Edwin Tucker's Maris Otter

This one had me fooled for a bit! Neither CAMRA resources nor Google were able to come up with a brewery called Edwin Tucker. However, Tucker's Maltings are the suppliers of my 60 beers, and also provide malt to many of the brewers of the beers in my 'Sixty Years' collection. Then I noticed that the label said that the beer used malt made at Tuckers Maltings and, in tiny print at the bottom of the label, that it was brewed by the Teignworthy Brewery.

If you cast back to my entry of December 13, you will find some information about Teignworthy there, including the information that they are located at Tucker's maltings. I have discovered their website at http://www.teignworthybrewery.com/, where I learned that brewing of ale takes place in the brewery most days during the week and uses entirely traditional methods. The brewery is based on a 'Tower' principle as used in the Victorian era. This means that the malt is infused with hot liquor to make malt extract, this is in turn boiled with traditional English hops. These processes take place on the 2nd and 3rd floors, and the hopped malt extract then passes to the 1st floor where it is cooled rapidly with a heat exchanger to a temperature of 16ºC, and then placed in an open fermenting square. Yeast is added and for the following three days the yeast ferments the ale, during which a large foaming canopy rests over the ale. The yeast mixes with the air and gives unique flavours only found in our ales. Most of the yeast rises to the top of the square and is skimmed off at the end of the fermentation. This enables them to keep their yeast supply going. The ale is then cooled for a week where the casks are steamed. They are then rolled gently into the cellars and kept for one week at 12ºC. Finally, just before the barrels of ale are lifted onto the dray, small quantities of finings are added to clarify the ale and help the ale clear quickly when stored in the cellars of the pub.

I can say that this process produces a very acceptable full bodied premium ale in Maris Otter. Little information is given about its ingredients (though we are informed that the world's most highly regarded malting barley - Maris Otter - is used!). However, I do know that it is bottle-conditioned and ABV is 5.5%.