It's a Foam Party!

I thought I'd show you a few photos taken inside FV6 last week at the start of the fermentation of Ossian brew #2166. The above picture was taken 2 hours after the wort was all in the tank - you can see the yeast head staring to cover the surface of the wort.

1 hour later and the stiff peaks of the yeast foam start poking out.

Another hour gone by and the whole head of yeast is looking like the Cuillins.

3 hours after the first pictiure and the Cairngorms are about to climb out of the fermenter! Shut the lid quick!

Hash Bash

This Saturday we had a group of 100 runners from the Hash House Harriers run to the brewery and enjoy some of our fine ales after their exertions. The pints above pulled by Graeme and George were just for starters!

The 'Down Downs' or Hash punishments for misdemeanors committed during the run. Running in step, singing ABBA songs or just wearing odd-coloured socks were typical crimes with the guilty party being ridiculed publicly by the Finesmaster - the big sergeant-major type above.

After the Hashers left, we carried on making sure that all the barrels were empty and were entertained by Andrew and Euan on the pipes which they only got this week. Well played boys!

Beer gone now. Ok, who's going to clean up the mess?

My trip home

I'm lucky enough to be able to cycle to work every day. My journey home takes me from the brewery eastwards along the River Almond under the old A9 road bridge (above) then south alongside the River Tay. It's a lovely ride even in the rain and snow - plenty of wild life such as deer, rabbits, stoats and foxes. Birds of all sorts too - kingfishers, herons, buzzards, swans and wrens. This old bridge is a favourite haunt of Mr. Heron and I hear his other-wordly croak almost every day here.

The view west towards Scone Palace where the Lia Fail or the Stone of Destiny was kept at the Abbey for hundreds of years for the Kings of Scotland to be crowned upon. It was the inspiration for our scrumptious dark ale Lia Fail.

Dunsinane Hill in the distance, made famous by Shakespeare's Macbeth. That's barley growing below it. For beer of course.

Perth's Old Bridge seen from the North Inch, a lovely riverside park and sports field, where the Battle of the Clans took place in 1396. Only a few hundred metres ride home for me now, then a quick cup of tea and change out of my work clothes and off to Greyfriars for a pint of Friar's Tipple. Slainte!

New for Old

Here's a photo of our existing Masher (mixer of the malt with hot water) on the left beside our new Masher from the new brewhouse. It gives an idea of how much larger the new brewery will be - instead of mashing in 300 kg of malt with 900 litres of hot water in 20 minutes, we'll be able to do 750 kg malt with 2250 litres in the same time. Wow!

New addition to the Brewery Fleet

Our good friend, Paddy Buckley-Jones, let me take a snap of Fiona, our Heriot-Watt summer student, in his fabulous RS sportster. The pic doesn't show it but there is a polypin of Ossian and a polypin of Thrappledouser by the front seat. What a great dray!

Great British Beer Festival (2)

Fergus, Dixie and I (R to L) outside the Jerusalem Tavern, Farringdon in London before heading off to the GBBF at Earl's Court. Top pub, tip top beer also. We'd started off at the Old Mitre in Hatton Garden for a pint at its Scottish Beer Fest but my camera batteries had run out so no pic there.

Independence and Lia Fail on the bar - I'll have a swift half please. By the way, do you know who brews these fine ales? Answers on a postcard please...

Chief of Sales Dixie and Managing Director Fergus trying not to look like kids in a candy store with all that beer about. And there was an awful lot of beer.

Czech interlude here - Adam Matuška and his girlfriend Karolina from the Matuška MicroBrewery in Czech Republic. Delicious wheat beer fresh from the kegs he'd driven over 2 days before. Na zdraví!

Ok...I think it's time to get the train home.

Great British Beer Festival

On the late brew today, as Richard did the early first brew this morning. I mashed in at 1pm, cast the copper at 6pm, topping up FV5 with the 2nd brew of Ossian. Cleaning the wort line and paraflow at the moment, so have a few minutes to add to the blog.

Very excited today as Fergus and I are off to London for the Great British Beer Festival tonight on the night train at 23.21 from Perth Station platform 4. Not quite Hogwart's express but if there's any magic in the air we'll catch a few zeds before tomorrow's exhausting schedule.

First call is the London Scottish drill hall in Victoria (only London source of bottle Ossian) for a cuppa and shower, then off to the Old Mitre Tavern, Hatton Garden (a regular draught customer of ours), the Jerusalem Tavern in Farringdon for a bite to eat and a pint of St Peter's Ale, then off to the Beerfest at Earls' Court. Homeward bound on the night train from Euston at 21.15. Mashing in at 6am Wednesday, if train's on time....

Bohemian Rhapsody

On a cycling holiday in South Bohemia recently I came across some fine beer. Here's me in the lovely town of Český Krumlov toasting its Eggenberg Brewery with its very nice pale lager.

Every brewer loves hops and what could be more fitting for a brewery than to have its own hop garden. This one is in front of the Zvikov Castle Brewery . The hops are the noble aromatic Saaz variety, which we use in our Independence Ale and Sunburst Pilsner. Great to see them in their native land!

They have a beautiful copper brewhouse with an amazing mural with the traditional Czech brewer's motto - Dej Bůh štěstí (May God give happiness). The brewery is also an inn with rooms above the brewhouse. Very comfy beds.

Brewmaster Michal Voldrich brews a wonderful selection of classic Czech beers, including this very special dark lager at a stunning 12% abv. He insisted on giving us a tasting finishing up with this glorious bottle-conditioned brew, called the Port amongst Beers, aged for 18 months and served in a chilled chalice. Perfect at 9 o'clock in the morning. Na zdraví or slàinte!

Welcome to Mash Tun Musings!

Welcome to Mash Tun Musings aka the Brewer's blog! I hope you'll like what I have to say - mainly on the subject of beer, but I suspect malt and hops might creep in occasionally as well!

To get things started here's a potted history of our new brewery in full colour from March up to last Friday 17 July.

Steel framework complete with my Raleigh Banana bike to give the building scale.

Concrete floor down and office partitions going in.

Yippee! Big lorries and Hi-Ab cranes with new brewery kit.

Our three new fermenters still in bubble wrap! Wort Kettle and Mash Tun on right.

Top and tailing the Hot Liquor Tank.

A bit of elbow grease from John, Malc and Fiona.

We're still a few months away from the first brew in the new site as there's a good deal of engineering and commissioning work ahead of us, so in the meantime, enjoy your beer!

Slàinte,

Ken