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

Malt for Beginners

Here is some Pale Ale Malt which is the base for all our ales. Malt is barley that has been germinated (or grown) for a few days to allow enzymes in the grain to turn the hard concrete-like starch into a crumbly soft form easily dissolved into water. Then the malt is dried and cured or kilned in a huge oven. The drying and kilning processes take many forms which give us many different kinds of malt. Pale Ale Malt is the one which is merely dried then very lightly kilned. Pale Ale Malt will account for at least 85% of the grist (or the grain bill) of any of our ales. Other malts can be Caramel, Crystal, Dark Crystal or Chocolate Malts to name but a few of those that we use. Below there's a shot of 4 kinds of malt that we use every week.

From L to R we have Pale Ale, Caramel, Dark Crystal and Chocolate Malt. You can see that the colours are getting darker with each type. Caramel and the Crystal Malts are caramelised, by stewing the wet grain at 65C so that the enzymes in the malt go one stage further by turning the starch into sugars, then the heat is raised and the moisture is allowed to evaporate so that the sugars inside the grain crystallise (hence crystal in the name) and caramelise giving rich luscious toffee flavours. The more the malt is caramelised, the darker the colour. The Chocolate Malt (named for its resemblance, not taste, to the bean!) on the right is very dark and roasted much like a coffee bean, more like espresso coffee and even has the aroma of coffee. In brewing terms all the malts have a colour number - Pale Ale is around 4 - 6, Caramel Malt 25 -35, Crystal 125 -150, Dark Crystal 400 and Chocolate about 1100.

Beer gets its malty characters and colour from the malt types used in the mash tun. As I said before, Pale Ale Malt or Pale Malt as we tend to call it, makes up the majority of a brew, but we'll add some of the darker malts depending on the flavour we want. Ossian, a golden ale, has less than 4% of its grist as the very lightly coloured Caramel Malt, whereas Lia Fail, quite a dark, strong and more robust flavoured brew, has just less than 2% of the Dark Crystal and just over 1% of the Chocolate Malt. The darker the malt, the less is needed to make a substantial difference to the colour and flavour. A normal stout, which you cannot see through in a pint glass, for example, usually has no more than 8% of the highly roasted Chocolate Malt to give it that coffee-like, almost burnt-biscuity character with the rest of the grist being Pale Malt.

If, however, we only use a small proportion, about 2% say, of highly-coloured malt, such as Dark Crystal, we can get a coppery, amber hue with just enough of the luscious caramel richness of that special malt as in Santa's Swallie, which we brewed for export to the USA and Scandinavia last month.

Merry Christmas, when it comes and may it be malty!
Slàinte, Ken

Thrappledouser on Tour!

Went down to Hertfordshire this weekend for the wedding of an old pal and managed to find our Thrappledouser on tap in a few places in St. Albans. Also had a scrumptious Sunday Roast at the Crystal Palace, a lovely canalside pub in Berkhamsted after perusing Berkhamsted Castle (above). Thanks to Tina and Pete (below right) for a great afternoon.

Off to St. Albans now and the selection at the Boot - a lovely ancient pub with a well-kent beer in the middle!

I think the expression is '' Dingly-Dell''

Went for a wee touristy jaunt around the town and saw a pub sign for the White Lion up a side street. Intrigued, we headed up and inside and through into the beer garden where there was a beerfest! Yippee!
And Thrappledouser was on the bar inside as well. Huzzah!

To top the whole thing there was also a second beerfest at the White Hart one street away...Oh my goodness...

Slàinte, Ken

The kettle's coming to the boil...

More Live Brewing Action with a wee film of the Ossian wort last week coming to the boil in the kettle, or copper, as it's sometimes called. The reason the wort is spinning around slowly is from tangential pumping or whirlpooling to mix the wort thoroughly before the boil begins, so that we can get the correct specific gravity for that particular brew before the boil starts. Each beer has its own specific gravity or Original Gravity, in Ossian's case 1.0420 or as we always say, 1042 OG as in 'Ten Forty Two'.

This is what the actual boil looks like - the steam created causes a bit of havoc for most amateur cameras (like mine!) but this gives an idea of the ferocious nature of a boil. We're not looking for a simmer or a gentle boil but a good rolling boil which helps the malt proteins stick to the hop tannins thus creating the Hot Break, or clumps of protein and tannins, which helps to clarify the finished beer.

One thing to remember about brewing is that boiling, or brewing, is at the heart of what it's all about - that's why we are called brewers and not fermenters or barrellers, even though boiling is only part of the operation to make beer.

Anyway time to put the kettle on...

Slàinte, Ken

Stylish Premium Quaffing in Rome

SPQR - Senatus PopulusQue Romae- 'the Senate and People of Rome' - found on many a Roman inscription and upon the eagle standards of the legions on their march northwards into Scotland in 79AD under Agricola, who set up camp along the River Tay in Perth - Bertha in Latin - now has a new meaning.

