P
L E N T Y
5 reasons
to go on a
Palmers brewery tour
Witness history in a working museum. And
have a pint of Best at the end.
1. Go inside the only thatched brewery in the UK
Palmers Brewery is a historic building. It was also the
answer to a Mastermind question. “Someone’s specialist
subject was brewing in the UK and we were a question,”
explains Darren. “Where is the only thatched brewery
in the UK? And the answer was Palmers in Bridport. It’s
part of our heritage and we’re very proud of it.”
26
Anchor
Seatown
The Anchor in
Seatown, Bridport
is one of Palmers’
most popular pubs.
Situated right by
the beach, you can
see why.
Read all about it
Visit palmersbrewery.
com to find out more.
you get lots more oxygen, more growth and less
fermentation, and therefore the beer won’t be
right. So be patient!
If a beer is past its best, what flavours will
drinkers taste?
As it deteriorates, a dullness of flavour is the
first thing you pick up – usually when the beer
is four or five days old. If you go into a pub and
they say: “That is the last pint out, I’m going to
change the cask,” don’t let the bar person throw
that pint away. Get them to put on a new one,
pull it through and then compare the two pints.
The difference is quite remarkable between an
old four and five day old beer and a new one.
Not that it’s undrinkable – it’s just different.
If you get older than that, and you get slow
throughput and a lack of cleanliness, you get
acetic and vinegary flavours.
2. See how traditional beer is made
The Palmers Brewery tour takes you on a journey
through the traditional brewing process using kit that’s
more than 100 years old. “It’s not like a lot of these
modern brew tours where you just press a button and it
brews it for you,” says Darren. “People are surprised at
some of the age of some of the vessels and how you have
to work so hard to produce great beer in an old brewery.”
3. Taste the raw ingredients
It’s not all about tasting beer. You also get to sample the
raw ingredients, giving you a better idea of how your pint
gets its distinctive flavours. As Darren points out, people
don’t really get to taste malted barley.
4. Learn from the best
Palmers have been doing brewery tours for around 10
years, and all of the tour guides are either ex-employees
or they come from a CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale)
background, so they know what they’re talking about.
5. Have a pint of beer
A pint can cost £4 these days, but a Palmers brewery
tour will only set you back a tenner (£8 if you book for a
group of four adults online) and you get to have a pint at
the end. They’ll even throw in a branded, glass tankard.
Do you drink your beers with food?
Very much so. I do a lot of food matching and
cooking with beer. So for seafood, you’d want
something like a Dorset Gold – a nice, light but
reasonably strong pale, golden ale. For a nice
robust beef stew or venison casserole, you’d
probably want a Palmers 200 to eat and cook
with it. Tally Ho! works with a nice Stilton or a
dessert because there’s a contrast – that
richness with a dessert tends to work.
www.menu-dorset.co.uk