A marriage of science and gut instinct will inform the beers served up by Totally Brewed at the Robin Hood Beer and Cider Festival, as the Nottingham-based brewery makes its return to the event.

The festival will be staged at the home of Nottinghamshire CCC from Wednesday 12 to Saturday 15 October, with tickets on sale now. Secure your spot here...

Totally Brewed owner Rob Witt, a former landscape gardener and microbiology student turned Head Brewer, relishes the opportunity for experimentation the event brings.

“The crowd at the beer festival can be more willing to try something new, which is really exciting,” he said.

“For example, we brewed a wit beer with jalapenos and lime, which sounded strange but ended up winning a competition!

“Since then, we’ve been able to experiment a bit more, adding cumin seeds and cinnamon for a beer called Tijuana Build a Snowman, which has gone down really well at festivals and is now something we offer more regularly.

“There’s so many things you can try – we’ve added tonka beans, which give a really intense vanilla taste, to a dark beer with cocoa nibs, and it’s made for a nice sweet beer with a bit more body than usual.

“We’re working on some more new beers for the Robin Hood Festival this year too.”

After spending nigh-on a decade as a home-brewer, Witt has turned his hobby into an award-winning profession.

He feels the alchemy required to create the perfect beer brings together both sides of his personality.

Team Totally Brewed

“Brewing is very scientific as well as creative, so it’s definitely the right job for my character,” he explained.

“When you’re working on a new beer, it’s the creative side of your brain that gets going first.

“It begins with the way you perceive the flavours you can get from the hops, malt and yeast, then you work out what else you could throw in there as an experiment.

“But then the process can become quite scientific – whether that’s the temperature you might dry-hop a beer at, or the enzymes you might try to activate – it’s almost a scientific equation by that point.

“I came to Nottingham to do a Microbiology degree, but I had no interest in brewing at that point, so it’s great that it’s all come in handy in the end!”

Success in the Nottingham Home Brew competition in the early 2010s paved the way for Witt to turn professional – and the Totally Brewed supremo remains firmly in touch with the industry’s grassroots.

Indeed, he feels some of the more innovative beers are now created in the comfort of brewers’ homes.

“Each year, the winner of the Nottingham Home Brew has their beer served at the festival. I brewed the beer of last year’s winner, and that person is now a commercial brewer, which is great to see,” he said.

“Being a judge is an entirely different role to get used to. It can be hard to know what’s objectively a good beer, even if sometimes it’s easy to tell when it’s a bad one!

“But the home brewers can be at the forefront of the industry in many ways, as they operate on a scale which means they can be more innovative. And the equipment you can buy these days is a far cry from when I started out with some buckets and a cheap kettle!

“The whole Beer Festival experience – from being there as a brewer to judging, or just taking in the music and entertainment on offer – is great fun, and I’m really looking forward to this year.”

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