It’s Swallie time again!

After all the trials and tribulations of the last few months, our thoughts turn to the festive period and to the launch of Santa’s Swallie for 2009. The brewery has been rejoicing in the aromas of cinnamon and nutmeg for a few weeks now, and the Head Brewer is particularly chuffed with the yuletide brew this year.

A dark copper coloured Christmas ale, Santa’s Swallie is traditionally hopped with Fuggles and a hint of the spices mentioned above. Santa’s Swallie has proved a very firm favourite with our customers over the years and, as Christmas beers become popular again, we are proud to say that it is often specifically requested weeks in advance from beer drinkers throughout the UK. We hope you enjoy this year’s Santa’s Swallie. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any comments, questions or, indeed, photos of people enjoying our beer in your pub.

The Christmas Quiz 2009

After the success of last year’s quiz, here are a few more questions to get the grey matter melting. As ever, there is a great prize for the first correct entry received back here at the brewery!


Q1 In what year did Bad Manners have a hit with Special Brew?


Q2 Which of these has NOT been converted into a pub by Wetherspoons (yet)?

a) Bed shop b) Post office c) Swimming baths d) Internet cafe

Q3 What is in a Dog’s Nose cocktail?

Q4 Which of these is a commercially available UK-brewed beer brand?

a) Kilt Sniffer b) Spank Dog  c) Piddle in the Wind  d) Fat Tire

Q5 What was the name of the pub in Steptoe & Son?

Q6 How much was a pint of beer in 1971?

Q7 Which beer had Works Wonders as its advertising slogan?

Q8 What is cenosillicaphobia?

Q9 Which country has the most beer brands?

Q10 To the nearest hundred, how many pubs (including hotels but excluding restaurants) are there in Scotland?

The answers will appear in the next issue of Brewhouse News, due out in February 2010. If you can’t wait until then, give us a call and we will let you have a sneak peak. This is quiz is just for fun, but our decision is final in any areas of dispute!

NEW BREWERY UPDATE: The new beginning is in sight

The pace has certainly picked up at our new brewery. By the time you read this we should be ready for some test brewing and, all being well, an imminent move to the new site. The brewery itself is a sight to behold and is certainly achieving our objective of being a showpiece of brewing. We are hoping to start trade and consumer tours before too long, so look out for your invitation. We all hope you can make it along and see for yourselves the step change taking place at The Inveralmond Brewery Limited.

The essentials of good brewing #7: conditioning and racking (or packing)

Last time round we looked at fermentation. Once fermented, the 'green' beer is poured off into a conditioning vessel ('CV') where it matures and there is further settling of yeast. Before a beer leaves the brewery it must be conditioned. The conditioning process differs according to how the beer is to leave the brewery.

For cask conditioned beers (real or cask ales), the beer can go directly into the cask, barrel or bottle. More hops may be added to the cask (dry hopping) for extra aroma. Finings (traditionally made from the swim bladders of certain fish) are added which bind the materials responsible for haze and sink to the bottom, clarifying the beer.

The yeast in the beer is still active, and the beer will undergo a secondary fermentation in the cask, normally in the cellar of a pub. Cask conditioned beer is a delicate product and, just like the beer undergoing fermentation in the brewery, it is vulnerable to attack from all kinds of contamination by wild yeasts and other micro-biological organisms.

Other beers are brought to condition in the brewery, some are fined and filtered and some are pasteurised to guard against deterioration from microbes. Sometimes known as 'bright beer', they reach the consumer in kegs, bottles or cans. For lagers there is a longer period of conditioning in the brewery at low temperature. The word lager comes from the German word lagern - to store at a cold temperature.

