Alphabetically and chronologically, let me introduce you to three of the Highlands’ craft beer contenders. At each of these local, brilliant-in-their-own-right, independent breweries, I met some wonderful humans who showed me their pride and joy: the brewery itself. It was a pleasure and a prize experience to see the products of another’s passionate labour and the love-children thus created.
I personally also loved learning about the green and sustainable methods taken into consideration with the interests of the community and the planet prioritised.
A small introduction to my beer notes: while sipping the beautiful nectar that is beer, I write the first thoughts that come to my head. These may make sense, or they may not. They may be way off from the official tasting notes, or they may be bang on. My point is, they’re very personal, like a diary, and I don’t write them for anyone other than myself although I’m now sharing them with you.
Reach out and let me know if you’ve been to these independent breweries in the Scottish Highlands, and/or what you thought of their beers!
Disclaimer: This is a blog post about beer and therefore aimed at adults only. Adult content: Alcohol and Adult Language.
Black Isle Brewery
The Brewery
The kind and enthusiastic woman on shift showed us the huge tanks they have. The Brewery was established in 1998 but only moved to this current site in 2011. She explained that, in brief, they focus on organic products. In fact, the surrounding land was part of the Black Isle farm where they grow their own food – destined for the punters’ plates in their beer and pizza bars.
I first had a Black Isle beer back in 2016/2017 and I loved it, according to the rough scribble in my beer book. Of course, back then, I had no idea about Black Isle’s fantastic ethos vis-à-vis the environment and biodiversity. Farm to table, and to brew. For more information about this independent brewery, click here to visit their website.
I bought a couple of cans, it would have been rude not to, and we set our sights on the taproom to try these organic, bundles of joy. We hadn’t realised, however, that the brewery does not have a taproom on-site. Rather, their closest bar was in Inverness. Luckily as it happened, we were heading in that direction next…
The Taproom
Large wooden tables and lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling, this bar screams modern hipster, beanie-wearing, man-bun sporting clientele. But I’m not here for the clientele, I’m here for the nectar spurting from the 26 taps. They offer their own-crafted organic beer, and a sizeable selection of world craft beers.
They sell pizza made with fresh ingredients, grown from their independent brewery farm, salads and sides. You can find their current menu here: https://www.blackislebrewery.com/visit-us/inverness-bar/menu.
In order to maximise sampling, you can order one third pints of the draught beers (or ask for tasters). I prefer this, and I want to be able to read my notes the next morning 😉
Having a quick glance, their beer offerings have changed during the months since my visit in December. In essence, a couple I tried are no longer available, and new ones have taken their place. They must change it up quite regularly, and so it’s a case of ‘get them while you can’. Although I see some such as Spider Monkey, Blonde and Scotch Ale are still constant staples.
The Beer
What I love about the Black Isle Brewery beer is that, in general, their flavours are understated, subtle and not ‘in your face’. I’m not put off from trying beers that really aren’t my thing, because I know that it’s not going to be overpoweringly strong or the hops mind-numbingly exaggerated. They seem to really keep their flavours and balance in check, reigned-in and reserved. Simplicity with a touch of adventure:
- Rhode Runner Pale Ale New England 5.3% (Draught)
Smells citrusy and hoppy. Not the worst, actually, quite okay for a hoppy. You can feel it starting when it’s in your mouth, then it has a somewhat reigned-in middle and almost no end. It’s a nice wee start to a hill but thankfully doesn’t speed over it. I’d drink that. I think unfiltered. Fruitier once more exposed to air.
- Scotch Ale 6.8% (Draught)
Maybe it’s me? They all taste reigned-in and conservative, in a good way. Very refreshing, almost like water – crystal clear. Lightly hopped, one could say. Kind of fruity but yeah. Not overpowering.
- Coco Van Porter – Coconut and Vanilla Porter 5.7% (Draught)
Smells like a fresh, lighter porter. Thick body, getting the lighter notes of coconut and vanilla. Almost makes me laugh. Strange, but it’s a nice change in a porter. Still kind of Christmassy though, to me.
