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