We arrived at the White Swan in Stokesley in the early evening after a rather eventful taxi ride, It had been bright sunshine and baking hot all day but as we were about half way to Stokesley the heavens opened, flooding the roads and reducing visibility to almost zero, this was followed by a crazy hailstone storm which luckily finished by the time we got to the pub.

Beer, cheese and dodgy photoshop ;op

The plan was to have a couple of beers before heading for some Thai food over the road then back to the beer festival for a few more beers and a plate of cheese.

The pub was already quite busy and had sold out of some of the beers I wanted to try, but that’s a chance you take when you go on the second day of such an event. I decided to start off with Equinox from Great Heck Brewery, It was pale, light and hoppy, slightly zingy and a lovely malty backbone. I also had a quick slurp or Hefe Weizen which is Denzil’s take on a German Wheat beer, this was also delicious, again quite light, plenty of fruit and that lovely slight yeasty quality, nicely carbonated, I could have quite happily supped a lot of both of these beers.

Next up was Resolution from host brewery Captain Cook, another light and hoppy ale, slightly bitter and a little bit of caramely malt, easy to drink and won’t get you hammered, great stuff.

The final beer before heading for food was my least favourite of the night, It was Shakespeare’s county from Warwickshire Brewery, It sounded great on paper…Pearl pale malt, crystal malt, black malt, roast barley and wheat malt hopped with Goldings. Unfortunately I just couldn’t get on with it. It smelled and tasted really ashy and a bit like some dog treats we bought (well it tasted exactly like they smell as I’ve not actually tried eating them). there was another flavour but I forgot to note it down… I’m sure I told Matt or Dave during the night so if either of you can remember what I said please shout up.

After surviving on red wine at the Thai restaurant and having a lovely meal (although not quite as good as my favourite Thai place, The Blackwell Ox in Carlton, which also does cask beer to boot) we headed back to a now even busier pub, we squeezed onto a table in the corner and ordered a couple more beers.

white rose hop star in lovely stemmed glasses!

I went for another pale beer, Hop Star from White Rose Brewery, it said it used Summit and Columbus hops and that was all I really needed to know, It had  a huge head but was velvety smooth in the mouth, lovely grapefruit and pithy citrus flavours balanced with a really moreish bitterness, another one I could have supped all night.

While drinking the Hop Star I’d picked 5 cheeses from the huge list that was on offer so as soon as I finished the last mouthful I headed for the bar, It was at this point I bumped into Matt, the brewer, (read about him here) and as if by magic a pint of Trio from Saltaire appeared in my hand. While drinking (and forgetting about ordering some cheese) this delightful biscuity, piney and grapefruity ale, I was chatting to Matt who offered to show me round his brewkit, so we nipped out the back for a welcome bit of cool air. From what Matt was saying they have some big plans and I’m quite excited about them, especially their next seasonal ale.

After cooling down in the brewery we headed back inside and started on the dark beer, Schooner Grenville Stout from Captain Cook, a deep, dark stout, with lovely roast coffee and toasted flavours that was velvety smooth and punched well above its 4.7% ABV.

That turned out to be my last beer of the night as It was time to head back to our taxi and head home.

I had a great night, the White Swan is a fantastic pub, the festival was pretty well organised, especially the big TV screen with the live beer list on.  It’s made even more impressive in the fact that most if not all the beers were beers received as swap deals with other brewers…Top stuff.

It’s worth keeping an eye on the Captain Cook or White Swan Website for updates, or follow Matt on twitter to see what’s coming up.

So over to Denzil…

Great Heck Brewery

What is your Brewery name?

Great Heck Brewing Company Ltd

What is your brewery capacity?

Currently 12 BRL per week in 3 4 BRL batches

What is different about your brewery?

We’re cask only – no bottled beer at all. We produce beers we would like to drink ourselves and between myself, Jason and our two beer swilling wives we have quite widely divergent tastes – hence plenty of variety.

How long have you been brewing for?

Jason taught me to brew after we opened the brewery! 2008.

How did you get into brewing?

My business partner, Jason Hall and I both raced motorcycles with the Auto66 club, a roadracing club based at Driffield: they organise the Oliver’s Mount meetings at Scarborough. We used regularly to have bike racer BBQs in my back yard and Jason, a long time home brewer would provide the beers.

As is the way of these things, one drunken conversation led to another and somebody said, “If you ever pack in racing Denzil, we could have a brewery in that shed where you keep your bike stuff.”

Here we are! We actually started out with the idea that it would be a hobby and that we would just brew beers to please ourselves and whatever got sold to pubs or whatever was a bonus. We envisaged brewing a couple of times a month. Maybe every week near Christmas and we’d both keep our jobs.

Jason still works full time in a senior engineering role at Cummins Turbo Technologies at Huddersfield, which is a pretty demanding job, but I’ve been working full time for the brewery since September 2008 when my previous employer went bust. The timing of that was great because we’ve gone from strength to strength since then. We now brew three times per week and have me as a full timer as well as a second part time employee plus Jason does his bit at weekends.