- Silent Spring Pale Ale – Cask- 4.5% (Draught)
Smells earthy. Tastes nice, down to earth, not wankery. Cold temperature too, a bit watery and a bit hoppy but it’s drinkable for sure. Yeah. Earthy like spring, one could imagine.
— Also in Can: Nice, again understated and great body. Good taste. Not earthy I feel this time, it has lost that, but wholesome.
- Chameleon Pale Ale – Cask- 3.6% (Draught)
A nice beer, interesting taste. Nice, conservative flavour although a weaker body. Yeah, I wouldn’t drink but it’s interesting.
- Red Kite – Cask- 4.2% (Draught)
Strong, almost porter smell. Malty, A.F. A dark toffee maybe. Quite Christmassy, like a quality toffee chocolate, almost. I wouldn’t say biscuit. I’d pair with chocolates/dessert and a movie.
— Also in Can: Not as malty as the cask, a bit fizzier. Nice flavour and a solid drink. Still quite Christmassy.
- 21 Pale Unfiltered – Organic Pale Ale 4.1% (Draught)
Slight banana smell? Tastes better than it smells. A lovely, unfiltered and sexy body. Nice and not overpowering, ongoing flavour. Understated as per signature and as nice as I could have hoped for with a wankery-looking beer.
- Blonde Organic Lager (Bottle)
Greenish colour. Lovely taste, restricted and good body and flavour. A really good drink.
Glen Spean Brewing Co.
A spontaneous camping road trip this weekend gone (September 2023) found us cruising down the A86 when we passed a wonderfully welcome sign for the Glen Spean Brewery. With an imploring look at my friend, we turned that vehicle around and boy, was I glad we did.
The Brewery
Surrounded by the gloriously beautiful Scottish Highlands, this 7-year-old independent brewery is now bursting out of its current home: an 1870’s cow shed. I just so happened to bump into Ian Peter, a.k.a Peeps, who is the primary owner of Glen Spean but one of five passion-sharing people in the brew team.
Peeps lives on-site, and owns a farm at the back of the cow-shed-turned-brewery. He turned to brewing 7 years ago in order to diversify and create things. Speaking about the growing scale of the brewery, he showed us a second shed that had been re-purposed for beer and equipment storage. They cask their beers on-site, although the kegging and bottling is done elsewhere. They produce so much as 8000 litres in a week over five separate brews. Given the size of the low-ceilinged shed, I’d say that was a whopping amount.
Glen Spean aims green. In particular, they use their residual hops as mulch for the market garden and cardboard packaging for planting seeds. Not to mention they send their used malt off to feed some Scottish cattle. Love it.
Find out more about Glen Spean Brewery here.
About the Brews
Historically, their geographic distribution was fairly narrow: they aimed to be the best beer between Mallaig and Ballachulish. Feeling like they’ve now achieved this, you can pick up a bottle of Glen Spean not only from some farm and gift shops, but from several bars and beer shops across Scotland, including my home city of Edinburgh.
Altogether, this independent brewery creates 6 beers, although only 5 were in stock on my visit. Peeps spent some time enlightening us on the different types and their names. A very welcoming and chatty man, his passion about the community and his joy of making beer was clear.
He told us that his father had never seen a red squirrel in the first 85 years of his life. In the past five years, all of a sudden, he came upon a red and bushy so-and-so. This was the inspiration behind the Red Revival naming and beer. Indeed, on our wee weekend trip, we saw three red squirrels dashing across the road! In any case, this was the first time I myself had seen a red squirrel.
Tantalising titbit: After some further research, it seems that red squirrel numbers are on the rise. Did you know that approximately 75% of the UK’s red squirrel population is leaping from Scotland’s trees?
Depending on the beer, the bottles show the brewery braving various weather types and each with a bit of blurb about the name. As can be seen with the Highbridge IPA, showing the cow shed on a rather rainy day. I love that bit of local connection and ‘collect them all’ vibe.
