Brewery Feature: The Vine Inn in Rugeley.

Express & Star

The Vine Inn is an example of a pub which has become self-sufficient by brewing its own beer, having started out in 2018.

Transcript

00:00Oli Westwood, hello sir. Good afternoon. And we're here in Rugeley at The Vining and it's

00:07The Vining Brewery, that's what it says on the tin. You've got a few different drinks

00:11you do haven't you, just fill us in a little bit on The Vining Brewery and what you're

00:16all about. Well the beers we do, we've got a core range and it's got a little bit out

00:19of hand, it contains sort of seven beers now. We focus on Cascale, we have done some carbonation

00:25but we mainly stick to the Hampels and get quite a following from our locals, so anything

00:30from a Best Bitter to Ruby Miles and Sessions and then we've done Christmas Ales and we

00:36even recently did a Belgian Whitbeer, that was interesting. We try and turn our hand

00:44at whatever we're being asked for really. Pecan Port, that sounds a bit different, how's

00:49that been going down? Well we had a camera down last week and they managed to clear a

00:54barrel between them. And they know what they're on about, they're enjoying it. Yeah, some

01:00good reviews on some of the acts and what not. It seems to have been very popular. The

01:05Christmas Ale's all gone, so that's not too bad for the middle of January. Cool. So how

01:10long have you been involved here then Ollie? It was you and your Dad wasn't it that took

01:13it on? Originally yeah, me and my Dad took it over in 2005, sadly he's no longer with

01:18us, but yeah we'll be celebrating our 20 year anniversary come October, so we've seen it

01:24all come and go over the last 20 years really. We've nearly fixed the place as well. It's

01:31like that bridge where you finish painting the one end and then you have to start again

01:34on the other. Well it's a classic, I mean it's a great old building, it's got a bit

01:37of history to it I should imagine, it's a few years old. Yeah, I mean we sort of imagined

01:42that it started off as a potting shed that got out of hand really because it's been added

01:45to that many times, but the original sort of building was a timber frame sort of 16th

01:51century tithe barn and then it's been added to probably five or six times with really

01:56large extensions. You can sort of trace back some of the history to it actually having

02:00a brewery on site before there was a pub. So we've actually sort of come full circle

02:04and brought the pub back to some of its original heritage by installing a brewery really and

02:08there's still some traces of the brewery in the loft space and things like that, so you

02:13never know what you're going to find, you remove a bit of plaster and you find something

02:17from a bygone era really. Yeah, some skeleton of a woman. Did you manage to trace what the

02:25original brewery's name was called back in the day? We haven't, like what we've managed

02:29to find on the history, we think it might have been Elmore Brewery, but basically because

02:35it was a barn and it was related to the Worsley Estate, they were storing grain here and it

02:40was actually being used as a grain store and sending the beer over from the, sorry the

02:45grain over from the mill to Brewery Street where there would have been a brewery located

02:49there. And much as we do now, they've sort of turned, realised that the market was in

02:54producing the beer so they added that and then we could only guess that once they had

02:58beer they were like, well we should certainly have a pub to sell it in and then the pub

03:02was added and so yeah, we're just sort of doing all that in reverse now. Yeah. So you

03:08have a few different things going on here at the pub don't you? Different events and

03:11things like that I can see. Yeah, we certainly do. We focus on live music and we have traditional

03:16sort of pub quizzes and pub games, darts teams, pool teams. You know, we have themed sort

03:22of food nights, classic fish and chips and we're looking at Thai food, we've done Caribbean,

03:27we've done all sorts really. We're not afraid to give everything a go really. And it's difficult

03:34in the game, we were having a little chat off camera, my first drinking days were in

03:38Roosley and just kind of within a couple of hundred metre circle of here, there were

03:43a number of pubs weren't there? Yeah, there was five of us when I started and now we're

03:47the only ones really within this little district here. And I know a number have closed in town.

03:53Yeah, it's sad to see them go to be honest. We don't really consider any of the other

03:58pubs competitors, we're all in the same industry so we've always been here to support them

04:03and feel like the more vibrant the town nightlife and the more vibrant the pub trade is, the

04:11more we're going to benefit from it. So it's sad to see them go really. Yeah, you must

04:15be proud of what you've got here though, it's definitely a proper old school pub isn't it?

