Bottled BeerCast Awards – Speciality Beers

One of our shortlistees, Heather Ales Kelpie

We’re four categories in to our daily alternative SIBA Awards here on the BeerCast – where we take a look at some other great bottled Scottish beers that could have made the finals. Our section today is that enormous beery catchall – Speciality Beers – any drink that has something added to it to differentiate from the norm. The SIBA winner was Williams Brothers citrusy Seven Giraffes (5.1%) – brewed with seven varieties of malt, lemon zest and elderflower.

The addition of this last ingredient turns many a Scottish session beer into something more interesting. Cairngorm’s Trade Winds (4.4%) is a good example – wonderful on cask (at Edinburgh’s Blue Blazer, for example) – but also pretty good in the bottle. Tryst Blathan (4.0%) contains elderflower too, and really benefits from the added botanicals.

The aforementioned Williams brothers Bruce and Scott began their brewing careers by reviving Scotland’s most traditional style of beer with Fraoch Heather Ale (5.0%), which they now also age, to great effect. Their seaweed-infused Kelpie (4.4%) is another great speciality beer, and makes its way onto our shortlist. Bladder wrack from Argyll gives an ozone tang to the aroma and flavour.

BrewDog have their differences with SIBA (although they are members, to use SIBA’s Direct Delivery Scheme). Several of their beers could – and should – be shortlisted in these alternative awards (they didn’t enter the actual competition). You could take any of their fantastic Abstrakt series, such as AB:01 (10.2%) and the mighty AB:04 (15.0%). Their Bashah Highland Park Black Raspberry Reserve (8.7%) is also surely the very definition of speciality.

Our final shortlistees are two very old beers, and one very new. Traquair Jacobite Ale (8.0%) contains a mix of spices, and has a tremendously complex flavour. Stewart Brewing’s newest signature beer, Stewart Hefeweizen (5.5%) is one of the few authentic wheat beers produced in Scotland. I actually judged it at the SIBA awards (placing it second in my section of the Speciality category, behind Harviestoun’s magnificent 8.0% Ola Dubh 40).

So here’s our shortlist for best bottled Scottish Speciality Beer…which would be your choice? It’s the toughest category to call as they are all so different – comparing Trade Winds with Abstrakt AB:04 is almost impossible (although I know which order I would drink them in)…

Speciality Beers (in abv order)
Tryst Blathan (4.0)
Heather Ales Kelpie (4.4)
Cairngorm Trade Winds (4.4)
Heather Ales Fraoch (5.0)
Williams Bros Seven Giraffes (5.1)
Stewart Hefeweizen (5.5)
Harviestoun Ola Dubh 40 (8.0)
Traquair Jacobite Ale (8.0)
BrewDog Bashah Highland Park Black Raspberry Reserve (8.7)
BrewDog Abstrakt AB:01 (10.2)
BrewDog Abstrakt AB:04 (15.0)

* Let us know if you agree or disagree with our choices! If a beer isn’t in this list, it may be in one of the other categories as there’s plenty of crossover – check back tomorrow for the final category – Stouts and Porters