Peeps described the Highbridge IPA as being very well-rounded, but he explains the Snowgoose is “by far the most popular“. When asked why he thought that was, he said:
“I think a lot of people like lager but also because it’s a very accessible and easy-drinking beer. It’s really delicious”.
—–Ian Peter MacDonald, Quote from September 16th 2023.
The Beer
I actually tried the Glenfinnan Gold whilst on the ‘Hogwarts Express’, i.e. the steam train experience that takes you from Fort William, to Mallaig across the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct. What an experience that was: breath-taking views, impressive stream train and of course, Harry Potter-themed fun. The Glenfinnan Gold unquestionably added a special touch to this special day.
As for the three purchased from the brewery, these were sampled straightaway that very night, on the bonny, bonny banks of Loch Tarff (not the right loch for the song, I know, sue me). An incredible setting to try these unexpected delights.
- Glenfinnan Gold Single Malt 4.2% (Bottle)
Smoky? Nice flavour, interesting. Not wankery but something genuine. Speciality beer almost, to be enjoyed across the wonderful viaduct and beyond.
- Red Revival Amber Ale 4.5% (Bottle)
Smells musky and malty. Fizzy but malty on the nose. Toffee notes and a smooth finish. Nice aftertaste, subtle but quality and sweet like caramel a bit. Great flavour and not overpowering or overbalanced. A bit too fizzy maybe.
- Highbridge IPA 4% (Bottle)
Coming from the amber Red Revival, this was a hoppy sharp start and then a fizzle. But in a good way. Like it’s hoppy enough without being hoprageously hoppy. A great camping beer. Bit of oomph, bit of ooo and aah and good and done. IPA well done. Weak ABV for an IPA but I’ll take it.
- Snowgoose Lager 4.5% (Bottle)
Smells fresh. Fizzy and with a great sweet finish but crisps and neat, without lingering. Mine needs to be colder but a great, craft lager. Great quality and really enjoyable.
Uile Bheist Brewery
Our camping road trip mentioned above brought me friend and I to Inverness for a bite to eat, or that was the plan. Similarly to the Glen Spean Brewery, we simply happened to drive past the Uile Bheist building, located just down from the castle on Ness Bank.
Pronounced ‘Ewl-uh Vehst’, Uile Bheist is the Scottish Gaelic term for ‘monster’. They are a local independent brewery and distillery, or ‘brewstillery’, supposedly the first and only in Scotland.
The Brewery
Built during lockdown, this new endeavour has only been operational for the past four to six months. Being so very new, Uile Bheist (click here for website) are still honing and rectifying their 5-beer base set recipes and have set their sights on also creating some seasonal brews in the future.
Head and Sole Brewer Andrew Hodgson very kindly showed us around the facility and gave us the low-down on this low-carbon independent brewery. By way of introduction, he enthused:
“What makes this site unique is that it was all done by one person’s personal investment. No board of directors, no partners or any kind. Just one guy’s vision.”
That guy was Jon Erasmus, jokingly referred to as a nutter. I took this to be because of his strong enthusiasm and heavy investment in this brewery. This newspaper article cites the 5 beers as being the first beers brewed in the city Inverness in 34 years.
The What
12,000 litres of beer are brewed for up to 12 days straight, every 21 days. As soon as the tanks are empty, the next day, more beer sloshes into them.
Andrew believes this is ‘nothing’ and refers to some breweries doing that quantity in one brew but they focus on quality and craft:
“We have four, 30 hectolitre tanks and four 15 hectolitre tanks. We reserve the larger tanks for the lager production and Forrest Dweller, which is our most popular IPA and then the rest of our core range, we split amongst the smaller tanks”
There is currently no bottling; the beer is only available on draught at their onsite taproom, the hotel next door and four other locations in Scotland (The Atholl Arms, Dunkeld among them).
I enquired as to Andrew’s favourite beer to brew so far, and he divulged that currently, he doesn’t really enjoy the brewing because they’re still in the commissioning stage. Having only been in operation a short time, he described it being a lot of work and they’re ‘just trying to get this thing online’. He’ll be happier when they have a steadier production.
