When I was planning my trip to England, one place popped out as a place I would really like to go when it came to beer.  Burton on Trent, which is seen worldwide as the ideal water composition for beer making once made up 1/3 of all beer production in the UK and was a major center for beer in England.  The water composition is so famous that most brewers refer to changing their composition to a slightly harder water profile as Bertonizing the water, in order to match the harder water located in this spot.  Many people probably don’t know or care about this, but I know I had to go!  Plus the national brewing museum was there and I wanted to check it out.

I was coming from Bletchley Park which did not have any direct trains to Burton on Trent and the place itself did not really have much in the way of cheap accommodations.  I opted to stay in Birmingham and take the train to Burton for the day and then return to Birmingham in the evening.

I arrived in Birmingham late in the evening and upon departing the train station was immediately accosted by several homeless people.  I then headed to my hostel which was in a pretty sketchy part of town and was decently on edge during my walk.

First thing I did in Birmingham was get up and go for a run.  Birmingham has a large network of canals in and around town, so i decided to run a long some of them and check them out.  It was actually pretty cool, but Birmingham was still pretty grim.

After the run, I jumped on a train towards Burton on Trent.  As I approached Burton on Trent, one thing became pretty clear.

There were tanks EVERYWHERE.  Turns out there used to be a huge Bass brewery there that was eventually taken over by Molson Coors which controlled most of the brewing in Burton.

I headed towards the brewing museum from the train in order to try and make one of the tours that was leaving at 11am.  The museum was formerly the Bass Brewery museum and was taken over by Coors when the brewery was sold.  However, at a certain point, Coors set them loose and they are now an independent museum.

We learned about the history of English brewing, as well as the history of Burton on Trent brewing.  We also learned the history of the brewing process and saw a bunch of old equipment that was used before the modern tanks we are used to today, including the malting process.

There were still some horses in the stable which used to be used to deliver the beer throughout the brewery.  They also had a bunch of restored delivery trucks.

I enjoyed wandering around looking at all of the artifacts.  We were also told about the Burton Water supply and where the brewing liquor came from.  Apparently the water is not actually from the river, but a well which sits on a bed of gypsum.  That is the reason why the water is so good for brewing, because it is slightly harder.  The thing that kind of made me a bit upset is that there are several wells dipping into this well, but Molson Coors owns all of them.  They have a special agreement with the Heritage brewery (the museums in house brewery) but the small breweries in Burton end up using the municipal water which is not the same makeup.

I thought that was pretty sad that big beer was controlling all of the most famous brewing water in the world.  As mentioned the museum has a small in house brewery and so at the end of the tour we recieved two free pours of beer from the brewery.  They were of course Cask ales that were warm and flat, but they did have some darker beers which I typically don’t mind if they are warmer or flatter.

I had a chat with a nice British couple while i enjoyed my beer and we discussed the various breweries in the area.  After finishing my beers, I headed towards the river for a wander around the city.  There were two bars I wanted to hit up.  One was the Burton Bridge brewing company that did not open until later in the day and the Coopers Tavern which was apparently one of the original Bass pubs from way back in the day.  Since both of those places did not open until later in the day, I decided to head to the river and read for a while.

It was a nice stroll and there was also a bit of napping involved.  When the time came for the Burton Bridge brewing company to open, I headed on over and grabbed a beer.  There wasn’t anyone there so I just enjoyed two half pints on the patio outside.

I then headed over to Coopers Pub for a pint or two before catching the train back to Birmingham.

I talked to a few of the local guys in this pub and actually had a great time chatting beer with them.  Eventually, I had to catch the train however, so I said my goodbye and headed towards the train station.

I returned to Birmingham and had been in contact with my friend Ellie who I had met in Vietnam because she lived in the area and wanted to try and meet up for a drink that evening.  Unfortunately she missed one of the trains and so arrived a bit late which meant our time to catch up was short, but it was really fun to see familiar faces from my travels.

After saying goodbye to Ellie in the train station, I headed back to the hostel and enjoyed one more night in Birmingham (which I spent in the hostel)

The next morning I went for a run and then headed to the bus station for my trip up to Liverpool!!!!

A few Fun Facts I learned at the Brewery Museum:

• Molson Coors actually softens the water for their two flagship products, Carling and Coors light.
• Beer was served in ‘P’ints and ‘Q’uarts and so the bartender told rowdy patrons to Mind their Ps and Qs which is where the saying comes from.
• The accepted practice in Babylon 4000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink.  Mead is honey beer and because their months were lunar based this period was called the “honey month” or “Honeymoon”
• Bar tabs used to be recorded on slate with chalk, once the bar tab was paid off, the bartender would “wipe the slate clean” enabling the customer to make a fresh start.
• Before the advent of thermometers, brewers tested the temperature of their thumbs: too cold and the yeast wouldn’t grow and too hot it would die.  Therefore Rule of Thumb was born.