Plockton and The Plockton Brewery

The first time I visited Scotland about 10 years ago there didn't seem to be a lot of choice in beer.  Mostly it was the standard keg offerings with the occasional cask of Deuchars IPA or Isle of Skye Red Cuillan.  Since then there has been quite the increase in independant breweries similar to what we've seen here in New England the past decade.  There definately was no brewery in Plockton in 2003 when we visited.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that now there is a brewer in this lovely lochside village and even more pleasantly surprised to find how delicous the beers are.

Firstly I have to say the ride up from Loch Ness northwest to Plockton (near Isle of Skye) is one of them most jaw dropping scenic roads I've ever travelled.  I vaguely remembered it from our trip years ago but as usual with scenery like this it is always more beautiful in person than you remember.  So I feel it's worthwhile to post some pictures of the ride up to Plockton first to set the backdrop.

These scenes pretty much typify what the entire ride was like.  Trying to decide where to stop to take photos was a tough decision because in reality you could stop every two or three miles.

Right before the side road to Plockton you come to one of the most touristy yet most scenic views in all of Scotland called Eilean Donan Castle. 

Shortly after this point, right before you reach Kyle of Locailsh and the bridge to Skye you find the single track side road that leads to Plockton.  It's a strange road as you start to wonder if you are actually heading towards any kind of civilization or the end of the world.  But then Plockton Bay on Loch Carron unfolds before you.

 

It's a really lovely little village with palm trees, fishing boats, a couple of nice inns and pubs with real ale and of course the views all around are stunning:

We stayed at a place called the Plockton Inn as the place is well known for it's seafood, cask ales, great little pub, and occassional live traditional Scottish music sessions.

The view from out in front of the Inn facing Plockton Bay wasn't too shabby either.

So what about the beer?  Well on the first day they had Starboard pale ale from The Plockton Brewery on cask as well as Fuller's London Pride.  Now I love London Pride and getting it on cask is a real treat but I have to admit I liked the Starboard better.  It's a great session ale and we did indeed have a long session that night getting aquainted with it.  I chose to stay here first on a Thursday night because there is a regular music session there on Thursday's.

It was a great night at the Plockton Inn.  We also ate dinner there and I thought the smoked salmon (from their own smokehouse in the back yard) and the langoustines were exceptional.

In fairness there is another nice hotel in the village called the Plockton Hotel (although I'm definately partial towards the Plockton Inn) and they also carry a couple of cask ales although oddly enough they didn't have one from the local brewery.  I suspect this may be due to lack of capactiy at the brewery as it is really small but I didn't ask.  The ales were good here but still a tick behind the Plockton beers IMO.

We got a long rest the next morning.  I don't think I got out of bed until noon.  We had been travelling around a lot and I was weary.  So we had a day to just walk around the village and visit the brewery.  It's not much more than a garage.

We were hoping to meet the brewer and just as we were about to leave he comes walking down the street with flowers in his hand that he picked up for his wife.  We introduced ourselves and he was nice enough to show us around and give us a few bottles to take home.  I got a photo of Andy the brewer with Ingmar in the brewery.

The Inn had changed over the cask that morning from the Starboard to the amber colored ale called Plockton Bay.  Andy mentioned that he found that the beers sold better to tourists when he started putting the work Plockton in the title.  Anyhow I thought the Plockton Bay even better than the Starboard.  I managed to bring a few bottles home.  All but the stout I left with my friend Barry in Ireland before heading home.  We drank the bottle of stout the Friday after we got home and it was excellent.  I would have loved to get some of that on cask.  Ah well and excuse to visit again someday.

Yeah it was a good time in Plockton as you can see.  I leave this post with this picture of Ingmar and Isa.  It says it all:

 

The Loch Ness Brewery

Some of the best ale I enjoyed in Scotland came from two of the smallest breweries.  One of them is the The Loch Ness Brewery that is (you guessed it) on Loch Ness in the village of Drumnadrochit.  It's attached to the small hotel that we stayed at called The Benleva Hotel.  It's a pretty basic hotel with a cracking good pub in the back that prides itself in serving a nice selection of real ale including those from it's own attached brewery. 

