The BeerCast

On Friday there was further good news for Loanhead’s Stewart Brewing, as their 5% pale ale Hollyrood was named Champion bottled beer of Scotland. It will now go on to the national SIBA finals in February to take on the other regional champs from around the UK. MrB and myself were in attendance for the judging, having secured a couple of invitations for the BeerCast to take part. Alva’s Williams Brothers were also the day’s big winners, securing Golds in three of the five categories, and taking overall Silver for Midnight Sun and Bronze for 7 Giraffes.

Having taken part in the judging for last year’s Champion Beer of Scotland I was looking forward to the competition. The beers had been divided into categories, and the judges were allocated two each for the afternoon’s tastings. MrB was put into the ‘Bitters under 5%’ and then ‘Bitters 5% and over’ sections, meaning he got through a lot of golden session beers, whereas I was selected for the ‘Speciality’ and ‘Milds, Stouts, Old Ales and Porters’ categories.

The Speciality tag can mean pretty much anything (as you can see from the colours in the photo above), and it was interesting to judge an oak-aged porter against a Finnish-recipe juniper ale. Of course, the judging is done blind so you can only go on your senses – although it’s human nature to try and guess what it is you’re drinking. Only afterwards when the identities of the beers are released do those guesses prove to be wildly inaccurate. The standout for me were Harviestoun’s Ola Dubh 40 (that oak-aged porter) and Stewart Brewing’s Hefeweizen (which we identified immediately, there not being many bottled Scottish weissbiers).

After a short interlude and the swapping of stories – MrB asking for second helpings of Fyne Ales Avalanche, for example – it was back for the next category. Where speciality beers were varied, the stouts and porters were much harder to differentiate between. Six dark malty offerings later, and our scoresheets were heading back to be collated. In that category there was only one winner for me – Highland’s awesome Orkney Porter got the highest score on my sheet, although there were so many dark beers that it didn’t make it into the final reckoning.

So the overall winners were announced as Williams Brothers Cock o’ the Walk (Bitters over 4.1%), Stewart Brewing Hollyrood (Bitters 5% and over), Colonsay IPA (Gold beers), Williams Brothers 7 Giraffes (Speciality) and Williams Brothers Midnight Sun. These were all re-tasted in the final, with Stewart Brewing’s offering coming out on top – and only five months after it won best pale ale at the 2010 World Beer Awards – congratulations to Steve, Jo and all the team.

In a few weeks the national SIBA finals takes place, and amongst the cask (and for the first time, keg) competitions are the national bottled beer awards. Hollyrood will face stiff competition from the other regions, as Thornbridge’s peerless Kipling is representing the Midlands and Kernel Export Stout 1890 will be there for the South East. We won’t be able to make it to Nottingham for the finals, but we’ll let you know how Scotland’s entrants do against the rest of Britain.

SIBA Official Website

Following on from showcasing the excellent Kernel Brewery, our 53rd BeerCast takes a look at one of the traditional styles of Europe – Schwarzbiers. These dark lagers from Thuringia and Saxony have spread to breweries across the world, keen the experiment with the characteristic bitter malty style. We sampled the market leader (in terms of sales) – Köstritzer Schwarzbier – back in BeerCast #25. This time we try two German examples, and two American – Kulmbacher Mönschof (4.9%) from Eastern Bavaria is our first beer, before we sample Hummel-Brau Cowboy (5.0%) from Bamberg in Franconia. Our third beer is Saranac Black Forest (5.2%) from the Matt Brewing Co in Utica, New York, before we finish with compatriot Oregon’s Rogue Brewing Co – Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale (5.0%). We also have a fifth beer – an exclusive (at the time) tasting of the new 5.5% Hefeweizen from Edinburgh’s Stewart Brewing, sampled two weeks before the official release date. On the panel today are Grooben, Richard, MrB and Shovels.



