Live Brewing Action # 4 - Hubble Bubble and Trubble!

Live Brewing Action (the series) continues with a wee video of the Ossian wort boiling for all its worth in the kettle.

We brewers are called thus for our habit of boiling. We've heard the expression 'putting on a brew' for boiling the kettle for a cup of tea or coffee, but in the brewer's world, putting on a brew means boiling the wort. We boil for several reasons - to sterilise the wort to avoid any off-tasting bacterial infections, to evaporate any excess water to reach the correct initial specific gravity for the beer, to extract the bittering resins and aromatic essential oils from the hops and to ensure clarity in the beer with a vigorous boil by clumping together unwanted protein hazes with hop tannins, which become the trub (hence trubble of the title) or sediment after the boil is finished.

The quality of the vid isn't that great but you can see that there's plenty going on in there.

Slainte! Ken

Kalevala Day - where's the Sampo?

The Defence of the Sampo by Gallen-Kallela

Tänään on Kalevalan Päivä, jolloin vietetään Suomen Kultturista. Eläköön Sinivalkoinen ja Olutta!

Today is Finland's Kalevala Day, when the great national epic is celebrated all over Finland. The best way to do this is with some sahti, the traditional cottage ale flavoured with juniper and then some Blackfriar!

Slàinte ja Kippis!

Ken

PS The Sampo is the great prize in the tale of the Kalevala, which gives health, wealth and happiness to the Finns.

Hallo Finland! Part 2...

In my last blog I wrote in Finnish, or what sort of resembles it, over a weekend with the help of a variety of dictionaries, grammar notes, my father's old Teach Yourself Finnish book and the interweb Finnish university language pages with much thanks to the authors of the wide range of Finnish brewing pages for the more technical brewing words.

Since many readers don't understand Finnish, I was asked to give a translation, so here goes:

''Hallo to our Finnish Friends!

My Tankard in Greyfrars beside a very nice bottle of ale...

Today I thought I'd write a few words about our beer Blackfriar. This wonderfully dark and mysteriously strong ale has been accepted by ALKO (which is the Finnish State Off-Licence Board). I am chuffed to bits about this.

Blackfriar is named after one of the three former monasteries in Perth, Grey, White and Black Friars, so called after the colour of the monks' habits. They were destroyed after the Reformation in 16th century, but the names live on still. Whitefriars is a suburb now, Greyfriars is now an old graveyard and also the name of my local pub, where I have my own tankard above. Being a brewmaster has its privileges! Blackfriars, where James 1 of Scotland was murdered by traitors in 1437, is now the name of some buildings beside the River Tay, but more importantly, receives acclaim and glory as our delicious ale.

The taste of the ale is outstanding, with a strong vinous aroma mixing with Fuggles and Styrian Goldings hops, going then to a warming dark chocolate malty palate and finishing with the soft bitterness, which continues on and makes the drinker taste it once more. At 7% abv, it's an ale to sip slowly with a good book, such as the Kalevala, the famed Finnish epic poem, perhaps looking at Chapter 20, 'On Slaughtering and Brewing'! Listening also to Sibelius' Finlandia Suite or even the Leningrad Cowboys (an esteemed Finnish Rock 'n Roll band renowned for their quiffs, wraparound shades and winklepickers, let alone their riotous assemblies with the Red Army Choir!).

I'm cooking tonight with a bottle of Blackfriar for some friends over for dinner. Venison shoulder, Blackfriar and juniper berries slow oven-roasted for a rich spicy gravy. I'm looking forward to it already...

Now I've got to get the dinner organised. Where's my bottle opener?

Kippis or as we say in Scotland,

Slàinte, Ken''

Hei Suomi!

Hei meidän suomalaisia ystäviä!

Tänään ajattelin, että haluan kirjoittaa muutaman sanan olut Blackfriar. Tämä ihanan tumma ja salaperäinen voimakas olut on hyväksynyt Alko. Olen hyvin iloinen tästä. Pahoittelen huonoa kieltä ja oikeinkirjoitusta - suomalaisia opettelen. Oppimen kreikan ja latinan vuosia ja puhuminem Gaelin ja Tsekin auttaa paljon!