The two Loch Ness beers they had on cask were "Red Ness" and "Hoppiness".  You can see the "Hoppiness" in the picture on the left.  The one to the right was a stout from another brewery they had on cask that I don't recall the name of but I can tell you my favorite beer of the evening was the "Red Ness".  As the name suggests its a red ale and I thought it was a very good drop as was the "Hoppiness".  I was told by a couple of locals later in the evening that the "Hoppiness" is a favorite of the locals

Each year in September the hotel also hosts the Loch Ness Beer Festival and has around 40-60 ales from all over Scotland and some from England on cask.  One of the younger locals we drank with that evening beamed with pride when he boasted that the had tried all 60 ales (or maybe it was 40) at this year's festival (it runs all week - not in one night!).  He almost said it in a way that gave me the impression he was throwing down the gauntlet and challenging me to come back and try to do the same next year.  I'm certainly willing but I doubt we'll find ourselves there next September but going to the Loch Ness Beer Festival is something I would love to do some year. 

As this was the first stop in the Highlands on our trip the first thing I noticed was that the pub was a lot more casual and gritty than what we experienced in Edinburgh.  For starters there were dogs wandering around the pub.  At first just the owners two dogs but later on some locals would bring theirs in.  This was something we would see in most of the other pubs we'd visit in the Highlands later in the week.   I also noted that it was very much a locals hangout and sitting back and quitely overhearing conversations that went something like "What a fecking %$^# so and so was and that her son is a fecking idiot too" ... and so on was quite humourous.  Anyhow it was a good night and a great place to stop along Loch Ness.  It proves that using the CAMRA Good Beer Guide is a pretty good place to start when researching where to stay in places like this.

Dorff was very happy to meet the dogs in the pub.

Sandy Bells - Edinburgh

What's better than drinking good Scottish ale from a cask?  Drinking Scottish ale from the cask while listening to live traditional Scottish music.  Sandy Bell's in Edinburgh has got plenty of both. 

My first pint was from the local Stewart Brewing Company called Edinburgh No. 3.  A smooth, malty, nutty Scottish ale that hit the spot so well I just stayed with it.  There was a group of old timers playing some tunes in the back of the pub (as you can see from the pictures) and while they were terrific they were outdone by the over a dozen harmonica players that came in after them.  I've never seen anything like it.  Harmonica players playing traditional Scottish tunes in unison.  Oddly enough, and this may have been the beer affecting my hearing, but that many harmonica's playing together in unison sounded a bit like a bagpipe.  Very cool. 

Sandy Bell's has got plenty of character.  We didn't spend nearly enough time here.

The Malt Shovel - Edinburgh

There seems to be a metric ton of great pubs in Edinburgh and I just barely scratched the surface on them.  Many have really nice choices for cask ale (or "real ale").  One such place is called the The Malt Shovel (on a side just off the Royal Mile).  For starters, what a great name for a pub.  Because, really what I want to do is shovel malt in liquid form down my throat when I visit a place like this.

They had a lovely dark mild on cask from Mighty Oak Brewing Company of Essex called Oscar Wilde which won the an award of "Supreme Champion Ale of Britian 2011" and it's not hard to see why.  It really is as delicous as it looks and highly quaffable at only 3.7% ABV.  I'd love to see this beer show up at a NERAX one of these years. 

Just one of many great pubs in this beer mecca of a city.

Element Brewing Company

No I haven't forgotten about this blog.  I just go through periods where I don't feel writing blog posts but its not for lack of material.  A couple of weeks ago I went on a Western Mass. beer tour with a few other members of the local homebrew club CCLAMS (Cape Cod Lager and Ale Makers).  One of the stops was Element Brewing Company in Miller's Falls, Massachusetts.  Element is one of many fairly new breweries that make up the mini-explosion that is microbrewing in Massachusetts these days.  Some impressions I have about Element are:

1.  It's not in a place you would normally find a brewery.  It's in a quaint, old building on main street in the tiny village of Miller's Falls.  It's the kind of building you would normally find these days used for a boutique type shop in Main St. usa. 

2.  Both the tasting room and the brewery seemed very clean and well organized. 

3.  They don't brew any kind of beer that is normal recipe nor a session type beer.  Everything is on the strong side and doesn't neatly fit any kind of style guideline.  According to the guy that gave us the tour they don't even attempt to follow any style guidelines.  They decide what they want the beer to taste like then they set out to make it. 

4.  It appears they brew 3 beers on a regular basis (Red Giant, Extra Special Oak, and Dark Element) and have rotating seasonals.  At the time of our visit they still had some bottles of (Summer Pilsener Fusion, Vernal, and Altoberfest) but the Summer Pilsener was the current seasonal.