The people behind the beer: Malcolm Scrivens

Malcolm (or Malc as he is sometimes known) joined Inveralmond in 2005 and is our resident time-served chef. Born in Cheltenham in the last century, his tastes are wide ranging as his choice of fantasy dinner guests shows: the world of fast motorbikes (Barry Sheene), complemented by songstress Barbara Streisland and native American hero Sitting Bull. Who wouldn't want to be a fly on the wall during that meal? The guests would dig into Malc’s favourite meal of scallops, steak au poivre and apple pie. The Far East is a big influence on Malc's hobbies: showing bonsai trees and playing ping pong. Not at the same time though. Malc lives in Scone with his wife Jan. It may be hard to believe when looking at this picture, but they have recently become doting grandparents.

Lia Fail available at The Gleneagles Hotel

We are proud to announce that the world famous Gleneagles Hotel has been pouring Lia Fail to golfing guests over the past few weeks. We view this as a feather in our cap and places our beer alongside some of the finest food and drink available in the world. Every tap that pours any of our beer is very important to us. From small village pubs to some of the grandest hotels in the world, everyone is bringing the fruits of our labour to discerning beer drinkers. For that we are very, very grateful.

Why Thrappledouser?

Ever wondered where we got the name Thrappledouser from? It was very simple really. We took the Scots’ word for throat and wove it with a term for slaking or dousing your thirst. I suppose a straight translation into English would be thirst quencher.

Most people in Scotland use the Scots’ language every day of our lives, often subconsciously. It is a wonderfully descriptive language. Scholars would probably call it very onomatopoetic. In other words, Scots’ words sound like the terms or actions they are describing: think of driech, drookit, stramash, stooshie, etc. Words for wet weather and fighting seem to be popular for some reason!

However, it is our poets who really bring the Scots’ language to life, as this extract from ‘Daft Days’ by Ayrshire poet Hew Ainslie (1792 – 1878). Hew emigrated to America in 1822 and became a partner in a Cincinnati brewery.

The midnight hour is clinking, lads,
An' the douce an' the decent are winking, lads;
Sae I tell ye again,
Be't weel or ill ta'en,
It's time ye were quatting your drinking, lads.

Gae ben, 'an mind your gauntry, Kate,
Gi'es mair o' your beer, an' less bantry, Kate,
For we vow, whaur we sit,
That afore we shall flit,
We'se be better acquaint wi' your pantry, Kate.
The "daft days" are but beginning, Kate.

Enterprise Minister visits the brewery

On 31 July, our brewery was honoured by a visit from Jim Mather MSP, Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism. After lunch in Perth with various other local businesses, Mr Mather came to look over our new brewery and enjoy a beer tasting with Fergus. The Minister was impressed both by the beer and by the progress the brewery has made since it was founded over 12 years ago

FRUSTRATING WAIT FOR POWER

Well, we have started to put the new brewhouse in place in our new brewery but are being frustrated by the work required to supply electricity to the site. A new sub-station is required and, at time of writing, we have no indication of when this will be made available to us. It is a case of waiting until Scottish & Southern get round to it. Meanwhile, we shall keep pour existing site operating to ensure unfaltering supply of beer to our customers.

Perth 800: a new beer to help with the celebrations

Next year Perth will be have a year-long celebration of the 800th anniversary of the granting of a Royal Burgh Charter by King William the Lion in 1210. An exciting and ambitious programme on the theme of heritage, sport, arts and culture will see more than one event a week taking place in Perthshire throughout 2010. As part of this programme we were asked to produce a commerative beer that would be made available in draught to pubs, clubs, restaurants and hotels throughout the county and beyond. The beer will be launched to the trade during October.

Cask ales ‘to return to growth in 2010’

In a report which may seem counter-intuitive to some of you, market researchers Nielsen have stated that cask beers continue to outperform the market and should return to ‘real’ growth in 2010 or 2011.
The report concluded that cask beer sales were down 3.3% last year, compared to overall beer sales declining by 9.5%. Cask now accounts for 13.5% of all draught beer sales, and over a third of all draught ale sales. It is interesting to note that 2 in 5 of all pubs in the UK now stock cask beer.
What are the reasons behind these trends? Well, the report puts it down to an increasing appetite for cask beers and guest ale schemes making cask beers more available. Not rocket science then. It is interesting to note that no mention is made of the quality, variety and choice of cask beers being brewed up and down the country!

