Harviestoun Brewing Company
Alva Industrial Estate, Alva, Clackmannanshire
Phone: (0) 1259 769100
Website: www.harviestoun-brewery.co.uk
Harviestoun Brewery was started in 1984 by Ken Brooker, a former employee
of Ford Motor Company for over 20 years, and Eric Harris on a farm just
outside Dollar in the midst of beautiful Dollar Glen in Central
Scotland. Ken and Eric pieced together a
brewing setup and installed it in a 200 year old building on the farm.
Former Vaux
brewer Stewart Cail later joined the team and he and Eric now handle
brewing duties. David Russell handles cleaning, filling and
deliveries. Ken concentrates on the brewery's business side while Ken's wife
Ingrid covers administrative duties.
About 5 years after brewing started, a new 10-barrel brew plant was installed that was acquired from Devanha Brewery in Aberdeenshire after it ceased brewing operations. The present brewery in Dollar has fermentation capacity to support two brewing runs per day if needed. Recently, the brewery was informed that their landlord was doing surveying work for turning the property - officially named Dollarfield Barns - into houses. With a newly signed five year lease, there is ample time to move the brewery to its new location at Alva, about five miles away, where a totally new 50-barrel plant has been purpose-built and in planning since December of 2000.
The Brewery uses solely UK malts and whole hops from the UK, Germany,
Slovenia, the Czech Republic and the US. All beers undergo a single step
infusion mash and a proprietary yeast strain is used.
Harviestoun's Bitter & Twisted (named after Ken by his wife) is CAMRA's 2003 Champion Beer of Britain bringing the prize to Scotland for the second year in a row (2002's Champion was Caledonian's Deuchar's IPA). The wonderful and unique Schiehallion cask-conditioned lager is also a long time favorite and big seller. In addition to its well established lineup, a number of seasonal and special batches are available throughout the year. Most Harviestoun beers are much more heavily hopped than traditional Scottish ales due to Ken's devotion to hop-dominated flavor. All bottled versions are packaged under contract by Belhaven and are available in a number of supermarket chains in the U.K. as well as exported.
I visited Harviestoun in May, 2005 and owner Ken Brooker was kind enough to give me a much appreciated thorough tour of the new brewery in Alva, Scotland. My personal thanks to Ken for his great hospitality. Little did I know at the time that Ken was about to retire after having found a buyer he felt would properly carry on the business. Harviestoun is now owned by the Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh. To date, both breweries have carried on with their respective product lines. What the Caledonian buyout has brought is an investment in the marketing side for Harviestoun. Harviestoun now has a fine website (something Ken never seemed to want to be bothered with) as well as some handsome new pump clips and bottle labels for their beers.
Products:
- Bitter & Twisted - 3.8% ABV
- Bitter & Twisted is a world class pale bitter beer ranking with on par (some would say above par) with Deuchars IPA from Caledonian as among the finest bitter ales in the world. Beautifully balanced and highly drinkable.
- Ptarmigan - 4.5% ABV
- A well balanced cask ale with pale and wheat malts and Bavarian hops.
- Schiehallion - 4.8% ABV
- Outstanding malty, hoppy cask lager, floral and bitter. Multi award winning cask product. This was the first cask conditioned lager in modern day Britain once again showing Ken Brooker's ingenuity.
- Old Engine Oil - 6.0% ABV
- A smooth, full-bodied, hoppy stout. Said to be brewed with an unbelievable amount of Roasted Barley, this pitch black ale is joy to drink and very unique.