The BeerCast

The Session takes place on the first Friday of every month across the beer writing world. One blogger suggests a theme and others post their thoughts or responses. For March 2011, the Session is hosted by Stan Hieronymous at Appellation Beer – and the theme is a ‘regular’ beer.

This topic for the 49th Session is meant to be as wide-ranging in scope as possible, to encourage people to write about pretty much any beer they want to. There’s no set definition of ‘regular’ beer – other than it’s the opposite of ‘irregular’, i.e. not relating to 17% walnut-aged imperial black saisons. Living in Edinburgh, when I think of regular beer there’s one that instantly springs to mind – and it’s one that divides opinions.

Deuchars IPA is the flagship of Edinburgh’s Caledonian Brewery – the sole survivor in a city that once supported over forty producers. The modern brewing resurgence has created newer kids such as Stewart Brewing, Innis & Gunn and Knops Beer Co – but these all are (technically) based outside the city, or contract brew in locations many miles away. When you think of Edinburgh brewing, you think of the Caley, because they dominate what goes on here. And what goes on the bars here is mostly Deuchars.

First brewed in 1991, Deuchars (3.8%) was crowned CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain in 2002 – the first Scottish beer to win that accolade (Harviestoun’s Bitter & Twisted won the year after – the only other champ from north of the border). Having gained over forty brewing awards, Deuchars is one of Scotland’s most lauded beers. In the 2010 Publican Brands Report it features in the top ten beer brands in Scotland, having risen from the top 30 in 2009.

The reasons for this are probably to do with the ownership of the company rather than the beer itself. Caledonian were sold to Scottish and Newcastle in 2004, with S&N taking full control four years later. In turn, they were acquired by Heineken and the behemoth company really started pushing Deuchars in Scottish (and then English) pubs. Unsurprisingly, Heineken lager now appears in the 2010 top 50, having not appeared in the 2009 report at all (reciprocity being alive and well in the industry).

So far so good – a local company, the last survivor of the golden age of Edinburgh brewing (having been established in 1869) producing a much-awarded flagship product that is now even more available due to the successful nature of takeovers and mergers. So where’s the problem? Well, there are two – ubiquity and consistency.

Firstly, walk into any Edinburgh pub and chances are that if they serve at least one cask ale, it will be Deuchars. I had a quick look at the winter 2010 edition of Pints of View, the Edinburgh CAMRA newsletter – their ‘Capital Quaffing’ section on what real ales are being offered lists 36 city pubs, of which 18 of them had Deuchars IPA on when the investigator walked through the doors.

Are there any other British cities with one beer brand served in half of its pubs? Does London Pride have that reach? If you negotiate the potholes on the M8 seemingly every pub in Glasgow sells Tennent’s lager – it’s probably a good thing that the Wellpark doesn’t brew ale, otherwise it would be everywhere (not to mention the East vs West competition). But again – is this necessarily a bad thing? A local beer must dominate it’s home city – where else are they going to sell it?

Well, all that would be fine if it wasn’t for the second problem with Deuchars – the consistency. I’ll say right now that I’ve had some lovely pints of it – as a lightly bitter session beer it can be really good. It can also be awful. Prone to the odd diacetyl moment, coupled with the fact that the brewery sells to so many outlets means the quality of the serving varies enormously – and bad things happen. So much so, that I won’t really order it now, unless there is absolutely no alternative.

In fact, I’ve also had plenty of even worse pints because it was either ‘Deuchars or X’ – and X turned out to be far worse. Also now that Heineken – and before them S&N – have their muscle behind it the brand appears with more regularity south of the border. It can be a struggle to make Deuchars travel well, judging by some of the comments on RateBeer from those who sample it outside the Lothians.

Edinburgh’s regular beer – one that is sold in half of the city’s real ale establishments – is not without its patrons. It wouldn’t have that demand if people didn’t drink it. On a good day, it’s a ‘knock a few back’ session bitter – not to mention a useful benchmark for judging other real ales by. But tainted by over-familiarity and consistency problems – at source or from the dispense – lead me, and others, to now look elsewhere. But then don’t all beer bloggers delight in shunning the regular for the irregular?

