How jokey home brew competition led Lloyd into a new profession

F there was one beer that people kept mentioning at the recent Derby Heritage Beer Festival, it was Crich Brewery's Voodoo Lady, a modestly strong stout at 4.3%.

- COLSTON CRAWFORD

When I tried it, it was certainly my favourite among the dozen or so I tasted; flavoursome without being overbearing, and it was the first beer to sell out at the event.

Crich Brewery have gained quite a reputation in the last year or so, with several licensees mentioning how good the beers were, so this week, having been unable to fix a date previously, I headed up to the brewery, now in premises at Campbell Street, Belper, to have a chat with owner Lloyd Stringer.

The Crich brewery and tap house is delightful, in a pleasant courtyard and in a historic unit with cobbled floors right next to the railway - I guess you soon get used to the trains rolling by.

Lloyd is one of those - and there are quite a few - for whom brewing as a business almost happened by accident after starting out as a home brewer.

That he is very good at it is evidenced by the repeat orders which are keeping him busy.

A teacher by profession, Lloyd kept on having to reduce his teaching hours until he was forced to recognise that he now had a new trade.

"I started doing home brew probably getting on for 15 years ago, just buying Wilkinson's kits, one where you just add the water and yeast and hope for the best," he says.

"Then, a few years running, me and some friends tried to get tickets for the Robin Hood beer festival in Nottingham.

"We always managed to apply when it was sold out, so we sort of jokingly said, we'll just do own beer festival.

"Me and seven or eight of my friends bought kits and brewed a different beer each and had our own festival at my house.