Promotion to Senior Brewer
Congratulations to Markie A on his promotion to Senior Brewer! We caught up with Mark to find out a bit more about the man and his beers……
Q: How long have you been at the Hogs Back Brewery?
A: 12 and a half years and counting!
Q: How did your career in brewing start?
A: I never planned on a career in brewing!
After a pretty tough year, from a personal and work point of view, I saw the job of Brewery Operative advertised in the local paper. I’m a Tongham boy, born and bred. I’ve lived in the village all my life, and still do, so I was very familiar with the brewery and always quite proud to have it in my village! I applied for the job, had an interview and initially didn’t get the job. But two weeks later, I had a call from Miles, the Head Brewer at the time, who realised he had made a terrible mistake and offered me the job. Once I started, got to know our beer and sampled some of the fantastic selection of beers from around the world in our Shop, I fell in love with beer and worked my way up to become Senior Brewer today!
Q: What changes have you seen at the Brewery since you started?
Too many to list! The Tap and Hangar Bar, the hop garden and growing our own hops, brewing a lager, filtration and kegging on site, and the more modern experimental brews we can now do with the One Planet brew kit are to name but a few. But for me, the biggest change is the efficiency of the brew team. Over the years, the amount of brews per week has increased, and so have the number of racks, filtration runs and kegging runs. Now we are brewing some of the Exmoor beers here as well, we are probably doing double than when I started in 2013. So it’s all about the efficiency of the Brewteam, without compromising on quality of course! And that’s all down to having a good team, who all care and are passionate about what we produce.
Q: How have beer styles changed over the last 5-10 years?
A: Since I've been at the Brewery, beer has changed incredibly! When I started, all I knew was Ale, Lager and Stout - that was it! Now since the great modern craft beer boom, we have anything from big, juicy, heavily-hopped double IPA's to insanely strong, almost tar-like imperial stouts, with all kinds of fruited sour beers and now even soft-pour ice cream style beers, that pour almost like a Mr Whippy! Beer has evolved way further than I ever imagined it would and in some very weird and wonderful ways – I’m all for it! Let the madness continue.
Q: What beer styles do you predict will do well in the future?
With the creativity of brewers these days, it’s very hard to predict. But a style I've recently been introduced to, and which we are seeing more of, is naturally fermented barrel aged fruit beers - a very hard beer to perfect and get right! But Lee at Terra Tempo is a master of the craft and is producing some of the best beers of this style on site here at Manor Farm.
Q: What excites you most about brewing?
A: Creating new recipes and trying new things using natural ingredients, like fruit for example, in Key Lime Pale. Taking a food or a flavour that I love and trying to recreate that in beer form is a challenge that excites me.
Q: What is your favourite beer to brew?
A: Tough question as I like brewing different beers for different reasons! But probably any of the dark beers we brew like OTT, Advent or Snout - just because I love the smell of the mash. The roasted and chocolate malts make the brewhouse smell incredible.
Q: What’s your favourite beer to drink?
A: My favourite beer of ours is Advent Ale, which is a bit of a bummer as it’s obviously only a seasonal so I can’t have it all year round! I love the flavour of the roasted malts, there's chocolate, there's fruit - a lot going on but still so easy to drink.
Q: Who would be your dream person to drink Advent Ale with?
A: My answer would always be my best friend, Laurence, who passed away. But other than Laurence, it would be Professor Brian Cox. As a very, very amateur astronomer and astrophotographer myself, I would love to sit and drink with him whilst he blows my mind with his knowledge of the universe. I wouldn't have a clue about 99% of what he was talking about, but I would be fascinated none the less!
We’re sure Mark will shine in his new role and we look forward to seeing some of his new creations in the brewhouse very soon.
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