Caledonian Deuchars IPA website

Following the announcement that Highland Orkney Blast was awarded the 2010 Champion Beer of Scotland, it was time to pay a visit to the festival as a punter and sample some of the new and unusual beers on offer this year. Nobody attends the SRAF to drink Deuchars IPA, after all. As ever, the larger ballroom was opened up to escape the warm atmosphere of the main hall – providing a rather ornate backdrop to the business of drinking beer. I got there to find the rest of the guys drinking the aforementioned CBoS from Orkney – the third time in four years Rob Hill’s brewery has won the title – and with three different beers.

Obviously, I’d had a sample of Orkney Blast already that day – check back later for my thoughts on judging the Champion Beer – so I set off to find something I’d never seen before. First to fit the bill was Fyne Ales Jarl (4.0%), which was so new it wasn’t in the official programme. We’re tremendous fans of Argyll’s finest at the BeerCast, having visited them a couple of times – and their Cairndow brewery recently hosted their own beer festival, at which they launched their latest beer – Jarl. It features a relatively new high alpha hop – Citra. First presented at the 2008 World Brewing Congress, the Sierra Nevada-backed hop gives a fabulous tropical fruit flavour to Jarl. It’s extremely sessionable, golden and with a lovely bitter grapefruity aftertaste to compliment the pineapple up front.

Next I went for a hometown tipple, and Caledonian’s Surf Sup (4.0%). Deuchars IPA may be ubiquitous, but their seasonals can sometimes slip between the cracks. Surf Sup is their ale for June, and is also citric and sessionable. At exactly the same abv as Jarl it was ripe for comparison. The hops give less of a ripe fruit taste, it’s more lemon zesty than mango. It’s also pretty good, but the addition of the Citra hops elevates Jarl over Surf Sup on points. My third beer was Linger (5.0%) from the newly-reborn Fowlers who brew out of the Prestongrange Gothenburg in Prestonpans. It certainly does linger – very hazy with a ginger aftertaste, it was pretty empty after the ginger hit. It may need a touch more refining.

The next round was the traditional ‘buy something for the BeerCaster to the left’ round – which results in an even mix of nutty bitters and 9% barleywines. For MrB I selected Broughton’s Champion Double Ale (5.0%) – the only blend on offer at the festival (strong ale mixed with porter), it was a bit rough around the edges, but drinkable. It was Shovels buying for me, and I ended up with a Traditional Scottish Ales Bannockburn (4.2%). Described as a pale, golden beer with a ‘thick, tight head’ it was almost totally flat and pretty insipid. TSA had brought eleven beers to the SRAF, but this one wasn’t one to savour.

Seeking a high note, I then went onto Raj IPA (5.5%), from the Tryst Brewery in Larbert. It scored very highly in BeerCast #49 (from the bottle), on cask at the festival it was just as good. A classic strong IPA with corresponding piney resinous hop flavours, it was really outstanding. It was interesting to see how the flavour differed between a chilled bottle and a warmer cask pint – either way it’s currently one of the best British IPA’s out there.

The final beer I sampled was a dark one – Islay Dun Hogs Head Ale (4.4%). The Islay brewery were founded on the whisky-loving island of the same name in 2003, and have seven ales in their range. They are pretty tough to find over here on the eastern side of Scotland, so I was keen to try at least one. The Dun Hogs is a dark, roasty stout with a really nice bitter finish complimented by some initial sweetness. It’s always good to end on a dark note, and Dun Hogs Head was a great way to end the festival.

Thanks to all at CAMRA for hosting the festival, we’ll be back next year to sample more local treats. Whilst the overall winner of the 2010 SRAF was Highland Orkney Blast (with Black Isle Hibernator second and Cairngorm’s Black Gold third), the beers that really stood out for me were Tryst Raj IPA and Fyne Ales Jarl. Thanks to everybody for checking the BeerCast during the festival, we’ll see you again for another beer festival in the near future.

