It's been quite hectic at the brewery for the last month or so, with folk being away on holiday (me too, although I did visit five other breweries during the 4 days off, old habits being hard to break...) and new computer systems going into the office and with two new people starting work - ok, I know you can't really call it 'work' if it's in a brewery - so I'll give you a whistle stop tour of what's been going on.
Above we have the lovely people from the also lovely
University of Study of Gastronomy from Piedmonte, Italy, who popped in today for a tour and in depth technical discussion about how we brew beer. Always nice to have food and drink lovers come by for some serious organoleptic evaluation! Grazie, Amici.
This is a Norwegian paraphrase for a well-known prayer - Our Beer, which art in the Brewery, Hallowed be Thy Name - put on to the brewery tap's mini-blackboard to welcome our guests from southern Norway, who had booked a tour and taste complete with pies on a Friday lunchtime three weeks ago.
Casks of Lia Fail and Ossian, pictured above, were the main offering at a cèilidh (dance) in Bankfoot, two weeks back, where we were helping to raise money for the Chernobyl Childrens' Lifeline, which brings children over from that radiation-poisoned part of Ukraine and Belarus each summer for a month to help them get some healthy living and fresh green vegetables. We helped to raise over £2000, thanks to the thirsty dancers.
Winter is just upon us, with Autumn's cool evenings and misty mornings turning to darkness and chill as the Earth tilts more away from the Sun. Here's my bike on the bank of the River Tay on my journey in to the brewery one Sunday morning last month, lying prostrate in front of a very elderly elderberry tree, which, despite the amount of lichen it carries, still flowers and copiously bears fruit. It's a late flowerer and therefore brings forth its berries late in the season. When the berries are just away, it acts as my natural alarm clock to remind me that the Festive Season will be upon us soon, with its attendant ale, Santa's Swallie -
Yo Ho Ho!
One day later here's the Almond River, 200 yards from the brewery and in the other direction my elder tree. The river is flowing under the old Inverness road bridge in spate and about to burst its bank. However you'll be glad to know that the brewery and it's stock of freshly-brewed Santa's Swallie is quite a bit higher up from the river, keeping the beer safe for everyone! Thankfully.
A small chalkboard welcome for our Swedish visitors two weeks ago - for those of you with good Swedish, you'll recognise the language is quite an old style of around 1541 AD. Continuing with the Swedish theme, we were chuffed to bits to receive a Silver Medal from the Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival 2012 for Ossian. Tak sa mycket och Skal! Ken
We've had a busy time of it at the brewery these last two months - plenty of kegs of Lia Fail have been got ready to go off to customers in Finland and Australia. This is the first time we've sent off kegs to these places - bottles yes, but draught is a different situation, so it means plenty of cold-conditioning at -1 C, followed by filtering out the yeast and unwanted protein hazes, before racking the beer from the Bright Beer Tank into our PET recyclable kegs. The Finnish shipment will be arriving in a week or so but the Australians in Perth, Western Australia, will have to wait 6 weeks after the slow sea voyage.
Here's a wee pic of my first brewery - Leederville, Perth, Western Australia, circa 1991. Wood-fired - no electric or gas, just a firebox for heating.
