During August the Wine Club did not have a formally scheduled meeting as we have found in recent years quite a few members are away on their holidays. However, this year some members were still looking for suggestions for an excuse to meet up on the most convenient date for a local tour or visit.
One of our members (Debbie) came up with the ‘novel’ idea of wine club members visiting a local brewery and suggested the Pilgrim Brewery as it was not too far away.
Consequently on Saturday, 8th August, eight members and one guest gathered at the Pilgrim Brewery, Reigate (the oldest craft brewery in Surrey, established in 1982 by Dave Roberts) for a tour and tastings.
We were greeted on arrival by John Fridd, the Master-Brewer. He invited us to gather in the brewing room and began by talking about the setting up and early development of the Brewery. Then he went on to explain about the purpose and practical functioning of the large vessels that were around us. His enthusiasm and knowledge kept us all captivated, as did the samples of beer that were being offered during the discussion about different hop varieties and alcoholic strengths. John explained how he had experimented to develop a low alcohol beer named Temperance at only 0.5% ABV by using hops that were much slower to release the natural sugars which converted to alcohol.
We also sampled the more traditional Progress Ale, at 4% ABV, and named after the type of hops used. After this, we ‘progressed’ to a stronger and very tasty Pioneer Ale, at 4.5% ABV this was described as an APA (American Pale Ale) due to the hops used. The previous beers were all based on barley, but the last tasting offered was a wheat beer called Saxon Ale. This was a very acceptable 5.2% ABV and most refreshing.
We thanked John for a most informative and detailed talk. He then gave us tokens to be exchanged in the Taproom for any drink of our choice, which included wine and soft drinks.
For our next meeting 1st September we will be back in our usual haunt in South Nutfield for a Quiz.
Janet Bailey
The club was founded in 1977 and meets once a month (except August), usually with a guest speaker or wine expert. Please use the following pages, to enjoy this great club, including many special events and tasting. Everyone is welcome, so just check out the Events page for the next meeting and venue.
