Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The very best of the season's greetings to you all. We've been very busy at the brewery (above today in the ice and snow, -12c outside) making sure that all our customers get deliveries and brewing sufficient beer for the New Year.
I'll be raising a glass of Ossian to all followed by a wee minikeg of Lia Fail with dinner tonight at a pal's...
Here's to you all for the the coming year, or we say in Gaelic, Nollaig Chridheil 's Bliadhna Mhath Ùr!
Slàinte, Ken

Monday, December 14, 2009

Loch Katrine Odyssey

It's been a while since we had warm sunny days as we approach mid-winter in Scotland, so I thought I'd share with you our search for a pint on a balmy late October Sunday.
Starting point was the Trossachs Pier, where the Lady Arlene and I boarded the SS Sir Walter Scott above with our bikes to sail to Stronaclachar at the western end of Loch Katrine. A beautiful and interesting boat trip on the old steamer over Loch Katrine with the added attraction of having a bottle of Ossian in the cafe on the forward deck.
Approaching Stronaclachar Pier, where there is really good cafe. This is where we alighted the vessel and set off on the bikes beside Loch Arklet for Inversnaid, which lies on the western side of Loch Lomond. Fab scenery but very, very steep hills down to the big loch.

The Lady Arlene enjoying a cuppa and a piece (Scots for sandwich) at Inversnaid Pier overlooking Loch Lomond and Ben Vorlich in the distance. Sitting in the sun - what pleasure!

Cycling back through Glen Arklet back towards Stronaclachar and another cuppa. Feeling very chipper having made it up the hill from Inversnaid without collapsing.

On the north side of Loch Katrine looking back towards Stronaclachar.

Just past the Strone Farmhouse with the Trossachs and Ben A'an in the distance. You might just make out the SS Sir Walter Scott as the white speck above right of the Lady Arlene's head.

After a lovely ride back along the north shore of the loch to Trossachs Pier, we headed into the Anchor's Rest above for a well deserved pint of Ossian before heading back to the brewery to check the fermentations and set the temperature and timer on the hot liquor tank on for Monday's brew of...yes, you guessed it,


Cheers! Ken

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Mill Train in Position on Mezzanine

Our Malt Hopper (the table structure in foreground) is now in place with the screw conveyor (the white tube) taking the malt up to the Mill on the mezzanine floor. The BIG BLUE VALVE is the gas main supply.
Upstairs the red Mill crushes the grain and the next bendy white tube conveyor takes it up to the top of the Grist Case with its 1 tonne capacity. When we mash in (mixing the grist with hot water in the mash tun) there is a third screw conveyor to take the grist from the grist case bottom to the Mash Mixer on top of the Mash Tun.
Most of the major construction work is complete in the new brewery but as I've said before, there is still plenty to do - steam boiler, lagging of pipework (all 2.7 kilometres of it!), refrigeration, electrics, motors and pump refurbishment, let alone bringing over the existing fermenters and conditioning tanks from the present brewery....

Our e-shop is now open for business!

Great news all you beer lovers - the Inveralmond Brewery e-shop is now open for business and already taking mail orders without us telling anyone about it! Oh the wonders of the web!
We're still working on the shop site and the brewery web pages are going through a bit of a revamp, but you'll see a nice change over the next few weeks.
The shopping pages are very straightforward, so go and have a good look around. In fact I do believe that there is the perfect Xmas gift for everyone!

Happy shopping, Ken

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Ossian sparkling at jewellery exhibition

Ossian was featured to great acclaim at silver jeweller and Friend of Inveralmond Brewery Islay Spalding's Xmas Extravaganza in Dundee this weekend. Along with her really groovy Biomorphs and Kilt Pins, the star of the show was sparkling bright and spreading joy and cheer to all!
Thanks Islay!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Chì Mi 'n Geamhradh - I'll see the Winter

Chì Mi 'n Geamhradh
I See The Winter - a great Gaelic folk tune, haunting and sorrowful about a life's love lost for ever, which was popularised by the rock band Runrig.
So winter is on its way and all the leaves are off the trees - my favourite ash tree behind the new brewery is devoid of its greenery unlike the following picture of the same spot taken in the height of summer.
Unlike for the lovelorn bard, there is hope, for the leaves will grow anew, the days will get longer after the winter solstice and spring will come and we shall brew in the new brewery...but in the meantime we can enjoy the winter with our Xmas beer Santa's Swallie!Hints of cinnamon and nutmeg in a lightly hopped malty ale - yum yum!

