Ten years ago we brewed our first batch in a garage in Kelham Island and sold all of it to people we knew. Two weekends ago, 2,300 of you came to help us celebrate. This is what happened, and a very big thank you.
Friday: the first pour
We opened the gates at five, with a line already down the street. The first pint of the birthday beer went to Maureen, who has been coming to the tap room every Friday since the week we opened it and has never once let us forget the year the cellar flooded.
Every half hour, one of the brewers took a group round the brew hall. People asked brilliant questions: why the mash tun is copper, how long a stout really takes, and whether we have ever fallen in. (Once. Ollie. 2019.)
By ten the street food had sold out and the pizza van was making flatbreads from what dough it had left. Note for next year: more dough.
Saturday in the garden
Five local bands played from two in the afternoon until the lights went on in the trees. The garden was full by four, and the hall became a second bar with long tables and board games for anyone who wanted to sit down.
The beer we brewed for it
Ten Rings is a 6.2% amber ale with ten different hops, one for each year, and a little of the yeast from our very first batch, which we have kept going all this time. We brewed 40 barrels. By Sunday lunchtime there were four left, and they are on in the tap room now while they last.
Sunday, slower
Sunday was the family day: face painting, a dog show judged by our youngest brewer (every dog won something), and a long lunch in the hall. The last band was a brass group from the school down the road, who were louder and better than anyone expected.
At four we cleared the long tables for a quiz, with questions set by the brewers and a round on the history of the street that nobody, including us, scored well on. The winning team, The Hopeful Few, took home a year of free refills and the right to name our next pale ale.
The weekend in numbers
- 2,300guests over three days
- 36brew hall tours
- $4,860raised for the local food bank
- 14dogs in the dog show
Thank you to everyone who came, played, poured, cleaned up or brought a dog. We could not have imagined any of this in that garage. Here is to the next ten.