The local beer scene

I live in Grantown on Spey in the heart of Speyside. The area is well known for its whisky production and we have more than half of Scotland's distilleries on our door step.

But what's the beer like...

The closest brewer to here is The Cairngorm Brewery along the road in Aviemore. They produce a big range of real ale type beers many of which have won awards. I'd say Tradewinds or Stag are probably their best offerings but to me a lot of the others are all very samey and it's hard to tell them apart/remember which ones are which. I will have to do a taste test one day and try a few of them together as I normally just have the odd one when out for a meal locally.

I don't often head to the pubs here but most of them you can get at least get a couple of the Cairngorm bottles and the Ben Mhor hotel usually has a cask or two of their stuff. Aviemore is much the same - Cairngorm bottles are available in most places including their shop at the brewery in the Dalfaber industrial estate.

Going by twitter there is a brewery starting up the road in Elgin - The Moray Brewery - so will be interesting to see what their beers are like when they are up and running. No sign of a website yet though.

Up the A9 in Inverness with the exception of some good pubs like The Castle tavern the beer selection is dire. This is disappointing given Inverness is the capital of the Highlands - a region with a great amount of small independent breweries. The amount of times I have seen tourists going in somewhere and asking for "a Scottish beer" and then sitting looking bewildered at a table of Tennents is far too often and it's a poor reflection on the highlands. There is an attitude here and I've heard this from folk in the restaurant trade - is that Invernessians don't want "fancy beers" so there's no point stocking them. Maybe if people were offered the choice they would buy them. It would be interesting to know how much locally produced beer is drank here vs how much heads down the A9 to Glasgow, Edinburgh and further a field.

Most places in Inverness stock the standard fare of the usual big brand suspects and if your lucky the odd bottle of either Cairngorm, Black Isle beers or some real ale hand pumps. Some places are better than others and you can get probably the biggest selection of Black Isle taps in Hootananny. (the spell check thinks Hootananny should be hooters... wonder what the 'wee frees' would think about a branch of them opening in Inverness!)

The Black Isle beers are great and definitely the best that the Highlands produce - something that is gaining them increasing recognition across the UK and further a field like Sweden and Italy. Their Red Kite was one of the first beers I enjoyed as I discovered beer can and should taste good and its one of those beers that every time you taste it hits you just how great it is. The range of beers is a good mix and do everything from Scotch Ale to Lager. There's no confusion as to what each one is -they do exactly what they say on the bottle.

The thing I love about them after their great tasting beers is their core range is simple and non beery folk know what they are. I know a lot of people who despite not being "into beer" will happily and confidently order a Black Isle Blonde. There's not many Scottish independent brewers that 'normal' folk can do that with. I also think their new subtly tweeked branding is spot on - it looks like its from 2012 not 1996 - its Scottish without being cringey - it shows it's organic without being hippyish and it tells you about the beer and their awards on the bottle without looking full of themselves. Their site also sells 330ml bottles - haven't seen these anywhere yet but a great move as not everyone wants the big 500ml bottles.

As well as Black Isle and Cairngorm the Highlands and Islands has no shortage of other brewers -of varying sizes including the Isle of Skye brewery, Sinclair's Orkney brewery, Highland Brewing Co, Loch Ness Brewery and no doubt some I missed. I'd be lying if I said I knew an awful lot about them all but have at least one or two beers from each of them. With the exception of Loch Ness - despite staying at the Ben Leva Hotel on the Great Glen Way. A day of walking then Fiddlers massive steak and few whiskys meant my bed was a more tempting prospect.

I also haven't yet had the chance to try anything from the brand new Cromarty Brewery but will be sure to try it when I see it somewhere - going by their site they already have it in a good few places so they are off to a good start. Their clean fresh branding is certainly a big plus in my book and makes me believe their tagline of "beer worth believing in".

Over the course of the blog I'll review any good local spots and any great local beers I find but expect most of my beer musings to be either after a trip over the Lecht to nearest quality beer shop in banchory or weekend away in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh. If there's anywhere or anything you'd recommend I'd love to hear about it.

First Post

I've been enjoying exploring craft beer for the past couple of years and have decided that it might be worth while keeping a blog. Currently the only record of all the great beers I've had is either pintley, the odd mobile phone pic from the pub or the recycling box out the back of the house.

I have never been that interested in doing the types of reviews on beer advocate or rate beer as they seem too stale, formulaic, bit pretentious and frankly dull. I'm sure these reviews have their place but cant see myself doing similar.

So I thought a good way to start the blog with my first post would be how show how I came to discover and love craft beer and the beers that took me here. Everything from the good the bad and the ugly.

So I might as well start at the start.