Cheers, Ken

The Inveralmond Electric Brewery

A very proud and pleased Fergus stands beside our brand new 400 amp, 3 phase electric power supply. The meter/switching box contains its very own cellphone so that meter readings can be sent by SMS back to the electricity company. A very contemporary electricity meter that fits in very well with our new brewery equipment. And now we can put the lights on in the evening!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Hive of Activity

Plenty of welding, cutting, brazing, dieing, crimping and buffing going on at the new brewery. Scaffolding and ladders, pipes and pipe-bridges, overstruts and understruts, flying buttresses and suspended supports...
Looking over the top of the mash tun and wort copper from above the office area. A whole mess of pipes: cold liquor, hot liquor, steam, hot wort, sparge, CIP, condensate, gas - and all in pretty colours too!
Can't wait to get going, but still a great deal to do yet - grist case and grist conveyor, copper chimney, boiler gas connection, boiler chimney, refrigeration system, heat exchanger, cold store, mash tun rake drive gear etc etc...

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Men at Work on Big Fuse Box

At long last after many months the new electricity substation for the new brewery has been installed. The electricity people have been digging up the road and laying new cables and are finishing off the connections.

What a modern substation looks like inside - more of a big switch and fuse box really.

The lads pondering where the really big wirecutters are.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Our yeast makes great bread, pies and buns as well as award-winning beer

Swedish kanelbullar or cardamom and cinnamon whirls, straight out the oven. Perfect with a cup of coffee and a chat with friends - Fika as they say in Sweden.

My weekly loaf of Czech-style bread - 800g wholemeal wheat 200g wholemeal rye and a spoonful of aniseed. Dobrou chut'!
My 50/50 wheat/rye loaf - slow proving (rising) over a day and a night in my cold kitchen - a dense moist loaf and slightly sourdough-ish from the wild yeasts and lactics on the rye flour.

Apple and bramble pie with yeast pastry - lower fat than shortcrust but just as scrumptious.

Two apple and damson pies or pirogs - Russian-style yeast pastry turnover pies. They look a bit darker and shinier from the beaten eggwash glaze.
All of the above go really well with Ossian, although the sweet pastries and buns work well with the richness and maltiness of Lia Fail. Well here's to the joys of yeast - Slàinte!
Ken

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Shipment of Inveralmond Beer off to Stockholm

Hej!

We've just sent a shipment of our lovely ale off to Stockholm in Sweden to be on sale at Akkurat in Södermalm. It's an excellent pub/restaurant/music venue in a really lovely part of Stockholm and well worth a visit for its amazing choice of beer. The knäckebröd or local crispbread is fab too!
Hej Då och Skål!

Ken

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Ossian in London

Was down in London last weekend to go to the London Scottish Regiment's 150th Messines dinner, held to celebrate the Regiment's tradition, soldiers and fallen. There I was able to sup on the lovely Ossian which as ever was on fine form and it was great to see so many of the Jocks, as we call the serving soldiers, enjoying a pint or three.
The top table with the First World War Memorial behind.


I had a very good evening catching up with chums of old and even managed to catch the last train back to my digs at Richmond with an exciting change of train at Clapham Junction, which seemed to me to have hundreds of platforms - all looking exactly the same....

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

View from Upstairs

Here's very proud Managing Director Fergus standing on the mezzanine floor above the offices with the new fermenters with their shiny copper refrigeration pipework and general fitting out work in progress behind.
A view of the FV gantry -transportation bubble wrap still on the vessels themselves. The gantry is to be extended to the left over the copper pipes to meet up with mezzanine floor and the ladder is to be replaced by a proper staircase, complete with landing and naughty step for recidivist brewers!
Our valve hoard! Now should the handles point to the left or the right...?
Ill let you know my decision next week.
Cheers,
Ken

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Pipework in Progress

At long last the gas folk have laid a lovely yellow gas pipe from the main over the road to our new brewery. The pipe leads into our shiny British Racing Green meter housing and finishes in a blanked-off end. Still waiting on the meter itself, but the tunnel for the gas pipe into the brewery building is to be dug out tomorrow.

Shiny copper pipes for the internal brewhouse water supply and tank refrigeration system which are being installed all around the walls at high level.

The new grist case awaiting some modifications to increase its capacity to 1 tonne of malt grist - basically an extra strip of stainless steel (316 for the technical) 300mm wide welded onto the sides.
I'll keep you posted with any updates in the new brewery, but certainly at the moment it's very exciting.
Cheerio for now, Ken

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Baka baka liten kaka!

