In this week’s episode, we take a drive to the picturesque Yorkshire town of Shipley, where Salt Beer Factory is nestled amidst rolling hills in an old tram shed. The brewery and bar are magnificent, boasting crispy stone-baked pizzas, sleek decor, and fantastic beers, making for a stylish and enjoyable venue.
However, our main purpose for visiting Salt was to catch up with Pip Young, one of our oldest friends in the beer industry, who not only serves as the Brewery Manager of Salt Beer Factory but is also the founder of The Coven – an organization dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusivity in craft beer.
The Coven also trains welfare officers for beer festivals to ensure that individuals from all walks of life, particularly people from ‘the otherhood’, that is those who are often underrepresented culturally, feel safe and included.
The Coven has evolved over time and grown into a movement gaining momentum within the prominent UK beer scene. As an old friend, this episode is a bit more informal than usual – so much so that Pip interviews Nick about his hearing condition and experience in noisy taproom environments for the first 10 minutes or so.
Nonetheless, we cover a wide variety of themes that include everything from neurodiversity, milkshake IPAs, alpacas, Pip’s involvement with Salt, the work of the Coven, and Nick’s continual likening himself to U2’s Bono.
We’re also joined by Andrew Patterson from Lallemand Brewing to talk about an exciting new development in the world of yeast.
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Revolutionise your low-alcohol beer production with Lallemand Brewing LoNa™. What if you could effortlessly brew great-tasting low alcohol beer across many styles? Low- and no-alcohol beers have seen a recent boom in popularity as consumers cut back on alcohol and opt for healthier alternatives. It’s predicted that the NA Beer segment will be worth $46.6b by 2025.
Historically speaking, low-alcohol beer has been low body, bland, worty. The negative taste perceptions of low-alcohol beer have prevented large numbers of consumers from trying it. In one study, as many as 52% of beer drinkers in the UK say that low/no-alcohol beer doesn’t taste as good as regular beer.
Traditionally, removing alcohol in beer has been costly and complicated.
Low-alcohol beer has traditionally been produced using one of two techniques: vacuum distillation (heating up and evaporating the alcohol) or membrane filtration (removing unwanted ethanol molecules). Both methods are complicated and expensive, in both capital and energy use. And with these techniques, the beer’s flavours and aromas can easily turn undesirable.
