Over in Chester, the premises formerly known as Kash Taps was occasionally pretty divisive; the level of décor/atmosphere/comfort was often a talking point, but the serving of beers from a brewery with a rather naff selection of pumpclips often got many people’s backs up (they were pretty sexist). Having only ventured there a handful of times myself, it was never a must-visit venue in the way that other places were for me. Things have changed hands; a few days since getting the keys and Deva Craft Beers have scrubbed, painted and exacted their own plan on the premises near Chester train station and stamping some authority on the pumps. They are making the place their own and have got a chef who is taking a beer snacks type menu very seriously, putting out some rather great food to go with the missed selection of Deva brews, guest beers and a healthy can and bottle fridge selection. The food menu changes depending on the ingredients available and what the season provides, with the visit I write about giving me homemade oatcake with whipped goats cheese, nduja on crackling flavoured crackers and some excellent sourdough with smoked butter. Everything and I do mean everything, was superb. Anyway, back to nuts and bolts for the Deva Tap, I had an afternoon in the place and had a good chat with Deva Craft’s Nick and Aidy Gilbody, with Nick being kind enough to give a proper interview of sorts… Hi Nick, good to talk to you, let’s start with an easy one… what made you want to set up your own Brewery Tap? ”Primarily it is so we can sell our product directly to the consumer - this is for increased revenue for reinvestment into the brewery, face to face feedback and its really fun to run a tap room.” So why did you choose Kash? ”Geographically we like the location and the building. We have The Artichoke, Cellar Bar and the Cornerhouse close too so wanted to add to the Chester beer scene and also try and make this corner of Chester the place to go for a good beer. The owners of KASH were looking to move onto other ventures so the timings all worked out nicely.” Was there a lot of work in getting things ready? ”It was so much work it was untrue! Got the keys on Sunday 26th Feb, opened 4pm Thursday 2nd March. The hours that were put in by ourselves and all the volunteers who came down to help made that turnaround time a reality. Couldn't have done it without all the help we received.” Do you have any plans to do exciting things from the Tap, aside from the sale of your own brews and the output of the rather excellent food? ”We are looking to do quite a few things in the next few months. The décor needs adding to and we will be increasing the size of the menu and increasing the amount of cask and keg lines available. It will go up to 6 cask lines and 10 keg - with the possibility of another 2 keg lines extra in the summer! We are going to be running beer tastings, food pairings and spirit tastings such as Gin, Whiskey and liquors. We will be changing the seating layout to get more table space and looking at making the best use of the outdoor space we have at the front of the building. We will also be tying in possible brew day experiences where small groups come down to the brewery, make a beer with us then back to the tap for dinner - all transport included. Meet the brewers too! Oh and a beer festival every 3 months throughout the year. So yeah its going to be one busy year!” Will this hold you back from making appearances at any other festivals this year, having a stall etc? ”We're actually at Chester Food and Drink at the end of April, Hoole Street Festival in the Spring and have a few other events we are looking into locally over the summer. We have a few meet the brewers planned as well. The main priority is making sure we have adequate supply for all of our customers and the tap. We'll have to see what else we can squeeze in.” And so what are the longer term plans now for the brewery given you have taken on a relatively large responsibility with this venture? ”We are brewing at our maximum capacity at the monument so we need more capacity. My hope is in the next 12 to 18 months is that we upscale to a 12 to 15 barrel brew kit with another small outlet and look at exporting. To further improve our beers we will be moving onto a house yeast strain. We also hope to be serving up some really fantastic food 7 days a week.”Was there a lot of work in getting things ready? ”It was so much work it was untrue! Got the keys on Sunday 26th Feb, opened 4pm Thursday 2nd March. The hours that were put in by ourselves and all the volunteers who came down to help made that turnaround time a reality. Couldn't have done it without all the help we received.” Do you have any plans to do exciting things from the Tap, aside from the sale of your own brews and the output of the rather excellent food? ”We are looking to do quite a few things in the next few months. The décor needs adding to and we will be increasing the size of the menu and increasing the amount of cask and keg lines available. It will go up to 6 cask lines and 10 keg - with the possibility of another 2 keg lines extra in the summer! We are going to be running beer tastings, food pairings and spirit tastings such as Gin, Whiskey and liquors. We will be changing the seating layout to get more table space and looking at making the best use of the outdoor space we have at the front of the building. We will also be tying in possible brew day experiences where small groups come down to the brewery, make a beer with us then back to the tap for dinner - all transport included. Meet the brewers too! Oh and a beer festival every 3 months throughout the year. So yeah its going to be one busy year!” Will this hold you back from making appearances at any other festivals this year, having a stall etc? ”We're actually at Chester Food and Drink at the end of April, Hoole Street Festival in the Spring and have a few other events we are looking into locally over the summer. We have a few meet the brewers planned as well. The main priority is making sure we have adequate supply for all of our customers and the tap. We'll have to see what else we can squeeze in.” And so what are the longer term plans now for the brewery given you have taken on a relatively large responsibility with this venture? ”We are brewing at our maximum capacity at the monument so we need more capacity. My hope is in the next 12 to 18 months is that we upscale to a 12 to 15 barrel brew kit with another small outlet and look at exporting. To further improve our beers we will be moving onto a house yeast strain. We also hope to be serving up some really fantastic food 7 days a week.” Thanks to Nick and the rest of the team at Deva Brewery and the Tap and am sure we all wish them the best of luck with whatever the future holds for their adventure. As ever, places like this need continuous support… the old adage ‘use it or lose it’ applies here too. Get down, eat, drink and be merry and support an excellent local business who currently deserves to go from strength to strength. Cheers Pedro. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to Alex and Nick for additional photos used in this article. These photos are property of Deva Craft Beer or of The ElectroKemist. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deva Tap 121 Brook Street, Chester.CH1 3DU Phone: 01244 401777 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DevaTapChester/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DevaTapChester Web: devacraftbeer.co.uk/
