A day off from practical things – we went to the brewery and distillery in Southwold, in which I have a few shares.  They look after their shareholders very well – with good reason; a few years ago there was a hostile takeover bid which was voted down with the help of the individual shareholders, who appreciate the quality and good reputation of the company.  Twice a year, they offer a visit round the whole place – the brewery/distillery and the distribution centre a mile or so out of town, followed by lunch.  I knew LT would enjoy it and, though I’ve been a couple of times ago, I looked forward to it too.

The latest bit of kit is two astonishing copper stills, which look more like something out of a Jules Verne book than anything else.  Their unique quality as a distillery is that they don’t buy in the alcohol base, but make it from scratch – initially, it’s the same process as making beer, but without the hops.  The gin has become really popular, and they’re working on the whisky (which has to be matured for years, which is the reason little has been made available yet), hence the two new stills.  The process is described here.

After the tour, we sat down to lunch – I’ve been here before so knew that the sandwiches and canapés brought round were only the start – my neighbour (the other side of LT) didn’t and helped himself fairly liberally.  I paced myself…

When we got home, my cleaners had just arrived, so we sat down with the papers and dozed off to the sound of hoovering and scrubbing, which was jolly good.  And we just had a kipper and a slice of brown bread each for supper.  Though I had made it out to my clarinet lesson in the early evening.