1. Kulmbacher Mönschof Schwarzbier (4.9%abv)
Kulmbacher Brauerei, Kulmbach, Bavaria, Germany.
500ml glass bottle

Bavaria is the birthplace of many a beer style – and both of tonight’s German schwarzbiers hail from that southerly state. The first comes from the town of Kulmbach – twin town of Scotland’s own Kilmarnock – and home to the largest museum in the world devoted to tin soldiers. The Kulmbacher Brauerei produce a range of traditional German-style beers under a variety of labels. “Mönschof” beers were produced by Kulmbacher Mönchshof Bräu until they were absorbed by the larger Kulmbacher Brauerei in 1999.

What They Say -
“Mönchshof Schwarzbier- “the Black Pils”- is a brewing wonder and a brew-lover’s dream. Supremely drinkable, dry and beautifully hopped, yet loaded with dark malt flavour.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard – Smoky aroma, bitter chocolate aftertaste, it’s tremendous 9
MrB – Malty German lager, I’m absolutely loving this 8½
Grooben – As a schwarzbier, I prefer this to Köstritzer 8
Shovels – Got a little bit of smoke, big caramel hit at the end 8

2. Hummel-Brau Cowboy (5.0%abv)
Brauerei Hummel Merkendorf, Bamberg, Upper Franconia, Germany
500ml glass bottle

The Brauerei Julius Hummel were founded in 1846 in the brewery-packed region of Franconia. The most famous style to emerge from here is the infamous smoked Rauchbier (once summed up by MrB as like “drinking hotdogs in a blender”). In comparison with the rest of Bavaria, beers that emerge from Franconia tend to slightly hoppier – those that don’t taste like a packet of smoky bacon crisps, anyhow. As with Kulmbacher, Hummel-Brau put out the standard range of teutonic tipples, all with the same distinctive triple crowned labelling system – apart from their schwarzbier, which for some reason features a rodeo cowboy.

What We Say…
MrB – A non-offensive dark lager-based beer 5
Grooben – Not black, no roasty maltiness – why is it a schwarzbier? 5
Shovels – I would drink it again if someone bought it for me 5
Richard – Smells like stewed tea, watery and too thin 4

3. Saranac Black Forest (5.2%abv)
Saranac/Matt Brewing Co, Utica, New York, USA.
355ml glass bottle

The Matt Brewing Company may not be based in Germany, but they have the historical links to the schwarzbierland – founder Francis Xavier Matt was a German-born immigrant to the USA when he founded the company in 1888. His sons carried on – and today the Matt Brewing Company is in the hands of the fourth generation of his descendants, still brewing German-themed beers in the foothills of the Adirondacks. The Saranac brand is named after a nearby lake, which itself comes from the Iroquois word for ‘cluster of stars’.

What They Say -
“A Bavarian black beer with caramel malt sweetness and trademark rich, creamy head. A fitting homage to our Grandfather’s apprenticeship at the Duke of Baden’s brewery in Germany’s Black Forest region.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Shovels – Quite a nice balance of the added sweetness and the malt 7
MrB – Tastes like an Anchor special, some sugar on the tongue 7
Grooben – Nice red colour, decent fruity blackcurrant taste 7
Richard – Like drinking a black forest gateaux, gets a bit sweet 6½

4. Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale (5.0%abv)
Rogue Brewing Co, Newport, Oregon, USA.
750ml glass bottle

The Rogue brewery began life exactly 100 years after Matt Brewing, on the other side of the continent in Ashland, Oregon. A group of college friends decided to make the familiar jump from homebrewing into something more serious – it must have helped that one of them was also an accountant. After less than a year in Ashland they relocated to larger premises in coastal Newport in 1989, and have since gone from strength to strength, having produced over sixty beers, and won countless awards. Although not technically a schwarzbier, their Morimoto Obi Soba Ale is black, and is dedicated to their distributor in Japan.

