The BeerCast

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!

‘Beers of the World’ magazine is one of the industry glossies that sings the praises of the planet’s favourite beverage. I’ve not read one, but apparently they have the usual brewing news and tasting notes on a series of beers. They sponsor annual gongs - the World Beer Awards - the latest winners of which were announced last Friday. Several BeerCast favourites were amongst those collecting trophies, so time for a quick run down of the brews highlighted by Roger Protz (the man gets around) and the panel.

World’s Best Ale
Bitter & Twisted, Harviestoun Brewery, Alva (Sco) 4.2%
Roughly 30 miles from BeerCast HQ in Edinburgh, Harviestoun are one of Scotland’s best brewers. Bitter & Twisted is possibly my favourite beer, so to see it given the coveted ‘best ale’ award was fantastic (it came through the tough pale ale category). By some co-incidence, the night of the announcement half of the BeerCasters were in Kays polishing off a large amount of Harviestoun’s other cracker, Schiehallion, which is simply wonderful on cask.

World’s Best Lager
Budvar Dark, Budweiser Brewery (Cze) 4.7%
Original and best, the Czech Budweiser brewery came out on top in the lager category with their dark beer. Our panellist MrB assures us that it’s seriously good stuff, and rest assured Lagerboy will be looking out for it soon to review. If it’s anything like their lighter coloured Budvar, it’s going to be tremendous.

World’s Best Stout/Porter
Obsidian Stout, Deschutes Brewery, Oregon (USA) 6.4%
American porters are highly rated, and the brewery in Bend, Oregon, now has the world’s best example. Named after the planet’s largest expanse of the shiny black rock, which conveniently occurs just near the town, Obsidian Stout is a ’satisfying beer with underlying espresso and chocolate flavours’. We’d love to try one, if only we could find it over here. However, the runner up was Fuller’s London Porter, which we’ll be sampling in an upcoming podcast.

World’s Best Wheat Beer
Grolsch Weizen, Grolsch Brewery (NL) 5.3%
I have to say that Grolsch lager is truly awful stuff, so surprising that their wheat beer is deemed worthy of an award by the panel - particularly with the quality of wheat beers from Germany or Belgium. Still, the panel of experts clearly know what they are doing, so hats off to Grolsch. Or should that be ’strange bottle tops’ off to Grolsch?

In the minor categories - i.e. the beers that didn’t quite get through to snare one of the top four prizes, notables for us have to be the Meantime brewery in Greenwich collecting an impressive haul - their best in show chocolate stout is currently in my cupboard ready for our upcoming London BeerCast. Edinburgh’s Caledonian Golden Promise won the award for ‘Best Experimental beer’ - we sampled that local beauty in BeerCast Episode 1 (thankfully for us we gave it the highest score). Also the award for ‘Best Fruit Beer’ went to Cain’s Raisin Beer from Liverpool (BeerCast Episode 3). Not bad for prune juice, eh Shovels?

2007 Beers of World winners

Question 1. 3×80=…?

Each beer-producing country has peculiar quirks that serve to make it’s brewing unique. It could be the water, the type of hops, the variety of barley used. Scotland has large variations in these without doubt - but it’s history that counts around here. Beer was first produced in the chilly Highlands 5000yrs ago, using heather and herbs in place of the as yet un-imported hops. As far back as 1509, Aberdeen had over 150 brewers (all female - the original alewives). After the Act of Union in 1707 there was reduced tax on beer in Scotland compared to the rest of the UK, and no tax at all on malt.

As a result, the 18th Century was a boom time in Scottish brewing. The different strengths of beer were classified based on the amount charged per barrel, in shillings. Originally a 3.5%abv beer would cost 60 shillings per barrel, a 4%abv ale 70 shillings, and so-on. To some extent England did this too, but it’s north of the border that the system stuck. Shillings passed into history long ago, but beers here are still produced in those categories, and 80/- are the most common. So for the debut BeerCast podcast, our (somewhat reduced) panel tested three local 80’s, all from within 40 miles of BeerCast HQ.

1. William Wallace Ale (4.5%abv)
Traditional Scottish Ales Ltd, Bridge of Allan.
500ml glass bottle

Traditional Scottish Ales have two main brewery sites in central Scotland, an original site in Stirling, and a second acquired in 2006 after a merger with the Bridge of Allan brewery. The latter was founded in 1997 in the Victorian spa town outside the campus of Stirling University, where many of the BeerCast panellists received an early education in the merits (and pitfalls) of beer drinking. The area was first settled to take advantage of natural copper deposits in the area, and these minerals give the local water a distinctive taste. As befits their name, Traditional Scottish Ales’s brews have patriotic names - none moreso than William Wallace Ale, named after the iconic Highland hero who, as summed up by Shovels, “gave it to the English, or something”.