He tastes the beer as he goes, to make sure the quality is on point and having been here since its inception, he has watched the brewery steadily improve. Brewing whisky and distilling beer (or is it the other way around…) in the same room he said is: “Really tough, it is what it is”. I think they’re doing great, however!
The How
Uile Bheist boasts a fully-automated brewhouse, with equipment shipped in from Germany from Kasper Schulz. They use software supplied by these partners with which they can change any value and control every valve. Downstairs is the home of the fermentation, conditioning, filtration and packaging, whereas the computer is kept upstairs, in the ‘hot side’. This is where the magic happens, with the mash and the malt. The brewers’ stills have copper tops, for no other reason but its aesthetic attraction, chosen by the owner. If he’s putting that much capital behind it, I’m sure he can choose whatever design he likes, it’s his prerogative! And they are pretty… 😊
Here’s a newspaper article describing the new equipment arriving at the facility, with quotes from owner Jon Erasmus: Click here.
Speaking about the equipment and Kasper Schulz, Andrew had this to say:
“The first and last name in terms of brewhouse production – a total dream. A lot of the equipment used is completely proprietary. A lot is, to my mind, the most sophisticated equipment you can get for a brewery this size. Just in terms of infrastructure, we’ve hundreds of meters of hard line. Typically, you don’t see that in breweries of this size and definitely not craft breweries anyway, that’s for sure. The brewhouse is banging, best you can possibly get”
Breaking the Craft Mould
The Cambridge Dictionary describes craft beer as being ‘beer made using traditional methods in small, independent breweries’. While this may be true, more recent definitions and classifications of craft breweries simply define a craft beer as being brewed by independently-owned breweries, typically in smaller batches and ‘having an emphasis on enthusiasm, new flavours, and varied brewing techniques’.
This specific independent brewery certainly fits more into the latter definition. Everything is highly technical, automated and every aspect of the operation is controlled by software. Andrew summed up his take very succinctly and I, on balance, cannot disagree in the slightest:
“I think as brewers, the definition of craft gets a little bit confused. For me, one guy opening a brewery of this size, with a view to be a quality-led, community-minded project, with an emphasis on the quality of raw materials [is craft]. And, you know, the amount of beer you’d have to sell to make back the investment for this, is like in the decades. It was an £8M investment. I wouldn’t call it a hobby; I’d call it a passion project certainly.
So, in terms of it being craft, I’d say absolutely. We’re completely committed to being the point difference and the antidote to traditional drinking habits. You say traditional drinking habits but they’re not. Everyone used to drink normal beers supplied and brewed locally up until the 90s, and then it became fashionable to drink beer brewed elsewhere. […] Customers want a different drinking experience. They don’t like travelling 100 miles on holiday, looking the beer menu and seeing the same three beers they can get in their local. Where’s the love?
What we try and offer here is the freshest beer we can and no beer tastes better than fresh out of the tank. The best beer is the one that is drunk in the shadow of the tank it was brewed in and served by the person who helped make it”
—- Andrew Hodgson, Quote from 17th September 2023, captured by voice recording with his permission.
Savvily Sustainable
Being passionate about the environment and sustainability, I was delighted to hear about the methods Uile Bheist are employing to have as small an impact as viably possible.
Firstly, very lucky, adorable Highland cows get to feed on their spent grain. Secondly, the brewery has their own effluent tank (temporary sewage storage system) which they empty into a biodigester. This reduces effluent going into the main drains, making fresh water the only output they have into the public sewers.
On balance, the coolest thing has to be their heating mechanism. The diagram to the right helps to illustrate the clean energy system in operation but let’s see if I can summarise. Andrew took us into the energy centre for a quick look: a hive of valves and a heat hotspot.
Basically, water for the beer comes from a private, 30-meter-deep borehole behind the brewery and is drawn from the River Ness. This water then travels into the energy centre and passes through an 80-bar heat pump. By the function of heat exchanges, energy is flashed off from that and used to heat water and power the building, in conjunction with solar panels on the roof. There’s a huge tank that holds hot water which supplies both the hotel and the brewstillery, heated using the pressure water pumps.