Ossian, our champion award-winning supremely golden ale, is now on sale in the Eternal City at the Coliseum in Rome courtesy of our importer Johnny's Off-Licence (http://www.offlicense.it/). Two years past, Arlene and I had a wee break in Rome, our 'Roman Holiday', even including Vespa rides around the Forum and the Coliseum, before a very pleasant afternoon spent in Johnny's Off-Licence sampling the glorious Ossian.

Fresh supplies arriving at Johnny's Off-Licence

Therefore SPQR also stands for Stylish Premium Quaffing in Rome!

Salute!
Ken

Great British Ossian Fest

Off down to London for the Great British BeerFest on Tuesday for the afternoon session. Looking forward to it as there's 4 kilderkins of Ossian and 4 kilderkins of Sunburst up for drinking. Hope to catch up with some customers there too...
Slàinte
Ken

Pilsner yeast arrives!

Our very good friend and beer expert Honza Suran from Pivovarsky Dum in Prague sent us a wee package this week. A new shipment, ok, it's only half a kilo, of lager yeast for our very own Sunburst Pilsner, which we'll be brewing on Friday into FV4.

I'll have to do a little bit of TLC on the yeast, which is pressed and chilled at the moment. Not quite ready yet to do battle with those scrumptious malt sugars in the wort and work its magic by turning them into CO2 and alcohol - with the right flavour, of course - so that's tomorrow's task: put the yeast through a mini-brew of 10 litres to get it into the right condition for a brew of 5,000 litres!

But in the meantime, thanks Honza! Diky moc Panovi!

Na Zdravi,

Ken

Loch Tummel Delight

On Sunday went up to the Loch Tummel Inn for lunch. Glorious weather as you can see and we sat out enjoying an Ossian and an Independence with our lunch. Smashing!

Very different to the last time we were there back in February on our bikes when the loch was pretty much frozen over and when Schiehallion and the other big hills were completely hidden by the clouds. Also the Inn was open, as we'd ridden past it then at 9 in the morning...

Oh, the joys of summer!

Cheers

Ken

Laying it on thick!

An action shot of the lads laying the new tarmac in the brewery yard. Until now it's been a mixture of hardcore, rubble, mud and slush, when wet, or hardcore, rubble, dust and more dust whipped up by the prevailing south-westerly winds. I was very impressed with the work and true to their word, after two hours I was able to take our forklift on to the new surface loading up a lorry without damaging the tarmac!

Also makes for super roller-disco!

Cheers, Ken

Our barley growing nicely

We're not becoming farmers, but I was given a barley seed a few months back. I planted it in the pot and lo and behold, there it is growing well just in front of the brewery office. The variety is Flagon, which is a good for malting and is one of the varieties we use in our beer. As of today, it has 7 ears full of seeds so I'm hoping for a good harvest. I'll keep you posted on the continued growth...
Slàinte, Ken

Cycling for Beer, Part 17- the Bridges of Almond.

Went on a wee jaunt on the old velocipede with the Lady Arlenka on Sunday following the River Almond upstream from the brewery. Our name, Inveralmond, means the confluence of the Almond and another river, in our case, the mighty Tay only 500 metres downstream. So after doing the FV gravity checks it was on the bikes and Westwards Ho!

The Old Inverness Road bridge, where Mr. Heron likes to gather lunch for his family.

The Railway Bridge

The Auld Brig at South Ardittie

Same bridge but from the South looking towards the Sma' Glen, where lies Ossian's Stone and Grave.

That well known spot most looked for on an ordnance survey map, PH - for Public House. In this case, the Chapelhill Inn, with Don the Landlord who serves great beer (Perth 800 in the glasses) and cooks up really fine dining. We could have spent all afternoon there soaking up the sun from the south looking over Strathalmond. But there was more cycling to do...

The Brig at Buchanty Spout -where there are cataracts which give rise to a huge spout of water when the river is in spate.

The view upstream from the brig westwards to the Spout. It's a lovely spot, great for picnics, but for us it meant a brew up on the camping kettle and a sausage sizzle. Yum yum.

On the homeward run now, looking back towards the Sma' Glen. There's an old Roman signal station on the hill on the left. This was the route in 84BC the Legions under Agricola took to head north to do battle with the Calgacus and his Caledonians at Mons Graupius in the Grampians.

40 minutes later, mostly downhill, with bikes back in the hoose, over the road and into Greyfriars enjoying the fruits of our labours. Arlenka on the Thrappledouser and me on the Perth 800. Yum yum again!

Slainte, Ken

Tanks for the beer!

Our first tanker being filled with Lia Fail for bottling on Tuesday last week. One big long hose from the FVs (3 of them) and one pump going for 75 mins to fill the shiny tanker. Up to now we have used transportable 5 barrel tanks loaded on to a flatbed lorry taking a whole day, but this breakthrough in beer transfer size, made possible by our bigger brewlength and fermenter capacity, means it's a lot simpler and better for the beer to get the beer by this size of tanker off to the bottling hall. Enough for 29,000 bottles!