What They Say - “This full-bodied malty ale is rich ruby in colour with a satisfying crisp dry aftertaste. Hand brewed in the heart of Scotland with only the finest malted barley, choicest hops, yeast and pure Scottish water.” [Traditional Scottish Ales]

What We Say…
Richard - Strongly sweet ale, I prefer McEwans 80/- to this 4
Shovels - Caramel aftertaste that is quite unpleasant 3½

2. St Andrew’s Ale (4.6%abv)
Belhaven Brewery, Dunbar.
500ml glass bottle

Belhaven was the oldest independent brewery in Scotland, having started production in 1719, until taken over by the Suffolk giant Greene King in 2005 in a deal worth £187million. According to the 2007 Good Beer Guide Belhaven has 275 tied pubs in Scotland. They produce four domestic beers, Best, Best Extra Cold (is nothing sacred?), 80 Shilling, and St Andrews Ale, which the panel sampled today. Belhaven are sited in Dunbar, a coastal town of 6300 people, 30 miles east of Edinburgh. First settled in the 7th Century as part of Northumberland, it was destroyed in the 9th Century by the Picts, and within a hundred years was part of Scotland. According to the Met Office it receives more hours of direct sunshine and less rainfall than anywhere else in Scotland, due to it’s easterly coastal location. The locals call it ‘Sunny Dunny’.

What They Say - “A bittersweet beer with lots of body. The malt, fruit and roast mingle throughout with hints of hop and caramel.” [The Good Beer Guide]; “A rare modern phenomenon – a beer that tastes like beer. A smooth, full bodied, malty flavour and fruity palate, St Andrews Ale is the perfect mellow way to wind down.” [Belhaven Brewery]

What We Say…
Richard - Similar to the William Wallace, but not quite as tacky 5
Shovels - More refreshing and less sweet than the first one 5

3. Golden Promise (4.5%abv)
Caledonian Brewery, Edinburgh.
500ml glass bottle

The Caley opened in 1869, and is the only remaining brewery in Edinburgh. In the mid 19th Century it was one of over forty, producing such a malty stench the city was nicknamed ‘Old Reekie’. The brewery’s two founders were in their early twenties, and were drinking buddies at the Golf Tavern on Bruntsfield Links. In 2004, they signed an agreement with Scottish & Newcastle (who had just closed the second last brewery in Edinburgh, at Fountainbridge) to brew their products under license. The Caledonian Brewing Company is an independent company, and brews the famous and multi award-winning Deuchars IPA - one of the greatest Scottish beers. Golden Promise is one of it’s lesser-known brands, and is named after the variety of malting barley used in it’s manufacture.

What They Say - “The first organically-brewed beer in Britain, Golden Promise is a five time winner at the organic food awards, and won a silver medal at the 2005 International Brewing Awards. It has a delightfully rounded sweet malt flavour, reminiscent of Ovaltine. It’s aromas are spicy, with a hint of dusty cinnamon and vanilla.” [Caldeonian Brewery Ltd]

What We Say…
Richard - Nice golden hue, it’s the best thing we’ve drunk today 7
Shovels - More subtle flavours to it, which is a good thing 7

BeerCast panel verdict

Golden Promise - 14/20
St Andrew’s Ale - 10/20
William Wallace Ale - 7½/20

Panellists - (from left) Shovels, Richard

Site news
In the latest of a long line of promises and missed deadlines, we are on the final stretch of getting the podcast out. Currently we’re tracking down a file host for our RSS feed, and when we do our freshly completed and polished debut BeerCast will be available on iTunes - obviously, we’ll let you know how and where to subscribe the moment it goes live.

Secondly, this week sees a flurry of excitement for the panel, as festival season grips the blog. Our full complement of Edinburgh-based BeerCasters will be attending the Scottish Traditional Ale Festival, notebooks and tasting glasses at the ready. Meanwhile over the Atlantic, our South American correspondant Hopmeister has been dispatched to Ecuador to discover the secrets of Galapagos lager*, and our Quebec-based panellist Craig AS (Phd) attended the recent Montreal beer festival. He filed a report, which will be published in due course. So look out for another BeerCast first - three posts in a week. Crikey.

* Surprisingly, this is actually true.

Second Update (Andy, Dec 2008):

Hello i’m moving the site over from blogger to thebeercast.com and through the magic of television i can now wholeheatedly insert the original collectors item BeerCast No. 1 right here:

• Listen to the episode here: BeerCast #1 - Count the Shillings
• Subscribe to the podcasts in iTunes or our site feed