Pub Tram!

Here we are in Helsinki, the Jewel of the Baltic, about to go for a tram journey. Not any old tram journey, but a very special tram journey, for this tram, bedecked in the Finnish beer Koff livery, is a pub! Unlike many former trams masquerading as restaurants and bars - the one in Prague's Wenceslas Square springs to mind - this Koff tram actually goes on a circuit of the Helsinki centre. The beer on board was the very tasty Koff pilsner and was a superb accompaniment to the tour of the old city with its achitectural gems. The small tables between the seats have holes cut out in which to keep one's glass steady whilst the tram trundles over the cobbles and points on its journey.

Gippis!

(Slàinte for the non-Finnish speakers)

Passing by one of the Alko off-licences which sell our Blackfriar

In typical Finnish style, the tram was furnished with polished wooden seats and tables with all the metal finishings in beautiful brass. The circular journey took about 45 minutes, plenty of time to sample the liquid gold with sufficient time for ample replenishment...and there is a very clean toilet on board for those who feel the need. I wanted to go around again (obviously to tick off my guide book recommendations of Jugendstil granite edifices), but was countermanded by the Lady Arlene, as a visit to the ceramic studio Arabia awaited us...

Well worth a visit if you are in Helsinki, and it's only one of the many pearls of delight in this truly wonderful city.

The small but perfectly-formed bar.

Slàinte, Ken

2,4,6,8 Let's all Coagulate!

What's all this stuff in my pint? Well it's not yeast this time and it's not even beer yet! The pint glass shows the 'cold break', from the rapidly cooled copper wort sample, dropping slowly as the flocs or little lumps of protein gather together or coagulate and fall to the bottom of the glass.

These proteins precipitate from the brilliantly clear hot wort as it is cooled and if we get a clear cold wort with what we call a 'good cold break' at the bottom of the glass like in the picture above, there is much rejoicing in the brewhouse, for it means that we shall have clarity in the beer. Without a good cold break, that is, one which does not settle out well and remains as a murky, cloudy wort, then there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth as this certainly means clarification issues ahead.

What the cold break tells us is that the wort has been boiled vigorously and strongly and for long enough (60 - 90 minutes) so that the ultra-microscopic protein particles are flung together at their iso-electric point, the pH at which the numbers of positive and negative particles are equal, and stick together to form large flocs - the 'hot break', which separates out leaving crystal clear wort in the copper. If the boil is not vigorous the wort will generally remain turbid - a bad word in a brewery!

However the cold break is a lovely sight to a brewer and is more proof that beer is a protein drink!

Slainte, Ken

Atholl Highlanders charge for a pint!

The Atholl Gathering took place on the last Sunday in May at Blair Castle under glorious sunshine, after the showers and gusty winds had disappeared. The last fully-armed private army in Europe, the Duke of Atholl's very own Atholl Highlanders, were on parade on the Highland Games field with the Pipes and Drums and their two-pounder field gun. The firing of the field gun at 1pm opened the games with a big bang. The annual Atholl Highlanders' Race (above) was great fun with your friendly neighbourhood brewer running as fast as he could to get to the firkin of Inkie Pinkie. I must confess I wasn't in the top quartile, but at least I wasn't in the last either, though I did win the rifle shooting trophy, beaing the gamekeepers and regular shooters! The beer went down rather quickly, we think it was something to do with the double quick tempo of the Atholl Highlanders march being played by Pipe Major...

The Highlanders continued the entertainment with a relay race between the Officers, Pipeband and Rifle Company, a very interesting Foursome Reel by a quartet of Officers, the Sword Dance from a trio of Jocks and finally a Tug o' War between the Band and the Rifle Company. A grand day out for all and washed down nicely with a pint or two of very tasty beer. Hope to see you there next year at Blair Castle on the last weekend in May.

Slàinte, Ken

Here Comes Summer!

To quote the mighty Undertones, a fave band of mine from the late 70's, 'Here comes Summer...' And to make it even better we've been brewing up plenty of our lovely summer session bevvy, the glorious Inkie Pinkie, as seen above in Greyfriars Bar near me in Perth last weekend. Only a dodgy mobile phone snap, but the beer was FAB!

Whistles whetted and feeling the desire for some summer sun, the Lady Arlenka and I headed over to the West Coast for some well deserved blue sky and high winds near Tarbert where those gorgeous Flowers of Scotland, the Bluebells (another fine band) were welcoming in the summer with relish. Perfect time for a pint of Inkie Pinkie? Mmm...

Back in Perth the next day it was time to strip down the boiler ready for its summer inspection by the Fat Controller. If ever you want to know what Thomas the Tank Engine looks like on the inside, look below now...

A big blue box with hundreds of tubes full of water that is boiled by flames (behind the blue section below) to create steam in the upper section, whence it is piped away to wheel-driving cylinders (in Thomas' case) or to steam jackets (in ours) to heat up water in the Hot Liquor Tank or wort in the Brew Kettle. Everything was in fine fettle for the inspection, so once the boiler was put back together the regulator was cranked up to full steam ahead and brewing began again to keep the summer drinkers happy. Toot Toot!

Steam whistling merrily from the very happy boiler with the very happy brewer whistling merrily away inside, very much looking forward to his pint of Inkie Pinkie. Slàinte, Ken

New for old! Our Laboratory Lives!

As you probably know, we have always been very careful in analysing our beer to improve it and to maintain the consistency of the flavours. The picture above shows our old laboratory techniques in yeast vitality and viability. I'm on the right with the lorgnette and sample flask and young Grima, our trainee brewer, is on the left with Richard, who started his brewing career in the lab of a long-gone Edinburgh brewery, in the middle. We are very fortunate to have our new lab, pictured below, with its state of the art equipment, which now has pride of place in the brewery itself, thus clearing space in the kitchen for the toaster and a new kettle.

Slainte, Ken

Blackfriar for Finland - Olut Suomen!

Here's your local brewmaster standing beside our new 60 bbl FV8 bedecked with Sinivalkoinen or the Finnish Flag to mark this brew of Blackfriar destined for our good friends in Finland in a few weeks time.
Gippis & Slàinte
Ken

The brewery's getting bigger!

We are very proud and pleased to announce the commissioning of our new Fermenting Vessel, Big Bertha, which is dwarfing the lovely Lady Arlenka on her Sunday visit. Big Bertha holds 60 barrels, 100 hectolitres or 20,000 bottles. She was a bit troublesome to get in position, with 2 cranes needed and lots of excited brewery folk watching from the viewing platform upstairs.

However she's all ready to brew into with 60 barrels of Blackfriars destined for Alko in Finland! Hurrah!

Slainte, Ken

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