What They Say -
“A richer version of our Soba Ale with the addition of specialty malts and a special blend of hops to give it a fuller, nutty flavor while retaining a clean, crisp finish.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
MrB – Looks like a bottle of soy sauce, smells like teryaki 8½
Grooben – Does have a soy kind of thing going on, an excellent beer 8
Shovels – The most complicated beer tonight, quite earthy 7½
Richard – Every taste is different – sherry, soy, roasty, salty, it’s fascinatingly interesting 7

5. Stewart Hefeweizen (5.5%abv)
Stewart Brewing, Loanhead, Midlothian, Scotland.
330ml glass bottle

We also featured a bonus fifth (non-schwarz)beer on the podcast – Stewart Hefeweizen. The Stewart Brewery based just outside the BeerCast’s home city are obviously no stranger to us – yet although we’ve reviewed most of their beers, we’ve never actually featured any on our BeerCasts. A good chance to make amends for that was when Steve Stewart gave us some pre-release samples of their brand new hefeweizen. We put out a detailed review as part of the 45th Session on wheat beer, but at the time of recording, this was our first taste of the new beer. It has since become publicly available following a launch at Edinburgh’s Cloisters pub on the 16th of November.

What They Say -
“Fermented with a classic wheat beer yeast this is a cloudy, complex and beautiful beer with aromas of cloves, banana, blueberries and subtle spices.  A blend of Maris Otter, Wheat, Oats and Caramalt combine to create a creamy texture and a golden hue.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Shovels – Tastes more Belgian, the spice comes out in the aftertaste 8
Richard – Warm it tastes of custard creams, cloves and pear too 7½
MrB – Smells and tastes of bananas, very highly carbonated 7
Grooben – Got a hint of pear, there’s complexity when it warms 7

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

BeerCast panel verdict
Kulmbacher Mönschof Schwarzbier 33½/40
Rogue Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale 31/40
Stewart Brewing Hefeweizen 29½/40
Matt Brewing Co Saranac Black Forest 27½/40
Hummel-Brau Cowboy Schwarzbier 19/40

Please keep those comments and emails coming in, and check back in a couple of weeks for our 54th BeerCast…the final ‘regular’ BeerCast of the year, before our annual Christmas Special, and then the excitement of our 2010 Beer of the Year Show. Who will make it? Stay tuned…

Beer drinking is meant to be a social pastime, but often when it comes to websites and reviews it can become a solitary experience. Not that a moment of quiet contemplation over an imperial smoked porter or three is a bad thing – but some things are made for sharing. The online beer databases Ratebeer.com and Beer Advocate encourage the searching of bottle shop shelves for unusual wares, which are then often drunk at home. However, one way to convert the sampling of something new into a social occasion is to host a group tasting.

I joined up with Ratebeer a few months ago – ostensibly to add the various reviews from the BeerCast into some kind of order (hence my username BeerCast_Rich). Now that I’m up to 224 ratings, I can see where the attraction comes in finding and rating as many beers as possible. The current Ratebeer king in Scotland is Craig Garvie, who (at the time of writing) has notched 5,974 entries – putting my three-figure tally into perspective. Craig – who chose the slightly more European-leaning Ratebeer over Beer Advocate – was hosting a tasting session last Sunday, and notebook in hand, I went along.

Craig is – as you’ve probably guessed – incredibly keen on beer, but is also careful not to go too far. Some of the top-raters (or ‘tickers’ as they are referred to) have astonishing numbers – again at time of going to press the person with the most ratings has reviewed 16,986 beers. The mind boggles. What must their liver be like? Or their recycling? Are there even 17,000 beers out there?

Anyway, keen to get my score up a bit – well, I was actually more keen to drink some interesting beers I’d never tried before (and this is the key point that separates tickers from the non-tickers), I turned up at Craig’s house. The first beer we sampled was suitably spectacular – Haandbryggeriet/De Molen Menno & Jens (7.5%), a hop-free collaboration between two of Europe’s most exciting brewers. The Norwegians behind Haanbryggeriet revel in experimenting with old recipes, and together with Menno Olivier of De Molen came up with a gruit herb ale. It’s complex stuff, the total lack of hops compensated by piney herbs, smoky flavours, and a sweet syrupy roundness before the bitter finish.