Like most Scottish people the first beers I drank were as a teenager - bottles of Miller or Bud at house parties back in the day and then onto pints of watered down Tennents for a quid when I went to uni when spending a tenner was an expensive night out!

I became good mates with a guy from Essex – Pete - who was the standard bearer for real ale in our flat and probably one of the few students that would rather a 'nice pint' of Spitfire over the more standard student fare of Snakebite or Sambuca. To be honest at the time I never really got it and thought of real ale to be the preserve of middle aged men in country pubs. I knew what I liked and it was cheap so I was sticking to it - much to Pete's frustration.

Over the next few years thanks to cheap flights I discovered my love of travel and saw beer in a totally new light. The 20p pints of pre EU Prague opened my eyes to the fact beer can and should taste good, the steins of beer and Austrian food in Klagenfurt showed me that there can be more to the experience than skulling pints and that all across Europe people are able to appreciate and enjoy a beer or two without the negative connotations and problems it has/causes here.

I gradually became more adventurous and remember thinking I was quite
sophisticated with a 4 pack of Brahma and home made curry.

I stuck with my Brahma's and similar kind of beers until I went on a trip with friends to Orkney and discovered Sinclair's Orkney ales. They were everywhere and we took a when in Rome attitude and enjoyed them every night. In the pubs we went to folk of all ages were drinking and enjoying them and there was no stuffiness or pretence about it.

I remember our conversation about Skull Splitter and our thinking that a 8% beer was crazy. We weren't brave enough to try it and I still never have despite now having no qualms or preconceptions about any abv of beer. The Orkney beer opened my eyes a bit to the fact that ale can be great and you didn't need a beard, home made jumper and sandals to enjoy it.

Over the next few years I tried everything and anything from Scottish brewers not really realising there was a world of beer that wasn't ale or wasn't 'euro fizz'...as Pete used to call the likes of Peroni.

Then I went to America...



If you'd have asked me a few years ago what American beer was I'd have said Bud and Coors light and that sort of thing, not that great, not that bad and nothing to write home about.

I fully expected the beers on offer to be exactly the same. Visiting family in Manchester, New Hampshire I soon discovered Shaskeen's Irish pub. Not the kind of Irish bar you find in most of the world with Sky sports, British stag parties and Guinness top hats. This place was the real thing with a great selection of beer and pub grub. I tried fair few beers over the course of my stay and remember Harpoon IPA in particular.

On a visit to Boston I went to check out Sam Adams brewery. The tour and tasting was fantastic. This more than anything kick started my love of craft beer. Though I know now Sam Adams is a lot lot bigger than the wee tour of a tiny brewery tucked away in a Boston neighbourhood makes out. Not that size dictates quality but I'm sure its open to (endless) debate that it is or isn't
craft beer. But who could argue with their slogan "take pride in your beer".

Semantics aside it was good old Sam that got me to appreciate beer, to taste it and really enjoy it. A Few months later once I was back in Scotland I saw Sam Adams lager in a Peckhams in Aberdeen - back when they had a decent selection of beer. A deli that now sells multipacks of Tennents is a bit of a joke and it's no surprise there's reports of them struggling - but that's another blog post.

I soon discovered Brooklyn, Goose Island, Sierra Nevada and all that sort of great American beer. I also finally understood what our own Brewdog were doing with the likes of 5am saint and Hardcore IPA. It was only after getting in to US beer that I started enjoying their beer.

I had a good year of trying any us craft beer I could find and then found myself back in the states for the 2^nd year running, this time armed with a bit more knowledge and interest in beer. I was able to try so much both in the East Coast and Northern California, even managed a wee inland detour from the coast to check out Sierra Nevada's brewery in Chico.

I loved in California that if you asked about beer in a restaurant the waitress/waiter would be knowledgeable and passionate about what you should try and what goes with your food. Which is
something I will return to in another post at some point.

Since my last trip to the States brewdog have launched their bars and they are now always part of my plan when venturing to Aberdeen, Glasgow or Edinburgh. Their bars and great passionate staff have given me the chance to discover some absolutely fantastic beers from the likes of Stone, Nøgne Ø , 3 Flyods and The Kernel.

Another thing that has happened is the big retailers like Tesco have upped their game with their beer range so Brooklyn Lager and Goose Island IPA are now staples of my beer shelf.

I also have sussed out the best independent shops to find great beer from Banchory to Glasgow which means the beer cubboard its always pretty healthy. With the added festive bonus of countless bottles of beer from people for Christmas/new year. So there's plenty of stuff to potentially blog about - The Rogue Yellow Snow IPA I had last night was great.

In the past few months I've started doing a bit of home brewing which
is really a great insight into what makes a great (or bad) beer and definitely
something that I'll blog about along the way.

So that has been my beer adventure to date and that wraps up my first blog post.

Time for a beer...

Cheers!