Beer of the Week – Loch Ness Light Ness
Another Friday, and another chance to stock your beer fridge with one of the unsung heroes of Scottish brewing. Each and every week this year I’ll be leading into the weekend with a beer that deserves to be on your radar if you aren’t already familiar with it – and for the fifteenth in the series of fifty-two it’s time to take a look at a beer that has defied the odds to still be with us today, as the original brewery has ceased to exist.
The Loch Ness Brewery were founded on the shores of the world-famous body of water in 2011, in the Benleva Hotel. They put out their beers for just over five years before a (extremely good-looking) brand refresh by Thirst Craft was unfortunately timed a very short while before the brewery went bust and was put into liquidation. That was around this time last year, but since then the Cairngorm Brewery acquired all rights, trademarks and recipes and have started production once again – in partnership with a bakery chain. For fans of beers like Light Ness, that is great news indeed.
15. Light Ness (3.9%)
Loch Ness Brewery, (brewed at Cairngorm, Aviemore)
Style: Pale Ale
500 ml bottle
Pick it up here:
At selected branches of ASDA in Scotland
One of the original beers on their portfolio, the key to this beer is just how refreshing it is – if ever there was a post-work reviver to be pulled from the fridge this is the beer. Hopped with Galaxy, Columbus and Citra as you might expect this results in a serious amount of zesty, pithy fruit on the taste – yet there is also a large whack of bitterness on the finish which really helps things along at under 4% ABV. A citrus showcase it carries a lot of tangerine and lemon sherbet about it, which makes for a hugely enjoyable beer and one that personally I’m glad I can still find.
Beer of the Week Series:
1. Fyne Ales Highlander
2. Swannay Old Norway
3. Broughton Old Jock
4. Traquair House Ale
5. Tempest Easy Livin Pils
6. Cromarty Brewed Awakening
7. Fallen Chew Chew
8. Black Isle Hibernator
9. Isle of Skye Red
10. Harviestoun Old Engine Oil Engineer’s Reserve
11. Orkney Skull Splitter
12. Windswept Wolf
13. Kelburn Dark Moor
14. Alechemy 5ive Sisters
