For a company faced by all the daunting problems of the modern brewing industry, the Visitors Centre and Brewery Experience presents to the world an image of optimism, craftsmanship, pride in tradition and, above all, a rare good humour. The new premises were based in and around a redundant windmill that once ground the grain for farmers and brewers. It remains a potent landmark as you enter Wainfleet from the Boston-Skegness road. The mill has lost its arms, but stands proud across the bridge over the River Haven, an ivy-smothered tower that acts as a beacon of welcome and good cheer. The main area of the visitor centre offers an imaginative exposition of the brewing process.
Visitors can follow the harvesting of barley and the steeping, malting and kilning of the grain.
First Gold is one of the modern varieties that grow to half the height of conventional hops, making them easier to pick. The brewing process follows the mashing of the grain in a mash tun, boiling the sweet liquid or wort in a copper with hops, and then reaching fruition in a fermenter as yeast vigorously transforms brewing sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The importance of quality and product control is emphasised by a laboratory and a tasters' room, while the arcane art of the cask-maker is shown in detail in a coopers' shop complete with the vast range of tools used to fashion wooden beer containers. The brewing process is enlivened by humour. There are photographs of dozens of tradtional breweries, a collection of 4,500 beer bottles from around the world, started by George Bateman in 1953, and, rather surprisingly, a corner devoted to the American version of Budweiser lager.