Hej!
Had a wonderful time over in beautiful Stockholm, met some great people and drank some fabulous beer! The Beer & Whisky Festival was amazing - plenty of beer from all over Sweden and the World (including of course our own Ossian and Lia Fail in bottle). For the dram lover also loads of whisky too from Denmark, Sweden, North America and even Scotland as well.
Many thanks (Tak så mycket, Madde) to our importer Brewery International Sweden for the excellent hospitality and pub tour.
Tasted lovely Swedish beer from Jämtlands, Nynäshamn Steam Brewery, Nils Oscar from Nyköping near Skåvsta Airport, Gotland from that Baltic island and Åbro from Vimmerby a couple of hundred kms south of Stockholm.
Nice food too - really good rye bread, gravadlax (salmon marinated in dill), lingonberries, herring - fried or marinated - and cracking knäckebröd (crispbread). Found a farmers' market in Södermalm in Katarina Bangata (off Götgatan) where I could have bought bags of everything from cheese to crayfish.
One thing about Sweden I liked very much was fika - the institution of having a cup of coffee and a sweet bun in a cozy cafe over hours of chatting. My favourite was the cardamom flavoured cinnamon bun or kanelbulle.
I'm inspired to bake my own Swedish buns, which are made from yeast pastry - hence the title of this blog from the Swedish nursery rhyme - Bake, bake, little cake!
Njuta mat och dryck! Skål!
Enjoy your food and drink! Slàinte!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Stockholm Whisky & Beer Festival

Hej!
Tomorrow the good lady and I are off to Stockholm for a few days. There is an abundance of design shops and galleries she wants to see but most exciting of all is the Whisky and Beer Festival.

Our Swedish distributor has a stand and we'll be helping out on the Saturday, so maybe we'll see some of you there.

Been watching Wallander on the TV and going through the Ingmar Bergman film collection to brush up on my Swedish - seen The Seventh Seal 6 times, only one more to go but my chess is still rubbish!

Hej Då och Skål!
Cheerio and Cheers!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Bryggeri Tur i Svenska

Hej! Välkommen till Inveralmond Bryggeriet.

Jag talar inte mycket svenska men jag ska försöka att skriva det här bra för våra svenska vänner, som Lars och hans kompisar fran Helsingborg, som var i bryggeriet nyligen. Vi brygger öl i tre etapper: Mäskning, Vörtkökning och Jäsning.

Mäskning - Vi krossar färdiggrodda malt, som Fiona förbereder här
och blandar det med varmt vatten i Mäskning Tanken.
Stärkelsen omvandlass till socker och vörten, som vättkan kallas, får en söktaktig smak.
Vörten flöden från mäskning tanken till vörtkokare
Vörtkökning - För att få sötwörten besk, kokas den tillsammans med humlen i timme och en halv. Så ju mer humle, desto beskare öl. Utöver humle ger ölet doft - därför så mer humle, desto doftare öl.
Här i Inveralmond Bryggeriet vi tillsätter mycket humle Jäsning - Vörten gå in på Jästanken, när vi tillsätter vårt eget jäst. Tio liter av jäst i varje brygd. Här vi har överjäsning, som tar tre dagari i arton och en halv Celsius. När jäsning är klar, har jästen stigit upp till ytan av vörten och det ser ut som ett beige-brunt bomullstäcke. Smaken på skummet är strävt beskt , eftersom jästen skum innehåller många hop bittra föreningar. Överjäsning få öl med fruktig och blommig karaktär.
Jastank
Efterjäsningen sker sedan i kylt (6 grader Celsius) mognande tank - i vårt bryggeri bara två eller tre dagar tills ölet bedöms vara redo att gå in i tunnor, eftersom överjäsning öl är fort öl och behöver inte en lång mognad. Mognande Tankar
Då vi fyller enkelt fåtta med ölet och bort till puben.
Heja! Skål!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Ossian in its natural habitat

Found a few pictures involving Ossian - one of my favourites. 'S e leann blasda a th'ann - it's tasty beer. This picture was from a barbeque on the Black Isle on a glorious summer's day.

Your local friendly neighbourhood brewmaster about to sample the fine Ossian in bottle complementing the olives and crisps on the table at a luncheon in the Sidlaw Hills.

Three happy drinkers from the Atholl Highlanders praising the speed at which the Ossian firkin was emptied at the Atholl Gathering 2009 - and hoping desperately that there was another cask in the tent.

A rooftop cask with a sensational pint awaiting the thirsty photographer at a housewarming in Perth a fortnight ago. The spire in the background belongs to St. Leonard-in-the-Fields Church. The firkin (of 72 pints) was empty after only an hour and a half!