THE rise of craft ale has been nothing short of a phenomenon with new beers, breweries and specialist bars cropping up all the time.

Now a microbrewery is offering fans a greater insight into how small batch beer is made with a brewery experience day.

The all-day session at Brewhouse and Kitchen pub chain is basically like a brewery tour and tutored tasting mixed with some hands-on work with the brewers where you get the rewarding experience of creating a beer from scratch.

Weekend was invited to try it out at the Wilmslow branch where we met head brewer Jake Astbury and Andy Moore, one of just four apprentice brewers in the UK.

Brewhouse and Kitchen opened in Portsmouth in 2013 and now has 19 sites across the country.

Each of the pubs has a microbrewery and, as the head brewer for Wilmslow, Jake gets to choose the styles of beer and come up with the recipes.

His customers range from those who prefer traditional real ales to fans of the likes hoppy and 'new world' beers and so pints on cask and keg reflect this.

For example the traditional ruby ale is one of Jake's most popular beers but he also recently made a 'cream ale' for the first time which is a popular beer in the States and a cross between a lager and an ale.

Most of the beer names offer little nods to Wilmslow so a pale ale called Secret Genius is a reference to one of the town's most significant residents, Alan Turing who cracked the Enigma Code.

And occasionally Jake collaborates on special editions with different groups like Unite Exotic, an experimental pineapple and coconut IPA.

But this time we were tasked with making a 'chocolate caramel oatmeal stout'.

One of the great things about the experience was how informal it was. You get to know the other amateur brewers over breakfast and then Jake talked us all through the process and some of the ingredients like the American Summit hops to add bitterness and the chocolate malt.

That's right – unfortunately no real chocolate was used in the brew – but like certain hops can give off strong fruit flavours, malt can do the same for chocolate.

Jake and Andy had already heated the hot water tank in preparation for our brew so the first part of the process for us was adding pale ale malt as a sort of base for the beer to a vessel called the mash tun.

That part is great fun because when the malt and water come together it is like mixing a giant bowl of porridge with an aroma like Horlicks. Then the chocolate malt was added which gives the stout its flavour and colour.

Those in the group each took it in turns with various responsibilities as the bittering hops and – in a first for the brewhouse – caramel were added before the liquid went into the fermenter for just under two weeks where the yeast would turn the sweet mixture into alcohol.

We also learnt things like the scientific process behind it all, how the spent grain is removed, how the equipment and vessels are maintained and how they can test and control things like the strength of the beer.

But there was a lot of 'babysitting' too where Jake and Andy just had to check everything was going as planned.

So what do you during downtime at a microbrewery and pub?

Have a beer of course – the experience also includes lunch and tastings throughout the day and Jake was an excellent host as he talked us through all his ales and tasting notes.

Sadly, you cannot try the beer you have made straight away as it has to be left to ferment but if you want to complete the cycle you can reserve a mini keg of it to take home when it's ready or come back to sample it on or after 'tapping day' which is what we did.

As educational as it is fun, the brewery experience is a unique day out for any beer fan and although expensive, at £85 per person, I think it is worth it particularly as the head brewer is with you all day and it includes food, many beers and a 5l keg to take home. Cheers

For more information about the experience or to book visit brewhouseandkitchen.com/academy