New Scottish brewery – Old Worthy

As the brewing industry in Scotland continues to flourish, new producers are springing up at a rate of knots. The latest to make a go of it are Old Worthy Beer, who will be launching into the UK market in early August. As with a few other small-scale producers, they are initially contracting their brewing to another facility until they can get their own plant up and running – in this case, they are working with the Isle of Skye brewery facility at Uig.

The brainchild of Nick Ravenhall, Old Worthy take their name from the ‘local worthies’ – Islay distillerymen who would snaffle the mildly alcoholic runoff at their workplace. Whisky is something that is clearly heavily associated with Nick’s new beer – alongside the name and the island location, Old Worthy Scottish Pale Ale will be malted with Maris Otter, crystal, and peat-smoked barley malt, and blended with heather honey.

The first thing that springs to mind on reading that is a certain other brand of beer – but Nick is (understandably) very keen to differentiate OW from I&G. “I think there is room for more than one whisky-themed beer in the market, as long as the messages are different. I would hesitate to go down the cask-aged route [for example]. Really for now the goal is to push the idea of a uniquely Scottish Pale Ale.”

As ever, Ron Pattinson’s blog is the place to go for discussions on that old style – it seems as if the modern-day SPA’s come loaded with honey, providing (in my experience, at least) mixed results. Old Worthy are putting all their beery eggs in one basket, with only a single product – “the intention was always to launch and focus with a single beer,” Neil continues “Our core mission is to craft and create a uniquely Scottish style of pale ale – and I feel we can’t do that by launching multiple styles of beer from other countries.”

Whisky also comes into the picture again with regards to the unusual serving suggestion – one of Nick’s aims is to get more people into ‘Half n Half’. Scots have been mixing the two great drinks for centuries, either alongside each other, or in the same glass (don’t ever let the Americans claim they invented the beer cocktail). Old Worthy SPA is one of the first modern-day beers to actively promote the pairing – as an ‘uplifting partner to any whisky’.

At the moment, Nick is fine-tuning the recipe for the UK market – presumably doing a lot of balancing with the Ardmore peat malt (and drinking a fair bit of whisky). Old Worthy Scottish Pale Ale is set to launch here in the second week of August, all going well – it will be interesting to taste the final product, as another new name arrives on the scene.

Old Worthy website