What do Brewers do on a weekend? Go away with other brewers to talk (and drink) beer! Pip and I spent last weekend at Llantrwrtd Wells near ...... well it's not near anywhere really - maybe 20 miles north of Brecon. We stayed at the delightful Neuadd Arms Hotel which has what all good hotels should have - its own microbrewery. Recommended for a weekend of complete relaxation.
Anyway it's amazing what you learn in brief conversations with other brewers about yeast, heating elements, hopping rates, prices, maturation times, the SIBA DDS scheme - anything really. We always keep our beer for two weeks to mature/condition before release but quite a few brewers seem to sell it as soon as it's in the cask. Some pride themselves on producing an enormous range - black, gold, brown, black, weisen, copper, chestnut - you name it. Makes one feel rather inadequate with two!
The first time we went on one of these weekends last year we had only been brewing for about six weeks and I asked how people got the brown staining off the inside of their coppers as I was spending about an hour after brewing scrubbing it with caustic soda solution to get it bright. The answer I got was "what on earth would you want to do that for?" so my copper is now the colour of the inside of a well loved teapot - clean but a nice shade of brown. That piece of advice has probably saved me a week of work since.
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