National Brewery Centre

*Please subscribe to our YouTube channel here.

We visited the National Brewery Centre in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. It was a very interesting visit as we learned about brewing through the ages. We discovered that the actual brewing process hasn’t really changed over the years, just the scale of the process has changed. I have to wonder about the relationship between making a cup of tea and making beer though. Some people refer to making a cup of tea as ‘making a brew’ and beer is brewed. Also during the beer brewing process, the beer is allowed to ‘mash’ or ‘steep’, which are also terms used in making a cup of tea.

We also looked at the different ways of transporting the beer to pubs. We met a beautiful shire horse called Jed, who became John’s new best friend, and saw some of the dreys that shire horses like Jed, would have pulled to deliver the beer. There was also a collection of old trucks that were used for deliveries, including some that looked quite novel as they were in the shape of a beer barrel and a beer bottle!

When you pay your entrance fee to go into the centre, you are given three tokens that allow you to sample the beer. One token gets you a third of a pint, two gets you half a pint and three gives you a pint. This allows to sample up to three different types of beer, should you want to. For under 18s, their tokens allow them to get a soft drink. I didn’t pay an entrance fee as I went in as a carer, so I didn’t get any tokens. I didn’t mind because I don’t like the taste of beer and I don’t really drink anyway.

We found it to be accessible, although there were some exhibits George couldn’t see because they weren’t wheelchair accessible. The staff were helpful and friendly too. We’d definitely visit again.

The video is below.