It was a fine sunny day when 15 club members assembled in Bury St Edmunds for a visit to the Greene King brewery. We met up in the ‘Beer Café’ adjacent to the brewery, which functions as a café bar with a range of Greene King beers on tap and bar snacks available, as well as being the brewery shop and meeting point for the tours.
After being introduced to our tour guide Steve, we went outside where Steve provided us with a brief history of the founding and development of brewing on the site.
After the introductory talk, we went into the rather grand looking art deco brewery building, which was completed in 1938 and started production the following year.
The Greene King brewery brewhouse.
On entering the lowest level, you are greeted by the impressive sight of three giant copper coloured mashing vessels, which between them are capable of producing 225,000 pints of liquid each day. There is also the ‘kitchen brewery’, where trials are conducted and new brews developed.
On the first floor, various artefacts of brewery history and many brewing awards are on display. A further two floors accommodate the areas where malt is received, stored and processed before entering the brewing vessels.
The final part of the tour involves a visit to the brewery roof, which offers excellent views of the town and nearby countryside, and from where you can see the other buildings involved in the production, maturation and packaging of the product. The nearby maltings, which supplies the raw materials, is also visible on the edge of town.
After descending back to the café bar, an opportunity was afforded to try several cask and bottled products, before departing with a bottle to enjoy later.
CMIC members outside the Greene King brewery Beer Café.
Several members took the opportunity to explore other outlets around the town, which offers many pubs, some of which have a microbrewery attached.
All-in-all, a very enjoyable day.
PS: Full planning permission for the new brewery is still awaited, so it looks likely brewing will continue at this site for quite some time to come.
Report by Ian Brindley – CMIC Committee Member