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!

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!

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!

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!

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!