Pulling power

I’m only here for the beer, says my son, Dan. And Sophie, his 10-year-old sister says she’s only here to see the shire horses.

I can’t even stand the smell of beer, let alone the taste. So what am I doing at The National Brewery Centre when my idea of a good brew comes steaming hot and out of a packet marked ‘Yorkshire’?

We’re in the middle of Burton upon Trent, the modest Staffordshire town that they call the brewing capital of Britain. The town may be on the edge of The National Forest, but my initial impression is that there are more big and shiny silver towers, labelled Coors, here than there are trees. I’m here to discover what else this shrine to brewing has to offer besides, well, beer.

For one thing, you can walk above the water meadows along Burton’s landmark Ferry Bridge to view the beautiful floral displays at Stapenhill Gardens. There’s a tiny refreshments cabin at the Stapenhill end.

Just off the A38, south of Burton, is the National Memorial Arboretum, at Alrewas, home to the Armed Forces Memorial, which commemorates every member of the services killed as a result of terrorist action.

Not far away, five miles from M42 at junction 11, there’s also Sophie loves Conkers – mostly for its outdoor assault course, which is supposed to be for teenagers and older, and its extremely messy barefoot walk, which has washing facilities and a drier.

Conkers also has indoor and outdoor play areas, a train ride, sculpture trail and indoor, inter-active nature discovery zones.

But it’s the museum that dominates ,and it caters for all tastes, from beer enthusiasts from all over the world to budding home brewers, like Dan, and visitors like me, curious about how people lived and worked in the past.

Then there are the famous shire horses, the main focus of attention for animal-loving youngsters who can’t wait to get up close to these beautiful beasts.

In its former incarnation as the Coors Visitor Centre, though better known by its original name – The Bass Museum – it closed in 2008 amid an outcry from ale enthusiasts and a protest march through the streets of Burton.

In May last year, it reopened with new operators. Now it’s been heralded in the illustrious pages of the Los Angeles Times, no less, as one of three European museums to “look out for”after Princess Anne performed the official opening ceremony in September 2010.

That’s an awful lot of froth and fanfare to live up to. But Burton’s had plenty of practice, hundreds of years’ worth in fact. It’s maintained its reputation for the finest beers since the Middle Ages, when the monks of Burton Abbey were the town’s chief brewers.

Fast forward down the centuries and the centre’s new operators are keen to do just the same, spreading the word about this key part of Britain’s heritage. Their efforts have been fuelled by the opening of a new William Worthington micro brewery where visitors can see the brewers at work using traditional methods.

It’s easy to find Burton as you can spot the landmark brewery towers for miles. What is now called the Molson Coors (UK) brewery next to the centre, forms the largest brewery site in the UK. There’s free parking right beside the entrance or you can take a 15-minute walk or catch the bus from the town’s railway station.

Dan is driving, so fears that he won’t be able to try all the beer samples that are offered to visitors. The museum does stress that its tasting samples are designed to be “sufficiently sized to keep drivers safe when leaving”.

Adults can have four small glasses for their entry fee, including the celebrated White Shield, Red Shield or Worthington E. They can enjoy them either in The Beehive Inn, a cosy Edwardian-style bar with overstuffed leather seats and stacks of traditional pub games, in the more sophisticated The Brewery Tap across the courtyard, or in the micro brewery itself.

Before Dan and Sophie get too absorbed in their games of dominoes or pub skittles in The Beehive, I whisk them off to learn more about what makes Burton famous.

At one time there were 33 breweries. In 1921, some 21,000 people were employed in the industry. Nowadays, the number is in the hundreds. Breweries may have dwindled to just a few, but Burton’s legacy lives on.

Dan is desperate to discover what makes a good beer. Huge plastic barrels of his own concoction are bubbling away rather alarmingly in the cupboard under his stairs.

It’s the special qualities of the mineral-rich water, percolating up through the gypsum beds of the Trent Valley that ‘make’ Burton’s ales, especially the pale ale for which the town is renowned.

Before the Victorians brought in sanitation and pure water supplies, drinking unboiled water could well have given you typhoid. Hence the fact that beer was such a vital part of the daily diet.

The monks may have got their ‘special’ water from St Modwen’s well in the town, but they preferred – on health grounds, you understand – to drink a couple of gallons of ale per day instead.

‘Mrs Crump’, the friendly landlady of The Beehive Inn, tells us that it wasn’t so long ago that the toughened seasonal labourers, who came over from Norfolk to shovel the malt, would, to keep themselves hydrated, down eight pints of ale during their 18-hour shifts.

Its intriguing windows into a bygone age like this, is opened up by some of the entertaining characters in period costume . Among them are brewery workers and an inn keeper, and Michael Thomas Bass II, the Bass brewery founder’s philanthropic grandson, who became an MP.

Sophie trots off to peer in to a massive fermenting copper.

Cleaning this could well have been dangerous work. The cleaner would have had to use a lighted candle to test first for carbon dioxide, which would sometimes collect in the bottom, otherwise he could have suffocated.

The barley had to be turned using a shovel to ensure it germinated evenly. This was a job which required great stamina and skill. Imagine working a 54-60-hour week, which these men did in 1900.

These exhibits certainly make our own brewer think. Dan says: “When I make my beer, I buy a kit and a couple of cans, a packet of yeast and some sugar, so it is interesting to see the rest of the process, instead of cheating.”

In Dan’s house, quality control of the home brew is carried out by his friend, Tom, who has had to drink three pints of it before being able to pronounce it “passable”.

In days gone, by this job would have been done by ‘conners’, who wore leather breeches. The conner would pour the ale on to a wooden bench and sit in the pool of ale for a half hour. If he then stuck to the bench, the ale was too sugary..

A distinct look of collusion passes between Dan and Sophie. I suspect they might try this out at home. Time to exit.

Earlier in our tour, I’d read the comments of an anonymous visitor to the town in 1882. “One no sooner enters the town of Burton than he begins to be oppressed by a sense of brewery on the brain.”

That’s still very obviously so; the pride the locals take in their brewery heritage is in no danger of going flat.

GETTING THERE...

• The fantastic eco-friendly YHA Youth Hostel in Bath Lane, Moira (Tel: 0845 371 9672; www.yha.org.uk) is next to the Conkers Camping and Caravanning Club site (Tel: 01283 224925; www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk). You can get a bus to Burton from very close by. Both are open to non-members.

• Visit www.enjoystaffordshire.com

• Admission prices to the museum. Open 10am-6pm all year, except Christmas Day. (Tel: 01283 532 880 www.nationalbrewerycentre.co.uk).

• Sophie loves Conkers. Tel: 01283 216633: www.visitconkers.com.

• The National Memorial Arboretum. Tel: 01283 792 333; www.thenma.org.uk