Edinburgh likes to brand itself as ‘the festival city’ (although at the moment ‘the city of roadworks’ might be a better option) because of the internationally famous arts events that take place here during August. Theatre, film, comedy, music, art, television, video games all have their own specific festivals – and attract hundreds of thousands of visitors from the UK and beyond. As the home city of the BeerCast, we feel a responsibility to gently prod some of the thirstier individuals in the right direction when it comes to the one subject we can help with – decent beer.

Pubs on the High Street (what us locals call the top bit of the Royal Mile) always do well during August, mainly due to their proximity to the pedestrianised section that contains the crowds. There are plenty of great pubs in the rest of the city however, as we covered in our two-part Edinburgh Pub Guide feature (Part 1 here; Part 2 here). Alongside trusted favourites such as The Bow Bar and the Blue Blazer – both of which are relatively close to several festival venues – we can also add newcomer Holyrood 9a. What used to be the Holyrood Tavern has now been renamed and revitalised with a modern feel, but retaining the large selection of Scottish real ale and good food. It’s also only moments walk downhill from the Pleasance, at 9a Holyrood Road.

Also a newcomer to our pub list – and maybe an indication that we should put out a third BeerCast Edinburgh Pub Guide – is Brauhaus, at 105 Lauriston Place. Handy for Lothian Road venues, the College of Art, and even a ten minute walk from the Teviot Square venues, Brauhaus is a bottled-beer heaven with a Belgian beer-café style menu of over 300 drinks to tempt you. Last time I was in there, I got through an Anchor Steam, Stone Ruination IPA, Kostritzer Schwartzbier, and a memory-filled bottle of Toohey’s New. It’s a pretty small place, so best to get there early and grab a sofa. They do mixed buckets of five bottles for £10, which is great value.

As for the local beers, the only large-scale brewer within the city of Edinburgh is Caledonian – sadly the sole-survivor from over forty (even prior to 1940 there were 25 breweries here). Caley’s major brand is Deuchars IPA, which thanks to their acquisition by Scottish and Newcastle can be found all over the UK. If you fancy the traditional shilling styles of ale, they do an 80/-, as do McEwans, who used to brew here but closed their plant a couple of years ago. Loanhead’s Stewart Brewery produce several tremendous beers such as Pentland IPA, Copper Cascade, and my personal favourite, the zappy citrus flavour of Edinburgh Gold. The Edinburgh Brewing Company have a solitary, but very good beer – Edinburgh Pale Ale, this is currently brewed under licence by Belhaven in Dunbar; and if you’re a fan of oak-aged beers, try Innis & Gunn’s original 6.6% ale, or their stronger 7.7% version.

In an age of official tie-ins and exclusive offerings, it’s pleasing to see the Edinburgh festival’s official beer is produced by the Caledonian Brewery. Fringe Benefit (4.3%) is being sold at many of the major show venues, such as the Gilded Balloon and Teviot Square bars, only for the month of August while the festivities are ongoing. I tried one the other day, it’s a dark malty Scottish ale obviously brewed to be like an old-time heavy. Only slightly hoppy, it’s a lovely burnt sugar colour and goes down really easily. I’m not a fan of 80/- style ales, but I found Fringe Benefit to be really good. Dark and quite strong tasting, with a bit of molasses sweetness, I doubt everybody will like it, but it’s great to see a traditional Scottish product made to support a now global Scottish institution.

The 2009 Edinburgh Festival runs until the 31st of August. Please send us emails for further recommendations (beer-based rather than festival based)…

Edinburgh is a city well known for festivals, and fortunately for us on the BeerCast they aren’t just restricted to the arts. The 2009 Scottish Real Ale Festival has rolled around again, held at the Assembly rooms on George Street. As promised in our recent preview we turned up with high expectations, given the impressive beer list. Getting right down to business, the first beer sampled was the Hebridean Brewery’s Seaforth Ale (4.2%), which completed the full set from the Stornoway producer (we sampled their other four beers during BeerCast #30). Seaforth was very light, slightly soapy but a decent golden ale – a pretty good start to the festival.

