In a new series of features, The Northern Echo’s business team put down their notepads and pens to experience a variety of professions. Deputy Business Editor Steven Hugill finds out what it’s like to work as a brewer at the Black Sheep Brewery, in North Yorkshire

IT’S a cliche, but being paid to make beer sounds like a dream job. As I arrive at Black Sheep Brewery to put in a shift as a brewer, however, the dream is shaken by reality. It is 6.50am and dark clouds are unleashing driving rain, turning the road into a river. Walking through the barreling section, its machinery standing idle, I get a sense of the volume of ale that has passed through this building from the smell of countless brews wafting through the air.

The company doesn’t bottle its beers in Masham – that’s done at Robinsons Brewery, in Stockport – but its casks are filled here.

I’m met by shift brewers Rob Pitt and Chris Pearson, and then Phil Douglas, who will guide me through the various processes. There’s a lot of pride and satisfaction here which, as Phil points out, is reflected in the product. He said: “Consistency and quality is everything for us.

“You need four raw ingredients to make our beer, and it is all about the liquid – which is why we do a lot of work on the quality side of our products.

“We make very wholesome products using fresh English products.”

About two hours ago, the boilers were fired up in readiness.

Phil leads me to a mashing tub, where we being the process of making 200 barrels of Black Sheep Ale.

I’m handed a large temperature gauge, which I use to check the heat of the malted barley and wheat as it melds together with hot and cold water.

The water is introduced to the mixture by Phil, who carefully adjusts the temperature to create what brewers know as liquor.

Minutes later, the mash is deposited in the tub.

On the first stage of its journey to the pump, we leave it to brew and move on to another part of the process.

Phil takes me back through the barrelling section, its machinery whirring into action.

We walk along a raised gangway overlooking a number of fermenting vessels.

Brews from earlier in the week are being monitored to ensure they are developing.

Phil hands me a metal container on a chain. I lower it into the liquid, wait for it to fill, and drag it back up. Phil takes it away to a nearby sink area to check if the mixture contains the correct amount of alcohol.

PROGRESS noted in a pad, we return to the mashing area where I help Rob and Chris as wort begins to run into the copper.

“Wort” is the liquid extract that comes from the brewing process and contains the sugars that produce alcohol.

Before we boil the brew, I head off to the hops room, which offers a brief respite from the heat.

Hops provide the bitter flavour and aromas of Black Sheep’s catalogue of ales, which include its All Creatures and Riggwelter lines.

Like mini bales of hay, each one is arranged neatly in its own wooden casing.

They are packed tightly and breaking them up in bags to be transferred to the boiling brew cannot be done by hand.

The Northern Echo: Measuring the alcohol content
Measuring the alcohol content

I’m handed an axe and, immediately, the different aromas become apparent. The one I’ve been given to break up gives off a citrus smell, with another reminding me of Bovril, and after filling the sack I go back to the copper and tip it in, steam enveloping my face.

As the boil continues for about an hour, a wagon arrives outside, the wipers working furiously in rain.

Its black and white canvas back advertising the Black Sheep brand in large letters crumples as it is pulled open.

A forklift driver is in the barrelling area moving the multicoloured casks into the wagon for despatch to pubs across the Yorkshire Dales and the wider area.

Black Sheep Ale also finds its way onto supermarket shelves and is enjoyed by cricket fans at Yorkshire’s Headingley ground after the firm signed a partnership with the historic club.

BACK inside, and the boiled wort is strained to remove the hops before it is cooled on the way to the fermenting vessels.

The beer takes about two weeks to condition and my time as a brewer is drawing to a close as the second shift begin their day preparing the next batch.

However, there’s still time to carry out one of the most important parts of the day. The taste test.

Phil takes me up to the bar and allows me to pull my own pint of Black Sheep Ale.

I savour every mouthful, appreciating another side to the brew having had the opportunity to see how much work goes into it.

Perhaps those bar room cliches are true after all.

There are certainly worse jobs . . .