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.

Návštěva Krtka do Skotska

Dobrý den, jmenuji se Krtek a nedávno byl jsem na dovolenou ve Skotsku s mým přítelem Kenem. On je Skot a sládek pivovaru Inveralmond a tam ukazal mi jeho nový pivovar, který byl postaven minulý rok. Stará budova byla moc malá. Pomohl jsem připravit a zrýt pudu pro základy. Je velmi pěkný pivovar s velkou vstupní halou. Mám rád velké značky a kelticky odznak.

Ken má novou varnu, která se vaří 5.000 litru pro každou varku. To je víc piva , než mohou pít i za rok, ale pak jsem krtkem ...

Jsou nové velké spilky, kdy kvasinky proměňují mladinu do piva během několika dnů.

Po týdnu zrání pivo se naplní do sudů a pak je pryč do hospody.

Vic sudů s jejich peknými barvami.

Zatim, na zdraví a at' ten, který vaří, dobře žije. Ahoj.

Spring is here! Break out the beer!

The day dawns over Dunsinane Hill and the River Tay on my cycle to the brewery the other day - the first day of sunlight on my trip to work since winter began!

And the snowdrops are out, although drooping with the cold frosty morn before the life-giving power of the sun has thawed them out.

More stuff from the force of the sun - malt from last season's harvest in the hopper heading up to the mill - the tiny red box in the upper centre of the picture - to make beer!

It's more than a new day dawning for us at Inveralmond, because we handed over the old building to its new owners on Saturday, completely empty and devoid of its recent brewing history, yet we are excited and a little light-headed with our future at the new brewery at 22 Inveralmond Place.

We have made 17 brews so far - that's 146,880 pints...yes, I did check my figures because I can hardly believe it myself, but the dawning of our new era is fabulous - much like the beer! Thanks to all of our customers and drinkers who have made it possible - mòran taing (many thanks).

Slàinte agus fàilte a h-Earrach (cheers and welcome Spring!)

Ken

Live Brewing Action!

Managed to take a wee video of the XXX wort running into the brew kettle or copper, as we call it. So thrill to the joys of the first wort flowing into the copper!

Before the days of stainless steel, the brew kettle, where the wort is boiled (hence brew) with hops, used to be made of copper, as it was the only metal capable of boiling wort over a fire without imparting off-flavours.

Our brew kettle, being a modern device, is stainless steel and is heated with steam jackets, which is why the wort, upon hitting the heating jacket on the floor of the copper soon fills the space with anti-video steam!

Slàinte! Ken

In the Beginning was the Wort...

I took some pics of the wort run from last week's XXX brew below. It's really nice to see such colours after lots of grey stainless steel in the blog pics.

Wort flowing from the mash tun through the Run Off Taps

The Grant filling up with the wort - showing red from the backlight

Such pretty colours making such tasty beer!

We've done 11 brews now on the new kit (that's 33 days work in the old place!), getting the hang of where everything is and thoroughly enjoying it, although because the building is so much bigger, we're walking so much more around, across, up and down stairs, under and over platforms and gantries that the pedometer has gone through 3 batteries already!

Moving House Part 2

We're in at last! Cancel the milk at the old place, let the postie know and find the kettle...

A few snaps from the move to the new brewery on Friday last week - Fergus bringing in pallets of bottles, Grima with 12 tonnes of malt, the floor full of casks and malt, boxes and the fitting out of the office with the phone and computer connections.

Today the phone lines and broadband are all up and running and we've had our first day of complete operations - brewing, cleaning and filling casks, sales and wondering where we're going to put the yeast fridge.

Chuffed to bits with the whole thing and looking forward to finding the kettle.

Moving House Part 1

Time out for a cuppa during the move. Which cup is the Head Brewer's? Mmm...
Pretty FVs all in a row!

Apologies to all for not being busy blogging recently, been kept busy in the planning and moving of all the brewery tanks and vessels from the existing brewery to our new site.

On Thursday last we even managed to move 2 fermenters : 30 barrel FV1 and 10 barrel FV5. Quite an exhausting and tense time for us as FV1 is quite a tall cylindro-conical vessel and had to be very carefully lowered down on to its side for loading on to the flatbed transporter. The lowering operation took 2 hours, whereas the drive 400 metres away took 4 minutes followed by 2 minutes of lifting upright and dropping into position! FV5 by comparison (the small black-clad tank on the right of the FV photo) is quite a short squat dish-bottomed tank which was simply forklifted upright onto the lorry....

This means we have now 160 barrels of fermentation capacity in the new site - which is the eqivalent of 46,080 pints. We still have to move two 20 bbl FVs yet, once we've moved the beer (Thrappledouser and Independence) out of them to the Conditioning Tanks before racking into casks. The CTs (as we call them) will be moved as soon as they are all emptied.

Whilst all this excitement goes on, we're putting the finishing touches to the new brewhouse, sorting out the electrics, cooling systems and giving the pumps and valves and pipework installations a thorough washing and cleaning to make sure everything is going just right before we finish up on the old brewhouse and make the break for the new one.

Tha sinn dochas gum bithidh a h-uile rud ceart gu leor agus gun toisichidh sinn san taigh-gruide againn ur a dh'aithghearr!

We hope that all will be well and that we'll start in our new brewery soon! Slàinte, Ken

Perth 800 Beer launched at Museum Extravaganza

Had a very hectic few weeks after getting back to the brewery after New Year. Deep snow which had lain since before Xmas, having partly thawed out and refrozen, creating a ice sheet for everyone to venture upon, made life at the brewery (and everywhere else) difficult. Forklifting pallets of malt, bottles and casks twixt brewery loading bay and lorry will become, I am sure, a new Winter Olympic sport with extra points awarded to the driver with the quickest digging out of the ice technique!

Now the big freeze is (we hope) behind us, we've been up to our usual mischief and launched a new brew - Perth 800, a lovely deep amber 4% ale to celebrate Perth's 800th anniversary. The launch party was held at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery with a cavalcade of minstrels, mummers and marvels celebrating the 800 year old history of the Fair City of Perth calling forth the days of yore when the town received its Royal Burgh Charter from King William the Lion in 1210.

Ask your local pub to get a cask in - I'll be making sure mine does!

Cheers for now, Ken

2010 here already!

Up on the Black Isle over Hogmanay with my pal Snowy about to toast the New Year. He's come prepared with a bottle of Ossian, sensible fellow that he is. He's been relishing the cold weather which has been keeping temperatures well below freezing for the past three weeks now, although it's been a bit of a struggle trying to get the brewery deliveries through. January's motto has become 'the beer must get through' as we can't let our drinkers down!

Here's to a good 2010 to you and yours!

Slàinte, Ken