Final Tribute – Changing the guard at St Austell brewery

St Austell Brewery. (Photo by M. Muldowney)

There are not many places you can find equipment 100 years old and still being used on a daily basis, but there are a few. One of them is the St Austell Brewery.

I had initially contacted the Brewery for a photo project and I was invited down to meet head brewer Roger Ryman.

“You’ve contacted us at an exciting time, the brewery is about to undertake a major project. We’ll be decommissioning a lot of old equipment and replacing it with brand new kit.” Roger explained.

I was lucky enough to be given a tour of the brewery complex where I was shown the ‘Grist case’ – a beautifully designed and constructed piece of equipment made from copper. The function of this piece is that the crushed malt - the grist, is stored in a tank and then mixed with water. It is then poured out into one of the ‘Mash tuns’, both of which are several meters wide and constructed with cast Iron.

The malt is then boiled and mixed to extract the goodness, thus converting starches to fermentable sugars before the liquor (liquid) is drained and sent to the next stage of the brewing process. One of the mash tuns was actually constructed in 1893, and has been in continuous operation ever since. The other one was slightly younger, but close to 100 years old.

It shouldn’t be surprising that this equipment is still functioning despite being designed and constructed in the Victorian era. They made things to last. Because they did not have the modern computer technology that we take for granted it meant that designers and engineers could only make a best guess when planning a project, and thus when it came to design they tended to overestimate to be on the safe side.

I returned to the brewery at half past 5 in the morning a couple of days later to witness the last operation of the 1893 mash tun and grist case. It was quite a sombre moment, brewing is as much an art as it is science, and a lot of emotion clearly goes into the process. After it was fully loaded the process of boiling and separating began and lasted for about two hours before the cycle ended

Roger Ryman keeps a close eye on the malt. (Photo by M. Muldowney)

With the final mash finished and drained the enormous mash tun had to be cleared out. Husk is left over, several tonnes of it, and it must all be removed by hand. The head brewer himself decided he would 'shovel out' alone. There was quite a lot of emotion in the room, retiring a piece of equipment that had seen so much history.

I asked St Austell’s engineering and maintenance manager Clive Nichols his thoughts on the decommissioning. “Obviously these are remarkable pieces of equipment to have lasted so long and they could go on in operation for another ten years, but on the other hand, they could break down tomorrow, we just don’t know. If they went down and we were not prepared we could lose a month or more in down time and as a modern 21^st century business that is just not an option, which is why we have decided to retire the kit and replace it now.”

Equipment in operation since the Victorian era. (Photo by M. Muldowney)

The new equipment is purpose built to the brewery’s specifications, looks remarkably similar to the old kit (at request of the brewery), and it was constructed in the UK, in Burton on Trent.

While the technology advances, the process remains the same and the natural instincts of the people who do the brewing will still be the most important asset to the company.

As the shut down on the decommissioned equipment is completed, head brewer Roger Ryman makes a request to his team. “Make sure you give it a good polish before it’s taken out. It’s important we treat this old kit with respect.”

I’d like to say a note of thanks to Mr Roger Ryman and everyone at the St Austell brewery for allowing access to their brewery for coverage of this piece. For more information please visit http://www.staustellbrewery.co.uk/