Below is your humble correspondent enjoying the view from another tank, an old ex-army 432APC near Alford in Aberdeenshire recently.

Ok then, off to the pub. Forward!

Slainte! Ken

Ossian wins again!

Had some fabulous news on Thursday when we visited the Aberdeen Beerfest - Ossian had been crowned the CAMRA Champion Golden Ale of Scotland 2010. Tremendous news, which Fergus and I had to celebrate by having a pint of the golden wonder. I can report that the Ossian did live up to its new-found glory - which is what I would expect and demand, since I brew it!

Here's a shot of M.D. Fergus with extreme marathon runner Mark Raffan, one of Ossian's champions, at the Beerfest, toasting the win.

Mark is going to do the Caledonian Challenge this weekend, which involves a forced march from Fort William to Milngavie along the West Highland Way. He doesn't think that's strenuous enough, so he is going to run the 54 miles up on the Friday from Milngavie to Fort Wlliam and then on run all the way back. Wow! As you can see he's getting in some protein-carbs energy drink to get him on his way!
Slàinte
Ken

Live Brewing Action! #2 It's a Monster Mash...

It's been a while since we had some Live Brewing Action on the blog, so here's a wee video of Mashing. This is the beginning of a brew of Lia Fail and it's where the crushed malted barley or grist is mixed with hot water or liquor as we like to call it. This happens inside the Mash Tun and it allows the starch in the grist to dissolve quickly into the liquor and lets the enzymes in the malt convert the starch into liquid sugars which we call wort.

This wort is drained off the grain husks and pumped to the brew kettle - as seen in Live Brewing Action #1. It's quite hot in the mash tun because the liquor temperature is around 72 C and the 'Goods' as we call the porridge-like mash end up at around 66 - 68 C depending on the brew.

I'll cover the rest of the brewing process in later blogs but in the meantime it's time to 'Set Taps' or in other words open up the valves at the bottom of the mash tun to let the wort start flowing out to the kettle!

Slainte, Ken

New Jersey for Perthshire Rugby Tour

We sponsored Perthshire Rugby Club for their mini-tour of Valencia in Spain last weekend and helped them get a new Inveralmond Brewery rugby jersey which I'm sure encouraged them to win their games against the local teams Tatami and Tecnidex!

The club also held a Mayday RugbyFest on the North Inch in Perth with 3 casks of our beer - Independence, Ossian and Perth 800 all of which the Golden Oldies polished off nicely on Sunday afternoon.

Come on 'shire!
Slàinte, Ken

Beerhunting in Czech

Went to Czech for Easter to visit a few breweries and my good friend Krtek. A fine midnight view of the Lady Arlenka in Prague in Malostranske Namesti. Prague Castle and St. Vitus' Cathedral up on the skyline, but for the beerhunter, the real prize in the picture is the building on the far corner opposite the Square over Arlenka's shoulder - the great pivnice U Kocoura (The Tomcat).

Another fab Prague institution - Pivovarsky Klub - with our good friends Mirek (who plays with the Rebel Pipers) and Liba. You can see straightaway from the shelves behind of the variety of great czech and international beer to sample. Mirek's on Svijany, Liba and Arlenka on Velen wheat beer with myself relishing Kocour's Samurai IPA.

The Czech Easter Ram (Beránek boží) representing Christ's sacrifice on the Cross (in chocolate and sponge cake) or Agnus Dei for Latinists amongst you. Agnus is also a Czech hop variety named for Mr. Beranek the grower, found in Budvar's Pardal. Czech Easter has wonderfully painted eggs also and a quaint tradition of the menfolk whipping the womenfolk (gently) on Easter Monday morn with a supposedly fertility-giving pomlazka willow wands.

The džbánek or traditional beer jug with which you get carry-outs from the local hospoda or pub. We were guests of David Neckař who is another Rebel Piper, Beerhunter and kiltmaking Scotophile and the next morning he drove us up to Blansko to the Černá Hora brewery (pivovar), who make the Velen wheat above. It's quite an old brewery but very modern inside and lovely beer.

With my opposite number beside the traditional square open fermenters with yeast heads in various stages of formation. A brief video of the brewery is here.

Chimneys from L to R - the two little silver ones are the wort kettle and mash copper, the tall banded one is from the old steam boiler firebox - disused now but there's a pair of storks that nest in the summer on it's top. The lower brick one is from the new boilerhouse and the banded one with the cowl is from the maltings.

Loved this former fire department vehicle in the brewery courtyard - Pivni Pomoc is a pun on Prvni pomoc which means First Aid or to paraphrase it - Thirst Aid!

Now here's some beer pictures....very tasty Černá Hora beers at the brewery tap. Delicious lunch too.

Oh and by the way, we also collected some Czech yeast for our Sunburst Pilsner from Pivovarsky Dum in Prague where we enjoyed a dark Rye Ale served on a handpull. Rye Real Ale in Prague. Excellent stuff!

Slainte and Na Zdravi!

Ken

ps brewed Sunburst on Friday, fermenting away nicely at 12 Celsius as I write this on Monday.