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.

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