After that we pounded through the beers, moving on to the only UK beer in Ratebeer’s current top 50 – Good King Henry Special Reserve (11.0%) from the Old Chimneys Brewery in Norfolk. Flat, black and viscous with rich woody notes from the oak chips – it was really nice. More like a thick red wine than a beer, although with a dose of vanilla and dates. The marzipan chocolate flavours of Stone’s Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout (9.2%) came next, before another from Norway’s Haandbryggeriet – the slightly sour cranberryness of Wild Thing (9.0%).

Portland’s Cascade Brewery have recently opened a new bar that specialises in sour beers, so I was interested to sample Cascade Apricot Ale (9.0%). Highly effervescent, the vinegary aromas gave way to a bitter apricot flavour that made it pretty interesting. We powered through the US craft producers, as Three Floyds Alpha Klaus (7.0%) fell down only as the archetypal non-Christmassy Christmas beer. Otherwise, it was outstanding. Cigar City’s strangely-named 110k+OT Imperial IPA (10.0%) was like syrupy pineapple cordial with a fantastic pine hop aroma.

Back to the UK next, as we tried Manchester’s Marble Chocolate Dubbel (8.5%), which was extremely good – followed by a couple of Italians from Birrificio Lambrate. Then it was back to the sours with Odell Saboteur (10.0%), a brettanomyces beer which had some barrel flavours, but wasn’t as tart as Jolly Pumpkin Baudelaire EYO (iO) Saison (6.8%) – you’ve got to love some of these names. Rosehips and hibiscus gave it a flowery yet punchy tang, which was thankfully not as perfumey as Buckbean Orange Blossom Ale (5.8%), which was like chewing a urinal cake with it’s soapy, chemical finish.

Anyway, we had more beers than that – including a rare taste of Bolvig Calling (4.3%), a beer brewed by Craig in conjunction with Loanhead’s Stewart Brewing – a very good mix of their Stewart 3 and added coffee. However, the highlight was when Craig asked if there was any beer I hadn’t yet sampled with the BeerCast that I wished I could. Being a trappist fan, the obvious answer was Westvleteren 12, as the Abbey only sell it on site – you can’t buy any in shops. It also happens to be the top-ranked beer in RateBeer history. Of course, Craig had half a case upstairs.

It poured a very hazy dark brown, with a few floating clumplets of yeast coming from the famous label-free bottle. There was a fantastic aroma, dark caramel malts, cloves, all kinds of sweet dark aromas coming off the beer. Tastewise the thing that surprised me was the balance – there was hardly any trace of the 10% alcohol because the mouthfeel was so smooth. A sweet, fruity finish really made the beer stand up all the way – just fantastic.

Thanks to Craig for the tasting – this post could have easily been twice as long…

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 November 2010, the Session is hosted by Bruce Ticknor at beertaster.ca – and the theme is wheat beer.

For our first entry into the Session, we wanted to come up with something special. Finding wheat beer in the depths of a Scottish November can be quite tricky – the brewers having since moved on to more warming, malty offerings. But we managed to pull off something of a BeerCast hometown exclusive by securing the only preview copy of a brand new release from Edinburgh’s Stewart Brewing – which very conveniently happens to be a hefeweizen.

Stewart are one of Scotland’s recent success stories when it comes to brewing. After several years of working for other producers, an internship at Boston’s Harpoon Brewery prompted Steve to take the plunge and go it alone. Together with wife Jo he opened the Stewart Brewing premises in 2004 – initially brewing at Strathaven before their bespoke site at Bilston came on-line. Their beers are now a common site in Edinburgh, and last year Stewart launched a range of bottled beers to complement their traditional range – one of which (Hollyrood) subsequently won the best Blonde/Golden Pale Ale at the 2010 World Beer Awards.

Alongside this core range are the new premium series – a 5.6% Pilsen, a 7.0% Dopplebock [sic] – and as of November 16th, a 5.5% Hefeweizen. All are shipped in identical brownish-black bottles, with a silver foil cap. The Hefe pours a totally opaque apricot colour – even after 24hrs careful storage there was no discernable sediment retention in the bottle. So “mit hefe” it was – although I’d have mixed it in anyway. A small head arrives on pouring, but quickly reduces to a thin lacing with only a little rising carbonation to keep things going.

