  We parked in the car park near the co-op, and walked through the park to the Red Lion.  A pub lunch was ideal - not the excellent cuisine of yesterday, but nevertheless a good meal, served by friendly staff.  Then a walk around Woodbridge, discovering on the way that it is possible to pay £85.00 for a kettle.  We also came across this:
 

#THECHURCHWITHTHEHANDS

It's a lovely sculpture, like nothing I've seen before.  There is a plaque with some explanation, but more is on their website here https://www.thequay.org.uk/hands, take a look.  The text at the top of the hand on the left says

“I Hold and am Held”

I'll leave you with that thought.