Moving House Part 2

We're in at last! Cancel the milk at the old place, let the postie know and find the kettle...

A few snaps from the move to the new brewery on Friday last week - Fergus bringing in pallets of bottles, Grima with 12 tonnes of malt, the floor full of casks and malt, boxes and the fitting out of the office with the phone and computer connections.

Today the phone lines and broadband are all up and running and we've had our first day of complete operations - brewing, cleaning and filling casks, sales and wondering where we're going to put the yeast fridge.

Chuffed to bits with the whole thing and looking forward to finding the kettle.

Moving House Part 1

Time out for a cuppa during the move. Which cup is the Head Brewer's? Mmm...
Pretty FVs all in a row!

Apologies to all for not being busy blogging recently, been kept busy in the planning and moving of all the brewery tanks and vessels from the existing brewery to our new site.

On Thursday last we even managed to move 2 fermenters : 30 barrel FV1 and 10 barrel FV5. Quite an exhausting and tense time for us as FV1 is quite a tall cylindro-conical vessel and had to be very carefully lowered down on to its side for loading on to the flatbed transporter. The lowering operation took 2 hours, whereas the drive 400 metres away took 4 minutes followed by 2 minutes of lifting upright and dropping into position! FV5 by comparison (the small black-clad tank on the right of the FV photo) is quite a short squat dish-bottomed tank which was simply forklifted upright onto the lorry....

This means we have now 160 barrels of fermentation capacity in the new site - which is the eqivalent of 46,080 pints. We still have to move two 20 bbl FVs yet, once we've moved the beer (Thrappledouser and Independence) out of them to the Conditioning Tanks before racking into casks. The CTs (as we call them) will be moved as soon as they are all emptied.

Whilst all this excitement goes on, we're putting the finishing touches to the new brewhouse, sorting out the electrics, cooling systems and giving the pumps and valves and pipework installations a thorough washing and cleaning to make sure everything is going just right before we finish up on the old brewhouse and make the break for the new one.

Tha sinn dochas gum bithidh a h-uile rud ceart gu leor agus gun toisichidh sinn san taigh-gruide againn ur a dh'aithghearr!

We hope that all will be well and that we'll start in our new brewery soon! Slàinte, Ken

Perth 800 Beer launched at Museum Extravaganza

Had a very hectic few weeks after getting back to the brewery after New Year. Deep snow which had lain since before Xmas, having partly thawed out and refrozen, creating a ice sheet for everyone to venture upon, made life at the brewery (and everywhere else) difficult. Forklifting pallets of malt, bottles and casks twixt brewery loading bay and lorry will become, I am sure, a new Winter Olympic sport with extra points awarded to the driver with the quickest digging out of the ice technique!

Now the big freeze is (we hope) behind us, we've been up to our usual mischief and launched a new brew - Perth 800, a lovely deep amber 4% ale to celebrate Perth's 800th anniversary. The launch party was held at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery with a cavalcade of minstrels, mummers and marvels celebrating the 800 year old history of the Fair City of Perth calling forth the days of yore when the town received its Royal Burgh Charter from King William the Lion in 1210.

Ask your local pub to get a cask in - I'll be making sure mine does!

Cheers for now, Ken

2010 here already!

Up on the Black Isle over Hogmanay with my pal Snowy about to toast the New Year. He's come prepared with a bottle of Ossian, sensible fellow that he is. He's been relishing the cold weather which has been keeping temperatures well below freezing for the past three weeks now, although it's been a bit of a struggle trying to get the brewery deliveries through. January's motto has become 'the beer must get through' as we can't let our drinkers down!

Here's to a good 2010 to you and yours!

Slàinte, Ken

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

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

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

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!

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!

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...