The suggested serving method is to drink it chilled, in which state the aromas are dominated by banana, backed by a syrupy sweetness. But once the hefeweizen warms towards room temperature, only then do other aromas start to mingle – butter, cream and a slight hint of winter spice. But straight from the fridge it smells very much like a banana caramel – which is no bad thing. On the palate, more banana comes to the fore when cold, with pears, yeast – and at room temperature vanilla flavours and the tang of cloves. This really is a beer of two halves – cold bananas to warm wheat.

It’s never less than hearty on the palate either – drunk quickly it can be extremely sweet and almost cloying – but it just pulls back before that mark. The bitterness is just about there, before the rich, sweet custard-cream aftertaste follows with a push of alcohol. The bottle clearly states this is their take on the classic hefeweizen style, but it really delivers – esters, phenols, wheat, vanilla sweetness. The only thing missing is the carbonation, which fails to give a weizen-esque pillowy head. But this is only a minor knock – the Dopplebock markedly improved given a few months from release, and we fully expect this one too. Open it cold, then let it warm to really get the best from it.



Stewart Hefeweizen will go on general sale on Tuesday 16th November, following the official launch at Cloisters, Brougham Street, Edinburgh. The launch begins at 8pm, and of course the BeerCast will be on hand. Alongside this review, we also added Stewart’s Hefeweizen to the lineup for our upcoming 53rd BeerCast podcast – so check back in a couple of weeks for the panel’s thoughts on that, and four Schwarzbiers. Many thanks to Steve Stewart for the preview samples.

The Session is the brainchild of Stan Hieronymus of Appellation Beer, and has been going since March 2007. The BeerCast are due to host a Session sometime next year, until then we’ll be contributing on a monthly basis. For previous Sessions, Jay Brooks has a list of topics and responses. The theme for December 2010 is Finding great beer in the last place you’d look.

Stewart Brewing website

This weekend saw the continuation of an Edinburgh tradition – the annual open day at Stewart Brewing. The Loanhead micro throw a yearly birthday party to celebrate another 12 months of trading – and happily the BeerCast had an invite. Each year Steve and Jo produce a special celebration ale to mark the occasion – named after the brewery’s birthday. This time out, brewer Iain put together Stewart 6, which was served up to the public – alongside several of their regular beers such as Copper Cascade, Edinburgh Gold and Pentland IPA. As if that wasn’t enough temptation, there was a free BBQ out the back of the brew unit, plus a hop challenge to select a potential addition to the Pentland IPA as a new line – we were split between the American crystal and New Zealand southern cross.

As for the Stewart 6 – the abv of which I didn’t catch, but we think it nudges the 5% mark – it pours a dark amber to medium brown colour. Looking very much like a pint of bitter – which is nothing if not pleasing to a Northerner like myself, it has a healthy dose of malt on the aroma, with some moderate bitterness and a touch of fruit from the Perle hops. Tastewise it’s extremely malty, which is not surprising as there are six different kinds in the brew – it’s the chocolate malts that come to the fore, with a dark, dry flavour and a pronounced bitterness. You can tell it’s a celebration beer – things have definitely been thrown in there – but it all seems to work out very well.

Stewart are really one of Scotland’s success stories when it comes to brewing. After several years of working for other prodcuers, Steve took the plunge and opened the premises in 2004 – initially brewing at Strathaven before the Bilston site came on line. Their beers are a common site in Edinburgh, last year they launched a range of bottled beers to complement their traditional range – and this culminated in their 5% Hollyrood picking up the best Blonde/Golden Pale Ale in the 2010 World Beer Awards. Talking to Jo today, they are soon to be relocating to larger premises on the same industrial estate, which can only be a good thing as the demand really seems to be there. Rumours of a 6% IPA in the future are particularly exciting. Anyway, with the current tough times for the industry, it’s great to celebrate a local success story – many happy returns from all at the BeerCast.

Stewart Brewing