XT Brewery has been expanding capacity with the introduction of several new vessels: some built of modern stainless steel and some in very traditional oak.

XT BBBirra DonkeyThe brewery has purchased several large oak casks for the development of specialist barrel-aged beers. These casks have been crafted by the master cooper Alistair Simms, especially for the brewery.

He dropped into XT last month to see how the beers were developing and to deliver his latest creations. Virtually brewing royalty, Alistair is now the only master cooper left in England.

Joining the oak casks are several shiny new stainless steel tanks installed to expand capacity and enable more specialty Animal beers to be brewed. The tanks give greater flexibility for the brewers to make more complex recipes and age the beers longer before shipping.

Meanwhile, XT has been working on two collaboration beers. Donkey (4.8% ABV) is an Anglo Italian witbier created with BBBirra. Their head brewer, Carl, joined the team at XT and brought several of the speciality ingredients for the beer.

The pale, cloudy wheat brew has a spiced edge and hints of orange from Sardinian orange peel. The beer is named after the 15 donkeys Carl has on his farm and who eat all his spent brewer’s grain.

Joining forces with premium coffee microroastery in Oxford, Jericho Coffee Traders, and aided by the extensive coffee know-how of James and Lizzie, XT has created a coffee-infused pale ale, Animal Pukeko (4.6%).

Named after a delivery truck, the beer has a unique flavour hit of coffee and is topped off with a dash of New Zealand hops.

• XT IPA (4.2%) will be available in 330ml cans from June.