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A lot of breweries are located in business or industrial parks on the outskirts of a town, often unassuming places where the first giveaway to their industry are a number or kegs, casks or spent grain sacks sitting idly near to the roller shutter doors. Deva Craft Beer are no different, at least not on the day I visited them on a very sunny and fine afternoon to find them preparing for their stall at the Chester Food and Drink Festival. Deva (for those not familiar with the area or its history) are so named after the city of Chester's historical ties as a Roman settlement, the brewery is the creation of Nick Gilbody and his father, Adie. The brewery, which has been going since mid 2014 has support from other family members and brewer Tom Sinclair, who has brewing awards to his name (from a previous life at the Pied Bull Brewery in Chester). The beers they have produced thus far in a relatively short space of time have been very, very promising. The Pandemonium, Eureka and Equinox have been steady beers, along with the likes of the excellent Dual IPA and series of Cellarium ales (specially brewed for the bastion of craft cask and keg beers at the Cellar on Chester's City Road) and the more recent heavy hitter 'Instruments of Destruction'. The beers tend to be heavily hopped pales and IPAs (for example the Pandemonium is a fiercely hopped American Pale Ale, the Equinox an English Pale with hops of the same name laced throughout), though there was some indication they were looking to expand into other styles at some point in the future, which is rather exciting considering the prowess of the team thus far. Currently, this is the only real weakness in the brewery's repertoire, but something easily rectifiable and given the application to quality in their other products not much to worry about. The other pleasing item for consideration is the reticence of Deva to draw upon an oft-trodden path in naming of their wares - though with the likes of 'Gladius' and 'Nemesis' there is a some classical influence, the temptation must have been there to make beers named 'Centurion', 'Collosseum' or even 'Patrician' in drawing upon the foundations of their home city (though 'Vomitarium' would certainly be a step too far... and you would expect very unlikely to sell). The first proper encounter I had with the team was at the Liverpool Food and Drink Festival in Sefton Park, 2015, where the brewery shared a tent with the likes of Tatton Brewery and the now fully operational Dead Crafty Beer Company. The team seemed happy to be there, were very happy to engage with the festival goers and even entertained my presence for a while, all the while providing some great beers and looking to spread their reputation as a go-to brewery for any cask or keg drinker. Some six months on and the brewery has expanded to take on adjacent premises, entertained parties of beer enthusiasts to peruse their site and was setting up a stall at Chester Racecourse. Luckily, following the conversations with Adie and Nick, they were kind enough to provide a little interview for the ElectroKemist and it went a little something like this... ---------------------------------------- Hi Nick, so when exactly did you set the brewery up? We set up the company in June 2014. It took us until March 2015 to get the brewery installed. And what made you give up what you and the others give up the other day job to pursue brewing? I loved being a homebrewer so to do it for a job was very attractive, plus I'd had a taste of being self-employed so wanted to go for it. What was the first beer and were you happy with it? The first beer was Nemesis. I was mostly happy with it (as much as I can be with my beer as I'm my own harshest critic!), though it went under some big tweaks including changing the yeast and upping the amount of hops used for example. What size kit are you working on at the moment and are there any plans to expand further? We are working on a 5BBL kit (we can kind of push it to 6BBL). We recently built a new cold room to increase our storage capacity. We may look at expanding early next year, but at the moment we are working towards full capacity on the current kit. Are there any plans to change gear and attempt a few different styles considering the shift to produce sours/saisons/yeast experimental brews? Yeah, we are looking at producing a sour over the summer and I have a few ideas for incorporating chilli and fruit into a very interesting pale ale. I'm looking at getting the fruitiness of the chilli more than the heat. Would love to play with yeasts but would need some equipment modification first. Are there any big plans for 2016 and 2017 with your brews/events? 2016 we will be having monthly open days over the summer at the brewery with food and tours of the brewery - some with potential live music too. I have a few big things on the horizon for 2017 but it is in the very early stages so people will have to keep an eye out I'm afraid! What beer are you most proud of that you've produced so far? I would have to say the Dual IPA, Pandemonium and the new Oatimus Prime. I think they all encapsulate the brewing we have honed over the last year. It has been a real team effort and its great to see the progression in our products. ----------------------------- Thanks very much to Nick, Adie and the rest of the Deva crew for their time and patience. As ever, I hope you enjoyed the read and will now have a bit of a thirst for trying some of the Deva Craft Beers' range, which are predominantly available across Chester, but expanding their radius all the time. Please share on the usual social media channels if you did enjoy this read and seek their beers out, you won't be disappointed! Pedro. -------- Deva Craft Beer Unit14 Engineer Park Babbage Road Sandycroft CH5 2QD Email: [email protected] Tel: 07841384143 Web: http://devacraftbeer.co.uk/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DevaCraftBeer Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/devacraftbeer |
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