What beers do you brew regularly?

Jason and Denzil from Great Heck Brewing Company

Far too many! It’s impossible to know which ones to drop.

Yorkshire Navigator 3.9% ABV:
A Traditional dry mahogany coloured bitter made with lashings of American hops for a delicious aroma and fermented with a Belgian yeast strain which adds its own fruity smoothness to this dry session ale.

Staggering Genius 5.0% ABV:
A Yorkshire Wheat beer with buckets of Styrian Goldings hops balancing the full, rich flavour of the malts. Pale in colour. The blurred writing on the pump clip is a safety device. If you can read it clearly, stop drinking immediately!

Great Heck Yorkshire Pale Ale: 4.3% ABV:
The winner of the 2008 Yorkshire Post Yorkshire’s Finest Taste Award, Yorkshire Pale Ale is a premium pale ale with a complex malt character balanced with Fuggles hops and late hopped with Slovenian Aurora hops for a zesty finish.

White Rabbit: 3.8% ABV
Pale and hoppy. A very pale session ale with a distinctive and refreshing bitterness. A perfect thirst quencher for spring and summer.

Dave: 3.8% ABV
Champion beer of the Festival: Wakefield CAMRA 2008. A smooth, very dark velvety bitter made with finest Maris Otter malted barley and copious quantities of chocolate and crystal malts.

What special/seasonal beers do you brew?

Slaughterhouse Porter: 4.5% ABV:
From a converted slaughterhouse in the heart of the Yorkshire coal field Great Heck Brewery brings you a full bodied, silky smooth traditional stout porter whose delicious malt palate is delicately balanced with Target hops. Very black at first sight, hold it up to the light to see its true colour.

Bar Humbug: 4.5% ABV:
Christmas Special. Reddish brown in colour and delicious subtle hints of spiciness from the distinctive flavour development of the yeast and American hops. The perfect festive pint.

SBH Celebration Ale: 4.1% ABV:
Great Heck’s first traditional amber coloured bitter, conceived by our head brewer Jason Hall to celebrate the birth of his first child Siobhan Beatrice who arrived on 12th August 2008. SBH brings you a rich and deeply enjoyable flavour from a carefully selected blend of five different malts combined with a touch of roast barley. With a preponderance of Fuggles hops and late hopped with aromatic Slovenian Aurora for a finish to savour.

Super-Dave: 5.0% ABV
Specially brewed to celebrate Great Heck’s 100th batch of ale, Super-Dave is a stronger version of the best-selling, award winning Dave. A smooth, very dark velvety bitter made with finest Maris Otter malted barley and copious quantities of chocolate and crystal malts.

We also brew own label beers for certain pubs as well as Final judgement and Final Straw, the house beers at The Judge’s Lodgings, York.

Where do you think the future of brewing lies?

Lucy helps turn the workshop into a brewery!

I think that as long as the trend for small brewers producing interesting and enjoyable beers continues, the recruitment of new real ale drinkers will continue. I also believe that with more small breweries springing up beer will tend to be more locally sourced and regional beer styles may emerge, or re-emerge. For example, in certain villages around here they won’t drink pale ales at all.

What is you proudest moment in brewing?

Dave being voted beer of the festival at Wakefield CAMRA last year. That doesn’t often go to an out of area brewery.

What was last beer you drank?

Bob’s Genesis.

What is your favourite hop?

Either Cascade or Auroura.

What is your brewing ambition?

I’m one of life’s strivers. I don’t really identify particular ambitions because that implies that having reached that goal I would be content to stop trying to improve or do more or do it better. I can’t imagine retiring or ever being completely happy with what we do.

Angus Young says he is still learning guitar. I wouldn’t compare myself to the great man but I think that’s a top quote. The constant incremental improvement of everything, one thing at a time is something I hope and expect to be pursuing for the rest of my life.

Do you have a Brewing hero/inspiration?

Sue and Keith Simpson (Brown Cow Brewery) are the very embodiment of what it’s all about for me. I’d carry their bags any day.

Which beer do you wish you had brewed?

Bob’s White Lion.

Favourite hobby outside of brewing

I like playing music. I do acoustic nights, folk clubs and open mikes etc. with guitar and vocals. I’m also now in a band called Deep Blue Nothing. We don’t have much repertoire as yet but it’s a hell of a lot better than listening to me on my own!

Anything else you want to tell us?

Yes, our web site STILL hasn’t been done (Note: Denzil if you need a hand with it in the new year let me know…i know a man ;o) ) but we now have a Facebook fan site which is probably worth subscribing to. Just search Great Heck Brewery on Facebook.

Also bike racing fans, watch the progress of British Superbike 125GP championship contender (runner up 2009) Rob Super-Dave Guiver in the 2010 British Superbikes 125GP class as he’s carrying Great Heck sponsorship all season along with the rest of the SP125racing.com team.

Thank’s to Denzil and Jason for taking time out of their busy brewing schedule to answer our questions, if you see their beers in pubs please try them and let me know what you think.