STAFF REVIEW: BREWERY TOUR AND TASTINGS FOR TWO
The Old Dair Brewery is located in the beautiful, picturesque town of Tenterden, Kent. This highly popular brewery was first established back in 2010, and has since become a local success! Gemma and I were lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit the Old Dairy Brewery, and find out exactly what the brewing process entailed.
The journey down to Tenterden from Brighton was pleasantly smooth and easy. The Brewery itself is seconds from the main high street, inside two large Nissen Buildings with an accessible car park. On the front of the building was clear signage, directing us to the shop where we were to meet our tour group. As we approached the door, our tour guide Ginny appeared, who I had been in contact with previously. Her friendly smile and warm welcome were lovely, and made us feel incredibly relaxed as we entered the brewery shop.
Inside, we were immediately struck by the colourful display of bottles, each with individually coloured bottle tops. We later learned that each colour related to a specific finely-crafted ale, red top being a classic best bitter, blue top being a spicy India pale ale, and so on! Once Ginny had introduced herself, it was straight onto the tour… not without a beer though! Behind her was a small bar, holding a few beer pumps with small green logos on. This beer was freshly brewed and ready to be distributed amongst all customers to drink whilst the tour took place.
The first stop on our tour was the 30-barrel brewery room, filled with machinery, fermenters, and containers to successfully and efficiently create all their local ales. Ginny was clear and informative whilst explaining the brewing process, and answered all the questions we had. We discovered that the huge silver fermenters are cleaned by hand to ensure that there is no cross contamination. That’s dedication!
After we were educated on exactly what goes into the brewery process, we were directed back to the shop to discover what comes out of the brewery process: you guessed it, more beer! Once we were all topped up on freshly-hopped beer, it was off to the chiller next door to see how ales are stored ready for dispatch.
Once inside the chiller (must be lovely in the summer!) Ginny handed out fresh hops for us to all feel. These are incredibly misleading and look like little folded up flowers, as well as being extremely greasy!
Back at the shop, it was a last top-up on delicious beer, before trying a few tasters of colour tops ready to purchase – try the gold top, a fabulous golden pale ale! Thanks again to Ginny and the Old Dairy Brewery for inviting us along, it was a brilliant day!