They let us have a taste of all three regulars and the Summer Pilsener before giving us the brewery tour.  I was impressed with all three.  These aren't beers I want to drink as part of a long session but they are nice to have around for a night when you just want to have one but you want that one to be something interesting and with some backbone.

Miller's Falls is a nice, sleepy little town not unusual for Western Mass.  If I lived there I'd have to drink a lot of Element beer to keep from losing my mind.

A view into the brewery from Main Street.











Tasting room.











The brewery.

First beer tried at home ... the Altoberfest.  It was described to me as a cross between the maltiness of an Oktoberfest and hoppiness of an Altbier.  It was a very malty and boozy beer.  My initial impression was that it was too boozy but I soon settled into it and quite enjoyed it.  There was just enough hops to balance it out and make it drinkable.

I've also had the "Vernal".  This is a (you guessed it) as spring seasonal.  It's a souped up Weizenbock that was made with local malt from Valley Malt in Hadley (more on this place in another blog post).
 

That's as far as I got.  Like I said they're not beers you drink quickly.  I've still got 4 to get through but I'm in no rush.  These are beers that you can let age for a while in the basement.  Here's the whole lineup before I polished the first two off.

In summary Element is doing their own thing and are a nice addition to the Mass. beer world.  I definately would take the time to visit again.

In the meantime we went to the Moan and Dove in Amherst right after the Element visit.  Cheers!

Homebrewing Clone Beers

I'm a big believer that in order to be a really good homebrewer you need to really like drinking beer.  I mean it's not really rocket science is it?  If you don't know what its supposed to taste like then how do you know you brewed it correctly?

I find that most of us that have been homebrewing for a while tend to brew the styles of beer that we like to drink the most.  I know one member of the local homebrew club that brews a lot of American style IPA's because that is the kind of beer he likes to drink the most.  I personally like to brew a lot of English Bitters, Altbiers, and various German lagers (Helles, Dunkle, and Bocks).  These are the beers I like to drink the most.  It doesn't mean I don't like Stouts, Brown Ales, IPA's, etc.  I love those styles of beer too but they are beers that I drink mostly on occasion.  I'll drink more Stouts in the winter for example but an English Bitter is a year rounder for me.  Actually the Bitters have gradually become my favorite style all around.  When I'm at the BBC in Sandwich the Fuller's London Pride is my "go to" beer.  That beer is a classic English Best Bitter.  I also reallty love Coniston's Bluebird Bitter when I can get it.  The Bluebird Bitter has this certain, really pleasant taste that I couldn't quite put my finger on but I knew I liked it a lot. 

This is where clone homebrewing comes in.  I did some research over the internet.  Firstly I started with the breweries own website where they come right out and say that they use Pale Malt, a dash of Crystal Malt, and Challenger Hops.  They even give you the bitterness range that they use.  I also just did some random google searching to see what other homebrewers might have done to mimick this beer and they pretty much all followed that which is on the brewery website.

http://www.conistonbrewery.com/coniston-ales.htm

I had never used Challenger hops before so I thought perhaps this was the ingredient that gave that particular flavor that I love about this beer.  I figured I'd be brewing lots of it so I bought 1 pound of Challenger hops pellets to use.  I put together a grain bill of mostly English Maris Otter pale malt and some English Medium Crystal malt.  I probably used more Crystal than needed (1/2 pound) as my beer came out slightly darker than Coniston's so there is a chance to fine tune.  However combining this grain bill with the Challenger hops pretty much did the trick.  The beer came out very reminiscent of Coniston's and is unbelievably drinkable.  I did brew 10 gallons and used Safale 04 on half and Nottingham yeast on the other half.  I've only tried the Nottingham version so far with great results but we'll see how the Safale 04 stacks up next. 

I'll probably tweak the recipe a bit once in a while simply because us homebrewers are wont to do that and we can do it.  We don't have to brew to consistency like a commercial brewery does.  I'm going to want to do a version that uses East Kent Goldings in addition to the Challenger out of curiousity.  My next batch, I'll probably just drop the amount of Crystal a bit but stick to Challenger hops and crank out another 10 gallons that way.

I will aslo say that one of the things I really love about this style of beer is that the flavors are very pleasant and very subtle.  These beers are incredbily drinkable.  They don't hit you in the face with a burst of flavors but by the time you get to the bottom of the pint you can't help but want to go back and have another one.

