Maiden '19 Blending Day

The day always starts with a taste of last year's Maiden. 

Our founder, Darron, who made the decision to kick off in the brewing industry by barrel ageing a barley wine, and our Barrel Manager, Steve, give an opening talk about the project.

This year, we had some great guests involved, including the nicest man in brewing, Andy Parker from Elusive Brewing. 

Here's a sample of the barrels available for the blend.

Stage One is a tasting through each barrel, weighing them up for flavour/aroma and how what they could bring to a final blend.

Head Brewer Sean catches up on some Maths homework.

Barrel 047, a Armagnac barrel proved to be hugely popular.

The second phase of the day is all about blending those barrels together - striking the perfect combination is an art form.

Precision is important. The blend someone creates will be a small amount in a glass. To make sure this is replicable on a large scale, keeping notes of the exact measurements of liquids used is vital.

The best few blends then go forward to a final tasting with each person voting for their favourite.

Each blend gets a code name from its producer. 

Barrel Manager, Steve, checks out the winning blend to see what he thinks. 

And this year, it was our Operations Manager, Jason, who mastered the perfect blend. 

10 different barrels went into the blend, which is a good thing as far as yield goes, but Steve now has the tough job of replicating this blend on a large scale.

Maiden '19 will be available in early March. As mentioned, make sure you're on the Mailing List for early access!