Blackfriar on nimetty yksi 3 entisen luostarit Perth - Harmaa, Valkoinen ja Musta Friars (munkki). He saivat nimensä väristä munkkien kaavun. Luostarit tuhottiin vuonna 16. vuosisadn aikana uskonnollisia ongelmia, mutta nimet elävät tänään. Whitefriars on lähio nyt, Greyfriars on vanhan hautausmaan ja on myos nimi minun paikalliseen pubiin, jossa minulla on oma kolpakko. Että pääoluenpanija on etuoikeuksia! Blackfriars, jossa kuningas Jaako 1 Skotlannin murhasi petturit vuonna 1437, on nyt nimi rakennusryhmä Tayjoen, ja mikä tärkeintä, saa suosiota ja kunniaa niin herkullisia olut.

Maku olut erinomainen, voimakas viinistä tuoksu sekoittamalla Fuggle ja Golding humala, menee sitten lämpeneminen tummaa suklaata maltainen maku ja lopuksi viimeistely pehmeä katkeraan loppuun, jonka pitää käynnissä, ja tyontää juomari maun uudelleen. Klo 7% alkoholia on olutta juoden hitaasti hyvä kirja, kuten Kalevala (ehka luku 20 'teurastuksesta ja oluenpano'!) ja kuunnella Finlandia J. Sibelius tai jopa Leningrad Cowboys...

Olen keitetään pullon Blackfriar tänä iltana ystävien minun metsästysseura. Red Deer hirvenliha olkapää, Blackfriar ja katajanmarjat kypsennetään uunissa hitasti rikas mausteinen kastike. Jo minä odotan sitä...

Nyt minun täytyy mennä valmistelemaan keittioon. Missä on pullo-avaaja?

Kippis tai kuten sanomme Skotlannissa, Slàinte!
Ken

There's a new kid in town!

Well, it's been a while since I last posted a blog, what with the festive season and the seriously wintry weather we've been having. First I'd like to wish all our readers and drinkers a Happy New Year and toast them with a pint of our new brew fresh out in the pubs from the conditioning tank - Duncan's Inspirational Pale Ale! That is a picture of my first pint of the brew in a pub. I can't tell you how much I was looking forward to it...

As you can see it's a scrumptious beer, inspired by the India Pale Ales of yesteryear - hoppy, bitter and golden. At 4.4% it has a good quaffing strength and with a spicy hoppy bouquet from Czech Saaz hops together with gentle floral notes from the noble Goldings, there's plenty to keep hopheads happy. Malty in the mouth and finishing with a goodly drying bitterness, it's tip-top to push the boat out on a journey into the Wonderful World of Beer.

I hope you all enjoy Duncan's IPA, I know I will!
Slàinte, Ken

Christmas comes already!

Went for a wee bevvy last night in Perth and to my delight in the Old Ship in Skinnergate, were these 3 Kings of Beer. Pundie, a warming dark amber wintery ale, Santa's Swallie with its seasonal hints of nutmeg and cinnamon and Lia Fail, the Stone of Destiny in all its dark mystery. The Old Ship, one of my regular haunts, is reputed to be Perth's oldest pub, named for the sailing ships that used to ply up and down the Tay River in days gone by. Perth had a busy trade with Scandinavia and the Hanseatic ports of the Baltic and ships would come right up the river to the bottom of the High Street, off which stands the Old Ship. The bar has a fabulous nautical painting well worth a look - although it's a Turner-style 100-gun Man o' War rather than a trading vessel. The river is still used by trading ships from the Baltic but the harbour is now downstream about a mile.
Happy Christmas to you all and enjoy your Swallie, wherever you may be.
Slainte, Ken

Danish Whisky Blog meets Mash Tun Musings

Anybody know what the white stuff on the top of everything is? Answers on a postcard marked 'Come back, Summer!'