The Mother Lode IPA

This Tuesday the BBC arranged to have a few of us BBC Sandwich beer club members go to the Mayflower brewery in Plymouth to cask two firkins of IPA one of which will be served at a near future beer club meeting.  Of course I jumped at the chance. 

First you enter the beautiful tasting room where one of the brewers greeted us and gave us some samples.  He tells us that the bar was built by local carpenters in exchange for .... you guessed it .... beer.  Really who doesn't work for beer?

Mash tun and wort kettle:

Fermentation in progress:

Some unfiltered Golden Ale straight from the fermentation tank:

The motley crew from BBC getting ready to fill the cask from left to right (Uncle Rico, Soto, yours truly, and some nice hippy lady whose name I've forgotten but I know she likes to make mead and wine at home).

We would dry hop the cask, add the clarifier and priming sugar, and then pour the beer into the cask from the fermentation tank before hammering in the bung.

And finally the end result.  They let us name the beer and Soto came up with the name "Mother Lode".  Works for me.

Really nice of the folks at Mayflower letting us visit to do this.  As I said before in a previous blog post, they brew really solid beer and now I know the people behind are really cool too.

Burlington, VT

I took Stephanie to visit Keene State College this weekend.  Afterwards we drove up to Burlington, VT to visit my niece and spend the night in town.  Steph spent the night with her cousin on campus while I stayed at a hotel downtown.  So guess what I did that night?  If you guessed that I curled up to a good book in the hotel room you guessed wrong and you need your head checked.  If you guessed that I went on a Burlington pub crawl you are correct but don't deserve any kudos because it's totally fucking obvious. 

Firstly a side note, we stopped at Elm City Brewpub in Keene for lunch.  I can't really comment as I only tried a couple of the beers.  One decent and one not so good.  Food was meh.  But I wouldn't rule it out for a future stop based on that limited sampling.

The weather was gorgeous in Burlington.  First thing I did was take a photo of Lake Champlaign across from my hotel:

Then I walked up to the Church street market area where all the pubs and shops are:

It's a really nice town.

I let my niece Katie select the restaurant where we would meet for dinner.  I swear on all that is holy that I did not attempt to influence her decision in the slightest.  She's an Andersen for crying out loud.  Of course she chose Vermont Pub and Brewery. 

First beer I had there was a cask ale.  It was in poor condition.  Not even picture worthy.  Next I had a porter brewed with coconuts.  This was better. 

We had a nice dinner.  The girls went back to campus and I continued my tour.  Next up The Farmhouse.  I'd say this is my favorite place in Burlington.  I almost equate it to Novare Res in Portland, Maine (although Novare Res is still my favorite beer pub in New England).  Great beer selection at the Farmhouse including several beers from Hill Farmstead Brewery and a few little surprises like Schlenkerla Fastenbier.  For some reason though I decided to have the cask Saison that they had going.  I never had a Saison from a cask before and it was quite enjoyable.

But not as good as the Schlenkerla Fastenbier:

or the Hill Farmstead "Columbus" - pale ale with plenty of Columbus hops:

They conveniently got the up to date beer list written on chalkboards above the bar.  This was one of three boards filled out:

It's a nice place.  Very relaxing.  The staff and other customers are pretty laid back.  I really should have just stayed in my bar stool and kept on with the Columbus but after finishing a plate of local cheese I decided to wander.

I didn't wander far though.  I went to the downstairs bar and ordered a Hill Farmstead "Double Galaxy".  Not a great idea as strong and really hoppy was probably not what I needed at the time.

After the "Double Galaxy" I left and wandered down the street to American Flatbread/Zero Gravity Brewing.  They had a "session" ale on tap called "London Calling".  Perfect, I thought, and low alcohol English Bitter.  Problems is that it sucked.  Totally bland.  So I tried the "Altbier".  Even worse.  I'm sorry but you can't brew an ale with Ringwood yeast and crappy malt and rightfully call it an Altbier.  I took two sips, put the beer on the bar, and walked out.  It was crowded and I really didn't want to make a fuss and ask for my money back.  So I just left.

Before I crashed for the night I just had to visit one last place.  This last place is ........ "DAS BIERHAUS!!!"

It's a kitschy, little, German themed pub on the other side of main street and has two stories with a beer garden on the roof.  For my nightcap I had a huge pretzel and an unfiltered lager from Baden Wurttemburg (brewery is called Arcobrau I think).  You know what, that might have been the best beer of the evening.