Next up was Williams Bros Birds & Bees (4.3%), a new beer from the Alloa brothers Scott and Bruce. Recently it got through to the finals of the Sainsbury’s Bottled Beer Challenge – we’ll have to see how it differs in the bottle, as on cask it was flowery and lemony and very sessionable. We were trying to work out if it was their Williams Gold remixed slightly, as it has many similar tastes. The third beer on the agenda was Traditional Scottish Ales’ Gold Thistle (4.5%), a sharp-tasting golden bitter which suffered from a poor woody smell. The flavours were light and hoppy, with a bit of golden ale biscuit.

Windie Goat are a very small micro who brew almost exclusively for the Failford Inn in Ayrshire, and having previously sampled Gutter Slab (5.5%) we had to go back for another taste. After three gentle golden ales, the difference was startling – Cascade hops on the nose, and a wonderful bitter citrus flavour and aftertaste. It was so good that it sold out very quickly, so we can count ourselves lucky to have got in while we could. Beer number five was from a producer I’ve never tried before – Aberdeenshire’s Hillside/Deeside (they recently changed names) – their 4.0% Nechtan. This one was also tremendous, grapefruity and refreshing, it really delivered that zesty summer flavour many brewers fail to get into their beers.

Beer six was the traditional ‘BeerCaster’s choice’ round, where we buy one for someone else on the panel – avoiding the cruelty of a 9% barleywine. The one I ended up with was Sulwath’s The Grace (4.3%), which tasted far stronger than it’s abv and had a similar grapefruit aroma to the Nechtan. The flavours were different however, there was a sweetness I’d not picked up in any of the previous beers, presumably down to the mix of two types of malt and three of hop. Sulwath are based in Castle Douglas near Dumfries, and clearly put a lot of effort into their beers if this one was anything to go by.

The final beer of the night was the also traditional ‘lucky dip’ round, selecting a totally new random beer based purely on the name. This year it was the turn of Caledonian’s Top Banana, which given the name unsurprisingly had some gentle banana tastes on the back of a powerful banana aroma. It was nice for a fruit beer though, and reminded me of Wells&Young’s Banana Bread Beer. A sweet palate cleanser at the end of the night – almost like a dessert after a (particularly lengthy) meal. Speaking of which, we’ll be back tomorrow for seconds. Stay tuned…

Every beer drinker knows the backstory to India Pale Ale, and as you’d expect, the UK has many different varieties – most breweries have one in their range. Although it was producers in the south-east of England that originally developed the style, up here in Scotland IPA’s are plentiful. So the 15th BeerCast podcast is a jaunt around four of these from our home patch. We begin very much at home, with Caldeonian’s Deuchars IPA – brewed in Edinburgh and drunk probably at least once a week by one member of the BeerCast or another. Then we move on to one from the islands, Colonsay IPA, produced from a small brewery in the Inner Hebrides. The third beer today is Belhaven’s Twisted Thistle IPA, from sunny Dunbar in East Lothian, and we finish the episode with a bang up north in Fraserburgh with BrewDog’s aptly-named Hardcore IPA.

1. Deuchar’s IPA (4.4%abv)
Caledonian Brewery, Edinburgh.
500ml glass bottle

Opened in 1869, the Caley is the only brewery left in the city of Edinburgh out of over 40 many years ago. Sadly it’s now no longer independent either, as at the start of the month (in between us recording this episode and it going out) they were taken over by Scottish & Newcastle. But they produce the most famous beer related to the city, which is now available on cask throughout much of the UK as a guest – presumably even more so now S&N’s distributary muscles will be flexing. Pronounced Joo-kerrs, we’re all incredibly familiar with it here – but that makes for an interesting beer to judge.

