Scottish Beer and Brewing News

June 2011

New Brewery At Cromarty

Yet another new brewery venture in Scotland has been announced, this time at Davidston, Cromarty in Ross-shire, about 20 miles northeast of Inverness. The initiative is being led by 23 year old Craig Middleton, a recent graduation of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh with a degree in brewing and distilling. Mr Middleton worked previously at Cairngorm Brewery, Aviemore. The brewery is being built on Mr Middleton's family farm and is being realized through the help of a grant under the Scottish Government's rural priority scheme and a loan from Clydesdale Bank helped by Clare Wilson, the small business manager at Clydesdale's offices in Inverness.

There was a brewery in existence in Cromarty up until 1850 when it closed. This will be the first new brewing initiative since that time.

May 2011

Scottish Bottled Beers Available On New Website

Launched in late April, AleselA is a new website offered bottled Scottish (and other) craft beers for sale online. Shortly after opening, they took over the Foreign Legion bar on Saturday at the Paisley Beer Festival after the bar had been drunk dry and sold a number of bottled beers to the punters. More Scottish breweries will be added with the next addition being beers from my good friend John McGarva's Tryst Brewery in Larbert. Be sure to order a ton and help both John and the team at AleselA (a take on Ale Seller/Cellar) grow. A permanent link is also added here at ScottishBrewing's Links page.

Glasgow Beer Week - 27 May to 3 June

PRESS RELEASE:

THE UK'S FIRST BEER WEEK IS SET TO CREATE A BUZZ ABOUT BEER IN GLASGOW
Glasgow is hosting the UK's first ever Beer Week from May 27th to June 3rd 2011. It brings together brewers, restaurateurs and beer lovers in a week of events celebrating the variety and versatility of Scotland's beer scene.

A highlight of Glasgow Beer Week is Sisters Are Brewing It For Themselves, a beer tasting session for women led by Petra Wetzel from WEST Brewing, which offers a refreshing alternative to the UEFA Champions League Final taking place the same night. Homebrewing Live is a live demonstration of brewing techniques, in which experienced homebrewers Geoff Traill and Owen Sheerins show how simple it is to make beer yourself at home. And the Peckham’s Summer Beer Festival is a great chance to sample beers from Scotland and around the world. Other events including brewery tours, talks, tastings, and pub visits mean there’s something for every palate during the week which covers the Spring Bank holiday weekend.

Beer-related food available throughout the week will include bread from organic bakers Tapa, sausages from Southside deli Gusto & Relish and beer truffles by The Chocolate Emporium. Award-winning restaurant Red Onion will have a special beer-inspired menu, and there will also be a curry night pairing spicy dishes with hoppy India Pale Ale.

There will also be beers available at various bars and restaurants from participating breweries, including Fyne Ales, Tryst, Stewart and Glasgow’s own Clockwork and WEST microbreweries.

Twitter users will be adding the ‘#gbw11’ hashtag to their tweets to create a real-time news feed that will be posted on the Beer Week website. The site also features a beer map showing what beer-lovers are drinking around the city, based on the checkins made by users of the beery social media app Untappd ('Foursquare for beer' – untappd.com).

Events are still being added to the schedule, so for the full updated programme of events and participating venues, please visit www.glasgowbeerweek.com or follow @glasgowbeerweek on Twitter.

March 2011

Fyne Ales Scoops Gold For Rebranding

Fyne Ales and Glasgow design company Good Creative, won a gold award from the Design Business Association in Design Effectiveness for their recently redesigned beer labels beating out major names such as Diageo's and Guinness. Operations director for Fyne Ales, Charlie Craig, called the rebranding "...the most important thing we have ever done." Jamie Delap who now runs the business with Craig having taken over after the sad death of his father Jonny Delap last year, expects sales to increase four fold by 2012.

Source: The Herald, 18 February 2011.