The people behind the beer

JOHN MACDUFF, DRAYMAN

John was born in Dunblane at the start of the swinging 60’s, although he doesn’t lay claim to starting the swing.
His formative years (24 of them) were spent in the army. On leaving the army he had a couple of ’fillers’ before being headhunted by Inveralmond in August 2005 because of his excellent work ethic, intelligence, youthful good looks and legendary modesty. The polygraph test was the only bit of the psychometric screening that he failed for some reason.

What is your favourite weekend pastime?
If I am not at McDiarmid Park watching St Johnstone giving some poor unfortunates a football lesson I enjoy going out and about in my campervan and tramping the hills and woods with my dog, Harry. I also do a bit of gardening/DIY under strict supervision of my wife, Jan.

Which record, book and film would you take to a desert island?
You can’t beat a bit of The Proclaimers at full blast. My favourite at the moment is Life with you. I’ll probably [Ed: definitely] lose a bit of street-cred but I really enjoyed Grease, however if I was on a desert island I would want a good laugh so would probably go with Life of Brian. I can’t read a book twice bit I like Stephen King and Dean Kootz. Any sort of mystery/thriller would be OK though.

Which famous people (alive or dead) would you like to cook dinner for?
The Burmese pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi, Willie Ormond and Stephen Fry.

What would you eat and drink?
We would have a mixed grill and sticky toffee pudding. I’m not a wine buff so it would have to be a Sunburst to wash it down.

What would you do if you didn’t brew beer?
I would be traveling the country roads in my campervan annoying other draymen out trying to get their deliveries done in time.

Do you remember your first pint?
A pint of lager, but I have no idea which or how much. I was just grateful I wasn’t being thrown out for being underage!

Did you know?

In their efforts to regulate beer quality, the ancient Babylonians, who were among history's earliest brewers, decreed that any commercial brewer who sold unfit beer would be drowned in his/her own libation! Mmmm.

Ales of the Raj

We call this beer Export Pale Ale, but we don’t actually export it. The term ‘export’ comes from the historical fact that these beers were brewed at a higher strength so they could survive a trip by sea. Long ocean voyages, especially in hot climates, often resulted in flat, sour beer… and the soldiers and sailors would miss a ready source of vitamin B that beer provided. Historically this was to our troops in the ‘empire’ so you often see the term ‘India Pale Ale’ replacing Export Pale Ale. Indeed, one of the most famous ‘Export’ beers, McEwan’s, is still a firm favourite of our troops stationed throughout the world.. Our EPA is a strong, traditional pale ale packed with body and striking hop notes (and lots and lots of vitamin B allegedly).

Rocking with Runrig at Scone Palace

VIP guests were able to enjoy Ossian and Lia Fail at the recent Runrig concert at Scone Palace. The concert, part of Homecoming Scotland 2009, was attended by almost 15,000 fans many of whom camped in the Palace grounds. Our beers were available in the VIP marquee, which also featured a Whiskies of Scotland event. People, including the First Minster, Alex Salmond, and members of the band, were invited to try Ossian or Lia Fail, and then savour the beer long into the Perthshire summer evening.

New Brewery Dray

Our good friend, Paddy Buckley-Jones, let me take a snap of Fiona, our Heriot-Watt summer student, in his fabulous RS sportster. The pic doesn't show it but there is a polypin of Ossian and a polypin of Thrappledouser by the front seat.
What a great dray!

Captain makes a sensible choice of beer

Ossian can count Captain Sensible amongst its growing legion of fans. The former lead singer of The Damned (and founder member of the Blah! political party) is a regular drinker of our best selling bottled beer. Best known for tracks such as Happy Talk and various TV work, Captain Sensible is never far from a bottle of Ossian as our somewhat grainy photo from a local gig shows.