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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