Furthermore, air separators have been installed to store nitrogen in reservoirs on the roof as a means of reducing the CO2 emissions and the brewstillery’s carbon footprint.
Andrew said proudly: “Beyond that, I don’t think you can get much more economically sustainable”. This author thinks these initiatives and forward-thinking green methods are fantastic and can’t wait to see what is next.
The Taproom
Modern in an interesting way, it is crystal clear that the beer is brewed just a hare’s whisker away. Copper piping highlights the bar and leads directly to the beer pumps. I actually adore copper piping done in this way; emphasises the beer’s freshness and just looks so pretty. Some walls are adorned with similar images to their bar mats: monsters and some historical, cultural background.
This author thinks they can go even further with this monster theme and decoration with more wall art and themed glasses. When ordering the beer flight, of course I had to, it came on a wooden board I later found out to be a re-purposed bourbon barrel. Burnt on one side, and still with a rim from where it was joined together, it’s a fantastic example of recycling and keeping the theme of the industry.
You can order all five of the brewery’s range on draught, and the beer flight gives you a tasting third of four of your choice (£10). I got this, plus a third of the fifth beer, for the purposes of research 😉. The bar staff were very knowledgeable and so lovely. It was an absolute pleasure and certainly one I’d love to repeat.
For the whisky lovers, there are eight A4 pages, yes that’s 8 A4 pages, of whiskies from mostly Scotland but all over the world.
The Beer
As I have noted previously, Uile Bheist are still honing and rectifying their beers and are still developing their craft. It could be that when you try them, these beers taste differently. Likewise, this is purely my opinion and my personal experience. Don’t let that influence yours!
From what I can gather, these beers are all keg. For a list of current prices (correct as of 16/09/23), click here. In this author’s opinion, the freshness is the experience:
- Uile Bheist Lager 4.6% (Draught)
Smells cold and fresh (super fresh, omg). A gentle start, simmering middle and a slightly acidic finish. Not super fizzy but on the bitter side. Short-lived aftertaste. Not my favourite but fresh and drinkable. –> Sidenote: Not to drink after others – its taste is greatly affected.
- Forest Dweller IPA (West-Coast Style) 5.6% (Draught)
An Inverness Pale Ale. Hoppy, dark gold – a punch in the middle of quite semi-tropical fruits and then fives back down into the forest. A nice drink. Strong but full-bodied and imagery of moss.
- Dark Horse Stout 5.1% (Draught)
The coffee is strong with this one. I don’t detect the dried fruits, nor the chocolate but I can’t deny its smoothness and there’s a bit of sweetness in there – biscuit? The head is only around the glass’s edge like a target. It’s quite calming. An aptly-named beer.
- White Witch Unfiltered IPA (East-Coast Style) 4.2% (Draught)
Opaque. Dark yellow colour. Very slight banana-y smell/sweetness. Hops hit straightaway. Okay, this tastes a bit wankery. Once the wankery-ness passes, it’s kind of refreshing and has a nice aftertaste. I wouldn’t choose it myself but I actually don’t hate it.
- Highland Storm Session Ale 3.9% (Draught)
A fizzy punch and then it apologises. It seems to taste down afterwards. Slight acidic feel. It’s not for me but it’s fine 🙂 My friend’s favourite out of the 5.
In sum, I had a fantastic time discovering these three awesome hidden gems of the Highlands. I can’t wait to see what new-kid-on-the-block Uile Bheist gets up to next, nor what Glen Spean expand into next. All in all, I think another trip to Black Isle Brewery is needed, so I can keep up with their latest brews and (hopefully) conservative and captivating creations.
Has anyone had any of their recent brews, tell me all about them in the comments below, or get me on Instagram!
Have I left you wanting more Scottish Craft beer? Click here to read my view on the Indie Scotland Beer Festival 2023.