Well, in the last fortnight, we've had tons of it - and it's freezing also. Makes walking, running, cycling and even just trundling down to the pub difficult. However, pubs have been visited and beer has been enjoyed by your correspondent and our good friend Steffen from Danish Whisky Blog. Here we are below at the Bon Accord in Glasgow, a top notch boozer and purveyor of ales of distinction. I was at the bar with the Lady Arlene, supping away, when this young gentleman in a rather fine tweed bunnet comes over and proclaims to me, 'Inveralmond!' He knows the secret password to a long life and happiness, I think to myself, but it turned out that he recognised me from a visit to our brewery SEVEN years ago. He is the Danish Whisky Blogger and wanted to tell me what a great time he and his friends from Denmark had experienced on our tour. Thank you, Steffen. See you next time in our bigger brewery with bar and tasting lounge.

For all of you out in Blogland who are short of Xmas pressies for your nearest and dearest, we will be opening up our shop on Saturday 18 December (last Saturday before Xmas) from 11 - 4 for the sale of our lovely beers, t-shirts, gift packs, minikegs, glasses etc etc together with Free Tastings. Hope to meet some of you all then.
Slainte, Ken

Planet Yeast

In the words of a very wise man, ''That's no moon, that's a yeast sample under the microscope''... It does look a bit moonish, but the craters aren't craters, they are yeast cells. I took this photo with my ordinary camera, just using the Macro/close up feature, and holding the lens right over one of our microscope eyepieces. To the eye, what one sees is more like the picture below, but the joys of photography gives this interesting view of Planet Yeast. Each cell is between 5 -10 micrometres across (1 micrometre is a thousandth of a millimetre), so teensy-weensy is the correct technical size.

We always have a look at our yeast before we add it to the wort in the fermenting vessel to make sure it's in good condition before it does its fermenting, eating up the wort sugars to create alcohol, CO2 and the flavour.
You can see the cells are mainly in little clumps, or flocs, because at the end of a fermentation when the young beer is nearly ready and we start to cool the tank down to 6 degrees C, the cells tend to clump together or flocculate. This is just a Latin-based word meaning to clump together like sheep in a flock. When they flocculate, the yeast cells sink down to the bottom of the FV, where we can draw off the yeast after 36 hours. We brew ale and we do use an ale yeast, but it is a bottom-cropping, top-fermenting strain. We select some of the yeast from one of the brews each week to brew with the following week, so that we are continually repitching from week to week. This week is the 523rd generation of our current yeast stock.

We are very grateful to our yeast because it does the hard work to create the complex fermentation flavours in our beers and we would have any beer without it!

Thank you, our wee yeastie beasties!

Slainte, Ken

International Organoleptic Evaluation in Inveralmond Brewery Tasting Suite

Had a few brewing friends staying over from Czech Republic at the end of October and to celebrate Czech National Day on 28 October we had a wee tasting, or organoleptic evaluation as we brewers like to call it, in the brewery bar and tasting suite. Above left is Ales Dvorak, technical brewer at Budvar Budweiser, pulling a pint of Ossian for Oudak, former Chief Test Pilot for Czech Air Force. It was also my birthday, so we tasted everything from Santa's Swallie to Pundie...

We did manage to get out and about to other places of refreshment - here is the gang in the Ericht Alehouse, a fine estaminet in the heart of Blairgowrie. Landlord Kenny Fraser gave us a grand tour of his cellar with quite a technical discussion following on the topic of the Scottish style of vertical extraction from an upright cask, as opposed to the English fashion from a tap in a cask on its belly. Beside the inglenook we were entertained by the most excellent Laurence Blair Oliphant (in kilt) who had showed us around his fine sixteenth century home with its wonderful Jacobite relics. In the middle is our good friend Honza Suran, from Pivovarsky Dum in Prague, trying our Sunburst Pilsner, fermented with his yeast!

Later on back at HQ, after the sampling and evaluations had continued for a wee while, MD Fergus took a video of the 'Massed Pipes and Drums of the Inveralmond Brewery' playing at the party - ok, yes it was more than a mere tasting, it was a hoolie and a half! Here's the video .

Just to show that organoleptic evaluation is truly international and full of cultural exchange, here's a few shots from the Budvar Budweiser brewery:

Slàinte and Na Zdràvi! Ken

Brewery Bar Open!