What They Say – “Deuchars IPA is a fabulous beer. A brilliant blend of malt and hop character and above all a drink with enormous drinkability.” [Roger Protz]

What We Say…
Richard – Worse than on cask, but still good and hoppy 7
Shovels – Nice, but there are better bottled IPA’s out there 6½
MrB – Deuchars is the stock beer I go for if there’s nothing nicer 6
Grooben – Your basic after-work-knock-a-few-back beer 6

2. Colonsay IPA (3.9%abv)
Colonsay Brewery, Isle of Colonsay.
568ml glass bottle (1 pint)

We’re all big fans of the Scottish islands here on the BeerCast (podcast 11 was our Northern Isles Special), and off the west coast you’ll find Colonsay. You might have to look hard, mind – it’s only 16sq miles of rock and beach between Mull and Islay. About 120 people call it home, and they are very lucky indeed to have a brewery in their midst. Founded in early 2007 their five barrel plant produces an 80/-, a lager, and an IPA – when the seas allow the ferries to collect their beers for distribution to markets on the mainland, that is. When the seas are too rough, the islanders get their own unique version of a lock-in.

What They Say – “What you get with this beer is a pale colour to reflect the malt type, but lots of hop and citrus and character to make this a pint to be savoured.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
MrB – Lots of flavours going on but they are very subtle 6½
Shovels – The light tastes grow on me when I have other IPA’s 6
Grooben – Very smooth and ever so slightly peaty aftertaste 6
Richard – You can taste this is from an island – light and airy 6

3. Twisted Thistle IPA (5.3%abv)
Belhaven Brewery, Dunbar.
500ml glass bottle

Thirty miles down the coast from Edinburgh is Belhaven – statistically Scotland’s sunniest place. Home to a brewery of the same name, which is most famous for Belhaven Best, another beer often seen around these parts, they also produce a rather undervalued IPA. I couldn’t find a single mention of it on their official website, but Twisted Thistle comes in a modestly-labelled bottle with few pretentions. Belhaven were founded in 1719, and were the oldest independent in Scotland, until they were bought out by Greene King in 2005 for £187m. We sampled their St Andrews Ale way back in BeerCast #1.

What They Say – “The blend of Cascade and Challenger hops combine to produce an abundance of fresh hop aroma that preludes a bitter-dry taste explosion.” [label tasting notes]

What We Say…
Richard – Got that characteristic zingy IPA hoppy taste 8
MrB – Bitter hoppy session ale with a bit of fizz, floats my boat 8
Grooben – This is right up my street, very nice 7½
Shovels – Classic IPA but makes me appreciate the subtler Colonsay 6

4. Hardcore IPA (9.0%abv)
BrewDog, Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire.
330ml glass bottle

Many 25yr olds have drunk enough fizzy lager to wish they could do something about it. Few actually have – but two of those few are James Watt and Martin Dickie, old school friends from Aberdeenshire. They pooled their life savings and bought a ten barrel plant on the Kessock Industrial Estate in Fraserburgh to found BrewDog in April 2007. As you’d expect given their outlook, they produce a wide range of strong beers such as two kinds of imperial stout, one of which is aged in malt whisky casks. They entered some in the 2007 World Beer Awards, and amazingly won two awards – best strong pale ale (The Physics) and best imperial stout (Rip Tide). Today we sample their 9%abv imperial IPA.

What They Say – “Maris Otter grains to provide the robustly delicate toffee malt canvas, and hops to ensure your mouth is left feeling punished and puckering for more.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
MrB – Suck a duck, if you didn’t know it was 9% you’d end up drinking lots of this 9½
Richard – Alcohol/hops complement eachother, it’s tremendous 9
Grooben – Smells of cottage cheese but it certainly tastes good 8
Shovels – Tastes strong, label makes it look like an alcopop 7

BeerCast panel verdict

BrewDog Hardcore IPA – 33½/40
Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA – 29½/40
Deuchars IPA – 25½/40
Colonsay IPA – 24½/40

Panellists – (from top left) Grooben, MrB, Shovels, Richard

• Listen to the episode here: BeerCast #15 – Scottish IPA’s
• Subscribe to the podcasts in iTunes or our site feed

We’ll be back in a couple of weeks with another episode. Stay tuned for details…and please leave us comments on the blog or iTunes, or emails. Cheers!