The Village Inn Brewhouse, Nailsworth

The Village Inn proudly presents ‘The Hetty Pegler Brewery‘

Planning a party or a wedding? Or just fancy having a go at brewing your own beer? Well now you can!

The Hetty Pegler Brewery at the Village Inn, Nailsworth offers you the chance to brew your very own batch of beer with one of our expert brewers.

The minimum amount you can brew and take away is One Firkin (or cask), containing 72 pints, at a cost of £72. That’s just £1 a pint!

The Brewing Process Part 1a

Your brewing experience will start two weeks before the actual brewing day, when you can come and meet one of our brewers to discuss what kind of beer you’d like to brew, and what will be involved.

You will discuss:

• What type of ale you want (pale ale, bitter, stout or mild for example)
• What strength you’d like to make your beer (max of 5%), and
• What to call your brew

We can then order the ingredients ready for the big day.

It’s possible that whilst in the brewery you may be exposed to certain cleaning chemicals as well as acids, so if you have any allergies or known problems with chemicals, please inform the brewer in this initial conversation, as he will go through all the types of chemicals the brewery uses.
We are sorry to say that this process is not suitable for people who suffer from respiratory problems.

The Brewing Process Part 1b

Two weeks later you can return to start the brew. The estimated brewing time is 5-6 hours, so we aim to start as close to 9am as possible. You will work together with the brewer throughout the day, and are advised that it’s a bit of a messy ‘hands on’ experience, so wear some old clothes and ideally some wellies.

Although the minimum amount you can buy is one cask, we need to make the best use of the facilities. We will therefore brew several casks of your ale on the day and sell the rest of the batch at the Village Inn, under your chosen brew name.

The Brewing Process part 2

Following the completion of part 1 of the process, your brew will need to ferment, allowing the sugars and yeast to mix and produce the alcohol in the beer. This process takes up to 3 days.

When this time is up, the ‘fermenter’ needs to be emptied into the casks, a process known as ‘racking up’. You won’t need to come in for this, as our brewer can do this for you.

The ale then needs to go through its secondary fermentation in the casks for 5-7 days.

Once this completed we will invite you back to pick up your ale, where you might find that your beer is on sale in the pub already!

Additional Information

There is a deposit of £40 required on the cask itself, redeemable when you return the cask.
You might prefer however, to take your brew away in bottles instead of a cask, for which there will be an extra charge. Please discuss this option with the Brewer when you come for your first meeting described above in Part 1a.

Contact Us

If you’d like to have a go at brewing your own ale, call us on 01453 835 715 or use the contact form below to arrange some dates.