Great News - the bar at the brewery was officially opened last week. The happy crew pictured are toasting the first evening of tasting, sampling and supping. Pundie was the beer of choice, as it's our special brew for October and November. A fine malty dark amber ale of 1049 OG and 5 % abv. Pleasing to the eye, sensational on the palate, it went down exceedingly well in the bar.

Slàinte, Ken

Ossian up the hill!

Looking through some photos last night I came across this picture taken in August '03. Your humble correspondent is clutching his bottle of Ossian (old label) with glee having walked, scrambled and generally puffed up Meall nan Tarmachan (hill of the ptarmigans) by Loch Tay. The beer was enjoyed with gusto before tramping down to Glen Lyon where the tent was erected much to the midgies delight!

Slàinte,

Young(er) Ken

ps The kilt for those interested is of the Hodden Grey, worn by my old London Scottish Regiment.

The Malts of Islay

Following from last month's malt tutorial, I thought we'd move on to other kinds of malt, namely, Single Malt Whiskies from Islay. The big difference with malted barley for whisky is that the malt tends to be dried or kilned with peat smoke, giving these island malts their phenolic or smoky character.

Getting the ferry over was straightforward from Kennacraig on the Kintyre peninisula. With only three cars and our two bikes on the big ferry, having plenty of room in the forrard Coffee Cabin was nice. This was formerly The Bar, but it was reassuring to hear the announcement that 'in the Coffee Cabin were being served teas, coffees, soft drinks and REFRESHMENTS...'

So a bottle of Islay Finlaggan Ale was ordered along with a large Bunnahabhainn.

At Port Askaig looking over the Sound of Islay towards the Paps of Jura thankful we'd made it thither in time to enjoy a wee refreshment under the sun. Caol Ila (The Sound of Islay) and Bunnahabhainn (rivermouth) are about 1 mile and 5 miles respectively north of Port Askaig.

The Mash Tun at Bruaichladdich with its 6 and a quarter tonne malt charge. The mixing gear rotates once every hour to let the wort or distillery wash flow out through the sieved bottom before it gets cooled and fermented in the washbacks. After a 3 day fermentation where all the malt sugars get turned to alcohol (at about 6%, very warm at 35C and quite sour), the whole contents of the washback are distilled twice in the big stills below.

The spirit safe with its big shiny padlock (but for why, you ask) showing the raw spirit flowing out of the condensers. Slàinte Mhòr! Crystal clear as you can see for the golden colour of whisky comes from the wooden barrels used for aging the spirit. Scotch Whisky demands aging for at least 3 years and a day, but only since 1914, before which it could be sold direct from the still. Fiery, sharp and pungent, unlike the mellow, aromatic and warming liquor we know and adore.

A wee collage of our distillery adventures which include a detour to beautiful Jura

A Special Mention in Dispatches to Vicky Stephens, Laphroaig's visitor centre manager, whom we discovered is a Beer Enthusiast and looking forward to tasting some Swedish beers at the Stockholm Whisky & Beer Festival, where she's exhibiting some of Laphroaig's finest. Tapadh leatsa, Vicky, airson tiodhlac snog blasda (Thanks very much for your tasty wee gift).

Keeping up with the beer theme, we popped in to see Paul, below, beside his mash tun at Islay Ales by Bridgend and had a wee discussion on brewing whilst Arlene, herself a veteran of plenty of brewery technical discussions, visited the Chocolate Shop, the Batik Shop and Islay Quilters next door. Islay Ales were on draught at the excellent Port Charlotte Hotel.

But of course being on a cycle/camping trip we were travelling extra light, so I had taken over a mere 6 bottles of Ossian in my saddle bags and the only way to lighten the load further was to give them away to interested parties (ie brewers or distillers!) or drink them toasting the fabulous scenery and people of Islay. Here's me tucking into a fine malt by Lagavulin Bay.

We'd recommend Islay to anyone. Lovely place, great rain, wind, sun and scenery. Malt Whisky galore. And Arlene met some very courteous Ileach kye too! A h-Ile boidheach àlainn brìagha!
O Islay - lovely,bonnie and braw!

Slàinte, Ken