UNCOMMONLY GOOD BEER

Melton Mowbray has an award-winning brewery situated in its cattle market. Mary went to meet the directors and try the beer

WE ALL KNOW that Melton Mowbray is famous for its Stilton cheese and pork pies as well as its large cattle market; one of the few remaining in the country, let alone in our area. And now it’s becoming well known for something else; award winning beer, which is ade at the cattle arket o it’s ti e to nd out ore

It sort of starts with a riddle. How do two Irish men who meet in New Zealand, bond over a love of beer and decide to start a brewery end up in the cattle market in Melton Mowbray? It’s quite a conundrum and a good story. Why on earth would they end up in a Leicestershire market town brewing beer alongside the cattle and sheep?

Let’s go back to the beginning. Colin Paige, one of the co-founders and directors is from Belfast where after A levels he was intending to study biochemistry. Always keen on beer he somehow got on the tasting panel at Irish bre ers ass to try the ne beer affrey’s and beca e fascinated with the actual brewing process as it’s quite scienti c his really suited his che istry and engineering brain so bio chemistry was swapped for a brewing degree (yes you really can do that) and he headed to Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, which was the only university at the ti e offering a c ons in bre ing ather than a science career I’d found my vocation, brewing beer,’ says Colin.

After uni Colin headed to the other side of the world working for well-known brands in Australia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore and New Zealand rising up through the ranks and gaining huge brewing experience along the way working for world renowned breweries.

And then he went to New Zealand to work as a director for Lion breweries who were the biggest in New Zealand, working on the craft beer Macs. And by chance their brewery was virtually alongside the New Zealand stock exchange which is where Combie was a director. Combie ryan is also rish fro ounty eitri in the epublic of Ireland.

ended up bribing o bie and his pals to drink at our bar rather than the Heineken one they were using and we bonded over beer,’ says Colin. And that was the beginning of a bond that has brought two Irish beer lovers to Melton Mowbray. Colin had wanted to open his own brewery for any years but anted to do it properly on a scale large enough to produce good quality beers.’

In 2016 Combie took over Melton market and returned to the elton is a to n that is rich in history and uite unusual to have a market slap bang in the middle of the town which the council and residents really support,’ says o bie really liked this and could see that starting a brewery in such an iconic location would work really well. We wanted to work with the farmers and agricultural industry as we have great respect for them and it could be utually bene cial ’

‘In December 2018 Round Corner Brewing (named after the round corner of a Stilton cheese) sold its first beer; Frisby lager.’

The cattle market is held every Tuesday with a farmers’ market held twice a week. There are now food festivals too including a cheese one, pork pie (of course) and the rare food festival held in September.

Colin persuaded his wife that Melton Mowbray was where their future lay so he left Australia and realised his ambition alongside Combie to set up a brewery. They had to start from scratch, make sure the residents were onside and invest a substantial sum of money to set up the brewing facilities.

I can tell you now, after being shown around this state-ofthe art bre ery bre ing beer is de nitely a science olin and head brewer Lara, were constantly tweaking things to make sure that temperatures, pressure and amounts were exactly right. The equipment is so high tech that it can be run from their phones; useful when they are brewing daily and away from the brewery.

Beer is basically made of four things: barley, water, hops and yeast ut after seeing the bre ery in action it’s a ne art. The crushed barley is turned into a mash by mixing it with hot water. The natural enzymes in the barley malt convert the starches into fermentable sugars and these are dissolved in the hot water. This sugar solution, called wort, is then separated from the grain husks, which go to a local farmer for animal feed in trade for the occasional steak. The wort is boiled, hops are added for bitterness and aroma and the wort is then chilled and yeast added, then fermentation can begin.

It takes eight litres of water to make one litre of beer and around 17 days to ferment for ales and up to 50 days in the tank for the lagers. Everything else is down to Colin, Lara and the brewing team’s expertise.

In December 2018 Round Corner Brewing (named after the round corner of a tilton cheese sold its rst beer Frisby lager. Many of you will recognise the name as it’s a illage ust outside the to n heir roots are r ly in elton o bray and any of their beer na es re ect this Everything was going really well with beer sales growing, awards being won and then, of course, we all know what happened. Covid.

But Round Corner Brewing survived. Like many a small business Colin and Combie thought on their feet and quickly adjusted. ‘We had set up a takeaway provision anyway where people would buy a growler which is basically a agon hich holds pints and ould then bring it back hen e pty for a re ll e already had of these so we moved to home deliveries. People were at home; the weather was perfect so wanted beer delivered. e got in our ans and deli ered in a ile radius ’ says

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Colin. I was out at 5am delivering up to 100 growlers a day and then coming back to continue brewing. We had the website up and running already and bought a canning machine way earlier than we intended so that we could deliver nationwide via couriers. And it worked.’

Last year they brewed 200,000 litres of beer. This year it will be about 350,000 litres and their capacity is growing. The beer is sold either in kegs to local pubs, restaurants and farm shops and the like as well as in cans via their webshop.

There are now six beers always available ranging from a lager to a stout with other beers popping up too. They now employ eight full time people with others helping out part ti e nd they offer bre ing apprenticeships as Nottingham now has a brewing degree course.

I enjoyed tasting some of the beer after my brewery tour and was suitably impressed. Many of them are the perfect accompaniment with a piece of Stilton and pork pie and this is really encouraged with the brewery working closely with Long Clawson dairy and the pork pie producers in the town which is helping encourage younger people to try them.

Gunmetal Black Lager won the best lager in the world award in 2019 and Frisby Lager the silver, and those have been the rst of any e only enter global international brewing awards,’ says Colin and they have won many gold and silver awards in the last two years with Steeplechase recently winning gold at the International Brewing Awards and then going on to win the trophy for best of the golds and to be voted the world’s best ale in a can. There’s now a smoked beer, a gluten free beer called Jandals & Togs, a elgian itbier a oured ith la ender it’s good and a stout as well as said Steeplechase. The beers range from lightish to up to 8% proof. All are available to buy on their website.

The pair opened a tap room to run alongside the brewery where people are encouraged to come and try the beer and socialise. There is a pizza kitchen too and people come at weekends to enjoy tasting the beer and lap up the convivial at osphere eer is a social lubricant and people really appreciate that after the last couple of years we’ve all had.’ e’re all about producing beer ha ing fun and selling it orld ide ’ says o bie and e’re really proud of our beer, as are the residents of Melton who have welcomed us with open arms which we really appreciate. We want people to drink amazing beer.’

www.roundcornerbrewing.com

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