04:19Yeah, it is. A few quirky little features, we'll have to show up them sinks you've had

04:23in the toilet. It's not often I say I'm going to have to get a bit of video of a sink. Yeah,

04:27well we've had a really good reaction to the sink so it would be nice to get some recognition

04:32for that. But no, it's a proper scrub top table, you know, we have people come in from

04:35work and then another wave of people coming in in the evening. Customers are aged from

04:4118 to 85 and they all mix and they all talk and you know, we're responsible for any number

04:47of births and marriages. Yeah, sorry, it probably divorces as well I'm afraid. But yeah, we

04:55see it all, we're part of a community and you know that's what we thrive on, we're not

05:00trying to reinvent the wheel, we're a pub and you know, we know what the heritage is

05:04and we know what's made pubs a success over the last 400 years and we're trying to stick

05:08to that really. So what are we doing at this stage then Oli? Just adding the hops for the

05:14burn out, once we've added these in we'll let them sit for 10 minutes and then we'll

05:18be transferring across to the first fermenter where it'll sit for a couple of weeks to ferment

05:22out before cask conditioning it for our customers to enjoy a week or two after that. So, not

05:29too long a process, winemakers would kill for that. So these are my Centennial Hops

05:35and they're going into my Ruby Mild. Cool. Yeah, that's basically all the hard work does

05:41to be honest. I'm sure it's a little bit harder than that Oli. I mean, when you took this

05:46brewery on, I was just saying, you know, it was a brand new thing for you. The thought

05:51of just having all this equipment delivered and then all of a sudden you've got to work

05:54out how to use it, it was a baptism of fire I should imagine. Well yeah, it did take 12

05:58months to produce anything particularly drinkable. It was a steep learning curve, luckily I had

06:02Chris Hilton here who worked for me. He basically ran the brewery for a good number of years

06:08and his enthusiasm and research really saw us through to be honest. I'd say I'm standing

06:12on the shoulder of giants at the minute, being the lead brewer nowadays. But yeah, it certainly

06:18was, it was a risk and one that's paid off ultimately. So what happens then? Go on, talk

06:24us through the process. If you can sum it up in 40 seconds, 60 seconds, what happens?

06:28Okay, so you boil up your water in here, you add half of it to your mash tun, add your

06:33grain in there and then that sits in there for about an hour. You then transfer the liquid

06:40from here into there and you use the remaining liquid in your kettle to spin over the top

06:45of your grains to rinse them off and that runs into the kettle also. So you have the

06:51first run off, second run off. Once you've gone into here, you boil it, add any additions,

06:55so your hops or if you're doing something quirky like pecans or I've forgotten all those

07:00ones, some of them go in at this point as well. Boil it out for 60 to 90 minutes and

07:05then you have to cool it right down and transfer it into your fermenter where you add your

07:09yeast and hopefully you've got happy yeast and they produce you some beer basically.

07:13Yeah, and then you were saying, because I've come across that term before, cask condition,

07:17so what does it actually mean then, cask condition?

07:19I mean, it's a fancy way of saying you leave it in the barrel and let it sit for a little

07:23while to be honest.

07:24And is that to let the flavour kind of develop?

07:26It's a lot to do with gas and flavour, letting CO2 settle and things like that.

07:31And is there an optimum time for that then?

07:33I thought, I'd say it seems to work quite well for us, but the longer you leave it the

07:37better it tends to be before you start sort of approaching where it's going to drop off

07:41the other end really, but our customers are good at drinking it a long time before that

07:45happens.

07:46Good stuff.

07:47So where did all this equipment come from then?

07:49Is it made in this country?

07:50Yeah, it was all fabricated in North Nottingham.

07:54Unfortunately the company's no longer there.

07:56A lot of the fixtures and fittings and bits and pieces were picked up along the way from

08:00various other breweries that no longer need them.

08:04We're a strange sort of size of a brewery really.

08:07We're a lot bigger than a home brewery, we're a lot smaller than a commercial brewery since

08:11we're doing cask outs straight to the pub.

08:13We fit a funny size, so a lot of the stuff is made for us here really.

08:17So your brews, are they so we can get them here in the pub?

08:21Do you sell them anywhere else?

08:23Can't keep up with demand at the minute to be honest, so we keep them in a pub.

08:26We've got a canning line that we're putting together one step at a time.

08:31So we'll have the cans in.

08:32Formerly we did bottles into the local farm shops and local markets and such, but we're

08:37looking to pick that back up basically off the back of pay, but we didn't return to that.

08:41Sales here dictate it really, the capacity was met really, so that's something we'll

08:46revisit later on down the line really.

08:51So Helen, what is it you're making then?

08:53You're making rum?

08:54I am making a fiery rum.

08:56It's one of our customers' favourites.

08:59So you do your own mixes of rum and gins and everything for the bar?

09:03We use the flavours, yeah.

09:04That's quite, there's not many places that do that is there?

09:07No, people come in and really enjoy our different flavours.

09:10We try and squeeze a bit of rum in here from time to time as well, so yeah.

09:13Well that's off to you.

09:16We do a chard and pineapple rum and that's a favourite as well.

09:19Fantastic, well we'll let you crack on.

09:21Thank you Helen.

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